Iowa’s junior senator says she is working to spread the word on legislation to reduce wasteful government spending and rein in agencies’ last-minute spending practices.

“We saw this in our own county departments where at the end of the year, that last couple months of the year, they will spend everything they’ve got remaining in their budget whether they need things or not,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told reporters gathered in her office Wednesday, speaking of her time as Montgomery County auditor. “They just are afraid if we don’t use it [we’ll] lose it.” //

One bill would curb how much an agency could spend in the last two months of the fiscal year to no more than what the agency usually spends each month on average during the rest of the year.

Agencies tend to go on spending sprees at the close of the fiscal year, spending any remaining money in what is known as “use it or lose it.”