Washington, D.C. – Today in Washington, D.C. the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) announced that it has joined a broad-based coalition of taxpayer, consumer, free market, and environmental groups with a common goal: the elimination of billions of dollars in corporate handouts.  The nine members of the Stop Corporate Welfare (SCW) Coalition were joined at a press conference on Capitol Hill by U.S. Reps. John Kasich (R-Ohio), Ed Royce (R-Calif.), and Rob Andrews (D-N.J), who praised the group for its hard work, cohesiveness, and commitment to eliminating corporate welfare.

The coalition had originally come together during the 104^th Congress to fight attempts in Congress to double the appropriation for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).  Victory in the fight over OPIC prompted members to formalize the association and hammer out an initial list of corporate welfare targets for the 105^th Congress.  “This list is just the beginning,” said CCAGW president Tom Schatz.  “CCAGW has been a zealous, but often solitary foe of programs like the Market Access Program over the last decade.  We are encouraged by this unusual show of unity and look forward to winning the fight against corporate welfare as part of this coalition.”  CCAGW has been a leader in battles to eliminate corporate welfare programs such as the Super Conducting Super Collider, Gas-Turbine Modular Helium Reactor, privatizing the Helium program, and selling CONRAIL to the private sector.

The SCW Coalition reviewed virtually all discretionary federal spending before agreeing to the twelve programs on their hit list for the 105^th Congress:  The Rural Utilities Service; the USDA’s Market Access Program and timber roads in national forests; the Animas La Plata water project; the Department of Energy’s Pyroprocessing, Fossil Energy Research and Development, and Clean Coal Technology programs; the Appalachian Regional Commission’s roads program; OPIC; the International Monetary Fund’s General Agreement to Borrow and Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility; and highway demonstration programs.  The termination of these twelve programs would yield an estimated $11.5 billion in savings over 5 years, according to the House Budget Committee.

“Taxpayers are fed up with sending their dollars to Washington just to have those dollars subsidizing the activities of rich corporations who can well afford to do for themselves,” said Schatz.  “We are confident that this will be the beginning of the end for these egregious corporate handouts.”

CCAGW is a 600,000 member lobbying organization dedicated to enacting legislation to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the federal government.  To schedule an interview with CAGW, please contact Leslie Paige at 202-467-5300.