Cynthia Lummis

LARAMIE , Oct 8, 2011 -

While speaking with students in the University of Wyoming’s College of Business Master of Business program Friday, Rep. Cynthia Lummis fielded a number of questions about fiscal policy in the federal government, ranging from Social Security reform to the work of the bipartisan “supercommittee” formed earlier this year to find $1.2 trillion in federal budget cuts over the next 10 years.

Many of the questions and concerns mirrored those Lummis encountered during a dinner at the home of Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in Alexandria, Va., two weeks ago. Lummis said business leaders and statesmen from around the country had gathered together to spur the supercommittee to go far beyond the target of $1.2 trillion in cuts.

“They were all just sitting, talking about how concerned everyone is, especially business people, about where we’re heading and just how long Washington (D.C.)’s going to let these problems just fester before they take them head-on,” Lummis said in an interview Friday afternoon. “(Those gathered) were saying, ‘Go bigger. Let’s do a minimum of $4 trillion (in reductions). Some were saying, ‘Let’s do that, and double it: $8 trillion.’”

Whether someone wanted $4 trillion or $8 trillion in cuts, Lummis said the message of everyone was the same: govern with gumption, and make use of the supercommittee to reduce national debt and spur economic growth.

“There have been other efforts that have been very fruitful in terms of ideas that have been put out there about how we might take a smorgasbord of some of these major ideas and pull them together, but do we really have the gumption to do it? Are we ready?” Lummis asked.

With the mood in the Capitol Building described as “underwhelming,” Lummis said she was uncertain what the outcome of the supercommittee’s recommendations, which will be made in November, will be.

“If we do not go big, we will either have a tepid Band-Aid that will be used to limp us through the next election and that 2012 will be a year dominated by campaigning and politics rather than policy and statesmanship,” Lummis said. “What most people in Washington view as the likely outcome will be that it will fall short.”

No students Lummis spoke with Friday morning asked her about Occupy Wall Street, the group of people that has been protesting from Zuccotti Park in New York City for more than two weeks, but Lummis said many were perplexed by the movement. Some have compared it to the left’s version of the tea party, but Lummis said Occupy Wall Street’s motives and desires remained unclear to her and others.

“You had a better sense of what the tea party was about … It was those kind of fiscal themes in terms of looking to government to get its house in order,” she said. “I’m not sure with Occupy Wall Street, choosing first of all Wall Street as their backdrop, what it is about Wall Street they want reformed. I think people my age, the people I see in Washington (D.C.) just are still trying to figure it out.”

In Wyoming, constituents still voice frustration with her vote to raise the debt ceiling in August, Lummis said. Raising the debt ceiling was an obligation of the country to pay its bills, she added.

“These bills were run up, and the credit card bill — so to speak — has come due. And we as Americans are going to pay our debts, but we’re going to cut up the credit card and be more responsible in the future,” she said.

Lummis said she has also been working to reform the Equal Access to Justice Act, which allows for the payment of attorney and legal fees for those who successfully file suit against the federal government. Lummis said some environmental groups have been abusing the act.

“For an individual to take on the federal government is a daunting financial undertaking, but what is happening over time is some groups — and I want to stress this is not all environmental groups, many groups in Wyoming are doing fabulous work on the ground in conservation. But there are some environmental groups, largely with a more national organization, who are repeatedly suing federal agencies over technicalities and recovering their attorneys fees in mass quantities,” Lummis said. “It’s gumming up the works at the (Bureau of Land Management), the Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in particular.”

Lummis said her bill, which has bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, would enact reforms like limiting attorneys fees to $175 per hour and capping the number of times a group can sue and win fees at three times annually.

“(We’re) hoping especially through the transparency part of the bill to learn more about which groups are using these lawsuits and in which ways to thwart federal action or divert the use of federal funds from their statutory and regulatory obligations to defend themselves against lawsuits or having the practice defensive regulatory policies.”