How many federal agencies does it take to do catfish safety inspections? At least three, according to the Government Accountability Office, which on Tuesday released its 2013 report on fragmentation and duplication of federal programs. This year’s report — there were two previous editions of the report first requested by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. — documents an estimated $95 billion in duplicative programs that waste precious tax dollars. That brings the three-year total of potential savings documented by GAO to $295 billion.

Having three agencies doing catfish safety inspections may strike some as funny, but there is nothing to laugh about in the Department of Homeland Security having $568 million worth of overlapping research and development programs. Or that Department of Defense foreign language training services are provided by 159 separate contracting groups at a cost of $200 million. And why should taxpayers have to foot $15 billion worth of duplicative renewable energy programs?