Both parties in Congress should rally around the Agency Accountability Act, a bill just reintroduced by U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., to have Congress reclaim its own power to decide how federal money is spent.
The idea (also as earlier described in this space in December) is simple. Each year, federal agencies collect $500 billion or more in fees and fines that they then redirect within their own agencies, rather than having the money go back into the general U.S. Treasury. There is no effective oversight for that half-trillion dollars — or at least no oversight by people accountable to the voting public.
Palmer’s bill would require that those monies be deposited into the Treasury, where they would be subject to Congress’ formal appropriations process. Although the appropriations process is messy, it at least involves specialized subcommittees of elected officials reviewing the use of the funds and deciding how best to spend (or save) it.
This would uphold the spirit of, and the reasoning behind, the provisions in the Constitution intended to assure that only Congress has the “power of the purse.” Even well-meaning bureaucrats usually feel no direct fealty to the public, because their jobs aren’t dependent upon public approval. But the entire House and a third of the Senate are up for election every two years, so their decisions are subject — in theory and at least in partial practice — to approval by the citizenry they serve.
Nobody is suggesting that this bill, H.R. 850, would result in $500 billion in savings per year. Much of the money would surely be spent exactly as the agencies already do, for functions the agencies rightfully perform. Still, the agencies would need approval to do so, rather than being able to use the funds as a self-perpetuating slush fund of sorts.
Meanwhile, surely Congress would find at least some ill-spent monies and decide not to spend them at all, thus trimming the federal deficit at the margins — and possibly to a greater extent than that. Either way, it certainly helps to have an extra level of decision-making to ensure that taxpayer funds are spent in as wise a way as possible.
Both parties in Congress should want to reclaim Congress’ authority in this manner. After all, when was the last time you heard of a politician wanting less power or control?
So come on, solons: Pass the Agency Accountability Act, quickly, with overwhelming majorities. It would be one small step toward fiscal sanity.
