Today, Representative John Curtis (R-UT), released the following statement about his legislation, the Deal with the Debt Today Act, as Congress works on an additional coronavirus relief package and will soon consider a seven-bill, $1.4 trillion package to fund the Pentagon and the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, Energy and more. The Congressman’s legislation would require that all future emergency or disaster spending be offset over a ten year period, forcing Congress to make decisions about our country’s financial priorities.

“Over the past few months, Congress has passed trillions of dollars in unpaid spending. While the CARES Act included important provisions to help our economy quickly, Congress cannot keep signing trillion dollar checks with borrowed money, ultimately pushing the burden onto our children and grandchildren,” said Curtis. “I urge my colleagues to join me in taking the first step towards a sustainable budget. In good conscience, we cannot continue kicking this down the road—we must deal with the debt today. 

Cosponsors of the bill include: Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Ted Budd (R-NC), Tom Emmer (R-MN), Louis Gohmert (R-TX), David Rouzer (R-NC),  Chris Stewart (R-UT),  Dan Bishop (R-NC) and Scott Perry (R-PA).

Statement of Support

Jessica Anderson, Executive Director of Heritage Action for America: "Rep. Curtis's Deal with the Debt Today Actis a sensible approach to ensuring disaster and emergency spending will not lead to an irresponsible increase in the federal debt. By establishing a mechanism to offset excess emergency spending, Congress will no longer be able to skip out on the bill. The need for fiscal responsibility doesn't disappear after times of crisis. I encourage all Members to support this legislation." 

Background

Introduced in May of this year, this bill would require Congress to offset emergency and disaster spending, which typically doesn’t require a revenue increase or spending decrease elsewhere to counterbalance new spending, over a ten year period. The legislation allows a two year grace period for Congress to create a plan to offset spending over the succeeding eight years.

However, if Congress fails to voluntarily reduce spending after two years, then proportionate spending reductions will automatically occur across every government program to offset what was spent. 

While the sequester is an emergency fail safe, this legislation will put pressure on Congress to cut spending by making these hard decisions today, avoiding more ballooning of our unconscionable $25 trillion national debt.

The text of the bill is available [HERE].

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