Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Chair, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, under this division, we are looking at spending $189.9 billion for fiscal year 2020. That is an increase of $11.8 billion over the 2019-enacted levels and $47.9 billion above the President's request.

With $22 trillion in debt and trillion-dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see, it is long past time for Congress to start making the difficult decisions necessary to balance the budget.

If we do not confront this problem, we will condemn future generations to higher taxes and a lower standard of living.

As a father of three daughters, this is simply unacceptable to me.

Madam Chair, my amendment reduces the funds made available for each amount in division A of H.R. 2740 by 14 percent. This would reduce total appropriations of this division down to Budget Control Act levels.

As chairman of the Republican Study Committee Task Force on Budget and Spending, I am proud to have worked with eight of my colleagues on the only serious effort in this Congress to confront our debt crisis.

The result was a budget that cut $12.6 trillion in spending and balanced in 6 years.

An important part of the RSC budget was bringing nondefense discretionary spending down to commonsense levels. My amendment before the House today would help make those reductions a reality.

Adoption of this amendment would show that we are acknowledging our spending addiction and are taking the necessary first steps to address it.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense amendment and rein in spending of taxpayer dollars.

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Chair, the Democrat majority promised the American people before the last election that they would produce a budget, and the Democrat majority has failed the very basic first step of leadership in failing to do so.

Without putting a budget on the floor of this House of Representatives and showing the American people the priorities of the Democrat majority, we can only assume that the Democrat majority has no interest in balancing the budget.

That being the case, my amendment is a very basic first step toward doing just that.

My daughters are 9, 7, and 6 years old, and they are the ones who will be holding the bag for the lack of leadership in this Congress, who refuses to address the issue that is staring us in the face, a $22 trillion national debt.

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Chair, Hoosiers sent me to Washington, D.C., to do something about just this.

The spend, spend, spend mantra of Members of Congress for many decades in the past has got to come to an end now.

That is why this amendment, a commonsense amendment to cut spending in this appropriations package by 14 percent, is a necessary step forward to balancing the budget.

That is why I am here. I am committed to being tireless in my pursuit of a balanced budget.

Madam Chair, as I have said already, we have a $22 trillion national debt. This division spends $189.9 billion, which is an increase of $11.8 billion over the 2019-enacted levels and $47.9 billion more than the President's request.

If Congress does not confront this problem head on and exercise fiscal discipline, we are robbing our children's children of their future.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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