Bills
| 3.23.22

Are Yoga Classes a Waste of Taxpayer Money? (H.R. 5242)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 5242?

(Updated July 18, 2017)

Simple and straight to the point, this bill would prohibit federal agencies from using federal funds to offer free yoga classes to their employees.


The bill comes in response to a September 2015 report from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on government yoga spending, in which he suggested the government was: 
"bending over backwards to waste your money."

Argument in favor

Americans’ hard-earned taxes should not fund superfluous benefits for government employees like yoga. Federal workers should pay for their own health classes, like everybody else.

Argument opposed

There are significantly larger, more wasteful initiatives and loopholes that Congress would be better served to focus on and eliminate than the relatively small amount spent each year on yoga.

Impact

Federal employees who currently enjoy free yoga classes; government agencies; yoga instructors who teach classes at government agencies; taxpayers

Cost of H.R. 5242

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In Depth: According to a statement from sponsoring Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ), the State Department and the Department of Energy together spent more than $168,000 on yoga and Pilates over the past 5 years.

Salmon added:

"The government isn’t Google, so stop trying to be."


This bill is part of Rep. Salmon’s larger Shrink Our Spending Initiative, which seeks to defund a variety of programs and initiatives, including Amtrak, a beach monitoring program, and a grant for researching rosebush-destroying mites.


Media:

Summary by Katie Rose Quandt
(Image Credit: Flickr user U.S. Naval Forces Central)