This week, Rep. Matt Salmon introduced the twelfth bill in his 2016 Shrink our Spending Initiative which will cut losses for the government’s “beach renourishment program.” According to Salmon, under federal law, “periodic and ongoing beach renourishment projects” undertaken by the federal government are paid for 50% by the federal government and 50% by the state and local governments.
If the funding formula for ongoing beach renourishment projects were set at 35% federal and 65% state and local funding, estimated federal savings would exceed $400 million, reports Salmon.
“Can you imagine that the federal government is spending billions of your tax dollars dumping sand on beaches? It’s happening, and with typical Washington logic—as if beaches only exist because bureaucrats willed them into being,” said Salmon in a statement released Friday. “My constituents sent me here, in part, because I promised I’d keep them from wasting money on foolish projects. That’s what I’m doing today. ‘Sanding beaches’ is a waste of money, plain and simple, and by letting state and local governments take more of that burden, we’ll ensure the costs (and the decisions) are kept closest to the taxpayer.”
Salmon began the Shrink our Spending Initiative in 2014 to identify and cut wasteful spending government-wide, because he knew every federal department, office, and agency has wasteful spending within their budgets.