Aaron Schock

Contact: Dave Natonski 202.225.6201

Washington, Jun 30, 2010 - A proposal offered by Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) to prevent tens of millions of dollars from being spent on useless stimulus signs is featured this week on the groundbreaking YouCut program.

The Schock proposal would prohibit funding for any additional stimulus signs, would require agencies to report on the amount already spent on signs and would recapture those funds for taxpayers by reducing the agencies administrative expenses by an amount equal to that spent on signs.

“Reports have stated these signs can cost taxpayers up to $10,000 and my home state of Illinois has spent over $650,000 on these signs,” said Schock.  “That’s roughly $20 million spent nationwide, without creating one single job.  Despite being sold as an infrastructure improvement package, less than 8 percent of these funds went to infrastructure projects, and to add insult to injury, $20 million of that is going to signs.  This is outrageous.  We don’t need to spend taxpayer money on propaganda.”

 “We need to stop this runaway spending in Washington and start cutting,” Schock continued.  “Through the YouCut program, taxpayers can say ‘enough is enough’ and vote to cut these wasteful dollars.   In fact, over one million citizens already have.  It’s time Washington listens to the public and stops future generations from having to shoulder mountains of debt.”

Each week, YouCut offers the public a list of five proposals aimed at reducing government spending.  In turn, participants may vote for the one proposal that they would most like to see addressed by Congress.  The following week, House Republicans will force a vote on the House Floor on whether or not to take up and debate the top vote getter selected by the public.  

Votes may be cast online on the Whip’s website at http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut, or by text messaging “YouCut5” to 68398.  Folks may also access YouCut via Schock’s website at http://schock.house.gov/