Vote Explanation for H.R. 3877 — Bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2019
On July 25, 2019, I voted for H.R. 3877, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (for more information see Roll Call №511). The bill was designed to update the original Budget Control Act of 2011, which Congress passed to try to fix the nation’s broken budgeting system.
Back in 2011, Congress passed this bill to create a series of financial consequences that, at the time, were intended to be so bad that they would compel Members of Congress to make budget deals with each other. In practice, the bill led to gridlock and a series of manufactured fiscal crises, which have fueled the government shutdowns that have happened over the last several years of divided government.
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 was an attempt to end the cycle of making long-term spending deals at budgetary gunpoint.
When I took this vote, the federal government was projected to reach the debt limit in the beginning of September, which means, thanks to the original Budget Control Act of 2011, the U.S. Treasury would be unable to borrow money. The U.S. Treasury borrows money when less revenue, from taxes and other fees, is collected than what is spent. The federal government’s reliance on borrowing has increased since President Trump and the Republicans gave a $1.9 trillion tax cut to the wealthiest Americans, significantly reducing federal revenue.
Second, thanks to the Budget Control Act of 2011, defense and nondefense spending were scheduled for austere sequestration cuts on October 1.
Sequestration is a policy that makes arbitrary, deep budget cuts to spending regardless of what Congress is spending the money on — it’s akin to a family choosing to save money by taking their budget, blindfolding themselves and drawing on the budget until enough things are crossed off to get to a lower amount.
Here’s an example of why that’s bad: Our military can’t make plans for maintaining large, expensive things like training troops or maintaining aircraft in the years ahead if they don’t know how much money they’ll have in their budget in the next month or two. Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis once said: “no enemy in the field has done more to harm the combat readiness of our military than sequestration.”
Again, the original goal of sequestration was to be so draconian that it would force Congress to compromise on a real, balanced budget. But it simply hasn’t worked.
So the Budget Control Act of 2019 was designed to end this short-term thinking, and buy Congress time to make a better deal that adequately addresses the financial challenges we face as a country without shutting down the government or crashing our economy.
For those reasons, this agreement is a good step forward, even though it’s more expensive than I would have liked. As Vice Chairman of the House Budget Committee and a veteran who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, I supported this bill because of its impact on our national security. This bill will let the Pentagon turn its attention to confronting and outcompeting our adversaries. For instance, China is heavily investing in the next generation of defense technologies like AI, and we cannot allow them to develop the technologies that should be perfected and built in the U.S.
Additionally, this deal ends the threat of sequestration, which wasn’t working as designed, and creates parity by increasing defense investments and domestic investments by near-equal rates. That is a big deal because it means we will spend as much on things that protect the dignity of Americans as we will on their defense. That means more federal funding for schools in low-income communities, more funding for cancer research, and more funding to improve our nation’s transportation systems. It’s also important to note that a lot of defense functions that ensure our national security fall under nondefense discretionary spending, such as investing in veterans health care, embassy security, and efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In fact, the entire investment we make in the Department of Homeland Security falls under nondefense discretionary spending, and we increased that significantly with this deal.
But let’s not kid ourselves, this deal is not perfect. America is racking up a huge credit card bill that our kids will have to pay. Deficits and debt have skyrocketed under this president and his massive tax cut for the wealthiest few. This bill does not address that. And while it would be better if this deal were not reached behind closed doors, the budget agreement does prove there is a middle ground, and it alleviates those draconian tools in the Budget Control Act that made the middle ground hard to find. This bill buys Congress the time and opportunity to fix the budgeting process, and I hope my colleagues will work with me to use it.
As I said on the House floor before the vote on this bill, I hope Congress makes the most of the window this bill creates where we are no longer negotiating under threat of fiscal crisis. We should use this time to fix Congress and create a next-generation budgeting process where there is thoughtful debate and ultimately consensus around a fiscally responsible budget. To get there, we must set aside party, embrace a fairer tax system, and consider more efficient spending. This budget deal may not be all that we want, but it is a start in getting there.
