Spending Cut Alert: Senate Energy & Water

Washington, D.C. – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste released its preliminary analysis of the Senate version of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Energy & Water Development Appropriations Act. The bill allocates $32.8 billion for the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of the Interior, among other agencies; $975.7 million above the amount provided in FY 2011 and $3.8 billion below the President’s FY 2012 budget request. The Senate bill appropriates $2.5 billion more than the $30.2 billion in the House bill. The bill also includes $1.045 billion in relief funding for areas affected by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

“While we commend the committee for submitting a bill that would lower spending compared to the budget request, there are further cuts that should be made,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “It is imperative that the money saved from each spending cut in the bill be returned to the Treasury and used for deficit reduction, rather than reprogrammed. In addition, instead of adding $1.045 billion for disaster assistance in the wake of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, equivalent cuts should have been made to the bill in order to create room for such relief.”

In this Spending Cut Alert, CAGW compared the FY 2012 Energy & Water bill to the recommendations contained in its 2011 Prime Cuts database and found three significant spending cuts that, if enacted, would save taxpayers $618 million in FY 2012 and $3.74 billion over five years.

“The Prime Cuts database gives the public, the President, and Congress a very straightforward list of wasteful, duplicative, and outdated programs drawn from more than two dozen credible sources,” added Schatz. “All that is missing is the political leadership to eliminate these boondoggles using the budget process and the veto pen.”

CAGW compared the FY 2012 budget to its 2012 Prime Cuts recommendations and found the following opportunities to cut wasteful spending:

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.