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Foster Leads Illinois Delegation Letter Requesting GAO Review of Federal Fund Distribution

June 10, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) sent a letter to the Comptroller General of the United States requesting that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct an independent review of the distribution of federal budget receipts and expenditures across the United States. The bipartisan letter was signed by 14 members of the Illinois congressional delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Previous studies have found that Illinois loses between $20 billion and $40 billion each year because the state pays more in federal taxes than it receives back in federal spending. The letter requests an authoritative, non-partisan report examining the state-by-state distribution of federal funds, payment differential across states, and a primary explanation for fund differences.

"Unfortunately, the federal government does not currently track how much each state receives in federal funds, nor the size of the imbalance between payments and returns," the letter read, "Having this information readily available would enable more accurate estimations of the true costs and benefits of federal programs to the residents of each state, providing legislators with another way to gauge the value of the legislation they will have the option to fund. Ensuring the availability of comprehensive data is a vital step toward a fully transparent examination of which states are gaining and which are losing under the current system."

The letter is available here.

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