Bipartisan Lawmakers Target ‘Wasteful’ Government Spending Amid Debt Limit Stalemate

A sign at a bus shelter shows the U.S. national debt, in Washington, on Jan. 20, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

As members of Congress continue their deliberations over the national debt crisis, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are renewing their efforts to cut down on “wasteful” government spending.

Legislation passed by the Senate in December aims to address the problem by requiring federal agencies to provide Congress with a list of programs for potential consolidation or elimination—specifically those that are deemed “unnecessary, defunct, or unnecessarily duplicative,” could be administered more effectively by another agency, or could operate more effectively if consolidated with other programs or activities.

Yet to be considered in the House, the bill—dubbed the Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act—will be reintroduced on March 7 by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), according to The Hill.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) speaks during a Senate Budget Committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office building in Washington on Feb. 17, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Duplicative or wasteful programs in the federal government often go on for too long without being eliminated,” Hassan said in December after the bill’s passage in the Senate.

“I introduced this bipartisan bill with Sen. Braun because we need to ensure that the federal government is identifying and stopping these wasteful programs.

“I am pleased the Senate passed this commonsense legislation to save taxpayer dollars and make our government more efficient, and I urge the House to pass it.”

The bipartisan push for increased fiscal responsibility comes as national debt ceiling negotiations between Democrats and Republicans have reportedly reached an impasse on Capitol Hill.

Currently, the national debt ceiling—which limits how much debt can be incurred by the Treasury Department—is capped at $31.4 trillion. In January, the government reached that threshold, prompting the Treasury to employ “extraordinary measures” to prevent default.

According to a recent MCSI report, the probability of a U.S. debt default has tripled since January to “levels not seen since the 2013 debt-ceiling debate.”

While President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have urged Congress to increase the national debt ceiling to avoid a “financial catastrophe,” Republicans have said they would need spending concessions from Democrats before agreeing to an increase.

“Democrats’ demands that Republicans vote for a clean debt limit increase to accommodate trillions of dollars of new spending Republicans opposed is nothing more than an irresponsible, cynical, political stunt,” said Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, on Feb. 1.

Last week, in rebuke of the government’s “reckless spending, unbalanced budgets, and waste,” Braun introduced a resolution to formally recognize the national debt as threat to national security.

“Our staggering national debt is the greatest national security threat to the United States, but no one wants to talk about it,” Braun said in a March 3 statement.

“Washington needs political will and a backbone to stop reckless spending and restore regular order to address our fiscal crisis.”