WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released its analysis of the Senate version of the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations act. The bill allocates $59.5 billion for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, science, and related agencies; $694.5 million above the FY 2011 amount and $4.7 billion below the FY 2012 budget estimate.
“While we support funding levels below the President’s FY 2012 request, this bill ignores critical opportunities to trim wasteful spending,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “Among them are the Economic Development Administration, which former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Orson Swindle described as ‘a cookie jar for pork barrel projects’; and Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, which are so rife with political favoritism that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) called it ‘insulting to all the programs that work hard on their applications’ in 2008.”
In this Spending Cut Alert, CAGW compared the FY 2012 Commerce, Justice, and Science bill to the recommendations contained in its 2011 Prime Cuts database and found six significant spending cuts that, if enacted, would save taxpayers $1 billion in FY 2012 and $5 billion over five years.
“The Prime Cuts database gives the public, the President, and Congress a very straightforward list of wasteful, duplicative, and outdated programs drawn from more than two dozen credible sources,” added Schatz. “All that is missing is the political leadership to eliminate these boondoggles.”
CAGW compared the FY 2012 budget to its 2012 Prime Cuts recommendations and found the following opportunities to cut wasteful spending:
| Spending Cut | 1-Year Savings | 5-Year Savings | ||
| (millions of dollars) | (millions of dollars) | |||
|
-- Eliminate the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants |
519 | 2,595 | ||
|
-- Eliminate the Economic Development Administration |
293 | 1,465 | ||
|
-- Eliminate the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership |
143 | 715 | ||
|
-- Eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency |
30 | 161 | ||
|
-- Eliminate the Trade Adjustment Assistance Firms Program |
16 | 80 | ||
|
-- Terminate funding for the State Justice Institute |
5 | 25 | ||
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.