456 Federal Agencies? The Eternal Push for Ever-Expanding, Redundant Over-Government – Opinion

Here’s a Fun Number of the Day.  I just ran a Web search for “how many federal agencies are there” — and the Internet extruded the number FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX (456).

This may be enough or not.  Behold Wikipedia’s “list of federal agencies in the United States.”  Which offers the following hilarious explanation of government’s explanation:

“Legislative definitions of a federal agency are varied, and even contradictory. Official United States Government Manual does not provide a definition.

“While the Administrative Procedure Act definition of ‘agency’ applies to most executive branch agencies, Congress may define an agency however it chooses in enabling legislation, and subsequent litigation, often involving the Freedom of Information Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act.

“These further cloud attempts to enumerate a list of agencies.”

So government bureaucrats are incapable of defining what they’re building and expanding.  But they’re building and expanding all of it anyway.

Humans have been engaged in agricultural work for over 10,000 years.  It was done for more than 9,900 years with no US Department of Agriculture.  Which now appears to have THIRTY-THREE (33) “Offices” under its umbrella.

Which is pathetically unreflective of today’s agriculture sector.  The proportion of Americans engaged in agriculture has plummeted — while the Department of Agriculture has massively expanded:

“In 1900, there (were) 11 million Americans employed on farms – and 2,900 employed by the USDA. A century later there are 3 million employed on farms – and 105,000 employed by the USDA.”

As you would expect, with this many government agencies crisscrossing the country — there will be a lot of crisscrossing of the things they are doing.

Redundancy and Waste – Thy Name Is Government

Multipliple agencies are doing exactly the same thing.  They almost always do not compare notes in order to reduce the huge redundancies.  So you will have LOTS of redundancies — which means LOTS of waste.

US Infrastructure Law Invests $65 billion in Broadband. What Does It Mean For DC?

It will mean what it always means — LOTS of redundancies and waste:

“(S)everal different agencies already spend money on broadband – and have been doing so for years and years.”

Each agency has multiple broadband programs.  It’s redundancies within redundancies.  It’s meta-redundancy.

These are only a few of the many programs offered by some agencies.

Department of Agriculture, (USDA)

Rural Utilities Service

ReConnect Loan and Grant Programme

Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Garant

Community Connect Grants

Telemedicine grants and distance learning

Rural Broadband Access Loans and Guarantees

Telecommunications Infrastructure Loans & Guarantees

National Telecommunications and Information Administration, (NTIA),:

Broadband Equity and Access Program

Digital Equity Act Programs

Connections between Minority Communities

Tribal Broadband Connectivity Programme

Program to Enable Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure

State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program

State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Programme

Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program

Federal Communications Commission, (FCC).

Universal Service Fund

Affordable Communications with Lifeline Support

Emergency Broadband Service

Consumer Broadband Device and Service Program

With all of these very many years of government’s redundant redundancies being redundant?  Guess what government didn’t even contemplate doing until the middle of this year?

NTIA and FCC announce an interagency agreement to coordinate Broadband Funding Deployment

“The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced an interagency agreement to share information about and coordinate the distribution of federal broadband deployment funds.

“In accordance with the Broadband Interagency Coordination Act, enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the respective Cabinet and agency leaders announced that their agencies will consult with one another and share information about the distribution of new funds from the FCC’s high-cost programs that support broadband buildout in rural areas, the USDA’s Rural Utilities Services grant and loan programs, and programs administered or coordinated by NTIA.”

So what they’re telling us is:

“(W)e’ve had three government agencies spending many years spending money on the exact same thing – with zero coordination whatsoever.  How is that possible?

“And it’s not like these agencies volunteered at last to coordinate:

“‘It’s not all self-motivated. Congress demanded the agreement in December’s pandemic relief legislation. Government officials and lawmakers have been worried about a lack of coordination.’

“So after YEARS of this redundant spending, government FINALLY got around to worrying about a lack of coordination.”

Correcting at least a little of this titanic redundancy and waste ostensibly shouldn’t be a partisan thing.  Even Leftists on the right-most side.

If you’re a Leftist who wants these massive amounts of money spent on broadband connectivity, you should want it not spent quite so stupidly, right?

So you can have government spend the savings on…other government inanities.

Everyone must know, however that broadband government spending is completely absurd.

Broadband Boondoggles – Failed Taxpayer-Funded Networks:

“For decades, local governments have made promises of faster and cheaper broadband networks. Unfortunately, these municipal networks often don’t deliver or fail, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Explore the map to learn about the massive debt, waste and broken promises left behind by these failed government networks.”

Redundancy, waste and government are the only things that make up government.