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Thune Offers Amendment to Cut Unnecessary Spending

Seeks to Reduce Size of $1.27 Trillion Stimulus Bill

February 4, 2009

Washington, D.C. —  Senator John Thune today introduced an amendment (S. AMDT #238) to the Democrat Stimulus bill that would prohibit using money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on any new federal government programs created as a result of the stimulus bill.

"If the idea of the stimulus plan is to be targeted, timely, and temporary, there is no reason not to adopt this amendment," said Thune. "A new government program would likely take a year or longer to create and begin to work, and the countless billions of spending in this bill is not the way to stimulate our economy quickly. If our priority is to create jobs and get people working again as soon as possible, we should not be spending money on creating new bureaucracies."

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently noted how inefficient it is to get new federal programs up and running: "Developing procedures and criteria, issuing the necessary regulations, and reviewing plans and proposals would make distributing money quickly even more difficult. .Throughout the federal government, spending for new programs has frequently been slower than expected and rarely been faster."

Senator Thune explained his amendment on the floor of the U.S. Senate today. Video of his floor speech can be viewed here and audio can be heard here. The Senate is expected to vote on Senator Thune's amendment later this evening.