Scalise: It's Time to Restore Fiscal Responsibility In Washington

Press Release

Today, Leader Scalise (R-La.) appeared on Fox Business Network's Kudlow to discuss H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Leader Scalise highlighted the bill as an important step in House Republicans' efforts to restore fiscal sanity in Washington and reduce inflationary spending. Leader Scalise also highlighted how the Fiscal Responsibility Act creates greater accountability for unelected bureaucrats looking to push expensive regulations as Americans battle high prices triggered by the Biden Administration's inflation agenda.

Click here or on the image above to view the interview.

On passing H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act:

"I share the points you make and this is a really important first step. Just the fact that we're here in Washington, with [President] Biden as President, talking about how much money Washington is cutting in spending. That's the first time that's happened in over two years. Every single week of [President] Biden's presidency, under [Congresswoman] Pelosi as Speaker, they were talking about how much more to spend and they spent trillions more. Catastrophically.

"So what we finally did is started reversing that trend. And look, we've got to keep fighting for more cuts in the appropriations process, which starts in literally just a few weeks, so there's going to be additional abilities to go and get other things, but let's bank these wins. Let's get these cuts [and] get the reforms. You know, over a billion dollars in cuts to the [Internal Revenue Service] at a time they're going after not only small businesses, they're going after working families -- families making under 100,000 [dollars] a year. We've been saying for a long time, "We've got to reverse that trend,' and in this bill we do.

"The environmental reviews as you pointed out, [the National Environmental Policy Act], the things that environmentalists use to kill projects -- not just energy projects, by the way, but any kind of road and bridge project -- you want to build. If you want to build a development in America, they go and game multiple federal agencies. We finally put a shot-clock on federal agencies to get real projects done -- including energy projects. Those are big wins, too.

"Work requirements -- just getting additional work requirements in place -- that's something we haven't seen in decades. So look: a lot more that we want to go fight for, but the first thing you do when you get victories is you bank them. You bank them, and then you go fight for the next one. And there are a lot of those kinds of victories in this bill."

On spending reforms:

"A lot of times what you see is, at the end of the fiscal year, September 30, you know there's always these big fights: will there be a government shutdown? And then they always drag it out until Christmas. For some reason, you got Democrats and Republicans that want to be here during Christmas instead of home with their families, but they usually caught a bad deal and they use Christmas as the excuse. And so by having this forced -- in essence -- sequester as you point out, You know starting January 1, if there's no agreement by October 1, Congress is going to have to grapple through this and ultimately come to an agreement on spending or else you get additional cuts, which I think a lot of us would applaud, but it forces everybody to the table with real cuts as a backstop."

On PAYGO:

"Well, what it says is [that] any administrative action has to be paid for. This is something we've been pushing for separately in a bill called the REINS Act. This isn't quite the REINS Act, but you've been familiar with that before and that basically says that, if a regulatory agency comes up with a rule or regulation that has an impact on the economy, then it has to come back to Congress first. This doesn't go that far, but at least it says that they would have to show how to pay for it if they're going to administer it.

"You see with the student loan debacle -- where the President thinks he can just wave a wand and do something like waiving hundreds of billions of dollars worth of payments -- again, we're fixing that we're making those payments come back. That's going to be 60 billion dollars in savings, just in the first year, by restarting those loans again, and I think the Supreme Court will take care of that, ultimately, when they finally make a ruling on the President's legality of whether he can waive student loan debt. I think we're going to win that in the courts but, in the meantime, it forces them to start making those payments again."

On how the Fiscal Responsibility Act delivers on promises to rein in out-of-control spending:

"Yeah and again Larry, point to the last time Congress actually passed a major deal on a debt ceiling that included real spending cuts Day One. You know, if you look at what you just showed -- that chart [of] President Biden's proposed increases -- that's what spending in Washington would look like if Republicans had not won the majority last November. That would have been [Congresswoman] Pelosi's spending bill. It would have started at a much higher level.

"Instead, we're going backward. We're cutting spending and getting spending under control. It's going to take a lot more. We're going to have an appropriations process that starts right after this, but you've got to start with the first step and that is to actually cut spending instead of increasing spending. People in this town aren't used to that. This bill finally does that."

On whether the bill will pass the House Rules Committee:

"I'm confident it'll come out of Rules Committee today, and then tomorrow we'll start the process of voting. We have got the previous question and rule tomorrow around 3:30 [P.M.] and then by 7: 30 [P.M.] we will have a full debate and vote on the package itself."

On the number of Republicans who will vote for the Fiscal Responsibility Act:

"Well you know, you saw the Wall Street Journal editorial today on why this is important for us to pass this bill and I think you're seeing -- in a lot of different parts of our conference -- you've got some for [H.R. 3746] and some against but ultimately, a lot of members are for this because they know you're finally banking some spending cuts. Let's go get more. I want a lot more, but I surely want to bank the first round of cuts and that's what you do by passing this bill, but also do it for the reforms. You know, real cuts to the IRS. Actually having a real shot-clock on federal agencies to get permits again so we can build things in America including energy projects. Getting the student loans paid again -- starting those payments against 60 billion [dollars] in savings just right there. Reclaiming the unspent COVID money. 28 billion [dollars] right there. Those are all real savings that you only get if you pass this bill."

Source