(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today praised the House Budget Committee and its chairman, Rep. Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), for passing a budget resolution that constitutes a significant step toward reigning in deficit spending.  The fiscal year 2006 Budget Resolution does not raise taxes and would lower non-security discretionary spending below the rate of inflation for the first time in 20 years.  It also includes language to begin the process of slowing the growth rate in mandatory programs.

“With Americans already overtaxed and the deficit expected to be at a record $427 billion this year, there is not a moment to lose to reduce the size and cost of the federal government,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said. 

CCAGW supports a budget enforcement measure to make the budget resolution legally binding.  Currently, the budget resolution is simply a guideline with broad spending limits and revenue targets.  An effective budget resolution would force Congress to stay within its spending caps.  CCAGW sent a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) asking that such an enforcement provision be added to the budget resolution or at minimum, that the House make enforcement tools part of the rules package for the budget resolution.  Centrist House Republicans have joined with the Republican Study Committee, a bloc of more than 90 fiscal hawks, in urging rules changes to protect points of order if spending caps are broken.

“Over the past five years, Congress has ignored the limits set in budget resolutions and morphed into a gigantic out-of-control spending machine,” Schatz continued.  “We support the efforts of the Republican Study Committee to give the budget resolution some real teeth, just as we support the Blue Dog Democrats in proposing many rules that would restore fiscal discipline to the federal government.”

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.