Amendment 4232

Section 4001 – Rescinds $100 million from Congress’ 2010 budget

While millions of Americans had to make tough choices in a down economy, Congress increased its own budget by almost $100 million this year, a 4.5 percent budget increase. This section would rescind $100 million, the full increase in funding Congress gave itself this year.

This rescission does not apply to the U.S. Capitol Police.

Congress Increased Its Own Budget By $100 Million This Year

Last year, Congress prioritized its own budget and rushed the appropriations bill funding its own offices before sending any other spending bills to pay for the operations of the remainder of the federal government to the President. Months later, Congress eventually passed the Defense spending bill to fund the military and our troops stationed overseas.

In the Legislative Branch spending bill, Congress gave itself a 4.5 percent budget increase, which amounted to a 4.5 percent budget increase. This follows the 8 percent budget increase Congress awarded itself the prior year.

Congress’ budget for this year would still exceed $2.1 billion even if $100 million was rescinded as proposed by this amendment.

For additional background on amendment 4232, please click here.

Section 4002 –– Requires public disclosure of the amount of new borrowing and spending approved by the Senate on its website

President Obama signed the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO) into law in February requiring Congress to pay for new spending by cutting lower priority spending to offset the new costs.

In the weeks following its enactment, the Senate has repeatedly ignored the spirit of PAYGO by borrowing $173 billion to finance the cost of new government spending.

This section would expose the PAYGO gimmicks that have allowed Congress to continue borrowing to pay for new spending by bringing more transparency and accountability to the Senate’s spending practices.

For additional background information, please click here.

Section 4003 - Requires the federal government to sell off or demolish unused federal Real Property

This amendment would simply require the federal government to sell off or demolish unused federal Real Property.

The federal government has billions of dollars of under-utilized or not utilized Real Property

For background information, please click here.

Section 4004 — To provide that the Department of Defense auction new, unused, or excellent condition excess inventory to the highest bidder rather than transferring at no cost to federal and state agencies

The Department of Defense currently gives away millions of dollars of new, unused, excellent condition equipment for free

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) DOD gave away $225M in equipment, supplies, and inventory to other federal agencies and donated $80M to state and local governments from FY2002 to FY2004.

This amendment saves money for the government by requiring the Department of Defense to sell perfectly good equipment at a market price, rather than give it away for free

For additional information, please click here.

Section 4005 – Saves $45 billion by returning unspent federal funds that have not been obligated or committed for any purpose

This section would save $45 billion by rescinding $80 billion in unobligated federal discretionary funds that have not been obligated or committed for any purpose.

The amendment would not rescind any unobligated funds held by the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The section allows the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to identify the accounts and amounts rescinded to pay for the supplemental.

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Amendment 4231

Section 4001 — Freeze Federal Salaries and Eliminate Bonuses for FY2011

Our debt is at all time high

Today, the national debt is $13 trillion, more than $41,900 per citizen. At the beginning of the current Administration, the national debt was $10.6 trillion. In one year and four months, Washington, D.C., has increased the debt by 23 percent.

This debt signifies less opportunity in the future for generations of Americans to come, higher taxes, more government control, less innovation, less freedom, and lower quality of life.

For additional background information, please click here.

Section 4002 – Caps Hiring in the Federal Workforce for Five Years

Congress has led our nation down an unsustainable fiscal path and shed too many jobs along the way. The recession has eliminated 8 million jobs. Meanwhile, the federal workforce has been immune from the economic downturn.

This amendment would save $13.5 billion (not including health and benefits, assuming a 1.6 increase) by placing a cap on new federal employees for five years. If new personnel are needed in the federal workforce, older positions will have to be eliminated to make up for the new costs.

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4003 – Collect Unpaid Taxes from Federal Employees

• While millions of Americans continue to send back portions of their hard earned wages to Washington, many federal employees are failing to contribute their share.

• In 2008, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) found nearly 100,000 civilian federal employees were delinquent on their federal income taxes, owing a total of $962 million in unpaid federal income taxes.

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4004 -- Reducing Government Employees’ Non-Essential Printing

This provision would prioritize federal spending by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary federal employee printing expenses.

It is estimated that civilian federal employees spend $1.3 billion on office printing each year. Of these funds, $440 million worth of printing is said to be “unnecessary.” That amounts to more than $1 million a day in unnecessary printing.

For additional background on this section, please click here.

Section 4005 — Cap administrative costs at federal agencies, encourage elimination of duplication, and a five percent rescission in non-DOD/VA FY 2010 discretionary spending

Too many federal programs intended to assist needy Americans and provide essential services waste far too much on administrative costs and overhead.

Most programs do not track the costs of administration so it is difficult to control overhead costs. As a result, billions of dollars are wasted annually.

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4006 -- Eliminating Non-Essential Government Travel

The federal government spent $13.8 billion a year on travel in 2008, including almost $5 billion on non-Department of Defense travel, according to data from the Office of Management and Budget. In 2007, federal spending on travel was a billion dollars higher at $14.8 billion.

Section 4006 would help prioritize federal spending by eliminating wasteful and unnecessary federal travel expenses and by setting an annual, $5 billion cap on non-national defense, non-homeland security, non-border security, non-national disasters, and other non-emergency travel costs.

For additional background information on this section, please click here.

Section 4007 -- Eliminates the awarding of bonuses to government contractors for unsatisfactory performance

The federal government awards billions of dollars of bonuses to federal contractors for projects that are over budget or have failed to meet basic performance requirements.

This section would prohibit bonuses from being paid to government contractors whose performance is not satisfactory performance or does not meet the basic requirements of the contract.

For additional background information on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4008 – Terminate the EnergyStar program

The EnergyStar program has been plagued with problems at the taxpayers’ expense

This joint program between the Department of Energy and EPA has been giving consumers false assurances of efficiency and cost savings and providing retailers with a marketing boon at the expense of taxpayers.

Investigations have continued to show fraud and corruption within this program, deeming it useless and a waste of taxpayer dollars at the same time misleading consumers to spend their hard earned wages on non-effective products.

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4009 — To strike the $96.5 million in funding for United Nations peacekeeping activities in Haiti

President Obama requested $96.5 million in funding for United Nations peacekeeping activities in Haiti. This funding can and should be funded under the annual appropriations bill, be paid for at that time, and not increase the national debt.

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4010 —To cap voluntary payments to the United Nations at $1 billion annually

The United States currently gives over $6 billion a year to the United Nations, with much of that contribution as ‘voluntary’.

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Section 4011 — Cut $362 million in surplus WIC stimulus funds to pay for the supplemental

Established in the 1970s, the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers “nutrition assistance programs to provide children and needy families better access to food and a more healthful diet."

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4012 — Strike $1.8 million in funding for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

$1.8 million in funding for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is not an emergency.

The emergency supplemental spending bill provides $1.8 million in “emergency” funding for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission for expenses associated with investigations and research related to the causes of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.

Congress provided $8 million in a supplemental spending bill passed on Jun 24, 2009.

For additional background on this amendment, please click here.

Section 4013 -- To eliminate the proposed plan by the State Department to build a brand new $500 million training facility in Ruthsberg, Maryland

The State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security is responsible for providing security at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide.

According to State, the rising threats of terrorism, civil disorder, and crime mean that more and more embassies and consulates that were previously safe are now potential targets.

Unfortunately, the State Department has taken a very expensive route to providing security-related training by building a facility in Maryland instead of in West Virginia.

The current proposal would require spending $70 million in stimulus funding alone to plan a new facility, while another alternative would cost $75 million total.

This amendment would cancel the planning for a new training facility in Ruthsberg, Maryland, resulting in an immediate savings to taxpayers of more than $400 million.

For additional background information on this section, please click here.