[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 180 (Thursday, December 5, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H6375-H6376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TEN YEARS OF SPENDING DYSFUNCTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Mooney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOONEY. Mr. Speaker, it is truly an honor to stand before you 
today as I reflect on my one decade of service representing West 
Virginia's Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of 
Representatives.
  Over these 10 years, I have fought relentlessly to uphold the core 
conservative values that brought me to this Chamber, including securing 
our southern border, defending the Second Amendment, pro-life, and 
reining in the reckless spending of our tax dollars in Washington. 
Today, I want to focus on that last point, our government's 
unsustainable spending habits.

                              {time}  1130

  Mr. Speaker, spending comes in two primary categories: mandatory and 
discretionary. Mandatory spending, which includes programs like 
Medicare and Social Security, occurs automatically, and it accounts for 
two-thirds of our Federal budget. To change these programs, Congress 
must act deliberately.
  On the other hand, discretionary spending must be approved annually 
by Congress and fund the vital operations of Federal agencies like the 
Department of Defense.
  The most fundamental responsibility of this body is to fund our 
government in a responsible manner and on time to 12 single-subject 
appropriations bills. Let me emphasize that: responsibly and on time. 
It is called the power of the purse, which the Constitution of the 
United States of America specifically gives only to this Chamber, the 
U.S. House of Representatives.
  It is designed to protect the separation of powers so the President 
and the administration doesn't just do whatever they want with out-of-
control regulations. In my State it was a war on coal, a war on guns, 
and onerous regulations that go after farmers and the construction 
industry. By passing the discretionary appropriations bills like we are 
supposed to, we can rein that in and stop it. That is our job. We 
should not delegate that or give that up.
  As I wrap up my 10th year here in Congress, let's take a hard look at 
how we have handled spending over that time. When I was sworn in, in 
January of 2015, the national debt stood at about $18 trillion. Today, 
it has doubled that and stands at $36 trillion. Worse still, the United 
States now spends more on interest for our debt than the entire annual 
defense budget which is $822 billion.
  Frankly, this is an astonishing failure of the responsibility of 
Congress on both sides of the aisle. This out-of-control and growing 
debt is a failure to live up to the mandate we were elected to fulfill.
  Congress has chosen to abandon the basic function of passing timely 
spending bills. We have an entire year to prepare, negotiate, debate, 
and pass these 12 bills, but too often we just don't do it. In my 10 
years in Congress, on this chart in red, Congress has passed 34 
temporary stopgap measures known as continuing resolutions. One is 
coming up next week because we did not do our work. By doing that, we 
surrender the power of the purse.
  In the entire span of my service here in Congress, just two times, in 
2 years, in 2017 and 2019, Congress passed the spending bills on time. 
In 2017, we passed only one. In 2019, we passed five. We saw a partial 
government shutdown because Democrats refused to help President Trump 
secure the border.
  Each time we fail to pass spending bills on time, we kick the can 
down the road and leave the American people with bloated omnibus 
packages that are, frankly, an insult to the responsible budgeting that 
our Nation deserves.
  When we do pass it, the game is the Senate Democrats essentially 
filibuster it, causing a government shutdown and trying to blame the 
House Republicans for it. This is political bullying. We need to stand 
up to this tactic. It is just not right.
  The American people gave Republicans a resounding mandate for change. 
We have been entrusted with unified control of government, and that 
means one thing: cutting wasteful spending and doing our jobs on time. 
It is another travesty for Members of Congress to continue to vote for 
reckless, unsustainable spending when it is our children and our 
grandchildren who will bear the burden of this debt long after we are 
gone.
  I was actually a Hill staffer here in 1994 in the Republican 
Revolution. In 1995, Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House. We 
passed all 12 single-subject spending bills like we were supposed to. 
We actually did it. It has only been in the last 20 to 25 years in this 
country where we failed to do that. From George Washington and the 
founding of America until about 20 years ago, standard process was to 
actually pass our spending bills.
  What we are doing now is weird. It is wrong. It is not normal at all. 
It is because of these bullying tactics from the Senate because they 
get what they want. If they shut down government and try to blame us 
and we cave in, they get everything they want: no border security, 
transsexual sex change operations in the military. They get everything 
they want if they try to

[[Page H6376]]

shut down government. We must stand up to this.
  To the Members of the incoming 119th Congress, which I will no longer 
be a part of, it is time to control spending and reclaim that power of 
the purse before it is too late.

                          ____________________