For Immediate Release May 19, 2011

Contact:  Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 Luke Gelber 202-467-5318

CAGW Issues Spending Cut of the Week: Weatherization Assistance Program

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued its weekly spending cut alert aimed at the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), a Carter-era Department of Energy (DOE) program originally designed to lower consumers’ energy bills during the 1970s oil crisis. Under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the program, whose budget had hovered at approximately $250 million for years, received an injection of roughly $5 billion. WAP garnered 57 percent of the vote in this week’s poll of CAGW’s Facebook followers, besting three other spending cuts for the top spot.

Prior to ARRA, the program had been operating virtually without oversight from DOE. Since its expansion, WAP has left in its wake reports of substandard work, abandoned projects, and fraud. In October 2010, the San Antonio Express News uncovered e-mails indicating that one of the community action agencies charged with administering the stimulus funds asked its contractors to “submit invoices for work that hadn’t been done and falsify documents to cover their tracks.” In December 2010, a Tennessee state audit revealed deficiencies including shoddy workmanship and poor or non-existent documentation on whether applicants met income eligibility requirements on more than half of the homes weatherized under WAP. Delaware, which received $13.7 billion of stimulus, has also reported mismanagement of stimulus funds, but is the only state where WAP has been suspended. Other states such as Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have also experienced problems with fraud and mismanagement.

“Even absent the reports of abuse, WAP is not a justifiable government initiative,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “It is a transfer program with too many middlemen, and endless opportunities to rip off taxpayers. Americans already have a strong incentive to save money on energy each month and most make improvements to their homes when they believe the benefits outweigh the costs. Individuals make that choice better than bureaucrats.”

Eliminating the Weatherization Assistance Program’s federal funding, which is among the spending cuts advocated by CAGW in its Prime Cuts database, would save taxpayers $320 million in one year and $1.6 billion over five years. Prime Cuts is a compendium of 763 waste-cutting recommendations that would save taxpayers $350 billion in the first year and $2.2 trillion over five years.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government. The Spending Cut of the Week calls attention to a federal program that is wasteful or duplicative.