PAUL RETURNS 20% OF OFFICE BUDGET TO TREASURY $222,000 Left Unspent

Washington, DC.- Earlier this year, the House Administration committee announced that Congressman Ron Paul had returned unused office funds to the Treasury for the fifth straight year. Final accounting for 2001 is now complete, and the committee released final numbers last week showing that Paul returned more than $200,000 to federal coffers! In fact, Paul’s office did not spend $222,323.13 of its office budget in 2001, an amount representing fully 20% of its total yearly allowance. This is the largest amount yet that Paul’s office has returned to taxpayers from its unused office budget.

"I vote against tax increases and spending increases, so I feel I should demonstrate fiscal restraint with the taxpayer dollars that fund my office budget," Paul stated. "I don’t believe federal agencies and offices, including congressional offices, need to spend every penny of their yearly budgets. I would like to see every part of our federal government commit to spending 5 or 10 percent less than the previous year as a first step toward saving taxpayers some money."

Paul instituted several cost-cutting measures in his Washington and Texas offices in 2001. He reorganized staff and consolidated office duties, resulting in a smaller payroll. His staff also increasingly used email to communicate with constituents, saving money on mail costs. However, Paul still prides himself on providing first-rate service to constituents.

"I’m especially pleased that we were able to cut costs and still maintain a very high level of constituent service," Paul concluded. "We continued to organize a series of successful job fairs, and we continued to assist constituents with IRS, Social Security, VA, and other problems. We managed to streamline our office organization while still working hard for our constituents."