Wolf Statement On FY 2015 Budget
Washington, D.C.– Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10th) today submitted the following statement in the Congressional Record regarding the FY 2015 budget proposal offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan:
“Mr. Speaker, today I voted for H. Con. Res. 96 because I continue to believe the Congress has a responsibility to produce a budget each year. As a longstanding member of the House Appropriations Committee, I feel it is important that Congress have an open and honest debate about the fiscal challenges our country faces, especially our out-of-control entitlement spending that continues to deplete the federal coffers of resources to invest in defense, infrastructure, education, science and research on cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, autism and other diseases. These investments are what made America great in the 20th century, but are on track to be completely overtaken within a decade due to unchecked entitlement spending growth.
“When I came to the floor to vote for last year’s budget, we were $16.7 trillion in debt. Today, we are over $17.5 trillion in debt. That’s a nearly trillion dollar increase in one year. It’s projected to grow to over $27 trillion in 10 years, another $10 trillion increase. Our unfunded obligations and liabilities are now projected to be well of $70 trillion, and CBO’s February 2014 budget outlook projected this year’s deficit to be about $514 billion. These numbers get worse with each passing year.
“Equally troubling, this mounting debt is increasingly held by foreign countries. In 1970, 6 percent of debt held by the public was in foreign hands. In 1990, it was 19 percent. Today, nearly 50 percent of our publically held debt is in foreign hands – and it is held by countries like China and Saudi Arabia which certainly do not share our interests or values.
“My vote today reflects my desire to advance the congressional budget process to confront these serious challenges. While there are many good things in this budget, my vote should not be interpreted as a reflection of my satisfaction with the legislation itself. Simply put, I believe this is a flawed proposal that stands no chance of being adopted by both chambers of Congress this year. I continue to have serious concerns with several of the provisions and believe it falls short of being a plan that can garner the bipartisan support necessary to put our nation on a path towards fiscal responsibility.
“Most notably, this budget once again falls short in its failure to incorporate most of the recommendations of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission. Regrettably, another year has gone by where the president and both the Republicans and Democrats in Congress have failed to advance the only bipartisan fiscal reforms that would address our debt and deficit in a manner that could result in real progress.
“As I have repeatedly said, I would much prefer to vote for a bipartisan budget modeled off the Simpson-Bowles plan. It could be improved by incorporating changes in existing law and other proposals, such as those produced by the discussions between the president and Speaker Boehner, and plans offered by Alice Rivlin and Pete Domenici, and Rep. Ryan and Sen. Wyden. “Like the Ryan plan before us today, I do not agree with every line in the Simpson-Bowles plan. But only a budget based on this model can put our nation on a sustainable, long-term path to replace sequestration and reform our nation's entitlement programs so they will exist for future generations.
“As much as both sides might prefer that their party control both chambers of Congress and the White House, this is simply not the case. And it’s unlikely to change until 2016 at the earliest. Either the Congress can get serious about adopting budget reforms that have bipartisan consensus and could be signed into law, or we can continue having these same quixotic debates, year after year, while our debt and deficit grow unabated. The debt and deficit numbers continue to get worse, and none of the actions taken by the Congress – including sequestration – have made a meaningful impact on our fiscal situation.
“For the last eight years I have been working toward finding consensus on bipartisan budget reforms based on the premise that all Americans, not just one group or another, will have to give something towards reducing our debt and deficits. Starting in 2006, during the Bush Administration, I began advocating for a bipartisan commission – the Securing America’s Future Economy (SAFE) Commission – to identify budget reforms that could win the support of both Republicans and Democrats. The Simpson-Bowles Commission, appointed in 2010, was formed largely in response to efforts in the House and Senate to advance the SAFE Commission. The commission’s co-chairs, former Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, ultimately produced a package of bipartisan reforms that was serious and effective.
“Unfortunately, President Obama and congressional leadership have spent the last three years running away from the Simpson-Bowles recommendations. When my colleagues and I have brought legislation to the floor of the House based on these recommendations, the efforts have fallen short due to a lack of support from both Republican and Democrat leadership. I believe their misguided opposition represents a failure of leadership that they will come to regret in the years ahead, as our budget challenges grow more and more dire.
“To date, we have instead been presented with tepid proposals that fail to meaningfully impact our debt, or proposals, like this budget, that embrace a vision for budget reform that stands little chance of passing and becoming law.
“This year, President Obama has retreated from even modest budget reforms that he has proposed in the past, such as chained CPI. I believe history will not look kindly on his failure to lead efforts to bring both parties together around meaningful reforms to address this existential national threat. His failure to lead over the last five years is directly reflected in the budget that the House has passed today, which reflects a conservative blueprint for budget reform rather than reforms based on bipartisan consensus.
“There’s a certain irony that the budget approved today continues to draw from only one section of the Simpson-Bowles framework: making our federal workforce contribute more towards its retirement and taking steps towards ending the defined benefit retirement plan. Yet again, the Congress is targeting just one group of Americans for additional sacrifice – just as has been done for offsets in past budget agreements. This flies in the face of the Simpson-Bowles vision of shared sacrifice among all Americans in fixing our debt and deficit and, as I have said many times, is just wrong. To cite the Simpson-Bowles recommendations as an excuse to single out additional cuts to federal employees is disingenuous and inappropriate.
“My colleagues often forget that while there are many federal employees in the capital region, it is worth noting that more than 85 percent of the workforce is outside of Washington. They also may not realize that more than 65 percent of all federal employees work in agencies that support our national defense capabilities as we continue to fight the War on Terror.
The first American killed in Afghanistan, Mike Spann, was a CIA agent and a constituent from my congressional district. CIA, FBI, DEA agents, and State Department employees are serving side-by-side with our military in the fight against the Taliban.
“Federal employees include the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who are working to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs across our borders.
“They are the medical researchers at NIH working to develop cures for cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and autism. They are the VA doctors and nurses treating veterans from World War II to the present day. They are the NASA astronauts and engineers working to support the International Space Station and build our nation’s exploration program. These are just a few examples of the hardworking people that serve our country each day that this budget unfairly targets.
“I am also concerned with a provision in the budget that would only replace one federal employee for every three vacancies. Do we really want to cut the number of FBI and Border Patrol agents and VA doctors by two-thirds? This proposal amounts to an indiscriminate sequestration of the federal workforce. While there may be some agencies where reductions are necessary, I do not support this indiscriminate approach of doing so. Taken together, these proposals on federal employees may very well undermine the federal workforce.
“It is often said that budgets are about choices, and I fear that yet another year will go by where we fail to make the tough choices – yet tough choices that members from both parties can support – to make real progress in confronting our debt and deficit. Until the president and congressional leadership start to incorporate the Simpson-Bowles recommendations, or a bold plan like this that gets control of the debt and deficit, into their budgets, we will likely never address the structural reforms that must be made to responsibly get our nation’s fiscal house in order. This should be done in a manner that involves shared sacrifice from all Americans, not just certain groups of Americans.
“I am proud to have served on the House Appropriations Committee for most of my tenure in the Congress, where each year we produce appropriations bills that make tough choices, yet the bills often pass with bipartisan support. Over the last several years, the full Appropriations Committee has made more than $100 billion in cuts to discretionary spending. The Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, which I chair, has contributed more than $12 billion towards those cuts. But we approached these cuts in a responsible manner and I am proud that we have often had bipartisan support for the bills we produce. It can be done, but it requires leadership.
“Mr. Speaker, this budget is constructive for advancing the debate about our nation’s fiscal challenges, and my vote today reflects my support for the process. But until this Congress passes a budget based on the bipartisan reforms recommended by the Simpson-Bowles recommendations, it is unlikely we will ever make real progress towards reducing our debt and deficit in a substantial way. It’s time for leadership – from the president and both Republicans and Democrats in Congress – to deal with this issue.”