Rep. Graves Co-Sponsors President Trump’s Spending Cuts
Rep. Tom Graves (R, GA-14) is a co-sponsor of President Trump’s proposal to cut $15.35 billion in spending. The cuts have been introduced as the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act (H.R. 3). The bill would utilize “a special legislative tool called ‘rescissions,’ which the Senate is able to pass on a simple majority vote, that takes back or ‘rescinds’ funds Congress previously appropriated.
Graves stated: “President Trump’s rescissions package takes a bush hog to the spending underbrush. Every dollar in this package either can’t or won’t get spent for the purpose it was budgeted. It’s good government and a big win for the American people. I look forward to working with the Trump administration to move this package across the finish line.”
Graves highlighted six of the 38 cuts listed in the bill (see link above for the full list) in a press release:
- Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (Energy): A $4.3 billion rescission of funds that have been untouched since 2011. Since ATVM’s inception in 2007, only five loans have been closed under this authority.
- Title 17 Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program (Energy): A rescission of $523 million in unobligated balances dating back to the stimulus that were provided for energy loan guarantees. The authority to make new guarantees lapsed in 2011.
- Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (HHS): A rescission of $800 million that is in excess of the funds needed by the Innovation Center in FYs 2018 and 2019. In 2020, CMMI will receive a new mandatory appropriation of $10 billion.
- Ebola Response (USAID): A rescission of $252 million in excess funds remaining from the initial Ebola outbreak in 2015; the World Health Organization declared the end of the Ebola epidemic in 2016.
- Railroad Unemployment Insurance Extended Benefits (RRB): A rescission of $133 million in unobligated balances for a program that expired in 2012.
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Department of Agriculture): A rescission of $148 million, including funds for responding to disease outbreaks that are now resolved (e.g., the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in 2015).
About Author
lawtonsack
Lawton is a graduate of Georgia Southern University (the GSU) with a degree in Information Technology. He has held numerous positions within the Georgia Republican Party throughout the years.
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Mostly eyewash I think, except $2B coming out of Children’s Health Insurance Program contingency seems cold-blooded. If it’s not needed it won’t be spent. Leave it there. By rescinding it you are tempting Congress to spend it elsewhere.
We’ll see how the pols and pundits react over the next few days.
The grand total highlighted by Graves? $6.3B.
As indicated, a lot of it wouldn'[t be spent anyway.
And gee, that’s nearly the exact amount the GOP’s tax cut legislation reduced the tax liability of only one company, Union Pacific Railroad, relatively far down the list on Fortune 500 companies at No. 129.
How is this the 3rd piece of legislation this year? Its May.
According to the Congressional Research Service:
“Measures are usually numbered sequentially based on the date of introduction, but Representatives may seek to reserve bill numbers in advance by communicating with the Parliamentarian’s office prior to introduction.
In recent Congresses, the House has ordered that bill numbers H.R. 1 through H.R. 10 be reserved for assignment by the majority leader and numbers H.R. 11 through H.R. 20 be reserved for the minority leader. These bills, sometimes called ‘message’ bills, tend to generate considerable attention and coverage because they often represent the top agenda items of each political party.”
I personally would rather they roll the Ebola funding either into the CDC funds for the vaccine and treatment research of Ebola or use it to fund the current breakout to in NRC to help contain it before it spreads to other countries and they need even larger resources from USAID before the summer ends.
Some of these public health funds should just be left where they are and re-appropriated or re-allocated, even if it’s for a reserve fund, to address future public health concerns, or for related disaster resiliency. A stitch in time they say…