Posted on 01/01/2020 10:57:10 AM PST by george76
Federal agencies spent $100 billion on “use-it-or-lose-it” spending in September, a practice that occurs every year, according to Washington-D.C.-based nonprofit OpentheBooks.com.
Instead of returning unused taxpayer funds to the Treasury Department, “savvy bureaucrats know that if they don’t use up the rest of their allotted budget, they may not receive the same bloated funding the following year,” OpentheBooks.com argues.
Federal spending in fiscal year 2018 equated to a 16-percent increase from fiscal year 2017, and a 39-percent increase from fiscal year 2015,
...
On average, the federal government spent $3.2 billion per day on contracts throughout the month of September, with spending on the final week days of Sept. 27 and 28 exceeding $10 billion per day.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced legislation based on OpentheBooks.com’s transparency efforts that would crack down on federal agencies’ “Christmas in September.”
Ernst’s legislation, called the End of Year Fiscal Responsibility Act, would end agencies’ annual 11th-hour spending spree.
It seeks limit agency spending in the last two months of the fiscal year to no more than what it usually spends every month on average.
“This bill won’t end all wasteful spending, but it will force agencies to put more thought into long-term planning and curtail the bad habit of out-of-control impulsive spending,” Ernst said.
Examples of end-of-year spending on federal contracts include a Wexford Leather club chair ($9,241), china tableware ($53,004), alcohol ($308,994), golf carts ($673,471), musical equipment including pianos, tubas and trombones ($1.7 million), lobster tail and crab ($4.6 million), iPhones and iPads ($7.7 million), and workout and recreation equipment ($9.8 million).
(Excerpt) Read more at thecentersquare.com ...
Dumba$$ idea. Cut their budgets by the ammount spent in the last months. Fire the inept managers and hire people that spend our money like it’s theirs.
Very simple - “emergency legislation” sprung on the bureaucracy by Congress and a President that suddenly takes back most of what the bureaucrats have not expensed for the year, leaving only a set limited % of any balance to be dribbled out over the following months.
for decades gummits from local to federal have alwasy operated with the “use it of lose it” budget philosophy.
no telling how much better off we would be if this practice was prohibited....or EOY budget savings incentivized with annual empolyee bonuses or “profit sharing”
my hope for trump’s second term is that once he gets that swamp drained and wall built, that he’ll focus on getting rid of gummit wasteful spending, balanced budgets & pay down national debt.
It is at least a start.
I guess Joni has had a fit of guilt after seeing or participating in obscene end-of-year spending in the military and other goobment agencies. It is just amazing to witness the spending orgy of the use it or lose it spending spree.
What really needs to be done is to eliminate Base Line Budgeting that was started with the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. There is a 3% annual increase built into the base line plus a calculated adder. At a MINIMUM the feral budget will DOUBLE every 24 years. There are NO budget cuts adn the waste goes on and on and on and on.
The idea of responsibility by politicians in this country is a sick joke. I hate them all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseline_(budgeting)
The idiot Tricky Dick signed this into law after the congress thew a hissy at his effective line item veto of not spending money that was allocated.
my hope for trump’s second term is that once he gets that swamp drained and wall built, that he’ll focus on getting rid of gummit wasteful spending, balanced budgets & pay down national debt.
Me too, but the real elephant in the room that must be addressed is entitlements.
Another area that I am not so sure he will address is the pork that congress hides in the ridiculously huge legislation they pass (to hide it all). That needs to be reformed as well.
Open the Books is a good gov’t watchdog. It monitors both state and federal spending and publicizes spending abuses. I’ve donated a little bit to them but I prefer they not keep sending me additional appeals as the cost should go to their mission, not mail costs.
It’s madness! When I was in the Army I worked in various sections and the years I worked in IT, we just loaded up with things we knew we’d need for the coming fiscal year, even if we weren’t 100% sure we’d need/use it.
We tried very hard to cut the waste, but it seemed to be built into the process. :(
One year I had to go to Senator Feingold (D, WI) and ask him for a lousy $30K to keep a program going for Military Families and he acted like I was asking him for his own money! And then later, I read of all of his other boondoggles.
(He gave me the money after I had to hear him LECTURE me about spending it wisely. *SPIT* What a douche.)
Use it or lose it is a direct result of annual funding and government contracting practices. A lot of money is wasted across all branches and agencies.
Is it right, that's a question for the pundits to argue about, but to me if a base/unit/office doesn't use all of their yearly budget it doesn't mean you cut the next year's budget by that amount because the next year those funds might be needed.
But yes, if there is unused money at the end of each fiscal year, then it should be returned to the tax payers.
A bill like this should have been shoved in the Omnibus so every fecking Donkey had to eat it.
Unfortunately, the way the budget process is set up encourages the end-of-year massive spending.
I have been managing budgets for years, and wrestled with this problem. I do not know a good solution.
This article assumes federal agencies spend their funds proportionately through out the year, ie, the agency receives 120 million so they should spend 10 Million every month. It also assumes an agency gets their money at the beginning of the fiscal year, ie, October.
My agency spent 90% of their funds in one month. We procured ammunition. We normally received our funding, not at the beginning of the fiscal year, but three or four months after the year begins. We then placed about 90% of the money on contract in Feb/Mar. We retained the rest to cover personnel costs, travel, and other costs of program management. I had to keep several months of program spending past the end of the fiscal year to fund the program because congress would not pass a budget until January.
I recall one year when I was in the military my unit bought office furniture for the Col’s secretary for $9,000!
But when we were doing weapons training we had to scrounge for spent brass and links to use in our training for loading/unloading our weapons.
I recently saw a Feingold bumper sticker.
You can’t fix stupid Madison liberals.
No it will not. You can't make long term plans with funds that are going to disappear on October 1st if you don't spend them.
A better solution would be to allow agencies to roll over unused funds into the next fiscal year. That way the funds can be spent in a efficient way and not in a rush.
I’m thinking that $100B would build a nice, big, beautiful Wall. A total of 1,954 miles of unclimbable and tamper/vandal-resistant Wall would be wonderful.
“You can’t fix stupid Madison liberals.”
Bumper stickers are ALL they have, LOL! All Social Media - NO concrete action/solutions. ;)
"The “Holy Grail” of organized crime is to control government power to tax." —me
"The power to tax involves the power to destroy," —Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819.
"The 16th Amendment effectively repealed the involuntary servitude aspect of the 13th Amendment imo, evidenced by unconstitutional federal taxes." —me
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
"13th Amendment, Section 1:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude [emphasis added], except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
"16th Amendment:
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."
"The constitutionally undefined political parties are basically rival, corrupt voter unions, “union dues” paid by means of unconstitutional federal taxes. Belonging to a political party means that you are a subject, not a member.” —me
"Patriots need to support PDJT in demanding that Congress moves "April 15" tax day to the day before election day." —me
"The smart crooks long ago figured out that getting themselves elected to federal office to make unconstitutional tax laws to fill their pockets is a much easier way to make a living than robbing banks." —me
"Federal career lawmakers probably laugh all the way to the bank to deposit bribes for putting loopholes for the rich and corporations in tax appropriations laws, Congress actually not having the express constitutional authority to make most appropriations laws where domestic policy is concerned. Such laws are based on stolen state powers and uniquely associated stolen state revenues." —me
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.