Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the chairman of the committee for the diligent work that they have done to do their part to get this funding bill, this appropriations bill, to begin to bring the costs down. I think that it truly shows how dedicated many of us on this side of the aisle are to having government get its spending under control.

We all know Washington does not have a revenue problem. It has an acute spending and priority problem. We see it every single day. My constituents in Tennessee see it, and they talk about it a lot.

Last week, I heard a lot about the outside spending that takes place in this town, and the thing that really offends my constituents is that Congress spends, D.C. spends money that they don't have. All of it is taxpayer money, and it is so inappropriate that the spending continues to grow year by year, and the taxpayer has to pay more.

Quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, I think that there is something immoral about citizens and taxpayers struggling to live within their means, so they can pay taxes to a government that refuses to live within its means.

That is why, every year, I come to the floor and offer bills for 1, 2, and 5 percent across-the-board cuts, and then during appropriations season, I know I kind of wear a path in the carpet here, offering amendments that would cut a penny on the dollar, 1 percent across the board, and that is the nature of this amendment that I offer today.

I do it because my constituents know that Washington spends too much money, that we borrow too much money and, therefore, what we are doing is capping and trading our children's future to the people that own our debt because we couldn't be spending it if we weren't borrowing it.

Go talk to China, Japan, OPEC, the top holders of our debt, and they own a lot of it right now. They are the ones who will be making the decisions--probably decisions we won't like--and at some point, they may call that bill due.

Now, across-the-board spending cuts are not a partisan issue. In 2010, Peter Orszag, who was the President's pick for Director of the Office of Management and Budget, turned to the executive departments and agencies and said: I want you just to go in and cut 5 percent across the board.

Governor Christie of New Jersey is well known for turning around that State. It was a 9 percent across-the-board cut; Governor Cuomo of New York, a 10 percent across-the-board cut; Governor Perry of Texas, a 10 percent across-the-board cut.

States do it because it works. What it does is it engages the rank-and-file employees who know where you can make these cuts, so I think it is time for the Federal Government to begin to do this.

In our history, we have had six across-the-board cuts. They have ranged from 0.22 percent to 1 percent of covered appropriations. At those times, it saved us from $1.1 billion to $8.5 billion.

For this bill, we need to be doing the same thing; and yes, we are below the funding levels, to the credit of the appropriators who have worked on this. We are below the 2014 funding levels. That is a good thing, but we need to do a little bit more because we are borrowing way too much.

It is time to get our spending under control. I encourage my colleagues to support the 1 percent across-the-board spending reduction to this bill, and let's take one more step to bring this spending problem under control and move to a balanced budget.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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