Dear Friend, 

It seems like the headlines are the same every December: Congress is locked in a last-minute funding battle right before Christmas. The funding deadline is imminent, and action is urgent. This isn’t a sane way to fund our government.

Traditionally, this process should begin the first Monday of February when the President submits his budget to Congress and be completed when Congress passes a spending agreement by the end of September. However, these deadlines are too often taken more like a suggestion than a requirement. In fact, the federal government has skated past its funding deadline with a continuing resolution for all but three of the last 46 years. We must find a way to get back to basics and get back to a consistent budget cycle.

There is no duty I take more seriously than the responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Reckless government spending has major consequences, like the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan.” According to a study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, this bill alone is the cause of as much as half of the inflation we have seen in recent months. An unaccountable budget process opens us up to irresponsible spending.

We must return accountability to our budget process. This week, I was proud to cosponsor two bills that would do just that. First, the PAYSTUB Act will withhold the salaries of politically appointed bureaucrats for every day the Presidential budget is delayed. We also supported the Presidential Budget Accountability Act, to withhold funds for Presidential travel if the President fails to submit a timely budget. A broken budget process has real costs for the American people, and we’ll continue our work to end the federal government’s dependence on stopgap funding measures.

It’s past time to rein in government spending and return to fiscal sanity.

Sincerely,