Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much for yielding.

Originally, I have to say, I was skeptical when the administration raised the idea of rescissions, not because I am against saving money-- I think we need to do a lot more of that around here--but because I thought this might undo the bipartisan agreement that the administration and our leadership had negotiated.

Frankly, this bill does nothing of the kind. And I want to compliment the President and OMB Director Mick Mulvaney, our former colleague, for using a tool that has not been used in 20 years. They did the right thing. They did it in the right way.

This is the largest rescission package ever in the history of Congress. It will save almost $15 billion. But where are those savings coming from? They are coming from funds that we, frankly, didn't use or we overappropriated.

My friends talk a lot about CHIP. The authorization for $5 billion of that money ran out. You can't even legally spend it. Why would you leave it in the account?

Another $2 billion is taken from an account for when States go beyond their spending limits. We have never spent more than $350 million of that money, and we actually left $500 million in the account. Why not reclaim the savings and return them to the Treasury?

You can go on and on.

There was $4.3 billion for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program that nobody has applied for or has not been used since 2011.

Again, there is example after example. It is a wise thing to reclaim unused money and spending authority and return it to the Treasury of the United States.

I am very proud to cosponsor the legislation. I am very supportive of it and would urge its passage.

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