Preventing Tax Dollars From Being Spent on Paintings of Federal Officials and Employees (S. 188)

What is S. 188?

(Updated May 24, 2020)

This bill was enacted on March 27, 2018

This bill — aptly known as the EGO Act — would prohibit federal funds from being used to pay for the painting of a portrait of a federal official or employee, including the president, vice president, members of Congress, the head of an executive agency, or the head of an office of the legislative branch. Such portraits can often cost in the range of $20,000 - $40,000 each.

The bill’s full title is the “Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting Act.”

Argument in favor

There are a lot of priorities that Americans are willing to see their tax dollars fund, but portraits of federal employees that cost tens of thousands of dollars aren’t among them.

Argument opposed

For the sake of posterity, the federal government should commission paintings of key officials like the president and members of Congress so that future generations know of them.

Impact

Federal employees who would otherwise have had a portrait painted of them; painters.

Cost of S. 188

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced this bill to prevent the federal government from spending Americans’ tax dollars on paintings of federal employees:

“When America is trillions of dollars in debt, we should take every reasonable measure to reduce the burden passed on to our children and grandchildren. Tax dollars should go to building roads and improving schools — not oil paintings that very few people ever see or care about. Congress has passed the EGO Act before, let’s pass it again.”

The bill’s lone Democratic cosponsor, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, offered the following statement in support of the bill:

“I’d encourage anyone who’s commissioned a portrait using Missourians’ hard-earned tax dollars to come back to my state with me and ask folks how they feel about it — they’ll get an earful. This bill just says you should pay for your own portraits and not ask taxpayers to foot the bill. I can’t imagine anyone who’d disagree with that.”

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed this bill unanimously. The bill currently has the support of four bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate, including three Republicans and one Democrat.

Versions of this legislation were introduced in both the 113th and 114th Congress. While neither iteration of the bill received a vote from either chamber of Congress the Senate HSGAC passed the bill by voice vote in the 114th Congress.

Media:

• Sponsoring Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) Press Release
  
• Politico (Previous Version)
  
• Washington Times (Previous Version)