U.S. Senator Rand Paul, chairman of the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management Subcommittee for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), held a hearing entitled, “Prudent Planning or Wasteful Binge? Another Look at End-of-the-Year Spending.”
This marked Dr. Paul’s second hearing exploring what has become known as “use it or lose it” spending, where agencies try to use up all remaining budgeted funds before they expire at the end of the fiscal year.
“Reining in and controlling end-of-the-year spending binges should be a bipartisan priority,” Dr. Paul said in his opening statement. “Hopefully our hearing today will renew interest on both sides of the aisle to address accelerated, wasteful spending at the end of the fiscal year.”
“Year-end spending surges have become the norm,” Mercatus Center Senior Research Fellow Dr. Jason Fichtner said in his testimony, “regardless of administration, party control of Congress, or delays in finalizing agency appropriations.”
To help mitigate this problem, Dr. Paul yesterday reintroduced his Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act (S. 1830), which would expand current law to allow an agency’s Inspector General to pay bonuses to federal employees that identify unneeded or surplus funds. It would also ensure that 90% of the savings are automatically directed toward deficit reduction.
You can find more information on the Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act HERE.
You can watch the full hearing HERE.
You can click HERE or below to watch Dr. Paul’s opening statement.
