WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday morning will
ask Congress to give him authority to significantly shrink the federal
government by merging six agencies dealing with trade and commerce, a
senior administration official said.
Obama is seeking power to propose a sweeping
consolidation of agencies with overlapping duties with an eye toward
saving money and improving performance, the official said. The president
is asking Congress to grant him authority held by no president since
Ronald Reagan.
As first reported by the Associated Press, the president will call for a vote by Congress on the request within 90 days.
The White House official said Obama would discuss the
plan more fully in an event planned for this morning. The president is
scheduled to speak on government reform in the East Room of the White
House.
The idea of shrinking government is popular in the
Republican presidential primaries, with contenders suggesting wiping out
various agencies altogether. As that fight continues, Obama is building
on his earlier public statements about trimming the federal government,
including his decision last year to freeze the pay of federal workers.
In his State of the Union speech last year, Obama
proposed reorganizing the federal government to make it more efficient.
His proposal Friday comes in the run-up to this year’s State of the
Union address.
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