(Washington, D.C.) – In a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other House GOP leaders, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) yesterday joined four other fiscal conservative groups in urging the leadership to follow through on an agreement to bring budget enforcement legislation to the floor.  The agreement was reached during the fiscal 2005 budget resolution negotiations as a strategy to curb the record deficit spending taking place under the 108^th Congress.  The House leadership is considering two main versions of budget enforcement legislation: H.R. 3800, the Family Budget Protection Act, and House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle’s (R-Iowa) H.R. 3973.

“The Family Budget Protection Act is the ‘Gold Standard’ for budget enforcement reform,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “Its provisions should be added to Chairman Nussle’s legislation.  As a less desirable alternative, the Rules Committee should allow the measures in Family Budget Protection Act to be offered as amendments on the House floor.”

Chairman Nussle’s legislation provides pay-go for spending but not tax cuts, a position supported by the signers of the letter.  In addition, the groups consider the following amendments in the Family Budget Protection Act to be essential:

• Joint Budget Resolution: Convert the concurrent budget resolution into a joint budget resolution that is signed into law by the President;
• Point of Order Protection: Amend the rules of the House so that any rule waiving applicable spending points of order would also face a point of order;
• Entitlement Cap: Limit growth in entitlement spending to the current inflationary adjustment for each program and population growth;
• Family Budget Protection Accounts: Allow Congress to target spending during the appropriations and direct spending processes and allow that spending to be redirected for deficit reduction; and,
• Enhanced Rescission: The rescission process would be enhanced so the President can propose the elimination of wasteful spending in appropriations bills and these proposals would be given expedited legislative consideration.

“Given the limited time left to consider legislation,” Schatz continued, “a vote on budget enforcement reform will be one of the few opportunities to demonstrate that Congress is serious about reducing spending, the deficit, and the growth of government.  CCAGW will consider including all votes on budget enforcement reform in our 2004 Congressional Ratings. ” 

“We expect better fiscal stewardship from a Republican Congress,” Schatz concluded.  “Action is required, and it must not consist of a token vote on pay-go alone, without additional reforms.  As House leaders, the question is whether they want this Congress to be remembered for allowing the spending and the size of government to grow out-of-control or whether they want it to be remembered for bringing back fiscal restraint and fixing the budget process.”

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.