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Bill poised to cut federal fleet size

Sens. Coburn, Shaheen\'s legislation would cut funding by $500 million

Federal News Network Staff

June 23, 2011 7:19 pm

2 min read

By Jory Heckman
Federal News Radio

Trimming the government’s expanding fleet of cars could save taxpayers up to $500 million. That’s what Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) hope their new bill accomplishes. The legislation would cut the government’s $4.6 billion budget for buying and leasing non-essential vehicles by half a billion dollars.

“At a time when Americans have to stretch their dollars to fill up their gas tanks, it is wrong for the federal government to waste millions of dollars on non-essential federal vehicles,” said Coburn in a release. “We simply can’t afford to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need.”

The legislation comes after President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, made the recommendation to downsize the federal fleet by 20 percent.

The bill charges agency inspectors general with the task of reviewing vehicle use within their department and coming up with suggestions for cuts.

At present, the fleet includes 662,000 cars, vans, sport-utility vehicles, trucks, buses and ambulances owned or leased by agencies. This figure includes all civilian and non-tactical military vehicles.

All together, these vehicles consume approximately 1 million gallons of fuel per day.

Since 2006, the government added 32,000 new vehicles into the fleet and increased the budget by $1 billion.

But over the last year, the General Services Administration, which is responsible for the federal fleet, has bought more than 11,000 hybrid and electric vehicles.

Still, Coburn and Shaheen say their concern has more to do with spending than the environment.

“This is a common sense place for us to cut wasteful spending,” said Shaheen. “The government’s vehicle budget has grown considerably over the last several years, and it just doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason for some of these agencies to own fleets of SUVs, which are expensive to own and to operate. The government can get by with fewer vehicles.”

Jory Heckman is an intern with Federal News Radio.

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