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Spending Reform Bill Passes Budget Committee

Date: June 20, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Government Budget and Spending


Spending Reform Bill Passes Budget Committee
Brownback's CARFA plan would create commission to review federal programs

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today enthusiastically applauded Budget Committee passage of a spending reform package which includes the Commission on the Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies Act. The CARFA plan would create an independent commission to review federal programs for waste, ineffectiveness, and duplicity.

"The system in Washington is built to spend," said Brownback. "We have to change the system if we want to control federal spending. As Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there's nothing more permanent than a temporary government program.' CARFA is the antidote to Congress's general unwillingness to end politicians' pet-projects."

CARFA is modeled on the successful military Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which has resulted in more than $45 billion in taxpayer savings through closing and realigning lower-priority military bases. The bill would call on the president and Congress to appoint members to a bipartisan commission that would review federal programs for waste, ineffectiveness, and duplicity.

Brownback continued, "I thank Chairman Gregg for including CARFA in the Budget Reform bill and agreeing that we need a system-wide approach to cutting spending. The BRAC process produced billions of dollars in taxpayer savings, and this successful approach should be applied to all federal agencies and programs."

Over the course of four years, the CARFA commission would report four bills to Congress, each addressing approximately 25 percent of the federal budget. Congress would consider each measure on an expedited basis with a comment period from the committees of jurisdiction. Within the expedited timeframe, Congress would hold a simple up-or-down vote on the legislation, without amendment.

Brownback's CARFA plan passed the committee as part of the Stop Over-Spending Act of 2006, a comprehensive budget reform plan introduced by Budget Committee Chairman Gregg. The SOS Act includes a presidential line-item veto, statutory caps on discretionary spending, and other budget process reforms.

Senator Brownback is a member of the Joint Economic Committee, the Appropriations Committee, and the Judiciary Committee.

http://brownback.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=257495&&days=365&

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