From rebuilding the Gulf Coast to a global defense of this nation in the war on terror, we are currently engaged in several necessary and expensive long-term endeavors.

All of these missions are critical, but Congress must prioritize and look for sensible solutions to reign-in out of control mandatory spending and reform inefficient programs.

With the U.S. government currently over $8 trillion in debt the House of Representatives took action today and voted 217 to 215 to save approximately $50 billion in government spending over the next five years by approving the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.

This legislation will help provide a crucial down-payment towards the staggering recovery and reconstruction costs of hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

The bill achieves these savings by slowing the annual growth of all mandatory spending from 6.4 to 6.3 percent and reforming entitlement programs by weeding out those who are abusing the system so that we can provide benefits to those who deserve them.

For example, under current law people who have more than $750,000 dollars in net worth can hide their assets so they can qualify for Medicaid. That is not fair to the people who really need it and this bill begins to address those kinds of loopholes.

We must take these critical first steps to regain control of mandatory spending and begin to implement the reforms that are needed so our entitlement programs will be able to serve those who need them most without crowding out other priorities.

While this is only a small first step, it is an important step in the right direction.