Political Quotes

“The subject of the letter is whether the federal government can save even more money than it has been saving with the use of the Smart Pay Card program. This matter was brought to the attention of Senator Baucus and myself by Michael B. Walker, a Montanan who has considerable experience in the credit industry. Mr. Walker, who is CEO of Payment Programs Management Corporation, believes that there is an opportunity for the federal government to save hundreds of millions of more dollars with its use of credit cards issued to federal employees. Senator Baucus and I wanted to get an independent confirmation of those savings from the CBO before encouraging Congress to adopt the refinement outlined in our letter. It is my understanding that CBO will score the various proposed improvements in our letter before the end of this year, but the scoring may not arrive in time to affect appropriations bills for the current fiscal year. Since the largest users of the card are the employees of DOD, I thought that it would be appropriate to raise this matter in connection with this bill.”