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Rep. Kat Kamick outlines USA Act (HR 143) to sunsetting unauthorized programs
Summary
Rep. Kat Kamick told the Budget Committee her Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act (HR 143) would step down funding for programs without current authorizations over three years, citing $892 billion in unauthorized spending and 1,264 expired authorizations.
Rep. Kat Kamick described HR 143, the Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act (the USA Act), during the Budget Committee member-day hearing and urged the committee to support stronger guardrails to ensure Congress authorizes programs it funds.
Kamick said Congress will spend roughly "$892,000,000,000 on unauthorized programs and agencies" in the upcoming fiscal year and said "1,264 programs and agencies have expired authorizations but miraculously have appropriations." Under her plan, programs operating without a current authorization would enter a three-year stepdown process (reported as a 10% reduction in year one, larger cuts in years two and three in her description), and programs that are not reauthorized would sunset.
Kamick framed the USA Act as procedural accountability rather than a partisan attack: "This isn't about gutting programs. It's about forcing Congress to do its job." She suggested an automatic sunset would push committees to review programs in regular order and said the measure is aimed at protecting taxpayers and ensuring oversight.
The transcript records Kamick’s figures and procedural description; the committee did not vote on the bill during this hearing and no detailed legislative text or scoring was presented on the record.
