H.R. 3442 and H.R. 2017

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be in Washington, D.C. on the afternoon on February 11th and on February 12th because I was attending a memorial service and I missed votes in the House. If I had been present, I would have opposed final passage of H.R. 3442, the Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility Act, and H.R. 2017, the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act.

The Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility Act may sound like a common-sense bill, but it is a misguided effort that creates duplicative burdens and reporting requirements on the executive branch. The bill would require the Secretary of the Treasury to appear before Congress when the country nears the statutory debt limit and provide a written report on the Treasury's debt-reduction proposals. The Administration, however, already provides Congress with an outline of its debt-reduction proposals in the President's annual budget. The President presented his final budget--which includes numerous debt- reduction proposals--to Congress just two days ago, but House leaders denied the opportunity for the director of the Office of Management and Budget to testify about these proposals. Instead, we are considering a bill that would create more requirements for the Administration by making them duplicate efforts they already undertake. For those reasons, I would have voted against H.R. 3442.

I would have also opposed H.R. 2017, the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act. This bill would have allowed certain restaurants and food retailers to limit the nutritional information they provide to consumers. The nutrition disclosure requirements this bill seeks to roll back became law as part of the Affordable Care Act. Preparing to comply with those requirements has been a substantial undertaking for many retailers, but Congress has already delayed implementation of this rule as part of the FY2016 omnibus and given retailers an additional year before the rule would go into effect. Making nutrition information available empowers consumers to make healthy and nutritious choices, and this bill would have further undermined that effort. For that reason, I would have voted against H.R. 2017.

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