Isakson Returns More Than Half A Million Dollars of His Senate Office Budget to the Treasury for Fiscal Year 2011

Press Release

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today announced that he returned more than $503,000 of his allotted Senate office budget to the Treasury for fiscal year 2011. In total, Isakson has returned over $3.8 million to the Treasury during his 13 years as a former member of the U.S. House and as a current member of the U.S. Senate.

"I am pleased to announce today that my office has returned more than half a million dollars to the Treasury for fiscal year 2011. I am trying to do all I can to rein in spending in Washington, and that starts with my own Senate office budget," said Isakson. "When Georgians sent me to Washington to represent them in Congress, they put their trust in me to be a good steward of their hard-earned tax dollars. I take this responsibility very seriously, and have worked to ensure that my office budget is spent wisely."

Early this year, Isakson introduced S.81, the Congressional Budget Accountability Act, to guarantee that any unspent funds from senators' office budgets must be used to pay down the national debt or reduce the deficit. Under the current rules, senators can return leftover office funds to the Treasury at the end of the fiscal year, but the money goes back into the general fund. Isakson's legislation has been endorsed by Citizens Against Government Waste and has a bipartisan group of 15 co-sponsors in the Senate.

This year, Isakson received the "Taxpayers' Friend Award" from the National Taxpayers Union for his voting record in 2010. Isakson received an "A" rating, or a 96 percent score, for being among the strongest supporters of responsible tax and spending policies in Congress.

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