The watchword for the recent election was “change.” Considering the mandate for change and soaring costs of a sight unseen stimulus package, we have a few suggestions for agencies that the new Administration and Congress should target for reform and increased accountability. President-elect Obama has promised to go through the budget line by line. Here are a few of the many lines he should consider:

• Department of Defense
  DOD’s budget, which contains close to half of all discretionary spending, is a critical place to start. Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), DOD’s institutional ailments are long and legion: The multi-billion weapons programs that are over budget and behind schedule; Repeated failure to pass a Congressionally-mandated audit; Increasing reliance on contractors without attendant contract oversight capacity; And an apparent inability to establish realistic cost estimates or control swelling costs before programs advance too far to turn back.
   
• Department of Homeland Security
  Where to begin? The Coast Guard’s Deepwater ship scandals, FEMA’s trailer trash, or physical and virtual fences along our southern border that do nothing but consume money – these are just the greatest hits in DHS’ catalog of sad songs.
   
• Department of Energy
  DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program is currently slated to dole out $38.5 billion in loan guarantees to high risk projects like nuclear reactors. The Congressional Budget Office found nuclear loan guarantees have a 50% default rate and GAO has warned DOE is not prepared to administer the multi-billion dollar program.

  It’s also time for DOE to put the final stake in its international initiative to expand nuclear power and commercially reprocess nuclear waste. Known as Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) the program began in 2006 and has continuously been riddled with controversy for its high costs and sketchy details. The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that reprocessing existing domestic nuclear waste could cost more than $100 billion dollars.
   

• Department of Agriculture
  Another cornucopia of targets for reform: A crop insurance program that costs more than $3 for every dollar in benefits delivered, a timber program that has spent a billion dollars building roads for private logging companies, or a subsidy program that paid $49 million to ineligible farmers are just a few wasteful abuses that come to mind.
   
• Department of Interior
  Staff at Interior’s Minerals Management Service was found to be literally in bed with the industries it regulates, and the agency continues to prop up the profits of oil and gas companies at the expense of taxpayers. DOI should put the brakes on the Royalty-in-Kind program, heed the advice of GAO and conduct an independent review of the royalty collection system, and increase audits and accountability of the oil and gas industry.
   
• Department of Transportation
  DOT’s Highway Trust Fund (HTF) has been on the verge of bankruptcy for years. Recently, Congress took $8 billion from the Treasury to back-fill the HTF’s budgetary hole. This was no more than a patch that will add to federal deficits.

Unfortunately, this represents just the tip of the waste iceberg. There are a lot more areas that need to be pared back or cut outright, but we don’t have enough space. Please share with us your suggestions for agencies needing reform. Considering the nation is staring a more than $1 trillion deficit in the face and the government is spending cash almost as fast as we can print it, every bit helps. Grab a scalpel, grab an axe and let’s get Congress and the new Administration to work.