Blog: Heading Home After a Long Week

Statement

After a long week in Washington with many late nights full of vigorous, open debate, I'm thankful to head back to Tennessee on Saturday knowing that we accomplished a tremendous amount in Congress. Next week, I'll be hosting two "Meet Your Member of Congress" events in Jamestown and Crossville on Monday, February 21. I'll also be touring Lodge Manufacturing in Marion County on Tuesday, February 22.

First, many thanks to Mr. E. Ray Austin, of Hunstville, Tennessee, for the amazing banner that you are seeing at the top of the site. Mr. Austin snapped this photo while walking through the mountains in Scott County. I think it really showcases how pretty our district is. We also updated the Web site so that it now includes events, news, photos and videos. As always, please be sure to sign up for my E-Newsletter.

We have been incredibly busy in Washington this week debating the Continuing Resolution (CR), which will fund the government through September 30, 2011. The CR is necessary due to the fact that the previous Democrat controlled Congress failed to pass a budget last year and the government will run out of the ability to fund itself on March 4, 2011. Fortunately, this gave us a chance to put forth over $100 billion dollars in cuts to President Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget. This CR legislation represents the largest single discretionary spending reduction in the history of Congress. Of the over $100 billion dollars in savings to American tax payers, $81 billion was cut from non-security programs, while security-related programs were reduced by $19 billion. These cuts were determined through a process of carefully analyzing all discretionary agencies and programs, and then developing line-by-line reductions -- not across the board cuts.

Additionally, in keeping with the recently approved Republican Rules Package, this CR includes no earmark funding and eliminates all previous earmark funding from fiscal year 2010, saving the taxpayers approximately $8.5 billion. It also includes a provision to eliminate any unobligated "stimulus" funding approved in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), saving the taxpayers as much as $2 billion.

I think that our work this week can be best summed up in this Wall Street Journal article, "Congress Finally Earns Its Pay". I'm really proud that we are changing the way that Washington does business. It may be a lot of work, but it is what the American people deserve.

Finally, thank you to all that are now following me on my official Facebook Page. We'll be monitoring it throughout the day and I will do my best to be timely in responding to you.

Look forward to seeing you soon,

Scott

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