Government websites devoted to such things as desert tortoises and fiddle playing Forest Rangers will be shut down as part of a new cost cutting plan announced by the White House. The government plans to combine or shut down about 25 percent of its 2,000 sites and abandon plans for new ones,
The Washington Post reported .
President Barack Obama specifically noted the desert tortoises and the “Fiddlin’ Foresters” in announcing the cuts. “I’ll put their music on my iPod, but I’m not paying for their Web site, and there are hundreds of similar sites that we should consolidate or just get rid of,” he said according to the Post.
Vice President Joe Biden, Cabinet secretaries and other government officials will be responsible for ensuring compliance with the “Campaign to Cut Waste.” The new anti-waste campaign comes months after a government report that found billions spent on overlapping offices and agencies, the Post reported.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has introduced legislation to establish an independent oversight body to track federal spending using a single electronic database and reporting system. The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the vice president previously met to discuss ways to cooperate on tracking spending.
“We are on the same page on the goals we want to achieve,” Issa said, according to the Post.
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