OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act of 2021

Floor Speech

Date: July 26, 2021
Location: Washington, DC

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COMER. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 272, the Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act.

This bill is a timely and important reform to ensure Congress and the public can review all Federal spending. This bipartisan legislation make it possible for the public and every member of Congress to readily find and compare the annual budget justification and supporting materials that each agency prepares and sends to Congress. This detailed review is critical to ensuring that our tax dollars are spent properly.

This reform is also needed now more than ever. Last year alone, the Federal Government spent more than $6.8 trillion. Unfortunately, this trend in massive government spending does not seem to be slowing down any time soon.

The Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act will require all agencies to make their budget justification materials available online in plain language. In doing so, this legislation will empower Congress' ability to conduct oversight of Federal agencies' use of taxpayer dollars by consolidating agency data. It will also provide much-needed transparency to the American people.

Requiring each agency to provide detailed plain language explanations of how they intend to spend taxpayer dollars ensures Americans can review those decisions at any time.

I want to thank my colleague, Congressman Mike Quigley, for working with me on H.R. 22 which we were able to pass through the House back on January 5 of this year. I was glad to see the Senate's recent action advancing this much-needed reform bill through Congress.

This legislation illustrates the importance of working across the aisle to improve congressional oversight to ensure American tax dollars are spent efficiently and effectively. Today the House sends the Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act to the President's desk.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working on many more bipartisan government accountability bills and encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward