The federal government has, for decades, behaved as though the fundamentals of basic budgeting don’t apply. But that’s hardly surprising considering that Congress has rewarded this poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars again and again. Bureaucrats have every incentive to burn through taxpayer money and no incentive to save it. The widespread practice of “use-it-or-lose-it” budgeting has been the result, and it has to stop.
Imagine if an American family, having paid their bills to cover their monthly expenses, decided to intentionally spend their remaining paycheck as fast as they possibly could. Instead of using their remaining paycheck for investments, or add to their savings, or set money aside for a rainy day; their only objective is to spend their paycheck quickly on whatever they can find.
No family spends money this way. Because money doesn’t grow on trees. Only a government that can print its own money would behave this way.
This scenario may sound absurd, but this is basically how the federal government works. Agencies are given an annual budget to perform their responsibilities, but if there is money unspent at the end of the year, they find other things to buy to justify receiving the same amount—or more!—for next year. Returning the leftover money to the taxpayers is discouraged, according to federal bureaucrats, because then Congress will reduce their next budget.
During my time in the Senate, my oversight of the federal government has identified significant increases in federal spending in the final week of the fiscal year, when it spikes as much as five times higher than the rest of the year. Then there is yet another jump in spending on the final business day of the fiscal year, and then even higher spending from federal agencies’ West Coast offices on the final day of the fiscal year as agencies try to get a few extra hours to obligate money by shifting their last-minute expenses to the Pacific Time Zone. Of note, this phenomenon of shifting spending west is only observed on the last day of the fiscal year.
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As a result of use-it-or-lose-it spending, many a television and solar panel has sat unused in a government warehouse because it was purchased at the last minute without a plan or need.
Congress, of course, could easily send a message across the bureaucracy that the return of unused money to the taxpayers is a good thing to be rewarded, rather than some kind of taboo. After all, completing a job in full and under budget is seen as a remarkable achievement in the private sector.
But Congress has chosen not to. In fact, they have sustained this wasteful cycle.
The good news is that reform is coming. I have introduced the bipartisan Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act, which will reverse the negative incentives that have wasted taxpayer dollars at the end of each year.
This legislation will take existing programs to identify waste, fraud, and abuse of federal funds and expand them to also include the identification of surplus funds. Federal employees who report surplus funds, and whose report leads to actual savings, will receive a portion of the savings as a bonus, with a cap of $10,000. All remaining funds will be returned to the Treasury for the specific purpose of reducing the federal budget deficit.
Good employees who can deliver the same results at less cost should be rewarded. Honest employees who see unused funds at the end of the year should be encouraged. The Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act represents both good management and sound budgeting, and I look forward to the Senate passing it, and to President Trump signing it into law soon.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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