Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill creates a six-year cost-savings incentive within the federal employee cash-award system. An employee may identify salary-and-expense funds as unnecessary. The agency Inspector General or designee and Chief Financial Officer must independently determine that the money is not needed and that rescission will not impair the appropriation's purpose. The agency then transfers the validated amount to the Treasury for deficit reduction, or debt reduction when there is no deficit. The agency may retain up to 10 percent to pay cash awards to employees who identified the savings and may reprogram a remainder subject to existing law. Agencies must issue standards, file annual savings and award reports, include the data in budget requests, and undergo Treasury, OPM, and GAO reporting or certification. The expanded system sunsets after six years. Agency heads, Executive Schedule level I officers, commissioners, board members, and other voting members may not receive awards.
Who Benefits and How
Federal employees who identify validated surplus funds benefit from eligibility for cash awards financed from up to 10 percent of the amount otherwise returned to the Treasury. Federal taxpayers benefit when at least 90 percent of validated surplus salary-and-expense funds is transferred for deficit reduction or, in a surplus year, federal debt reduction.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Agency Inspectors General, designated reviewers, Chief Financial Officers, agency heads, Treasury staff, OPM administrators, and GAO analysts assume verification, transfer, standards, annual reporting, compliance-certification, and triennial review duties. Federal agencies lose most validated surplus amounts from their salary-and-expense accounts, and high-level agency officers are categorically barred from receiving the cash awards.
Key Provisions
- Defines surplus salary-and-expense funds through employee identification, IG or designee review, CFO confirmation, and a no-detriment test.
- Requires validated amounts to be transferred to the Treasury for deficit or debt reduction.
- Authorizes agencies to retain no more than 10 percent for employee awards and lawful reprogramming of any award remainder.
- Requires agency, Treasury, OPM, and GAO standards, annual reports, certification, budget disclosures, and recurring review.
- Prohibits cash awards for agency heads, Executive Schedule level I officers, commissioners, board members, and other voting members.
- Repeals the expanded surplus-fund system six years after enactment.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Reward federal employees who identify unnecessary agency salary-and-expense funds, transfer validated savings to deficit or debt reduction, and impose oversight and reporting.
Key Policy Areas
Government Operations, Federal Budget, Labor
Primary Purpose
Reward federal employees who identify unnecessary agency salary-and-expense funds, transfer validated savings to deficit or debt reduction, and impose oversight and reporting.
Policy Domains
Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act of 2025
Identified Gains
- Federal employees identifying surplus funds
- Federal taxpayers
- Treasury debt-management administrators
Identified Costs
- Agency Inspectors General and Chief Financial Officers
- Office of Personnel Management administrators
- Government Accountability Office analysts
- High-level federal officers
Sponsors
Rand Paul
R-KY | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
ReportedCommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be …
Mr. Paul introduced the following bill; which was read twice …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security …
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Agency Chief Financial Officers, Agency Inspectors General, Federal agency salary-and-expense accounts
Executive Schedule level I officers, Federal agency heads, Federal employees identifying surplus funds
Positive-direction: Federal employees identifying surplus funds, Taxpayers
Negative-direction: Executive Schedule level I officers, Federal agency heads, Independent-establishment voting members
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "agency_reviewers"
- → Agency Inspector General or designee and Chief Financial Officer
- "central_oversight"
- → Treasury, Office of Personnel Management, and Government Accountability Office
- "identifying_employee"
- → Federal employee identifying unnecessary salary-and-expense funds
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Agency salary-and-expense amounts identified by an employee, validated as unnecessary by the IG or designee and CFO, and safely rescindable without impairing the appropriation's purpose.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology