Lummis Amendment Freezes Unjustified Government Expansion, Saves $11 Million

Statement

Today, in the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), along with Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), offered an amendment to H.R. 4785, the Rural Energy Savings Program. The amendment, accepted by the committee by voice vote, stops the additional hiring of federal employees under H.R. 4785.

Lummis made the following statement during the hearing:

"This amendment, which I'm introducing with Rep. Luetkemeyer, would remove the authorization for 10 additional employees from H.R. 4785. Under the current measure there is $1.1 million a year authorized for 10 new employees of the Rural Utilities Service. Over the 10 year budget window, this would come at a cost to the taxpayer of $11 million.

"The Department of Agriculture has over 100,000 employees. When creating legislation that has a new program within it, Congress should ask itself whether additional employment is necessary to carry out its provisions or whether agencies are capable of rearranging their current employees to fill the need.

"I've introduced legislation this Congress to reduce the size of the Federal Government. It is a bill called the Federal Workforce Reduction Act that would place an immediate freeze on non-national security hires, making agencies compete for new hires and reduce the size of government through attrition.

"Between now and 2012, the federal government is projected to hire 270,000 new employees. This amendment to H.R. 4785 would be a good first step towards reining in government growth and not adding further to this expansion."

Source