Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the 117th Congress

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma for yielding.

Madam Speaker, on only day two of the 117th Congress, House Democrats are already attempting to strip Americans of the transparency that they deserve in order to push through an expensive progressive wish list.

The House rules package includes three main provisions that will allow Democrats to hide their plans to irresponsibly spend taxpayer dollars in an effort to satisfy their liberal base: a deeming resolution, signaling they do not plan on doing a budget; two, new, broad exemptions to budget rules, such as paygo, to allow passage of socialist policies with large price tags; and, three, they want the repeal of a House rule prohibiting reconciliation from increasing net direct spending, making it easier to advance a costly radical agenda.

It has been 733 days since Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, and they have yet to produce one single budget. These rules will continue to let Democrats shirk their duty to write and pass a budget.

Don't forget, Speaker Pelosi is the one who stated the budget is a statement of values. I couldn't agree more. I must ask: Have Democrats not done a budget because they know revealing their true plans, their true colors, will let the American people know how unpopular their ideas are?

The people deserve to know, and they deserve a transparent budget to know how House Democrats plan to spend their hard-earned tax dollars and how Democrats want to increase their taxes.

Furthermore, by weakening fiscal restraint rules, Democrats clearly intend to drastically increase the size of the Federal Government. This will only continue to drive up the unsustainable Federal debt while decreasing Americans' liberties and freedoms.

Specifically, it includes a budgetary exemption for measures to prevent, prepare, or respond to economic, environmental, or public health consequences resulting from climate change. This exemption is irresponsible, since, arguably, it could apply to any radical, progressive, out-of-touch legislation dreamed up next by House Democrats. Clearly, this exemption was designed as a mechanism to ram through socialist policies like the Green New Deal and other ideas aimed at hurting American workers, families, and farmers.

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Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, this past November, the voters rejected a socialist agenda. If this rules package is any indication for how Democrats plan to run the 117th Congress, I cannot wait for the midterm elections. These rules allow Democrats to continue deceiving the American people.

Madam Speaker, I oppose this Soviet-style rules package.

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