Ten Redundant Federal Programs

Catfish Inspections - The federal government spends $30 million to fund two different catfish inspection programs through the Federal Drug Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service, and under the 2008 Farm Bill the Agriculture Department will also start surveying catfish. Streamlining the inspections through one agency could save the taxpayers $14 million.

Renewable Energy Initiatives - Auditors found extensive overlap across 679 renewable energy initiatives implemented by 23 different agencies across the federal government, including 82 initiatives for wind energy alone. The agencies spent about $2.9 billion on these initiatives, and another $1.1 billion was provided in tax subsidies. In one instance, one company received funding from seven wind energy programs for the same project.

Military Uniforms - Four different branches of the U.S. military spend millions of dollars on seven different combat uniforms that differ only in the color of their camouflage patterns. The Pentagon could eliminate $82 million in excess if the branches simply coordinated with each other.

Foreign Language Service at the DoD - The military spends more than $1 billion a year on 159 contractors that translate foreign languages. If the Pentagon scaled back those contracts, the savings would be $50 to $200 million a year.

National Technical Information Service - The National Technical Information Service sells federal reports to other government agencies - 75 percent of which can be found online for free. This duplication costs taxpayers $1.5 million.

Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Programs - The federal government currently funds 76 different drug-abuse prevention and treatment programs - 59 of which overlapped responsibilities.

Job Training for Vets - The Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs operate six different programs to train former members of the armed services for the private sector. The programs cost the government $1.2 billion in 2011.

Higher Education Assistance - Four federal agencies run 21 separate college aid programs that cost more than $140 billion a year. This includes eight targeted tax breaks, four subsidized loan programs, and a slew of grant programs. Still, nothing has been done to evaluate "the effectiveness of this assistance,” the GAO says.

Broadcasting Board of Governors - The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) spends 20 percent of its annual budget on 69 different language services - of which, 49 provide roughly the same responsibilities.