Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chairman, this amendment eliminates funding for the Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

This amendment, if passed, would save $280 million in fiscal year 2024.

Let me emphasize one more time that in putting together all these appropriations bills, the goal of all Members should be to reduce the level of spending.

In the year that has just wrapped up, we are borrowing 22 percent of every dollar spent. If you are borrowing 22 percent of every dollar spent, you have a big problem. Even if we stick to the numbers that we agreed to in raising the debt limit bill, next year, the amount we are borrowing will be equal to 23 percent of every dollar spent.

Mr. Chair, we have a real crisis here. Things are getting worse and worse as we go through these appropriations bills, so we should be looking for fewer ways to spend money and return it to the Treasury.

The CDFI Fund provides grants to community development financial institutions, community development entities, and other private financial institutions. As a result of that, this amendment not only saves money but saves money by taking away money from a fund that frequently results in public-private partnerships.

I think there is nothing worse than public-private partnerships, because it means what you are doing is you wind up enriching already wealthy people at the expense of the taxpayer and allowing people in the community to become wealthier, not by necessarily doing something that is better for the community or successful in the free market. You become wealthier by schmoozing with the local elected officials.

I think it is corporate welfare. I don't like corporate welfare. I think over time, more and more people are getting wealthy, not by providing something that would be winnable in the free market, but they do something by taking advantage of grants and credits offered by the government.

I will quote The Heritage Foundation: ``The only rigorous empirical assessment of the NMTC to date found the program to be largely ineffective at meeting its goals of increasing community investment and development. The study found that most CDE investments were relocated investments rather than new net investments''--in other words, transferring one business to another area--``suggesting that `all NMTC investments do not likely represent new funds to low-income communities.' ''

President Trump tried to eliminate this in his 2021 budget, showing that President Trump was sometimes a President who was pushing for less spending. In his budget, they noted that the CDFI fund was created to jump-start an industry at a time when CDFIs had limited access to private capital. The CDFI industry now has ready access to capital needed to extend credit and offer financial services to underserved communities, eliminating the need for such grants.

In the interest of ending cronyism, saving some tax dollars, stopping government waste, and getting rid of a program that I think too frequently makes wealthy development types still wealthier, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I will just make one more point here. Assuming some of this money benefits Americans, not just the wealthy wheeler-dealers, we right now--at least if Wisconsin is any indication--have huge surpluses in our State coffers. If it is a good idea, it should be handled by the States, not by the Federal Government that is broke out of its mind.

One of the reasons we are so broke is too many of my colleagues don't look at the Constitution and realize that some things are supposed to be handled by the State and local government and other things are supposed to be handled by the Federal Government. By the time you drip the money down from the Federal Government, there is a huge amount of waste there.

In any event, in the interest of trying to keep our dollar the strong currency it has been throughout our lifetime, I urge adoption of this amendment and send these programs back to the States.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source