WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mark Warner (D-VA) today introduced the Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act of 2015. This bipartisan legislation will empower those on the front lines of federal spending to find efficiencies and improve productivity to return value to the taxpayer in the form of deficit reduction and less government borrowing. Building on the current federal law, the Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act would allow a U.S. government agency’s inspector general to pay a bonus of up to $10,000 when a federal employee identifies surplus or unneeded funds. Cosponsors of the Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act of 2015 include: Sens. Cory Gardner (R-CO), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Mike Enzi (R-WY).

“Under the current law, federal employees have a perverse incentive to spend all of their agency’s annual budget before the end of the year, and subsequently, bonuses will reverse the incentive to the benefit of the employee and the taxpayer,” said Sen. Paul. “The Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act will reduce the federal deficit and reverse the trend toward agency bloat, by combating inefficiency and mismanagement of funds in the government.”
 
“This bipartisan proposal encourages federal agencies to return unused funds instead of rushing to spend-down their appropriations at the end of every fiscal year. When we empower federal employees to identify surplus funds instead of encouraging the ‘use it or lose it’ mentality, we are better stewards of taxpayers’ dollars,” Sen. Warner said.

“Giving federal employees more of an incentive to identify and call out unnecessary spending within the federal government has the potential to save taxpayers millions of dollars and make federal agencies run far more efficiently,” Sen. Gardner said. “I’m proud to support this bipartisan effort, and will work to ensure its passage.”