For Immediate Release
Contact: Curtis Kalin 202-467-5318

December 6, 2018
 

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) President Tom Schatz sent a letter to the U.S. Senate urging them to support the Removing Excessive Dollars to Uproot and Cut Expensive (REDUCE) Government Waste Act.

The letter reads, in part:

“The REDUCE Government Waste Act would terminate some of the most ludicrous examples of wasteful spending in Washington and could potentially save tens of millions of dollars. Sens. Flake and Cortez Masto have picked three indefensible programs for elimination:

• Prohibiting The Repayment of Loans with Peanuts: This section would end a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) program which accepts peanuts instead of money as payment for federal loans. Senator Flake has said this program cost American taxpayers $13.6 million in 2016 and $31.5 million in 2017.
• Prohibit Agricultural Subsidies for Bug-Based Foods: This section would prohibit USDA and the Food and Drug Administration from using funds to research the development and taste-testing of insect-based foods for human consumption as well as insect farming. The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture spent more than $1.3 million in grants to research insect taste-testing and farming.
• Permanently Eliminating Grants for Robot Bartenders: This section would permanently prohibit the Department of Defense from using funds to research the development of beerbots and robot bartenders. The Department of Defense and National Science Foundation gave grants, one worth around $175,000, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which were used to build robots that served beer.

“I strongly urge you to support the REDUCE Government Waste Act, and to work with your colleagues to pass this important bipartisan legislation.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste 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.