Congressman Mike Turner (OH-3) has joined House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp in calling for unspent Congressional office funds to be returned to the Treasury Department and allocated towards debt reduction. If action is not taken, these funds could instead be “reprogrammed” for other budget purposes. In a letter, Turner and Camp requested that the language of H.R. 297 be included in the FY 2013 Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. H.R. 297 would require that any unspent funds in Members’ Representational Allowances (MRA) be used for deficit reduction or to reduce the federal debt. Turner is a co-sponsor of H.R. 297.
“Just because there are unspent government funds doesn’t mean we should spend that money on something else. When this nation is $15.4 trillion in debt, we should be using every unspent dollar to close the deficit and pay down the debt,” said Turner.
Turner this past month announced that his office saved roughly $165,000 of his 2011 MRA and that he will be returning these funds to the U.S. Treasury. Turner’s office MRA as designated by the U.S. House of Representatives for 2011 was just over $1.4 Million. This means that Turner did not spend all of the funds allotted to his office and has returned 11.6% of his MRA.
“We believe that this legislation provides an incentive for Members to use taxpayer funds responsibly and lead by example in our efforts to reduce the national debt….It is vital that we truly reduce spending and show the American people we are committed to paying down the nation’s debt,” wrote Turner and Camp.
NOTE: The full letter can be found here.
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