U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) announced this week that he has returned $151, 210 from his congressional office budget to the taxpayers in his district. But unlike other Senators, Allard didn't pass the money along in pork barrel legislation; he passed it along in unspent funds.
At the end of the fiscal year, Sen. Allard discovered that he had more money than the office required. Instead of doling out the funds in bonuses, trips, and last minute expenditures, the Senator sent the funds back to the Colorado Treasury Department, just as he did for the past 18 years straight.
“During my tenure in Congress, I have tried to lead through
example,” said Allard. “I have been entrusted by the citizens of
Colorado to be a careful steward of their tax dollars. I am proud that
I have lived up to their trust for the 18th year in a row.”
Since being elected to Congress in 1990, Allard has returned more
than $4.6 million from his congressional office operating budget. In
the past four years alone, Allard has returned over 1.5 million.
It's a shame our federal agencies don't operate with the same mentality. The culture of use it or lose it presides, wherein the amount of unspent funds is cut from the department's budget the following year. As a result, department and division heads work hard to spend all of their funds at the end of the year to prevent their budgets from being cut the next year.
A simple change in Agency culture could result in one hundred times the savings each year that Senator Allard has amassed over the past eighteen. The logic is simple: entrust those who save the taxpayers money by coming in under budget with greater budgetary flexibility. So if a division head saves a million dollars a year for ten years straight and one year requests an extra million, based upon their record of fiscal responsibility, he/she should be granted the extra funding with less resistance.
Senator Allard has been granted similar fiscal flexibility by the Senate when questioning federal agencies about spending and budget priorities. By living up to his rhetoric, the Senator is viewed as an honest broker truly looking out for the best interests of the American people.
This year, the notorious earmark watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), ranked Allard 72nd among the 100 Senators for legislating pork projects. At the top of the 2008 Congressional Pig Book sits Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS) and the recently indicted Republican Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, who legislated $892 million and $469 million in earmarks for their states, respectively.
Presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), received high marks from CAGW for not legislating one dollar in earmarks in 2008. In contrast, Sen. Barak Obama, who frequently criticizes McCain for hiring lobbyists to run parts of his campaign, was ranked just slightly higher than Sen. Allard in the Pig Book for doling out $95 million in earmarks to his home state of Illinois.
Not surprisingly given Sen. Allard's history or protecting taxpayer dollars, he voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act a.k.a. bailout bill yesterday. In support of his decision, Allard offered the following press statement:
“In considering proposals to stabilize the economy, taxpayers have
always been my top priority. In creating this $700
billion package, Congress held no hearings, nor did it use a process to
provide a reasonable assurance that this proposal would even work. I am
unwilling to leave a huge legacy of debt for generations to come
without confidence that it would be worth the price.”
“I have always believed that the government should live within its
means and thus have opposed increasing the federal debt limit. The bill
before Congress would increase the national debt to a whopping $11.3
trillion. I believe that Congress can find a way to unfreeze the credit
markets without unfairly penalizing American families for the greed and
mismanagement on Wall Street.”
“I have seen no evidence that the Emergency Economic Stabilization
Act is in the best long term interests of taxpayers and the economy,
and I also strongly oppose the additional spending provisions rolled
into the bill,” continued Allard. “We shouldn’t spend this kind of
taxpayer money on assumptions and guesswork.”
Regardless of whether or not you support this decision, the Senator acted in keeping with his character, doing what he felt was best for the American people.
Also Interesting:
Most Read