Chairman Arrington Urges Colleagues to Unlock Reconciliation Process in Rules Committee Testimony
“As we unlock the reconciliation process, we must hold fast to the principles established in the House’s budget resolution.” -Chairman Arrington
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) testified before the House Rules Committee, where he championed the importance of adhering to the blueprint established in the House-passed budget resolution once the reconciliation process is unlocked. The FY25 Concurrent Budget Resolution paves the way for lawmakers to enact President Trump’s transformative America-First agenda through “one big beautiful bill.”
Opening Remarks as Prepared:
In the most historic election of our lifetime, Americans resoundingly elected President Trump and a Republican-led Congress to reverse course on the failed policies of the last four years.
Unbridled spending and bad economic policies have weakened our economy, created a cost-of-living disaster for working families, and pushed out nation even closer to the precipice of a debt crisis.
We are at a critical inflection point with a generational opportunity to rein in wasteful spending, reignite growth, and put our nation on a responsible and sustainable fiscal path.
The House-passed budget resolution does just that. We lock in tax cuts for hardworking families and small businesses; open up American energy production, rein in regulatory overreach; right-size the bloated bureaucracy and root out the massive waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal budget; secure the border and strengthen our military; and we do all of these things in a balanced and fiscally responsible way.
Despite having a one vote margin, we passed a House budget resolution that seeks to reduce wasteful spending by at least $1.5 trillion with a goal of $2 trillion or more.
While the Senate budget resolution included many pro-growth policies and critical investments in national security, it fell far short of the spending reduction targets in the House bill, with $5.8 trillion in new cost and a mere $4 billion in enforceable savings.
Furthermore, scoring the tax cuts as current policy without commensurate and enforceable offsets establishes a dangerous precedent.
For this reason, it is critical that the reconciliation bill be guided by the House’s resolution framework. Otherwise, we risk adding trillions of dollars to the debt. George Washington in his farewell address warned us about the very situation we find ourselves in today, with massive deficits and debt in times of relative peace and prosperity.
He said do not place a debt burden on the next generation such that you yourselves are not willing to bear. Never have those words rung truer.
Alexander Hamilton said, the best way to achieve prosperity is to continuously pay off the nation’s debt and avoid incurring more.
And perhaps the most poignant of warnings from our Founding Fathers was Ben Franklin when he said, “when you run in debt: you give another power over your liberty.”
But, my favorite admonishment from our Founding Fathers comes from James Madison, “a public debt is a public curse, and in our Republican form of government – the worst of its kind.”
Here’s the bottom line: our out-of-control deficit spending and unsustainable debt is the greatest threat to our country and our children’s future.
And no responsible leader – in the House or the Senate, Republican or Democrat – can witness this precipitous fiscal decline and stand idly by defending the status quo.
If we are to usher in the new Golden Age of America, we must advance a budget reconciliation bill that includes the entirety of President Trump’s America First agenda—not just tax cuts, or border and defense funding, or deregulation and unleashing American energy production, but also, and admittedly the most difficult, but most necessary of these – reining in the runaway spending that threatens to bankrupt the United States of America.
As we unlock the reconciliation process, we must hold fast to the principles established in the House’s budget resolution. If we do, we will preserve the blessings of liberty and prosperity for our children and grandchildren. If we don’t - and we shrink back and miss this moment - we will be the first generation of American leaders to leave our country worse off than we found it.
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More from the House Budget Committee:
Read the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 HERE.
