Reducing Non-Security Spending to Fiscal Year 2008 Levels Or Less
Floor Speech
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. I thank my colleague.
Here we are a day later. Yesterday we asked our colleagues, what's the number going to be? What's going to be the spending ceiling for this Congress and for the United States Government? They didn't have it yesterday, and we don't yet have it today. It's a budget resolution without a budget number.
Now we've heard a lot of talk about what happened last year. What this budget resolution relates to is 2011. In fact, this body voted last year on a Budget Enforcement Act. I have it right here in my hand. And it set budget ceilings. It had a real number. Some people voted for it, some people voted against it, but this body did what it always does when it makes decisions of this magnitude. We took accountability for it.
Now you have a resolution that violates the pledge of transparency because it doesn't have a single number in it, and it violates the pledge of accountability because you're asking every other Member of this body to contract out his or her vote to one person. Now I have great respect for the chairman of the Budget Committee. And I, too, congratulate him on being selected to give the response to the State of the Union address.
This isn't about a particular individual. It's about all of us taking responsibility for a major decision. And what this resolution does is contracts out that responsibility. It doesn't have a number. We don't know if it's going to be $100 billion. We don't know if it's going to be $80 billion. We don't know if it's going to be $40 billion. We don't know if it's going to be the number that the Republican Study Committee wants, which the majority leader said good things about. We don't know.
What we do know is this, that the bipartisan deficit and debt reduction commission told us two things: Number one, we need to act now to put this country on a fiscally sustainable path, and we should do that by working together. They also said another thing, that deep immediate cuts beyond what had been put in place and recommended by the fiscal commission would hurt the economy when it's in a very fragile state and risk throwing more Americans out of work. That would be a terrible mistake.
And yet our colleagues want us to make a decision to vote on this without telling us what the number is. So when we asked what the number was, they said, we're waiting for the Congressional Budget Office. When will the Congressional Budget Office have its numbers? Tomorrow, 24 hours from now. Then we can do the right thing, we can see what the cuts will be, and we can make a decision as a body taking responsibility for this decision.
Why is it we are not waiting 24 hours? Well it's pretty obvious. A little later today, the President of the United States will be here to deliver the State of the Union address, and instead of being serious about this number, they want to deliver a press release. That is what this is about without a number. Otherwise we would wait 24 hours and our friends could tell us what that number would be.
You are asking this body to buy a pig in a poke. And the reason it is so serious is that numbers have consequences.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. McGOVERN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. And my friend from Massachusetts talked about this earlier, whether it is $100 billion or $80 billion or $20 billion, those numbers all have consequences because on the other side of the aisle when we say, well, are you going to be cutting research to find cures and treatments for cancer or diabetes, no, we're not going to cut that. Are you going to cut the FBI agents involved in antiterrorism efforts? No, we would never want to cut that. What are you going to cut?
And the magnitude of those cuts and the negative impact on jobs and the economy will be determined by what, by the number in this bill, a number that we don't get to vote on that you are giving the chairman of the Budget Committee sole authority to pick out of a hat.
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, we just heard from the chairman of the Appropriations Committee that there was no ceiling for 2011 in place. I am going to make a copy and ask the pages to distribute this. This is the Budget Enforcement Act for last year, for fiscal year 2011, and there you have the budget ceilings, whereas what you are proposing is a piece of paper that doesn't set the budget ceilings and doesn't contain any of the numbers in it.
I would just ask the chairman of the Rules Committee this: During the hearing, you said we're going to wait for CBO; CBO's numbers are coming tomorrow. Tomorrow are you going to have a number for us?
Mr. DREIER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. For an answer to that question, I would be happy to yield.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. My time has expired.
Mr. DREIER. Would the gentleman yield to me to respond?
Mr. McGOVERN. I yield 10 seconds.
Mr. DREIER. I thank my friend for yielding, and let me just say that clearly the budget that we have right now expired at the end of the Congress. We know that very well. And we look forward to numbers which will be coming out from both your new committee, the Budget Committee, and the Appropriations Committee as well.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Twenty-four hours, Mr. Chairman. Will you have a number tomorrow?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has again expired.
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