Federal agencies again went on wasteful “use-it-or-lose-it” spending sprees in 2020 but still ended the year with more than $800 billion in unspent funds, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said on Jan. 26.
She expects a repeat of that performance come September.
She selected OMB because it refuses to make public the annual spending requests and justifications that the White House agency receives from federal agencies. Ernst believes making those justifications public would be an incentive against wasteful end-of-year spending by agency officials who fear their budgets will be cut by Congress if they don’t spend it all.
“Meanwhile, these same federal agencies that cannot find ways to spend all the money they’ve been given will once again come to Congress, hat in hand, asking for budget increases. The fiscal insanity cycle continues.
“If these agencies already know they’re not going to spend all the money they’re given, why the heck are they asking for more?” she asked.
“Agencies submit budget justifications to Congress as part the President’s annual budget request, and while the documents don’t answer all of these questions, they do give greater insights into how bureaucrats are managing your money,” Ernst said in her statement.
“But in typical Washington practice, these budget justifications are only available to a select few, and not YOU the taxpayer ... who actually pays the bills.”
- Why did the EPA pay $1.5 million for unused parking spaces?
- Why were tens of thousands of dollars sunk into an underwater sculpture garden, nearly 60 feet beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico that will be visited by more fish than people?
- Why was nearly $635,000 used in part to support a study to determine if chimpanzees recognized themselves in a mirror?
“Taxpayers have a right to know how much money the NIH and other agencies waste on boondoggles like forcing kittens to eat cat meat purchased from China’s wet markets, getting animals drunk and high in labs overseas, and watching monkeys check themselves out in the mirror,” Burr told The Epoch Times.
“Thankfully, Senator Joni Ernst’s Squeal Award series provides a roadmap of reckless government spending that helps taxpayers and Congress hold Uncle Sam accountable for wasting our hard-earned money,” Burr said.
Ernst was a co-sponsor of the Taxpayer Right to Know Act that became law last month and requires the federal government to maintain and publish a continuously updated list of all federal programs and assessments of how they are working or failing to meet their official objectives. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) was the primary sponsor of the measure.
Major provisions of Ernst’s Cost Openness and Spending Transparency Act (COST) were included in the 2021 defense appropriation bill, with a result that the Department of Defense must disclose to taxpayers the cost of all research and development projects.
