Govt Waste: Dont Blame Fed Workers, Blame This
WASHINGTON - Libertarian Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., can't stand big, wasteful government and especially wasteful government spending. That's why he called a Senate hearing on end-of-the-year spending splurges.
These splurges, often called "use it or lose it," are when government workers waste cash they end up not needing near the end of the fiscal year.
Their fear is that if they don't spend it, Congress or these workers' higher-ups might assume they don't really need all that money and cut their future budgets.
Some, both in and outside government, say it's almost insidious the way government employees feel they must "use it or lose it" and spend whatever money they have left over at the end of the fiscal year rather than return it.
Budget experts told Sen. Paul's Subcommittee on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management that most government workers hate "use it or lose it," but all the incentives are to binge-spend rather than reveal they didn't need each and every one of those dollars.
Among those testifying was Dr. Jason Fichtner, now a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. He was an economist at the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Congress.
"A recent survey said that 95 percent of federal employees think year-end splurges are a problem and do exist," Fichtner said.
Dean Sinclair is both a former government agency chief and government contractor who has personally observed the "use it or lose it" phenomenon for years. He wrote about it in an article and study called "Changing the Culture of Wasteful Spending."
"Why do good people do that? I think it's because of the incentive to actually have to spend the money," Sinclair said of the often panicky year-end spending. "Well, let's not blame the people. Let's change the incentives. And that's how we can correct the problem."
Among various solutions, the experts suggested to the Senate subcommittee that Congress should consider rewarding government workers who save and return money rather than threatening them with reduced budgets as a punishment for their conscientious saving.
