Paul Returns Unused 2004 Office Funds to Treasury

January 24, 2005 

Washington, DC- For the seventh year running, Congressman Ron Paul has returned a substantial portion of his annual office budget to taxpayers.  Preliminary reports from the congressional Office of Finance indicate that Paul’s office had approximately $162,000 left in its operating account at the end of 2004, a figure representing about 15% of the annual office budget.  Final figures released later this year likely will show even greater savings by Paul’s office.  By contrast, nearly all federal departments, agencies, and programs spend every last penny of their yearly budgets in an endless quest to receive more funding.  If the entire federal government demonstrated the same spending austerity as Congressman Paul, taxpayers would save approximately $360 billion in 2005.

Congressman Paul maintains an office in Washington and two district offices in Freeport and Victoria.  The district offices provide critical personal services, helping constituents with everything from veterans’ issues and Social Security benefits to IRS and immigration problems.  Paul maintains high-quality constituent service through low staff turnover, which keeps retraining costs to a minimum.  His experienced district staff directors consistently receive high marks for providing excellent customer service, but they also operate their offices efficiently.

Paul introduced cost-cutting measures several years ago that included negotiating low office rents, reducing costly postage by using electronic mail, and using flexible part-time staff to help with overflow work.  The result has been a steady savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Since returning to Congress in 1997, Paul’s office has returned over one million dollars to the federal Treasury.