Reduce Exacerbated Inflation Negatively Impacting the Nation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLOUD. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The intent of the REIN IN Act is to ensure that the executive branch is taking into account inflation in our country before they issue new regulations.

Our country has seen rising inflation over the last 2 years, and inflation is affecting all of us. It is affecting our families, especially those with lower incomes who don't have as much of a cushion to deal with what we are seeing as they face increasing costs, especially in gas and in groceries.

But as we consider the cost of inflation, we should also include the cost of debt servicing in what we are doing. Too often, we, as a government, don't do the same thing that we expect our families to do. When someone goes to purchase a car, for example, or a house, they have to include the cost of interest that they are going to pay on those kinds of things. We regularly ignore that as if it wasn't an important part of what we spend when, in fact, it is about $600 billion of spending annually.

This is why I offered my amendment to the REIN IN Act. My amendment would amend the bill to direct the Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisers to incorporate the inflationary impact of debt servicing costs into the reports that they create.

Rising interest rates have the same effect on costs of spending on the national result, as well. We see rising interest rates have the same meaning for our country as the families that we encounter. But in order to accurately account for what we are spending, we cannot ignore the cost of debt servicing or the real cost that will be accrued with new spending.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a report today that estimated net interest will total $10.5 trillion over the next decade. As lawmakers, we have a duty to be honest about the effects of our actions, and this amendment will keep us honest about the true effects of our spending.

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Mr. CLOUD. Madam Chair, yes, it has been regular practice with CBO. I have been working to get this done for the CBO as well since I got here in Congress.

It is the common practice among all of the entities that we look to for wisdom and advice and guidance on budgeting and spending, that the cost of debt servicing is not counted into their projections.

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Mr. CLOUD. The information that we get to take into account, like when we are evaluating a bill and what we think the 10-year projected cost is, yes, typically it does not include the debt servicing cost.

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Mr. CLOUD. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I once again point out that we spend approximately $600 billion a year in interest payments, yet we do not count the cost of what the debt servicing will cost in anything we do.

Now, that is, in short order, expected to eclipse our military spending, which is our number one constitutional priority for our Federal spending. Whatever we want to do up here, if we do not begin to count the real cost of what we are doing, we will be off. Right now, we are having to deal with a debt ceiling issue, because the previous Congress decided to spend without considering the cost of what it was going to take and to push us toward the limit.

We are cognizant of the fact that we are spending. We are going to monitor our spending in a way that we leave a better country for our kids and our grandkids, and this is part of making sure that we are actually counting the real cost of what we are doing as we take each step.

Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer), the distinguished chair of the Oversight Committee.

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Mr. CLOUD. Madam Chair, what we are trying to do is make sure that the debt servicing cost is included into these studies we are getting.

I have a bill, for example, to eventually do it with the Congressional Budget Office. We would like to see that, as well. This would make sure that we are getting this done in the REIN IN Act with the OMB and the Council of Economic Advisers.

It is common sense to me. This should be bipartisan. We should really be counting the costs of what we are actually spending. This isn't really meant to be a controversial bill, except for those who don't really want to know what we are actually spending.

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Mr. CLOUD. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would just add, it may not change what we are doing, but it would change the knowledge of what we are doing here in Congress. The fact that we continue to spend money without even knowing how much money we are spending, I think, is a problem and certainly not the due diligence that we should have as Members of Congress, being diligent with the public trust that we have been given.

So having the real cost estimates before us is going to be very valuable as we go forward to understand exactly what we are doing as we begin to evaluate legislation and for the administration when they are dealing with regulations they are proposing.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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