Feingold gives back nearly $270,000

Yesterday Senator Russ Feingold announced he recently returned $269,209.41 allocated to him as part of his office budget to the U.S. Treasury as part of his commitment to fiscal responsibility and curbing the deficit. Returning a portion of his office budget is a longstanding practice for Sen. Feingold, who over the course of his career in the U.S. Senate has returned more than $3.2 million in office funding to the Treasury.

Sen. Feingold is trying to expand his practice of returning unused funds from his office budget into a Senate-wide practice in an effort that could save taxpayers an estimated $54 million. Contained within Sen. Feingold’s Control Spending Now Act, legislation which would cut the deficit by more than one half trillion dollars over ten years, is a provision that would cut five percent from this year’s allocation for House and Senate offices:

“We are staring down a record deficit that our children and grandchildren will pay for if we don’t take action,” Feingold said. “Returning this funding won’t get us out of the red but it will show the American people that some of us in Congress understand how important it is to cut the deficit.”

I know the argument could be made that Sen. Feingold’s practice of returning unused office funds is just a drop in the massive bucket that is the federal budget, but I for one am glad that he’s doing the right thing and returning unused funds back to the U.S. Treasury. Throughout his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Feingold has clearly demonstrated he cares about fiscal responsibility.