Rejects Budget-Trimming Rules Package in Closed-Door Meeting

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named the House Republican Conference as the Porker of the Month for failing to adopt a rules package recommended by the Republican Study Committee (RSC) to temper legislators’ natural tendency to overspend.  This inaction follows last year’s failure to adopt budget enforcement legislation and exemplifies the GOP leadership’s disinterest in controlling spending.

The Republican Conference, made up of GOP members, exerts strong control over the legislative agenda.  The conference holds closed-door meetings to explicitly detail the party’s message on issues and to ensure that members vote accordingly. 

The 95-member RSC, chaired by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), seeks to “advance a conservative social and economic agenda in the House of Representatives.”  To restore discipline to the chaotic budget process, the RSC proposed a reform package.  But, after four hours of debate, the conference rejected nine of the ten rules proposed by the RSC, including:

• Protect points of order that limit spending.  Special waivers often prevent legislators from raising objections to questionable provisions in spending bills, concealing politicians who misspend taxpayer dollars. 
• Disallow hidden debt votes.  The “Gephardt Rule” provides for the automatic passage of a House joint resolution changing the public debt ceiling to conform to the budget.  
• Require every bill to be accompanied by a cost estimate.
• Cap entitlements by requiring a supermajority (three-fifths) vote for any increase in direct spending, except when applied to measures that would decrease the long-term unfunded obligation of entitlement programs.
• Establish both a mandatory and a discretionary “Family Budget Protection Account,” so that the floor amendments can achieve actual savings by lowering spending allocations.
• Require an automatic roll call vote on any legislation that costs more than $50 million.
• Refer to the Budget Committee any bill that would exceed the allowable amount of spending.
• Mandate that any budget resolution include a reserve fund for non-military emergency spending.
• Revise staff floor privileges.

While House leaders allegedly have their own reform package, the specifics are nowhere to be found.  But with two strikes against them, the leadership must deliver before they strike out on the opportunity for budget reform.

The President has set a bold agenda for his second term, including Social Security reform and simplifying the tax code.  These measures will require tough decision-making and real fiscal discipline to have any hope of being implemented.  Adopting the entire RSC rules reform package would have helped Congress accomplish these monumental tasks.

This lack of action is a clear signal that a majority of House Republicans is unwilling to begin reducing the record $413 billion deficit.  For talking the talk, but blatantly failing to take the first step in walking the walk toward restraining out-of-control spending, CAGW names the House Republican Conference its January Porker of the Month.

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