Rokita Report - Budget Vice Chair, Stopping Executive Amnesty & More

Statement

Dear Friend,

Thank you for the opportunity to update you on the work of the 114th Congress. I trust this finds you and your family well

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is a holiday throughout our country, dedicated to the remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the great civil rights leader who would have been 86 this year.

We remember King's legacy and how he stood for the equality of all God's people. A champion for justice, he pushed us as a nation to fulfill the full promise of our founding ideas of equal opportunity for all. He changed our nation with his words, non-violent action, and faith in Christ. The best way to preserve his legacy is to keep our Republic as a land of equal opportunity. Our nation now holds promise for all of us because of the tireless work of King and others in the cause of civil rights.

Budget Committee Vice Chair

Readers of the Rokita Report know I strongly believe our $18 trillion national debt is a moral issue. Tackling our debt has been my highest priority in Congress. As such, I take my work as a Member of the Budget Committee very seriously. Recently, I had the honor of being named Vice Chair of the House Budget Committee. I am committed to fighting for fiscal sanity, and look forward to restoring it in my new role.

I will be serving alongside Chairman Tom Price. He has been a close mentor and friend of mine, providing sage advice not just on budget issues, but on many of the challenges that face our country. I am thankful to Chairman Price for his confidence and kind words of support.

"With his knowledge of the budget process and commitment to solving big challenges, Congressman Rokita will be an invaluable asset as we continue our work to balance the budget and encourage job creation and economic growth. We have a real opportunity to advance positive solutions through the Congress to the president's desk, and the House Budget Committee and the country will be well served by Congressman Rokita's role as Vice Chairman. It's an honor to have him as part of our team, and I look forward to working with him."

This will be my third term as a member of the House Budget Committee. The Committee is tasked with passing a Budget Resolution by April 15th of each year. The Committee will also explore a number of budget process reforms, to ensure greater transparency, accountability, and certainty in the federal budgeting process. We will continue to build on our previous legislative victories.

The House Budget Committee has secured real victories against runaway government spending in the last four years.

Over four years, House budgets helped force real spending cuts, saving taxpayers $165 billion. This was the first time discretionary spending had been cut for four consecutive years since the Korean War.
The last three budget plans included a proposal I developed to provide states flexibility in their Medicaid programs. This would allow states to tailor eligibility and covered health services to their own unique populations.
Passed budgets through the House on time each of the last four years (by comparison, the Democrat-controlled Senate only passed one budget).
The most recent "Path to Prosperity" budget blueprint put us on a path to balance within ten years.
Changed the House rules to require dynamic scoring estimates of pending legislation, ensuring economic impact is factored into the cost of new laws.

Stopping Obama's Amnesty

On Wednesday, I helped lead passage of a bipartisan bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Included in the legislation was an amendment to defund President Obama's illegal executive orders, which grant amnesty to five million illegal immigrants. As a nation of laws, we must respect the legislative process and the Constitution that provides the guiding framework for our laws. Our Constitution is clear that it is Congress, not the President, that makes laws.

This bill was planned to come up early in the new Congress, knowing the Senate would be under Republican control.

To follow through on that plan, two weeks ago, I shared with you a letter I wrote to leadership demanding an immediate vote on blocking the President's amnesty plan. I am pleased that, last week, we were able to vote on this issue. The legislation, H.R. 240, passed the House 236 to 191. It is now pending before the Senate.

As highlighted in a Rokita Report last month, the other functions of government were funded under legislation that was signed into law in December. As a result of this bill, overall spending was again capped at previous levels therefore halting any increases in discretionary spending. But mandatory spending on entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid continues to rise because the programs go unreformed. The House budget will again tackle this problem, and I hope that the Senate and President will listen this time because entitlements will soon swallow all of our budget, unless these programs are reformed to address the needs of the 21st Century.

Here are a handful of the key victories included in the December bill:

The bill complied with Ryan-Murray Spending Levels, resulting in real cuts to discretionary spending.
Saves taxpayers $2 trillion in the next decade.
Reduces IRS funding to 2008 levels and prohibits IRS targeting of conservative or religious groups.
Reduces EPA funding to 1989 levels and prohibits the EPA from regulating farm ditches or sportsmen's ammo.
Provides NO new funding for any part of ObamaCare.

Congressional Oversight Knows No Bounds

Over the Christmas holiday, I joined some of my House colleagues and saw first-hand the research that American scientists are conducting in Antarctica. Much of this research is supported through the National Science Foundation, and yields valuable information used to improve the quality of our lives and to learn more about our world.

Because taxpayer dollars are funding our research in Antarctica, this was oversight mission. In addition to checking in on the programs and research that our scientists are conducting, I also left the continent with a deeper respect for God's creation and the vastness of it.

I visited both the McMurdo Station and the South Pole. I even met with Hoosiers who were working somewhere colder than Indiana in December!

Thank you for your continued interest in Congress and for supporting my efforts in Washington. Take care.

Sincerely,

Todd Rokita

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