U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Ok) Holds a Hearing On Federal Agency Funds and Priorities

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U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Ok) Holds a Hearing On Federal Agency Funds and Priorities

U.S. SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY HOLDS A HEARING ON FEDERAL AGENCY FUNDS AND PRIORITIES

MAY 18, 2006

SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR TOM COBURN (R-OK) CHAIRMAN U.S. SENATOR TED STEVENS (R-AK) U.S. SENATOR GEORGE V. VOINOVICH (R-OH) U.S. SENATOR LINCOLN D. CHAFEE (R-RI) U.S. SENATOR ROBERT F. BENNETT (R-UT) U.S. SENATOR PETE W. DOMENICI (R-NM) U.S. SENATOR JOHN W. WARNER (R-VA) U.S. SENATOR SUSAN M. COLLINS (R-ME) EX OFFICIO

U.S. SENATOR THOMAS R. CARPER (D-DE) RANKING MEMBER U.S. SENATOR CARL LEVIN (D-MI) U.S. SENATOR DANIEL K. AKAKA (D-HI) U.S. SENATOR MARK DAYTON (D-MN) U.S. SENATOR FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ) U.S. SENATOR JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN (D-CT) EX OFFICIO

WITNESSES: PHYLLIS SCHEINBERG, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR BUDGET AND PROGRAMS, CFO, U.S. TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT

LEE LOFTHUS, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, CONTROLLER, JUSTICE MANAGEMENT DIVISION, U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

JOHN ROTH, DEPUTY COMPTROLLER, OFFICE OF THE UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE, U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

CHARLES JOHNSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR BUDGET, TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT

ROBERT HANKE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR MANAGEMENT, VETERANS AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT

[*] COBURN: Management and Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security and Government Affairs will come to order.

I want to first thank each of our guests for being here. The topic we're going to talk about today is something called, unobligated balances. An unobligated balance is money we appropriate to a government agency but for whatever reason, and there are many, the agency does not or cannot spend it in that particular year and so the money sits parked in the agency's account.

There are different types. The first kind of unspent funds are called, expired funds, money we said was to be spent during a certain fiscal year. At the end of the year, the money is considered expired but is supposed to sit in these accounts for five years. At that point, it's supposed to go back to the Treasury where it can pay down debt or be put toward emergencies and other priorities.

The notion is that bills come late, projects get delayed, so the money should be available for five years to pay commitments made during that first year.

We can argue about whether five years is too long, but one thing for sure is the system isn't working the way it should. First of all, there's too much money expired. From our cursory investigation, it looks like there is at least $54 billion of expired funds. That's over half of the war supplemental we just passed.

We ought to be thinking seriously about how to investigate expired funds each year in a systematic way so that we can figure out how much of it we are likely to need to pay bills we've already incurred and...

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