WASHINGTON, D.C.—Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke on the House floor today to before voting for H.R. 3, Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act, which passed the House moments ago. This $15 billion rescissions package is the largest in U.S. history, helping cut unnecessary spending and return unused funds back to the U.S. Treasury to reduce the deficit.
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Remarks:
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee for yielding and I rise in strong support, Mr. Speaker, of this rescissions package. I want to commend President Trump for bringing this bill to Congress, a bill that would, once passed, be the largest rescissions package in the history of our country. This is a process that’s been used by Republican and Democrat Presidents alike over decades, and it’s an important process to make sure that we keep our fiscal House in order.
“Mr. Speaker, I know some of my colleagues on the other side are feigning concern over the Children’s Health Insurance Program and most of them, by the way, voted against the funding for the CHIP program in the first place when that bill was before Congress to do a full funding. In fact, we overfunded the CHIP program, and so as that surplus money was identified, we made sure that that money is going to be able to be used to help reduce the deficit and go to other things, Mr. Speaker. And this letter from the Congressional Budget Office confirms that not one child will lose insurance when this bill is passed because we overfunded the CHIP program. I ask unanimous consent that this letter from the Congressional Budget Office be inserted into the record.
“Also, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to point out that as there was a concern about a potential Ebola outbreak. We were able to go back and work with our O.M.B. Director, Mick Mulvaney, who worked really closely with us to make sure that this bill was put together properly to address what the President wanted while also making sure that we were able to respond to any potential Ebola crisis. I especially want to thank my colleagues, Jeff Fortenberry and General Don Bacon from Nebraska for making sure that we will be able–with this bill’s passage–still be able to respond to any possible Ebola outbreak. Hopefully we don’t have one, but we will be prepared in that event, thanks to the hard work of Congressmen Fortenberry and Bacon.
“Overall, Mr. Speaker, this is an important bill to help us reduce the deficit, keep our fiscal House in order, while properly funding those programs like CHIP that were so important to so many of us who did vote for it. I’m glad that my colleagues who voted against it are now realizing that it’s an important program. Maybe they’ll support it next time.
“In the meantime, I encourage all of my colleagues to vote for this bill and I further encourage the Senate to take this bill up quickly because it only requires 51 votes to pass, not 60. I urge full passage. Let’s get this on the President’s desk. I yield back.”