Four senators have asked the chief financial officers of 13 agencies to address their “use it or lose it†spending at the end of the fiscal year.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs said Wednesday that Sens. Ron Johnson, Claire McCaskill, Rand Paul and Gary Peters expressed concerns that agencies may possibly spend more money by the end of fiscal year 2018 compared to previous years.
The legislators found in a study that agencies spent a total of $11.1B in the final week of fiscal year 2017, which is almost five times higher than their average weekly spending throughout the year.
“Although not a new phenomenon, use it or lose it spending can lead to waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars,” the senators wrote in their letter to David Norquist, CFO of the Defense Department.
They asked the 13 agencies to provide information ensuring that they will not make wasteful or “abusive†spending in the last quarter of 2018.
The agencies of the chief financial officers the four senators approached are:
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- Department of Defense
- Department of the Treasury
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Department of Homeland Security
- Department of Energy
- Department of Justice
- Department of State
- Department of Transportation
- Department of Health and Human Services
- General Services Administration
- NASA
- National Science Foundation
- Social Security Administration