(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today praised the House Republican leadership for its increased commitment to spending cuts and urged even further action.  On October 6, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) proposed an amendment to the 2006 budget resolution (H Con Res 95), requiring $50 billion in cuts from entitlement programs, an increase from the $35 billion in cuts already outlined in the budget.

“Congressional leadership is finally listening to the call for less spending in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Speaker Hastert’s proposal is an important step towards eliminating wasteful, out-of-date, and duplicative programs from the federal budget and will pave the way for further cuts.”

Speaker Hastert also proposed dollar-for-dollar offsets for the mandatory spending related to disaster relief, [Sentence from Hastert’s press release: We will offset dollar-for-dollar the new mandatory spending included in the reconciliation/entitlement reform that is required to address the disasters.] an additional across the board cut of fiscal 2006 discretionary spending, to present packages of additional rescissions to further help offset reconstruction costs, and to permanently eliminate programs removed by appropriators in this year’s appropriations process.

The Senate has not been as amenable to the idea of budget reform, proposing a temporary expansion to Medicaid without offsets and rejecting the idea of amending the budget resolution.

CAGW made budget cut suggestions of its own with its publication of Prime Cuts 2005, which catalogues 600 recommendations throughout the government that if enacted could save taxpayers $232 billion in fiscal 2006 and $2 trillion over the next five years.

“Congress has just begun to scratch the surface of trimming the budget,” Schatz said.  “The federal government is rife with agencies, programs and policies that are plagued by fraud or negligence, serve political or parochial interests rather than the general good, do not demonstrate results, or duplicate efforts in the private sector.  If legislators are truly serious about budget reform, I challenge them to read Prime Cuts and enact the recommendations.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.