Senate Passes Leahy's ‘Yankee Thrift' Budget Amendment

April 17, 2000

WASHINGTON (Fri., April 7) -- The U.S. Senate Friday unanimously approved a major federal budget amendment that would dedicate any windfall budget surplus this year to reducing the federal debt.

The amendment, offered by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), passed the Senate unanimously as part of the Fiscal Year 2001 budget blueprint approved Friday afternoon by the Senate. Leahy has called it "the Yankee thrift amendment." Leahy and Kohl, who have crossed swords as adversaries on the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, teamed up to win approval of one of relatively few amendments approved during this week's marathon budget debate.

The amendment by Kohl and Leahy could reduce the national debt by more than $40 billion, because the next budget estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, to be released on July 1, are expected to raise the projected on-budget surplus by at least that amount.

The amendment was endorsed by two leading anti-deficit organizations, The Concord Coalition and Taxpayers For Common Sense. In its endorsement statement, the Concord Coalition said the amendment "would strengthen the Senate's bipartisan commitment to reducing publicly held debt and maintain balanced budgets without borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund." The group continued: "Debt reduction will enhance net national savings, thereby freeing up resources for investments in productivity that will lead to stronger economic growth in the future."

"Taxpayers For Common Sense is concerned about the current $5.8 trillion national debt," that group wrote in its endorsement letter. "We believe that before money is spent on major new tax cuts or major new spending programs, the national debt should be reduced."

In debate on the Senate Floor just before approval of the amendment, Leahy said: "The best thing to keep our economy growing is to reduce the debt."