#59 to #63

370 Commerce & Housing Credit:Eliminate Five Corporate Welfare Programs in Commerce Department

Savings in Millions of Dollars
  • 2016
    892
  • 2017
    895
  • 2018
    897
  • 2019
    908
  • 2020
    929
  • 2021
    950
  • 2022
    970
  • 2023
    996
  • 2024
    1016
  • 2025
    1034
  • 2016-2020
    4521
  • 2016-2025
    9487

Sources

Savings are expressed as budget authority and were calculated by using the FY 2014 enacted spending levels for each of the five programs as footnoted above. Spending levels were increased at the same rate as discretionary spending growth for 2016–2025, according to the most recent August 2014 CBO baseline.

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Technical Notes on Scoring

CBO Baseline

Unless otherwise noted, calculations for savings for each recommendation relies on the most recent Congressional Budget Office baseline, as found in “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024,” published August 27, 2014, has been used.

Savings “Totals”

While totals for the five and 10 year savings are provided by section and for the complete set of recommendations, there are two reasons they should not be viewed as representing total savings for The Budget Book.

First, as noted in the introduction, The Heritage Foundation would recommend that the savings realized in the Function 050 Defense section would stay within the Department of Defense to strengthen the nation’s defense capabilities.

Second, the numbers cannot be deemed to represent the realized savings if every single recommendation were adopted because policy changes made in one program can impact spending levels in other programs.  Thus, the numbers in the table do not reflect any potential interactions between the various policy changes affecting spending or savings.

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Heritage Recommendation:

  1. International Trade and Investment Administration ($460.6 million in FY 2014) 1
  2. Economic Development Administration ($246.5 million in FY 2014) 2
  3. Minority Business Development Agency ($28 million in FY 2014) 3
  4. Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership ($129 million in FY 2014) 4
  5. Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia ($15 million in FY 2014) 5

This proposal saves $892 million in 2016, and $9.5 billion over 10 years.

Rationale:

Here’s a new promotion idea: End the International Trade Admin.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) serves as a taxpayer-financed sales department for selected businesses, and promotes the U.S. as an investment destination. ((Penny Pritzker, “The Department of Commerce Budget in Brief: Fiscal Year 2015,” U.S. Department of Commerce, p. 49, (accessed January 6, 2015) )) Businesses should market and sell their own products without using tax money, and foreigners need little help understanding that the U.S. market is worth entering through investments. The ITA also enforces various, mostly counterproductive, aspects of U.S. trade law, particularly antidumping duties and countervailing duties. ((Ibid., p. 22. )) The Economic Development Administration hands out money to businesses and universities that are not offering products and services that people want to buy. ((Ibid., p. 61.)) The Minority Business Development Agency hands out grants and runs federally funded management consulting operations, called business centers, in over 40 locations. ((Ibid., p. 122.)) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) operates the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which is another federally funded management consulting operation directed at manufacturers. The Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMTech) Consortia program, also managed by NIST, provides federal grants to support commercial technology research.Businesses should not receive taxpayer subsidies. These long-lived and unnecessary subsidies increase federal spending and distort the marketplace. Corporate welfare to politically connected corporations should ((National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Technical Information Service, “Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Submission to Congress,” p. 183, (accessed January 6, 2015) Endnotes: Transportation)) end.
Here’s a new promotion idea: End the International Trade Admin.

Contributing Expert

David R. Burton focuses on tax matters, securities law, entitlements and regulatory and administrative law issues as The Heritage Foundation’s senior fellow in economic policy.

See publications by David R. Burton

David R. BurtonSenior Fellow in Economic Policy

Heritage Experts

Diane Katz, who has analyzed and written on public policy issues for more than two decades, is a research fellow in regulatory policy at The Heritage Foundation.

See publications by Diane Katz

Diane KatzResearch Fellow in Regulatory Policy

James L. Gattuso handles regulatory and telecommunications issues for The Heritage Foundation as a Senior Research Fellow in its Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.

See publications by James L. Gattuso

James L. GattusoSenior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy

Additional Reading