Rep. Matt Salmon says it’s time for the federal government to stop studying how bugs react when people turn on the lights.
The Arizona Republican proposed legislation Thursday aimed at cutting off federal studies on the subject. This legislation is a response to a 2015 report from Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who highlighted it in a report about wasteful federal spending.
That report said the National Park Service awarded a $65,473 grant so a study could be done on how bugs react when people turn on the lights.
“Anyone raised in a rural area can attest that one way to attract insects is to turn on a light,” the report said. “This type of ridiculous spending is why American taxpayers have been saddled with a debt of approximately $19 trillion.”
Lankford’s report also cited several other examples, including the decision to spend $300,000 to fund a “dating study for senior adults,” and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on “silent Shakespeare” productions.
Salmon has proposed a series of bills aimed at curbing waste. Last week, he proposed one that would cut spending on free yoga classes for federal workers.
“[B]ureaucrats in Washington are already being paid by the taxpayer’s hard work and such ‘fringe benefits’ are nothing more than a waste of dollars already taken away from American families,” he said.
