Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Smith for yielding the time.

Mr. Speaker, for the first time in debt limit negotiations, the U.S. Government will spend less money next year than it did this year.

This rates as one of the largest deficit reduction bills in American history, and it will fundamentally change the spending trajectory here in Washington with more work to do and more work ahead.

The bill contains spending cuts that take a step in the right direction toward restoring fiscal sanity in Washington. This agreement will return discretionary spending to 2022 levels.

Additionally, we set top-line spending at 1 percent annual growth over the next 6 years.

We also cut spending through the largest funding rescissions in American history, clawing back billions of dollars in unspent COVID money.

We institute the first-ever statutory paygo to hold President Biden accountable for his administrative actions. If this rule had been in place over the last 2 years, it would have checked regulatory overreach that has cost the economy at least $1.5 trillion during Biden's Presidency.

This agreement will also change the way Washington operates by compelling a workable appropriations process.

Simply put, this legislation ends the Democrats' spending spree and fights inflation.

This deal will also help grow our economy and lift Americans out of poverty by instituting the strongest work requirements in a generation in some of our social safety net programs. These reforms will combat the labor shortages crippling small businesses by encouraging individuals to contribute to our society and economy while preserving these programs for those who need them most.

Another progrowth solution in this bill is the transformational reforms to the permitting process and the environmental review process. Cutting this red tape will boost domestic energy production, lower costs for struggling American families, and set us on a path toward energy independence. Furthermore, it will be faster, cheaper, and easier to build things in America, large and small. Whether that is infrastructure, roads, bridges, new homes, new factories, so be it.

This legislation, though, is a product of divided government. Republicans only control the House of Representatives, not the Senate and not the White House. Throughout this process--which was long, laborious, and tough--it has been Speaker McCarthy's leadership and House Republicans leading. We passed a plan, and it was that plan and the Speaker's leadership that enabled these negotiations and this agreement.

Mr. Speaker, this is the most conservative spending package during my time in Congress. I am proud to support it, and I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

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