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House Budget Committee member day: GOP members press fiscal commission, CBO transparency and several debt-cutting plans
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Summary
Republican members used a House Budget Committee member-day hearing to urge a range of fiscal reforms — including a bipartisan fiscal commission, tougher CBO transparency and reporting rules, the USA Act to sunset unauthorized programs, and proposals to address Social Security solvency.
House Republicans pressed a broad agenda of budget-process reforms and debt-reduction proposals during a member-day hearing of the House Budget Committee.
Chairman Jody Arrington framed the session as a response to a broken budget process, saying, “we simply do not have a healthy functioning, budget process,” and urging reforms including an external audit of the Congressional Budget Office, clearer deficit targets and a fiscal commission to produce actionable recommendations.
Members used their three-minute slots to outline competing tools for restoring fiscal discipline. Rep. Kat Kamick described HR 143, the Unauthorized Spending Accountability Act, saying it would force Congress to reauthorize programs or let them sunset under a three-year stepdown; she told the committee that next fiscal year “Congress is slated to spend $892,000,000,000 on unauthorized programs and agencies” and that “1,264 programs and agencies have expired authorizations.”
Rep. Bill Huizenga and several colleagues urged enactment of a bipartisan fiscal commission. Huizenga said the commission model his bill proposes would be bicameral and bipartisan, require public hearings and produce a package that Congress must vote on under expedited procedures, arguing such a body is “the most bipartisan, practical, and immediate path forward.”
Other proposals highlighted at the hearing included Rep. Randy Feenstra’s Save Our Seniors Act to change how CBO displays scheduled versus payable Social Security benefits in the 10-year outlook, Rep. Michael Cloud’s Cost Estimates Improvement Act to have CBO include interest costs in scoring, and Rep. Rich McCormick’s Incentivized Savings Act to reward agency underspending.
Several members pressed a constitutional or principles-based balanced-budget amendment as a long-term solution; Rep. Zach Nunn and Rep. Nathaniel Moran both described proposals to require that expenditures not exceed receipts except by supermajority for emergencies.
No formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript. The hearing was organized as oral member testimony with written statements entered for the record; Chairman Arrington indicated members should submit full opening statements for the record and the committee would hold the record open.
The committee adjourned at the end of scheduled remarks with no floor action taken during the hearing.
