Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025
Floor Speech
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Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is going to reduce funding for educational and the cultural exchange programs back to the 2019 levels.
This is a modest cut that will reduce spending by less than 3 percent, back to 2019 spending levels. It leaves $700 million for these programs.
There is nothing inherently wrong with exchange programs. However, there is something wrong about continuing to increase Washington's spending on unnecessary programs when our national debt continues to climb $34 trillion-plus.
This commonsense amendment simply returns spending for these programs back to pre-COVID levels. With this appropriations bill, we have already reduced 28 accounts to 2019 levels, with strong Republican support. I encourage my colleagues to continue this trend of returning to those pre-COVID spending levels and curbing unnecessary spending increases.
To help my colleagues understand how bad Washington's spending problem is, the CBO projects our Federal deficit to be $1.9 trillion, an uptick of $400 billion. That had to be modified, if Members paid attention to what happened this last week with the CBO. It is going to grow to $2.9 trillion by 2034. An annual deficit of almost $3 trillion is facing us less than 10 years away.
This excessive spending is going to drive the national debt to record levels and continue to exacerbate the inflation crisis that everybody in America is feeling. The devaluation of our currency because of excessive spending all ties together. The average family of four is spending $1,300 more a month to afford the same goods and services as compared to January of 2021, which amounts to $16,000 lost to devaluation of the currency because of what we are doing with excessive spending. We can fix this.
I will add one more little tidbit to this. According to Zillow, Americans are having to earn $106,000 to be able to afford a home. That is an 80 percent increase, according to Zillow, from what they saw in 2020, which was $59,000 in 2020.
How can we, in good conscience, continue to contribute to this economic crisis by excessive spending being felt around the country.
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Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chairman, returning back to pre-COVID spending levels, I have to ask the question to any colleague, whether it be Democrat or Republican: Was not the amount of government spending pre- COVID in 2019 enough? There is an old saying that however much government you want is how much government you have to be willing to pay for.
The problem is with Congress. We are deficit spending because we are not willing to make cuts. We are not willing to make prioritization occur to be able to afford these programs. We are passing the tab on to our kids and our grandkids. Our housing costs and inflation are the result of this.
Mr. Chairman, this is pre-COVID spending levels, and I encourage my colleagues to support it. I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would eliminate funding for the Global Environment Facility at the World Bank, saving American taxpayers nearly $140 million.
This amendment represents a roughly 0.3-percent reduction in spending for the bill overall. The Global Environment Facility is an international fund under the World Bank, which uses donor countries' money to pay for climate agenda projects in developing countries. The United States' contribution to this fund is $140 million for fiscal year 2025.
Proponents of global climate initiatives often use phrases like ``shared global responsibility'' to sell programs that cost taxpayers millions and give up American sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats. However, this funding has nothing to do with responsibilities at all.
This year's roughly $140 million donation to the GEF is over $10 million more than China's, the world's largest polluter. China has contributed, during the entire 33-year lifetime of the program, less than this year's singular allocation by the United States.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Federal deficit is going to be $1.9 trillion for fiscal year 2024. That is 27 percent greater than CBO projected at the beginning of this year, a $400 billion change in a matter of months.
Where is the responsibility to American taxpayers? As Members of Congress, our responsibility is to those taxpayers. We should not be forcing and punting the price tag for this to our kids and our grandkids. We should not be sending millions of dollars overseas when we cannot get our fiscal house in order.
The Trump administration's budget request for fiscal year 2020 rightly asked for no funding for the Global Environment Facility. Under President Trump, the U.S. withdrew from the one-sided Paris climate accord and became a net energy exporter for the first time in over 70 years.
The Trump administration recognized that American strength and prosperity are advanced by supporting pro-growth policies, cutting spending and regulations, and unleashing American energy.
Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to follow the example of that administration and vote ``yes'' on this amendment. The U.S. Government should not send one more taxpayer dollar to unelected bureaucrats in support of other countries' climate agendas, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chairman, I respectfully disagree. We are not retreating on the world stage. What we are trying to do is get our fiscal house in order so that America can cheat history as a republic that can outlast most democracies. I will contend we are not a democracy. We are, specifically, a republic. We are cheating history if we can get our fiscal house in order and continue this great experiment.
Retreating on the world stage is what I am afraid is going to happen. We are about to run out of the funds to be able to continue this great experiment in self-governance.
I would ask Members to consider that Chairman Arrington of the Budget Committee sent some of us this story from the Asia Times, and it is called: ``U.S. Debt Moving Toward $50 Trillion Isn't Whole Story.'' This is the Asian perspective about what they are looking at in America as us heading toward a sovereign debt crisis and us losing the reserve world currency.
We are up against a great threat. I am greatly concerned about the future of this country. We are not retreating. We are trying to strengthen. There is an old African proverb: If there is no enemy on the inside, the enemy on the outside can do you no harm. We have to get strong within.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chair, this amendment would return funding for the U.S. Institute of Peace back to fiscal year '19 funding levels. In doing so, this amendment would save $16.3 million.
This amendment, again, returns spending for this specific agency back to pre-COVID spending levels. To be clear, this is a modest proposal in the context of the overall spending of the bill.
This amendment would reduce spending in the bill by 0.03 percent. That is less than half a percent of the top line for this bill.
Side note for all of us who have paid attention to the numbers: Post- COVID, our discretionary budget overall is up 30 percent. That is of note.
Why go back to pre-COVID spending levels? If you look at the inflationary index, if you look at what has happened with the housing prices, going back to pre-COVID has a lot of net positives in terms of our Federal outlays.
Year after year, the Federal Government continues to outpace spending and outpace revenues. It outpaces the growth of our economy. In a recent report, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the Federal deficit for 2024 is going to reach $1.9 trillion.
The COVID-era spending spree drastically accelerated the growth of our national debt. In the next decade, the CBO expects the Federal deficit to grow to $2.9 trillion. That is a $3 trillion annual deficit.
We didn't get to $1 trillion in gross national debt until 1980. 200 years of governance and in 1980, we reached $1 trillion. Within 10 years, we are headed to be three times that in annual deficit debt spending when it took us almost 250 years as a Nation to get to $1 trillion.
This is going to be a cumulative sovereign debt crisis. Today, we are at $34.5 trillion, and it is just going to tick up.
As a result, the current state of our national debt means that the Federal Government will require that every taxpayer give up $267,000 to pay off your share of this balance. The growth of this debt is causing a corresponding increase in the amount of interest payments due each year, which are threatening to crowd out critical spending on national defense, contributing toward the severe inflation crisis.
Mr. Chair, I call on my colleagues to get serious about the massive debt. Let's return so many of these programs back to fiscal year '19 pre-COVID spending levels.
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Mr. BRECHEEN. Mr. Chair, peace through strength is something that many of us believe in. It is the concern over the lack of our economic prowess, the lack of our strength why this amendment is before this body.
Again, was there not enough government spending in 2019? Returning back to 2019 pre-COVID spending levels is what this does. It would save us $16 million.
Mr. Chair, I encourage my colleagues to put the best, long-term interests of our Nation ahead of short-term policy concerns or policy considerations or parochial considerations. It is the long-term longevity that has to rule the day.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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