March 22, 2013            

U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C.  20510  

Dear Senator:

You are currently considering S. Con. Res. 8, the fiscal year 2014 Senate budget resolution.  On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to support the following amendments:

• Amendment No. 212, offered by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), which would bar the use of federal funds to bail out state and local governments that are defaulting on their debts;
• Amendment No. 225, offered by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), which would establish a point of order to strike earmarks from future legislation;
• Amendment No. 307, offered by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), which would fully and permanently repeal the Death Tax;
• Amendment No. 374, offered by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), which would unwind the Export-Import Bank;
• Amendments No. 401-405 being offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), which call for the consolidation of 15 financial literacy programs; 160 housing assistance program; 253 Department of Justice grant programs; 15 unmanned aircraft programs; and 209 science, technology, engineering and math programs, all of which have been identified in Government Accountability Office reports on overlap and duplication.
• Amendment No. 410, offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, which would create a deficit reduction reserve fund to allow for the furloughing of federal employees with seriously delinquent tax liability;
• Amendment No. 413, offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, which would create a deficit-reduction reserve fund to reform the Lifeline program at the Federal Communications Commission to require minimal payments from subsidized cell phone recipients.  While we prefer that the Universal Service Fund be eliminated entirely, we support the effort to reduce waste in the Lifeline program.

CCAGW opposes Amendment No. 414, offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, which would create a reserve fund to eliminate certain “special interest tax breaks.”  While we support the elimination of special tax breaks for the movie industry, fish tackle boxes, and whaling captains, we do not support the inclusion in the amendment of efforts to modify the nonprofit tax status of NASCAR, the NFL and the PGA (or any other efforts by Congress to arbitrarily determine the tax status of any other trade association or nonprofit entity).

Lawmakers should always support amendments that eliminate, consolidate, or reduce financial support to profligate government-funded programs that Americans do not need and taxpayers simply cannot afford.  All votes on S. Con. Res. 8 will be among those considered in CCAGW’s 2013 Congressional Ratings.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz,
President, CCAGW