(Washington, D.C.) - Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) President Tom Schatz will testify today at 2:30 pm before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security.  The topic of the hearing will be “Tools to Combat Deficits and Waste: Enhanced Rescission Authority.”  A full copy of his testimony is available at /government-affairs/testimony/.  Below is an excerpt of his testimony:

“Since 1991, CAGW’s annual Congressional Pig Book has identified 100,849 examples of egregious pork-barrel spending, which has cost taxpayers $290 billion…$6.4 billion, or 57 percent of the cost of earmarks in the fiscal year 2009 Department of Defense Appropriations Act were anonymous.  That included $465 million for an alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter….The Pentagon has proposed canceling the alternate engine project each year since 2006, only to have Congress earmark more than $1 billion in subsequent defense appropriations bills.   

“A constitutional line-item veto, or expedited rescission authority, would…restore the balance that has been eroded by Congress’s budget rules that favor spending and pork, and would hold both the legislative and executive branches more accountable for the expenditure of tax dollars.  While some have questioned whether expedited rescissions at the federal level would threaten the separation of powers, experience with such authority at the state level indicates that would not be the outcome.           

“Mr. Chairman, expedited rescissions would allow the president to weigh parochial expenditures which benefit the few against the common good and the priorities of the many.  The American people know the way business is done in Washington, and they are seeking changes. 

“Successive presidents have asked Congress to provide them with the line-item veto.  Congress must show that it is serious about controlling spending by passing legislation giving the president expedited rescission authority.” 

CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.