House Budget Committee Holds Bipartisan Markup for Budget Process Bills
Yesterday, the House Budget Committee held a markup of the bills H.R. 766, the Preventive Health Savings Act, H.R. 7032, the Congressional Budget Office Data Sharing Act, and H.R. 5301, the Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2023. The markup brought together members of the House Budget Committee to mark up important legislation aimed at streamlining the budget process.
Word on the Street:
Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) delivered opening remarks stating: “We have committed, together, to finding ways to improve the current budget process. We've acknowledged the obvious: after 50 years, something isn’t working. All processes are a set of incentives that drive behavior, and I don't see a lot of responsible behavior or the responsible and good outcomes that are needed.
So, we're working to find ways to address the brokenness to serve and steward the American people's hard-earned tax dollars.”
Click HERE to watch the Chairman’s opening statement.
Ranking Member Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) highlighted a “lot of good that we can do to pick up the pieces for work that was done before us but did not get through the finish line.” The Ranking Member also commended Chairman Arrington for his leadership in passing bipartisan bills through the House Budget Committee.
Rep. Boyle introduced H.R. 7032, the Congressional Budget Office Data Sharing Act. This bill ensures that CBO has the tools to provide accurate and timely cost accounting to help Congress better serve the American people.
Click HERE to watch Rep. Boyle’s opening statement.
Health Care Task Force Chair Michael C. Burgess (R-TX) introduced H.R. 766, the Preventive Health Savings Act. This bill has been developed alongside bill co-lead Rep. Diana DeGette for over ten years. The legislation called for a better budgetary analysis of preventive health care legislation and was advanced by a bipartisan vote of 30-0.
The markup also featured an amendment to change the short title of H.R. 766 to the “Dr. Michael C. Burgess Preventive Health Savings Act” to commemorate the honorable service of Health Care Task Force Chair Representative Burgess to the House Budget Committee, his patients as a doctor, and the American people as a member of Congress.
Click HERE for the House Budget Committee’s tribute to Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D.
Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI) cosponsored H.R. 5301, the Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2023 alongside House Budget Committee member Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA). This bill calls for the elimination of duplicative and redundant reports to help streamline the budget process so that lawmakers can continue to work toward eliminating the debt. The bill was advanced through a bipartisan voice vote.
Click HERE to see Rep. Grohman’s Opening Statement.
The Bottom Line:
If lawmakers do not act with a sense of urgency, we will fail to reform the budget process and be the first generation to leave the country worse off than how we found it. Chairman Jodey Arrington and Ranking Member Rep. Boyle will not let that happen.
The debt crisis is not a Democrat nor a Republican problem. It is an American issue and will be our grandkids’ problem if we do not have the political courage to reform the broken budget process.
This year marked the first time the House Budget Committee has passed bipartisan legislation out of committee in over a decade, and yesterday’s markup was a milestone in streamlining the budget process.
The House Budget Committee will continue to work closely toward forming a bipartisan debt commission to restore fiscal sanity to Washington and reverse the curse of our colossal federal debt.
Click HERE to watch the markup.
