Conservative Senators Fight For Fiscally Responsible Highway Bill Amendment

Press Release

U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), along with Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), co-sponsored a fiscally responsible amendment to the highway funding bill, which simply matches the authorization period with the available funding. As written, the highway bill authorizes six-years of spending but only provides three-years of funding.

"We should only be planning to fund what we can pay for, plain and simple. I want to thank Senator Perdue for offering this important amendment," said Senator Scott.

"Only in Washington could you square a six-year bill with only three years of funding," said Senator Flake. "Rather than find itself staring down another fiscal cliff in short order, the Senate ought to exercise some fiscal responsibility now. Supporting this commonsense amendment to scale back authorization to a level that is fully offset would be a good start."

"A serious long-term solution needs to be fully funded, not filled with half-empty promises that could add to our national debt," said Senator Perdue. "This amendment breaks Washington of its chronic overspending problem and ensures that Congress is only authorizing programs it can pay for now. I will continue fighting to fund critical highway projects without compromising our conservative budget principles."

On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office released its review of the highway bill and determined that an additional $51 billion dollars ($38 billion for the highway account and $13 billion for the transit account) will be needed to cover the outlays for all of the authorizations outlined in the six-year bill. Senator Perdue's amendment cuts off authorizations for unfunded portions of the bill and helps ensure Washington does not add billions of dollars to the national debt.

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