The Hill News

Amid a lively debate over the federal budget, two senators on Monday proposed legislation that would create a commission to identify areas of wasteful government spending.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Democratic Sen. Mark Udall (Colo.) want to form a "Committee to Reduce Government Waste" to find "billions of dollars" of savings by "cutting ineffective and redundant federal programs." The lawmakers billed the effort as a substitute for raising taxes.

“Our nation has reached a tipping point,” Hatch said. "We can start tackling our debt by targeting the fat on Washington’s bloated bureaucracy. This is a common sense way of saving taxpayers billions, and that is exactly what this common sense legislation does.”

The proposal comes as Republicans and Democrats are grappling over a spending plan to fund the government through the end of the year, as well as a long-term budget plan. 

Republicans, citing estimates that! the federal deficit will rise to $1.6 trillion this fiscal year, have pushed for deep cuts. A House-passed plan would cut $61 billion from last year's spending levels. Democrats have offered to cut $10.5 trillion this year, but Republicans have said that's not enough.

Should it pass, the 12-member committee made up of members of the Senate Finance, Appropriations and Budget Committees would submit an annual report to Congress that identified wasteful programs to cut or eliminate. Each party's leader in the Senate would choose six members each, who would serve six-year terms. 

According to the plan, panel's proposals would receive "expedited" consideration in the Senate, but it did not say whether it would be mandatory for the upper chamber to vote on them. 

The senators' plan appears to be a response to a GAO report released late last month detailing hundreds of duplicate program. The report won praise from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), even though it was proposed by GOP Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.)

Udall said that the commission is one alternative way to find savings.

"An ‘unauthorizing’ committee would add teeth to! our efforts to streamline our government, pare down our national budget, save taxpayers’ dollars and strengthen the private economy by making sure the government is as lean as ever," he said.