WASHINGTON, D.C – Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs passed Sen. Rand Paul’s Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act, a bill with bipartisan support, that encourages federal agencies to return unneeded funds to the taxpayer through bonus incentives. The bill was passed in committee with an affirmative 12-5 vote.
 
Current law allows an agency’s inspector general to pay bonuses up to $10,000 of savings realized when a federal employee identifies waste, fraud or mismanagement of funds. Senator Paul’s legislation would further incentivize ending wasteful government spending by allowing employees to qualify for these bonuses if they identify unneeded or surplus funds.
 
Additionally, this legislation would ensure that 90% of the savings be automatically directed towards deficit reduction.
 
“I am pleased that my legislation has received bipartisan support and is on its way to full passage in the U.S. Senate,” Sen. Paul said. “My bill will incentivize government employees to find, report and eliminate government waste, fraud and abuse throughout our bloated federal government.”
 
Federal employees are on the front lines of federal spending. Rewarding those employees for saving taxpayer money will create a personal incentive to counter the current end-of-year rush to exhaust all available funds. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, “Spending in the last week of the year is 4.9 times higher then the rest-of-the-year weekly average.”

The full language of this legislation is available HERE.