Senate defeats Coburn effort to cut waste

Within 150 days, the administration would have to identify to Congress programs to cut as specified in the report.

The spending on those programs would be cut from this year’s appropriations budget. If the administration fails to act, $10 billion would be cut automatically.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) led the opposition to the measure. He argued the measure was a backdoor revision of last summer’s debt-ceiling spending deal.

“Sen. Coburn claims that the purpose of this amendment is to reduce duplicative programs, but in reality the amendment would require a $10 billion reduction in the existing discretionary caps, regardless of whether there actually are $10 billion in discretionary savings from consolidating duplicative programs that can be identified only by OMB,” Inouye said on the floor.

“Further, the $10 billon figure is completely arbitrary and almost certainly will not be reached. In fact, there is no methodology or specificity that verifies there are in fact $10 billion in discretionary savings to be found,” he said.