How Many Zombie Agencies Does the U.S. Government Need?

American Thinker ^ | 11/16/2021 | Trish Randall

[SeekAndFind]

How many federal agencies do we pay for?  I bet you think, as I once did, that a quick internet search would tell.  But researching for an essay a couple of years ago, I found numbers varying from 78 to 158, and websites saying the exact number was impossible to determine. 

Looking at the USA.gov website recently, I discovered a tab for Federal Agencies A to Z (actually there are none past W).  Scrolling around the list for two days, subtracting duplicate listings, like Useless Policy, Office of and Office of Useless Policy, I counted 456 (and a few more as I checked some links while drafting this essay). 

The large number of agencies was my first, but not my only surprise.  Each agency’s listing had a field for government branch, mostly filled with Executive, some Legislative, some Judicial.  But sometimes that field contained: Independent, Quasi, or None.  How can we have parts of government that are not part of a branch of our government?

It amused me that some agency names made it easy to guess when they were created.  Delinquency was a focus in the 1930s; nuclear threats, 1950s; civil rights, 1960s; cyberterrorism, after 2001.

This just started with to know how many federal agencies we have.  But discovering there are agencies decades past their freshness date, begs to be explored. This essay is a just cursory view.

Let’s start with Millennium Challenge Corporation.  Interestingly, my guess that the year it was created began with “19” was incorrect.  Congress set it up in 2004. MCC’s vapid catchphrase is: “reducing poverty through growth.”  This agency gives monetary aid to countries committed to “…good governance, economic freedom and investing in their citizens.” 

[SeekAndFind]

[Kevmo]

I would add Selective Service to that list.

[all the best]

“Government is the great fiction by which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” Fredrik Bastiat 1801-1850 Bastiat realized this more than 170 years ago. It has gotten much worse.

[MercyFlush]

Don’t forget to include the Department of Redundancy Department!

[Jim W N]

As many as they can get away with. Once the American People accepted flagrant unconstitutional federal government acts and growth beginning around 1900, there’s been no stopping them.

Does the Right yet understand the greatest threat to our lives, freedom, and wellbeing is not “Big Tech, China, or the Man in the Moon but our own despotic federal government which is at least 80%+ unconstitutional?

The ONLY way to reverse and cut down this government monster is the American People via the states reinstating and ENFORCING the Constitution, the only legal bulwark of limited government against tyranny and totalitarianism.

[READINABLUESTATE]

“How Many Zombie Agencies Does the U.S. Government Need?”

All of them!

[kosciusko51]

Do we have a Department of Silly Walks?

[230FMJ]

Department of Redundancy Department, Bureau of Repetition, Division of Multiplication.

[ConservativeInPA]

Folks: 20 minute challenge ... go thru the A-Z index and cut government by 20%. I betcha it’s easy to do. Imagine if someone spent an entire week on the problem.

[ConservativeInPA]

Just the A's. Kiss these goodbye:

AbilityOne Commission
Access Board
Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
Administration for Community Living
Administration for Native Americans
Administrative Conference of the United States
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Africa Command
African Development Foundation
Agency for Global Media
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Agency for International Development (USAID)
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
Agricultural Research Service
Agriculture Department (USDA)
Agriculture Library
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau (ATF)
Alhurra TV
AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps Seniors
Amtrak (AMTRAK)
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
Antitrust Division
Appalachian Regional Commission
Arctic Research Commission
Arms Control and International Security
Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institute of

Keep these:

Air Force
Air Force Reserve
American Battle Monuments Commission
Architect of the Capitol
Archives, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Army
Army Corps of Engineers

[lado]

Go to the 20:36 mark of this 1999 interview with Milton Friedman: he goes down the list of 14 federal cabinets and which ones should be closed down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSumJxQ5oy4

[sauropod]

Indeed it has.

[Who is John Galt?]

Just the A's. Kiss these goodbye...

Good idea - but why not save time, and chop a few entire departments. We do NOT need the Department of Interior; the States can handle parks and public lands. We do NOT need the Department of Education, for the same reason. There are entire departments that most Americans don't even know exist. Cut 'em & let the States handle whatever the h@ll they do, that the States actually want to pay for - when the bill gets paid closer to home, it's amazing how fast the waste gets cut...