WASHINGTON, D.C - Sen. Rand Paul today introduced the Cost Savings Enhancement Act, a bill that encourages federal agencies to return unused funds to the taxpayer through bonus incentives.

"Under current law, agencies are required to spend all of the money they are allocated and have no incentive to identify areas in the budget where savings could be found. When this occurs, federal agencies with surplus funds must rush to spend the funds before the end of the fiscal year, often on unnecessary purchases," Sen. Paul said. "This bill would reverse the trend toward agency bloat-whereby agencies are appropriated more each year than the previous and grow beyond the size they were intended to be and more responsibly handle taxpayer dollars."

The Cost Savings Enhancement Act has been endorsed by good-government groups such as Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Prosperity.

In a letter from Americans for Prosperity dated Feb. 10, the group lauds Sen. Paul's bill: "Senator Paul's Cost Savings Enhancements Act would help control federal agencies' budgets by creating an employee suggestion program. If employees spot waste or come forward with an idea on how to spend taxpayer dollars more wisely, they will get to keep as much as $10,000 of the budgetary savings if their suggestions are adopted. The head of the federal agency would then be given authority to return the money to the Treasury for deficit reduction."

Thomas Schatz, president of Citizens for Government Waste issued a letter on Feb. 9, urging its members to support Sen. Paul's legislation: "The federal government should remove the statutory boundaries that force agencies to spend money that they do not need. I urge you to support this legislation, which implements a common-sense framework to promote efficient and effective government spending."

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