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tazzygirl -> RE: Obama seeks power to merge agencies (1/15/2012 8:45:40 AM)
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DS
Obama asked Congress to give him a kind of reorganization power no president has had since Ronald Reagan. It would guarantee Obama a vote, within 90 days, on any idea he offers to consolidate agencies, provided it saves money and cuts the government.
Congress would keep the final say over any proposal. But fast-track power would give Obama a stronger hand to skip much of the outside lobbying and turf battles and get right to a vote.
“It’s not often that we see real proposals from this administration to make government smaller,” said Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I look forward to reviewing the proposal and hope that it will be the first of many to unravel the red tape.”
Those are three snips from the article.
Seems to me that Obama is asking for the log jams to end. Proposing something even the Republicans cant find a way to say no to, yet still having Congress maintain the final "yes" or "no"
Watching this on the news last night, it was indicated that the Republicans could hardly come right out and decry this measure because its what they have been asking for all along.
Does anyone know what the article is referring too when they say "since Reagan was in office"
lol.. found the answer to my own question...
Presidents held a fast-track reorganizational authority for about 50 years until it ran out during Reagan’s presidency in 1984, the White House argued.
Does the following help any?
Obama wants to merge: the Commerce Department’s core business and trade functions; the Small Business Administration; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Export-Import Bank; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Trade and Development Agency.
The White House says 1,000 to 2,000 jobs would be cut, but the administration would do so through attrition. The administration says the consolidation would save $3 billion over 10 years by getting rid of duplicative overhead and programs, although it has yet to spell out any plan in detail.
Ah, we come to part of the problem. Seems this will take the wind out of some of Romney's sails.
Romney often says he would try to shrink government by eliminating offices that duplicate functions performed somewhere else, citing as examples more than 80 different workforce training programs.
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