UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES / From the desk of Tom Cole
The Fiscal Responsibility Act, which was just signed into law, will do just what it is named to do — restore fiscal sanity in Washington. With Democrats in control of the presidency and the Senate, this bill is not only a good compromise, but also a great first step to get the government back on track and away from the out-of-control and inflationary spending Democrats and President Joe Biden have steamrolled through the past two and a half years.
Since taking office, President Biden and congressional Democrats have increased the 10-year spending trajectory by $10 trillion, causing the United States to reach the statutory debt ceiling more quickly than expected.
Even after that, President Biden and Democrats refused any constraints to spending more and more money. Their needless delays to come to the table and work out a sensible and responsible deal to raise the debt limit certainly put our country in a vulnerable position. However, by passing the Fiscal Responsibility Act, House Republicans are keeping the promise to the American people of cutting spending year-over-year.
This legislation lifts the debt ceiling through January 1, 2025, while putting in place a series of fiscal reforms that will save taxpayers money. For the first time in history, we are pairing a debt ceiling increase with a year-over-year decrease in spending.
Spending less in fiscal year 2024 than in fiscal year 2023 is something that has never happened before and will be accomplished while preserving funding for our national defense and ensuring veterans get the care they need and deserve.
In addition, this legislation includes a provision that enacts the firstever mechanism to limit new spending resulting from the executive branch’s regulatory processes. Specifically, if a proposed administrative action would increase spending by over $100 million a year, the head of that executive agency would also have to propose one or more additional actions that would reduce spending by an equivalent or greater amount. If such a requirement had been in place since the beginning of the President Biden’s term, nearly $1.5 trillion in spending would have been avoided.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act would also claw back $28 billion in unspent COVID-19 pandemic relief money that is no longer needed, which is the largest rescission in history. Finally, it includes major reforms to work requirements for federal assistance programs to incentivize ablebodied adults without dependents to rejoin the workforce and contribute to their communities and includes real permitting reform that will speed up the approval process for infrastructure and energy projects. At the end of the day, the American people expect lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to work together for the good of the country, and that is exactly what this bill achieves.
This bill is the result of negotiations between President Biden and House Republicans. It is not a perfect bill, but it does represent a compromise that is necessary in divided government. We agreed that the United States cannot and will not default on our national debt, but we also put forward clear, commonsense and responsible savings that will bring reckless spending under control.
