A few years ago a friend was boasting about a slightly used computer he got free from his employer. His boss was the United States government. And the agency that employed him had some money left over at the end of the fiscal year which was spent on new computers it didn't need.
The system is set up so that agencies always expect a little more each year, but if they hadn't spent all they got in the previous year, then they wouldn't get as much. That logic has worked for decades. And taxpayers get the bill.
How do we end that practice? Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, has a modest proposal:
To that end, Ms. Ernst has proposed the End-of-Year Fiscal Responsibility Act. The legislation, which she said has the support of many federal procurement officers, would mandate that spending in the final two months of each fiscal year not exceed the average spent in the previous 10 months.
What has happened year after year is departments, loath to come before appropriators with flush accounts, rush to deplete their coffers, according to Open the Books, a nonprofit group that tracks government spending.
Found at Feds rush to spend 20% of $500 billion in one month in 'use it or lose it' spending spree. It's a good starting place.
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3:39 PM 9/24/2019
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