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Obscure Taxpayer-Funded Commissions, Boards Contribute to Inflated Budget

While the passage of a 45-day continuing resolution in Congress brought attention to many of the larger government beneficiaries of taxpayer dollars, many more obscure entities, such as commissions and boards, continue to add to the massive federal budget.

According to Just The News, many of these smaller entities get no public scrutiny and can act as a patronage network for the President, through powers granted to the office in Article II of the Constitution. Some of these entities include the Agency for Community Living, the National Agriculture Library, and the Indian Arts and Crafts Board.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board, which functions within the Department of the Interior, serves to enforce an obscure law passed in 1990 which “prohibits false advertising in the marketing of Indian arts or crafts.” In the spending bill passed at the end of 2020, the board received $3.5 million specifically to deal with counterfeit Indian arts and crafts.

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that it was increasingly difficult for the board to even carry out its mission, since “the size of the Indian arts and crafts market and extent of misrepresentation are unknown because existing estimates are outdated, limited in scope, or anecdotal.”

There are many other such boards and commissions which contribute to the bloat of the overall federal budget. In October of 2020, the Brookings Institution released a study which determined that federal bloat has reached a 60-year high. The various layers of federal government have been consistently increasing year over year since the 1990’s, with every presidential administration adding more new boards and commissions.

Furthermore, it is difficult to even determine just how many of these entities even exist. The 2012 edition of the Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies determined that “since what constitutes an agency under the APA [Administrative Procedure Act] is governed on a case-by-case basis through litigation, there is no authoritative list of government agencies.”

“Every list of federal agencies in government publications is different,” the report added.

The continuing resolution was passed over the weekend to narrowly and temporarily avoid a government shutdown, although negotiations for a long-term solution are still ongoing. The passage of the resolution has led to renewed tensions within the House GOP caucus, with Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) filing a motion to vacate the chair of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

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About Eric Lendrum

Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22). He is currently a co-host of The Right Take podcast.

Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Notable Replies

  1. This is the kind of thing Republicans need to focus on if they want to be taken seriously as wanting to reduce the size of govt. Where are all the Republicans calling out specific examples of the massive waste and ‘featherbedding’ in the fed govt? How many Republicans are actually focused on cutting the size of it at all? These agencies are a particularly good way to see how patronage is the operating model of DC. But it’s nothing compared to what’s going on in the big agencies.

    Take DHS. There are more than 1500 employees there who are SES, special executive service, they get paid above GS salaries, have bonuses and ridiculous perks like black car services available to them as they scoot around DC. And the radicals have been sure to fill these roles with many women and female minorities.

    Another raft of hiring that you never see is PhD types from academia, there are thousands of them in our agencies running them and advising the leadership. Basically radically left academia has a huge place in our govt now, and they of course bring in their own people.

    I have a family member who is a senior official in the govt, his wife is too. I get to see up close and personal the amount of money spent just on stupid conferences and perks, He has an overseas assignment and his wife was allowed to keep her govt job and work remote - from Eastern Europe, lol. He lives in govt housing, has a govt car - and it’s all for an agency you don’t even know that exists that spends hundreds of millions each year. Fyi, he owns a starter mansion back here in the states. All bought on govt salaries.

    I remember when I first woke up to this. Meanwhile, back in 2008 I nearly got wiped out financially and there were no jobs in my biz for a couple of years. Literally - no jobs. It was like the tide went out, and it really didn’t recover till 2011. My bro had a previous home - in a nice upscale community - and it was sitting empty cuz he’d been relocated (this was a previous gig). I went their to live and keep up the house for him. I remember being struck by how he was doing better than me - a steady 6 figure earner for a while. But 2001 set me way back as did 2008. I would walk around his neighborhood and started to meet people. I swear, 80% plus in the luxe, mini-mansions in a golf community were all govt employees or retirees. Many collecting multiple pensions with spouses doing the same. They’d work for the state and then the feds or county etc. It was a huge eye opener.

    Used to be if you worked for the fed govt you were underpaid but had a secure job and a meager retirement. These days? You get it all, high pay, security and big retirement, if you are like my brother and his wife, they will collect 4 pensions in total when retired, and he’s already collecting one. While he’s working.

    Burn it all down and start over. It’s the only choice. But hey, instead I’ve got to listen to Newt Gingrich, who until 5 mins ago I still had a lot of respect for, tell me Matt Gaetz should be thrown out of the Republican conf and stripped of all committees cuz he challenged the speaker and refused to support another CR. He even mentioned that ‘expelling him from the House might be too far’ - what? Voting his conscience and challenging leadership is all valid political behavior.

    How dare Gaetz actually try and change things. The time is much, much later than we think folks.

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