WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) took another step toward fulfilling his campaign pledge to end reckless spending in Washington by signing as a co-sponsor of legislation to reduce the federal deficit and reform the federal budget process.

“We must take large and immediate steps to end the reckless spending that is threatening the future of our nation,” he said. “Congress must become better stewards of the taxpayers’ money.”   

Specifically, the Stop Over-Spending (“S.O.S.”) Act:

• Creates a mechanism for the President and Congress to quickly and effectively eliminate wasteful spending, while maintaining Congress’ power of the purse;

• Implements procedures to automatically slow the rate of growth for mandatory programs if Congress fails to meet deficit reduction targets;

• Reinstates statutory caps on discretionary spending; and

• Converts annual budget, appropriations and authorizing budget process from a yearly process into a two-year cycle.

In addition, the S.O.S. Act, which was introduced by Senate Budget Ranking Member Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and co-sponsored by Isakson and several other senators, will create two new bi-partisan commissions. The first will study the accountability and efficiency of government programs. The second commission will examine and provide solutions to the impending entitlement crisis.

“One of the problems we have in Congress with deficit spending is spending money on projects that by anybody's definition are projects that shouldn’t be funded with tax dollars,” Isakson said. “So this is about changing our budget process and setting priorities for spending."