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Bill saves $617 million in taxpayer dollars

U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx (NC-05) today voted to eliminate taxpayer funding for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.  The bill, H.R. 359, passed the House 239-160.  It came up for a vote under House Republicans’ YouCut program, which allows any American to weigh in on where to cut the federal budget.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, H.R. 359 reduces federal spending by $617 million over the next ten years. 

“Bankrolling presidential campaigns during an era of record budget deficits is not a good use of taxpayer dollars,” Foxx said. “Today the Congressional Budget Office projected a massive $1.5 trillion federal budget deficit.  In light of this, we’ve got to look everywhere we can in the budget for savings and the elimination of subsidized presidential electioneering is a common sense step.”

Foxx is an original cosponsor of H.R. 359, which completely eliminates taxpayer funding for the “Presidential Election Campaign Fund.”  This fund is used to finance presidential election campaigns and party conventions.  Any money remaining in the account would be transferred to the general fund of the Treasury Department.  

House Republicans highlighted this bill in their YouCut program this week.  The web-based YouCut initiative allows concerned Americans to cast their vote for various budget-cutting options and this week H.R. 359 was the top vote getter.  For more information on the YouCut program and this week’s proposed budget cuts please visit http://www.majorityleader.gov/YouCut/.