February 8, 2012

U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator,

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will soon introduce the Cost Savings Enhancements Act of 2012. 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 this legislation.

Under current law, agencies are required to spend all of the money that they appropriated, even if they do not have a specific need. This often results in agencies rushing to spend funds before the end of each fiscal year, often on unneeded items.

The Cost Savings Enhancements Act would help to trim down agency bloat and encourage agencies to put unused funds toward deficit reduction by building upon existing federal employee cost savings suggestion programs. Under current law, the Inspector General of any agency can reward employees who locate cost savings in areas of waste, fraud, and mismanagement. The bill would expand programs to allow agencies to reward employees who locate and report to the IG any areas of unnecessary budget authority and surplus funds. The IG would then refer the information to the agency’s chief financial officer to determine if the rescission of the funds would hinder the agency’s effectiveness. If the agency CFO deems the funds are unneeded, the head of the agency would have the authority to return these funds to the Treasury for deficit reduction.

I urge you to support this legislation. All votes on the Cost Savings Enhancements Act will be among those considered in CCAGW’s 2012 Congressional Ratings.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW