Impact of Legislation Hard to Judge

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office has said it was unable to estimate savings from enacting pending legislation (S-457) that would direct OMB to review all cardholder practices and require agencies to submit reports assessing the compliance with guidance on the use of purchase cards. That bill has cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. CBO said that the bill could result in savings by reducing wasteful and fraudulent agency purchases and obtaining discounts from retailers but it could not say how much, and added that to make the savings real, appropriations would have to be reduced by a corresponding amount.