Bipartisan group revives push targeting ‘wasteful’ government spending

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is giving another go at legislation targeting “wasteful” government spending amid a partisan stalemate over the nation’s debt limit.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H,) Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), on Tuesday will reintroduce the “Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act.”

The bill doesn’t mention any specific cuts to programs but would instead direct agencies to identify programs and activities that are “unnecessary, defunct, or unnecessarily duplicative,” could be administered by another agency “more effectively,” or operate “more effectively if the program or activity were consolidated” with another.

Agencies would then be required to provide lists of the identified programs to Congress and can make recommendations for legislation to eliminate or consolidate the identified programs.

The push comes after the bill previously passed the Senate in late December, shortly before the congressional session came to an end. But lawmakers involved in the effort are working to get the bill across the finish line this year.

“I authored the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act back in 2010 to cut down wasteful government spending. The Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act builds on that legislation to further protect taxpayer dollars,” Cuellar, a prominent House moderate, said in a statement.

The revived bipartisan effort coincides with an ongoing battle over the nation’s debt limit on Capitol Hill.

The nation’s debt ceiling, which limits how much money the Treasury can borrow to pay the government’s bills, was capped by Congress at about $31.4 trillion in 2021. But the country ran up against the threshold in January, prompting the Treasury to implement so-called “extraordinary measures” to buy time for Congress to raise the cap again or risk a default — a prospect that has some experts already raising alarm bells.

While Democrats insist budget negotiations be carried out separately from debt ceiling discussions, Republicans say both must go hand in hand, vowing not to raise the limit without some reforms to curb government spending.

At the same time, however, some moderate Democrats are pressuring President Biden to lean into discussions with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to find a bipartisan path forward to raise the debt ceiling.

According to projections released last month by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), the country risks default on the national debt as early as June absent a deal from Congress and the White House to increase the borrowing limit.

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