As Congress fights over the budget, agencies go on their ‘use it or lose it’ shopping sprees
The reason for their haste is a system set up by Congress that, in many cases, requires agencies to spend all their allotted funds by Sept. 30.
If they don’t, the money becomes worthless to them on Oct. 1. And — even worse — if they fail to spend the money now, Congress could dock their funding in future years. The incentive, as always, is to spend.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-congress-fights-over-the-budget-agencies-go-on-their-use-it-or-lose-it-shopping-sprees/2013/09/28/b8eef3cc-254c-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html
...gee, what a great plan! What could go wrong with that???