(Washington, D.C.) – The Council Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today expressed its support for House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers’ (R-Ky.) proposed $100 billion in spending cuts in the fiscal year (FY) 2011 Continuing Resolution (CR) bill.  The cuts include several measures that have been previously published at least in part in CAGW’s Prime Cuts database, a list of 763 waste-cutting recommendations that would save taxpayers $350 billion in the first year and $2.2 trillion over five years.  They include:

• $593 million from the Internal Revenue Service
• $379 million from NASA
• $298 million to terminate the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program
• $224 million from Amtrak
• $210 million to terminate the Department of Energy’s weatherization program
• $86 million to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

CCAGW President Tom Schatz said, “Chairman Rogers and his fellow Republicans in the House gained a majority in November because they promised to cut spending, shrink the deficit, and reduce the national debt.  They assured taxpayers they would eschew rampant government spending in favor of free market, private sector solutions to the nation’s fiscal woes.  This plan is a first step toward those goals.

“There are few occasions when lawmakers face truly momentous legislative decisions.  This is one of those moments.  Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle must get serious about reducing the deficit and paying down our $14.3 trillion national debt,” added Schatz.  “There will be members of Congress who will equate this CR with a threat to shut down the federal government.  The free-spending ways of the past threaten to shut down the private sector, and burden our children and grandchildren with mountains of debt.  The cuts are long overdue.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.