Sen. Paul proposes bonuses for federal workers who identify budget savings

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday introduced legislation that would encourage federal agencies to return unspent money to the Treasury by giving federal workers bonuses for proposing spending cuts.

"Under current law, agencies are required to spend all of the money they are allocated and have no incentive to identify areas in the budget where savings could be found," Paul said. "When this occurs, federal agencies with surplus funds must rush to spend the funds before the end of the fiscal year, often on unnecessary purchases."

The Cost Savings Enhancement Act is supported by Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Prosperity. In a letter from last week, the latter group said the bill creates an employee suggestion program under which federal workers would get as much as $10,000 if their suggestions for trimming are adopted.

In their own letter to members of Congress, Citizens Against Government Waste said the bill would give federal employees 1 percent of the savings realized, up to $10,000.

Paul's bill was introduced a day before the Obama administration proposed its fiscal 2013 budget.