WASHINGTON, DC – Today (5/31/23), Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH5) released the following statement on the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act:
“For months, President Biden recklessly refused to negotiate cuts in federal spending with a solution to the debt crisis. The president, along with Congressional Democrats, wanted a ‘clean debt increase’ with absolutely no spending reforms. In their view, the astronomical rate of federal spending – that skyrocketed inflation and saddled the American people with trillions more in debt – seemed perfectly fine. Yet even with a sharply divided government, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans held the line and forced the president to make concessions to significantly limit the size and scope of the federal government, reduce spending, and protect the American taxpayer.
“These hard-fought negotiations produced the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which is the largest deficit reduction bill in U.S. history. Though the bill is not perfect, it is the most significant effort made by Congress in recent history to rein in and make government accountable to the American people.
“With the implementation of this bill, the federal government will cut over $2 trillion in government spending, claw back billions in unspent COVID funds, tighten its budget, and spend less money than the year before. The Fiscal Responsibility Act will fully fund critical programs for seniors, veterans, and our national defense. It also makes significant strides to shore up North American energy production by streamlining permitting processes to help us better compete with countries like China. Importantly, it will block trillions of new taxes proposed by the Biden administration, slash $1.4 billion from an already supercharged IRS, and strengthen work requirements to help Americans get back to work and out of poverty, all while growing the economy.
“True, transformational change to Washington, D.C. will not happen overnight; there is still much more work to be done to reduce the power of the federal government and its bureaucracy. I’ve long said that advancing permanent solutions – like a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – will be key to restoring lasting fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C. I’ll continue championing this effort and other commonsense reforms that reduce federal spending and prevent the government from overreaching into the lives and wallets of the people I serve in Ohio’s Fifth District.”
Money saving and government accountability provisions within the Fiscal Responsibility Act:
Stops out-of-control inflationary spending:
- Cuts over $2 trillion in government spending, while fully funding defense and veterans programs, Social Security, and Medicare.
Largest non-defense reduction ever:
- Reduces non-defense discretionary spending by $40 billion.
- First discretionary spending cut in 11 years.
- Non-defense discretionary spending has previously increased in 32 of the last 37 years.
Rescinds excessive COVID emergency and IRS funds:
- Rescinds nearly $28 billion in unobligated funding from COVID spending bills.
- Slashes $400 million from the CDC’s ‘Global Health Fund’ that sends taxpayer money to China and billions in other programs.
- Cuts $1.39 billion from the IRS’s slush fund, equal to the amount the IRS planned to use on new tax enforcement agents.
Strengthens work requirements to lift more American out of poverty:
- Enacts consequential reforms to SNAP and TANF to save taxpayer dollars, get Americans back to work, and grow the economy.
- Adjusts the age of existing SNAP work requirements from 18-49 (current law) to 18-54 for workers without dependents (maintaining current law exemptions for parents, pregnant women, students, and those with disabilities.)
- Reduces waivers and closes loopholes that states use to exempt their citizens from SNAP and TANF work requirements.
Terminates the pandemic-era suspension of payments on federal student loans:
- Prohibits the Biden administration from further extending the pandemic student loan payment pause, which is costing taxpayers roughly $5 billion per month.
Reins in Executive Branch overreach by requiring offsets to future spending increases:
- Enacts into law the first ever statutory Administrative ‘Pay-Go’ to hold President Biden accountable for the full cost of executive rules and regulations.
- Before finalizing a rule that would increase direct spending by more than $1 billion over 10 years or $100 million in a single year, agencies must submit a plan to reduce direct spending by an equal of greater amount.
Streamlines energy and infrastructure projects to help compete against China:
- Shortens environmental review timelines with the first significant reform to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) since 1982.
