[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 110 (Tuesday, July 21, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H8413]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RESTORE STATUTORY PAYGO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
South Dakota (Ms. Herseth Sandlin) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. HERSETH SANDLIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the co-chairman of 
the Blue Dog Coalition which has long advocated for restoring statutory 
PAYGO as an important budgetary tool necessary to impose discipline in 
both chambers of Congress as it regards the collection and use of 
taxpayer money. I would like to thank the majority leader, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), for his strong, steadfast, and 
unquestioned support for statutory PAYGO and for his words earlier this 
morning in support of this important legislation.
  As I stated and as the majority leader has, this is an important 
budget tool to impose discipline. It is a tested and proven tool from 
the 1990s that again, as has been mentioned, President Clinton and 
former Speaker Newt Gingrich agreed to back in the 1990s. I think it is 
imperative that opponents of this legislation explain more clearly why 
they lived with PAYGO with little or no complaint in the last decade, 
and the surpluses aided by such disciplines, and why they abandoned 
such discipline which led to a doubling of the national debt over the 
last 8 years.
  We need to make priorities and tough decisions so as to ensure 
fairness to future generations. It is essential to adopt statutory 
PAYGO as one step, among many others, to ensure both economic and 
national security. It is not fair to future generations for the United 
States to in any way be beholden to foreign creditors. The interest on 
the national debt alone is more than we spend on education and veterans 
combined.
  Statutory PAYGO is necessary to impose discipline in both Chambers. 
One of the earlier speakers mentioned that since adopting PAYGO in the 
House rules, that the deficits have worsened. Unfortunately, much of 
the legislation passed out of this Chamber that abides by House rules 
for PAYGO come back to this Chamber after action in the Senate that 
strips how we pay for our priorities. That's why again reinstating 
PAYGO as a budgetary tool in statute is necessary for both the House 
and the Senate, and fortunately is supported by the current 
administration.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle to ask the hard questions about what worked in the 1990s to 
produce budget surpluses, about what didn't work over the past 8 years 
to result in a national debt, a record national debt, and what tools 
are necessary to get us back on the path of fiscal discipline and 
surpluses once again. Statutory PAYGO is one key, one tool, among 
others, that will lead to the kind of tough decisions and priorities 
necessary to restore the fiscal health of the country.

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