Rescissions Package is First Step

Floor Speech

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Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that Congress has a spending problem. We continue to spend taxpayer funds despite our $36 trillion debt. This level of debt is massive, equaling over $323,000 per taxpayer when split up among the taxpayers of this country.

If that wasn't bad enough, when we look at this spending, billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on frivolous efforts to support programs that have no benefit to taxpayers themselves.

I was excited to see President Trump taking an unprecedented approach to curb excessive spending by our Federal agencies by establishing the Department of Government Efficiency. Since established, DOGE has illuminated the billions of dollars being drained on pointless projects that do nothing to help the American people.

For example, DOGE has exposed million-dollar contracts, including $3 million to support ``Sesame Street'' in Iraq and $6 million for net- zero cities in Mexico. Funding for USAID programs is also frequently going to NGOs that work to promote their liberal agenda in the most conservative parts of the world.

Just imagine $1 million going to one of the cities in our congressional districts and the impact that it could have there. It is a disgrace that Americans' hard-earned tax dollars are being used to support these programs and organizations under the guise of necessary foreign aid.

In addition to this, Congress continues to prop up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to promote public media stations like PBS and NPR. Taxpayer dollars should not be used to promote a narrative that demonizes one side of the aisle or another. Yet, that is exactly what these media stations continue to do. NPR and PBS have continued to have an ideological bias, promoting things like critical race theory and the LGBTQ agenda.

From foreign aid to NPR, massive amounts of taxpayer dollars are wasted every day with little to no government oversight. Congress cannot continue to let blank checks go out the door without revisiting the way that these funds are used to help the American people.

This is why I am proud to support the rescissions package sent to Congress by President Trump. This package will claw back $9.4 billion of wasteful government spending, including $8.3 billion allocated to dozens of wasteful programs at USAID and $1.1 billion to prop up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

This rescissions package is the first step in ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used to promote everyday Americans in very real ways.

I look forward to passing this first rescission package and look forward to continuing to support the work of President Trump and the DOGE team to identify and eliminate wasteful government spending. End Misuse of Emergency Spending

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Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, speaking of spending, outside of wasteful spending on international aid and public media, Congress has another problem contributing to the national debt: emergency spending.

Over one-third of our current national debt, about $12 trillion, can be attributed to emergency spending. This is an addiction that needs to be remedied. Shockingly, money used on emergency spending is rarely paid back and most is never used for actual emergencies.

For example, emergency spending during the COVID-19 pandemic spent $70 million on tourism marketing campaigns in Puerto Rico and another $6 million to replace irrigation systems at two golf courses. Other emergency spending bills have dished out $140 million for infrastructure improvements for Gulf Coast shipyards and $9.7 million for an assistance program to compensate eligible orchard tree losses.

We cannot continue to use emergency spending to fill gaps in funding that weren't properly appropriated to begin with. This spending not only contributes to the national debt but furthers a spiral of spending for the next fiscal year.

I am proud to have introduced my bill, the Emergency Spending Accountability Act, to correct this gross misuse of emergency spending.

My bill will ensure that every taxpayer dollar spent on emergency spending is fully paid back and accounted for over the following 5 years once the bill passes. Additionally, my bill would restore integrity to the term ``emergency spending'' by requiring committees to justify why these funds qualify as necessary, sudden, urgent, and unforeseen and are not permanent.

These provisions will help to put Congress back on track toward fiscal responsibility and prevent further abuses of this funding mechanism.

I thank all Members who support this legislation, and I am looking forward to seeing its progress through this body.

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