At a news conference Wednesday in the U.S. Capitol, Senator Bob Corker (R-Tn.) joined fellow Senate and House supporters of the Honest Budget Act to announce the introduction of the companion bill in the House of Representatives.
The Honest Budget Act, first introduced in the Senate last year by Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Me.), would establish a new barrier to prevent advancing spending bills without a budget and end some common accounting tricks used to conceal the true cost of deficit spending in Washington.
“I voted against all appropriations bills this fiscal year because we continue to spend money without doing the tough work to actually pass a budget, which hasn’t happened in the Senate in over 1,000 days. So I'm strongly supportive of this bill to help restore some much needed discipline and accountability to spending in Washington, and I thank my colleagues in the House and Senate for their leadership on this issue,” Senator Corker said.
Senate cosponsors of the Honest Budget Act include: Sen. Olympia Snowe (Me.), Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tn.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Sen. John Barrasso (Wy.), Sen. John Boozman (Ar.), Sen. Scott Brown (Ma.), Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Sen. Dan Coats (In.), Sen. Bob Corker (Tn.), Sen. John Cornyn (Tx.), Sen. Mike Crapo (Id.), Sen. Michael Enzi (Wy.), Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (Tx.), Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Sen. Mike Johanns (Ne.), Sen. Ron Johnson (Wi.), Sen. Mike Lee (Ut.), Sen. John McCain (Az.), Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), and Sen. Rob Portman (Oh.), and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).
Some key provisions of the Honest Budget Act:
No more spending bills without a budget – The Senate hasn’t passed a budget in over 1,000 days. The Honest Budget Act establishes a new sixty vote point-of-order threshold for trying to move a spending bill unless both houses of Congress have adopted a binding budget resolution.
No more pretend “emergencies” - Congress has added billions to the deficit by labeling routine expenditures, like the $210 million for the 2010 Census, as emergency spending to bypass budgetary rules. The Honest Budget Act changes Senate rules to require a supermajority of senators to make an emergency designation, rather than a single member under current procedure.
No more savings from money never to be spent - Congress frequently rescinds money that was never going to be spent and then uses those “savings” to pay for increased spending elsewhere. The Honest Budget Act prohibits these rescissions from being counted as spending cuts unless they produce actual cash savings in the budget.
No more timing shifts for expenditures to hide their cost - By shifting expenditures or tax due dates from one period to another, legislation can appear to be deficit neutral in the 10-year budget window when it really isn’t. The Honest Budget Act would disallow these phony offsets from being used.
No more temporary changes to mandatory spending - Frequently, temporary reductions in certain mandatory programs are used as “savings” to pay for spending increases elsewhere, only to be restored in the following year, resulting in zero net savings in the Budget. The Honest Budget Act would prevent changes in mandatory spending programs from being used as phony budgetary savings in appropriation bills.