Full Utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. STEWART. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise with my friend, Mr. Womack, to speak in opposition to H.R. 2440, the Full Utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act.
And why? Because that is a fair thing to say. If you are going to impose something, tell us why, because this bill would break the spending caps that this body agreed to just a few months ago.
Now, this is laughably unacceptable.
I also need to point out, and I know this is going to shock many people, that the budget caps we agreed to were hardly a model of fiscal discipline. Quite the contrary, they were very liberal, very generous.
Now, look, I have no problem with this particular funding. I want to be clear on that. I have no problem with this particular funding. It may be a very wise use of taxpayers' money, but if it is true, then have the courage to stand up and say: ``This is how we are going to fund it. This is how we are going to pay for it.''
Adjustments to the agreed spending caps adversely impact our ability to monitor discretionary spending by allowing funding to come outside of the caps rather than within the base budget.
Again, while it may be true that this trust fund needs to be fixed, this is not the way to address the issue, by adding nearly $10 billion to what is a $22.5 trillion deficit. For our children and our grandchildren, this is not the way to move forward.
Now, I want to mention one other final and, experience would show, certainly, a reasonable fear, and that is this: H.R. 2440 sets a dangerous precedent for other programs looking to operate also outside of the spending caps. If we bust the caps for this, then what other reasonable programs must we fund outside of the budget caps?
Everyone has a special program they want to fund. Everyone has got a sacred cow that they want to fund. Sadly, there are no more cows in Heaven, because all the sacred cows are down here in Congress trying to find a way to be funded.
We must remain defiant toward adding onto our already existing and, as it has been pointed out, including by our friend in the opposition, existential threat from runaway spending. I stand in opposition to that.
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Mr. STEWART. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to research that for the gentleman. There may be some.
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