McCotter: The FIT Act Will Stop the Federal Budget from Spending Faster than Family Budgets
Contact: Bettina Inclan -- 202-225-8171, 202-580-5258 (c)
McCotter: The FIT Act Will Stop the Federal Budget from Spending Faster than Family Budgets
WASHINGTON D.C. - Today Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (MI), Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, introduced Fiscal Integrity through Transparency (FIT) Act of 2008, a comprehensive assault on Washington waste.
"Americans want to know how the government spends their money," said Rep. McCotter. "Excessive spending has rightfully raised doubts about the fiscal integrity of the federal budget and, most importantly, concern by taxpayers for their family budgets. More transparency, oversight and accountability is required in federal budgeting."
"Using the power of the internet and the millions of Americans online, we hope to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government spending. We plan to make people accountable for funding request and manage the American budget more like a family checkbook instead of anything-goes expense account."
The FIT Act is a three part initiative to reduce government spending and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.
- This legislation would first prevent the House and Senate, without an overriding 2/3 vote, from considering any budget resolution for any fiscal year if the projected total outlays increase more than the mean (equally weighted) of GDP (Real), the Growth of Earnings, and Compensation of Earnings.
- Next, each Federal department and agency would be required to annually report their total operation costs as well as details on waste, fraud, and abuse during the year to the Comptroller General (intelligence agencies would be required to submit their reports to the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
- No later than one year after the bill's enactment, each Federal department would be required design a plan to reduce its operational costs from $.36 of every $1.00 appropriated to the department or agency to $.15 of every $1.00 (or reduce their operational costs by 41.67 percent).
Finally, the bill would require all earmarks received by the Committee on Appropriations (or subcommittee thereof) to be posted on its website at least 14 calendar days before the committee begins marking up the applicable measure. Each posting on the committee website would include the name of the Member requesting the earmark, the cost of the earmark, and a justification of why the earmark is needed.
Congressman McCotter and Congressman Kevin Brady (TX) are co-chairman of the GOP Fiscal Integrity Task Force (FIT Force). In the coming weeks the Representatives will present a larger all-inclusive plan to cut government waste, fraud and abuse.
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| Attachment | Size |
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| FIT Act.pdf | 43.53 KB |
