March 17, 2005

House Conservatives Score Big Win for U.S. Taxpayers

ACU Congratulates Republican Study Committee on
Restoring Budget Discipline to Congress

ALEXANDRIA, VA - Thanks to the principled stand taken by Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, this year the budget passed by Congress might actually mean something, American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene said in a statement released today.

"Congressmen Pence and Hensarling and two dozen other members of the Republican Study Committee, stood firm, demanding the Republican leadership adopt a rule that makes the budget a real, enforceable restraint on spending, and not a mere mirage," Keene said. "This was a significant victory for those who want to see spending reduced and some fiscal discipline returned to the budget process."

The Republican House leaders yesterday adopted the RSC proposal to hold votes on appropriations bills that bust the spending limits set in the budget. Until now the budget resolution was a mere fiction, a mirage, whose limits were routinely exceeded when individual spending bills were passed. The rule adopted yesterday puts teeth in the budget process and puts the brakes on automatic spending in the appropriations process.

"This year's budget resolution is the best of recent years and has some real reductions in spending," Keene said. "But if the appropriations bills can simply bust the budget limits, then what's the point of adopting a budget at all? This new rule will make it more difficult for the big spenders to bust the budget and that's a big win for the taxpayers."