Awwal 28, 1432 H/March 3, 2011, SPA -- The White House on Wednesday announced a proposal to create a board that would help streamline cutting unnecessary programs that the federal government is paying for. The United States is working to deliver a "smarter" and more "efficient" government, said Jeff Zients, who is the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. These cuts will amount to nearly 200 program terminations and $4 billion, as outlined in U.S. President Barack Obama's 2012 budget proposal. As part of this effort, the U.S. is focusing on eliminating real-estate the government is paying for, but not using. "These kinds of measures are necessary and important," he said. The board has already identified 14,000 real-estate properties that are designated to be unused, but still paid for by the U.S. government. Bureaucracy, financial barriers, and political interests all are "why the government owns thousands of properties" that are not being used, "wasting tax payers" money, Zients said. The board enables the United States to cut through some of the bureaucracy to move along the sales of those properties, he said, adding that aside from the 14,000, there are still another 55,000 properties that are identified as costing the government, but are not being used. The sales of those properties could potentially save $15 billion over three years, Zients said.
