Reps. Garrett (NJ) and Foster (IL) Offer Amendment to Relieve “Payer States” like New Jersey
May 26, 2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Reps. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) and Bill Foster (IL-11) introduced an amendment to H.R. 5055, the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, that would stop “payer states” like Illinois and New Jersey from giving more money to smaller “taker states” by eliminating an out-of-date government program.
Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars is transferred out of “payer states” (those that pay more in federal taxes than they receive back in federal spending ), into “taker states” (those that receive more federal spending than they pay in taxes). One of the worst offenders of this redistribution is the National Science Foundation (NSF) Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), which is special federal research spending that goes almost exclusively to small states that already receive far more federal spending than they pay in taxes.
“For too long, politicians have advocated for an ever-expanding federal government, confiscating more and more money from hard-working families in payer states like New Jersey,” said Garrett. “And what does this mean for these families? It means that they will continue to subsidize the countless ineffective, wasteful redistributive programs like the NSF EPSCoR. The people of New Jersey deserve to have their tax dollars spent in their state, not sent to Washington to be diverted and wasted by unelected bureaucrats, and the Foster-Garrett amendment would relieve the taxpayers of this burden.”
EPSCoR was first authorized by Congress in 1978 with goal of redistributing federal research dollars into states that did not get their “fair share” of research dollars. However, because the “fair share” was determined on a per-state basis rather than a per-capita basis, it has devolved into another program that steers money into states that already get more than their fair share of federal spending.
What was intended to be temporary assistance to a select group of states to build their research infrastructure and then exit the program has become a permanent and growing pot of taxpayer subsidies. Eligibility to participate in NSF EPSCoR opportunities is based solely on whether or not a state has received less than 0.75% of NSF research funding in the previous three years. This means that the EPSCoR opportunities are based solely on whether or not a state has received less than 0.75% of NSF research funding in the previous three years.
The Foster-Garrett Amendment would eliminate this program so more money can stay in the pockets of New Jersey families.
