RSC-Negotiated
Budget Enforcement
The RSC negotiated a
change in House Rules that will provide some budget enforcement
on appropriations bills. Read more about it in this
article from
The Hill.
The Wall
Street Journal wrote an
op-ed about the new budget
enforcement tool negotiated by the RSC.
Paul Weyrich of
the Free Congress Foundation also wrote an
op-ed
about budget enforcement.
Office of
Management and Budget’s
Mid-Session Review
On July 30, the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) released its Mid-Session Review of the budget.
The RSC has prepared a policy brief on OMB's Review.
Click here for the RSC Policy Brief.
RSC Budget
During
the budget resolution (H.Con.Res. 393) debate last week, the
RSC offered a budget substitute that would cut non-security,
discretionary spending by 1%, slow the growth of
non-Social-Security mandatory spending by one percentage-point,
provide for additional tax relief, and implement a host of
budget process reforms. Although the RSC Budget Alternative did
not pass,
the
majority of Republicans voted for it (including Majority
Leader DeLay and Majority Whip Blunt), and it received the
highest number of votes of any RSC Budget Alternative in recent
history.
(Failed 116-309)
RSC's Policy Brief on the Budget
Resolution
The Policy Brief compares the Committee Reported Resolution and
the four Substitutes. (pdf)
(word
doc)
Tax Increases in the three Democrat Substitutes and the
impact of the tax increases on small businesses and job
creation. (pdf)
(word
doc)
Endorsements of RSC Budget Substitute and an
analysis from the Heritage Foundation.
22 RSC Members sent
a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman, Jim Nussle (R-IA),
requesting that, at a minimum, the Fiscal Year 2005 Budget
Resolution call for reducing non-defense, non-homeland security
spending by 1% compared to last year’s enacted level and for
reducing the growth in non-Social Security mandatory spending by
1%:
Click here to read the letter.
Conservatives & Moderates Come Together
Announce Consensus Principles
to Reform the Budget Process
Members of the conservative Republican Study
Committee and the moderate Republican Tuesday Group unveiled a
set of 12 consensus principles to reform the budget process.
Read More by Clicking Here (pdf):
"Spending is Still Too High"
The RSC
Responds to President's FY2005 Budget
RSC Chairman Sue Myrick said, "My RSC colleagues and I
will continue to work with the President to reduce spending
on existing programs, and eliminate duplicitous, obsolete,
and non functioning programs."
Click here to read
RSC Chairman
Myrick's statement.
Federal
Spending and the Size of Government
Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ)
circulated a General Accounting Office (GAO) report, "The
Nation's Growing Fiscal Imbalance," which features charts
and graphs on the changing composition of federal spending.
Click here for the report.
Additionally, the
RSC prepared several documents regarding federal spending and
the size of government, as follows:
-
The cost of
President Bush's new spending initiatives in the State
of the Union Address (pdf)
-
A review of some
key points from the Congressional Budget Office's
(CBO) January budget outlook (pdf)
-
The most
expensive authorization bills passed by the House in
2003 (pdf)
-
The most
expensive mandatory spending bills passed by the House
in 2003 (pdf)
-
The number of
federal civilian employees in each of the last ten years
(pdf)
Key Points from Initial Review of
CBO's January Budget Outlook
Among the findings:
- Reasonable adjustments to
the baseline INCREASE the deficit.
- CBO’s baseline does
not include other likely spending increases.
- Legislated changes since
last August added $681 Billion to the deficit over
the next ten years.
Click here for the full document.
Review of Presidential Initiatives for
2004
The RSC has created a table
summarizing the announced costs of President Bush's new
proposals and the source(s) for funding these proposals (if
provided).
Key Finding: Over the next
five years the sum total of federal spending on the President’s
proposals is approximately $50.6 to $53.1 billion, of
which only $11.5 billion in offsets have been announced.
Click here for the
full document.
The New York Times
did a story about conservative efforts to reign in federal
spending, focusing on the RSC.
Click here to read the article.
Conservative Response
to the
State of the Union Address
The RSC responded to President
Bush's State of the Union Address by urging him to offset the
cost of his new initiatives.
Read the complete statement by clicking
here.
RSC Chairman Sue Myrick
discusses the need to "get a handle on the deficit" in USA
Today.
Click here for article
The
President's
2003 Supplemental Appropriations request:
to support Department of
Defense operations in Iraq
The RSC 2004
Budget proposal Summary
Summary of the President's
budget proposal for FY 2004
