Congress Must Finish Their Job

President Trump and his administration have laid out a very ambitious legislative agenda. Health care reform, border security, tax reform, increased military spending and a massive investment in our nation's infrastructure are just a few examples of the complex policy changes the Administration is pursuing.

While I support the Administration's overall policy agenda, with a few exceptions, I believe Congress needs to take care of our basic responsibilities before embarking on the more difficult and time-consuming agenda items. To be sure, these big-ticket proposals should be considered, debated and voted upon. However, before taking these issues on, Congress needs to take care of their basic responsibilities of governing.

The most fundamental responsibilities of Congress are to set a budget, prioritize the spending through the appropriations process and make certain that the United States pays its bills. Unfortunately, this process rarely goes as expected or intended. With respect to the federal government, the fiscal year begins on October 1, and ends on September 30. Under regular order, Congress should have passed, and the President should have signed, the 12 appropriation bills before the fiscal year began. Yet, five months after the beginning of the 2017 fiscal year, Congress still has not fulfilled that responsibility.

The failure to pass these appropriations bills leaves the country with two alternatives – shutting the government down or passing a continuing resolution. A continuing resolution simply means that current spending levels and policies continue. This takes away the opportunity for Congress to adjust spending levels and policies in order to reflect changing needs and priorities. While it is an irresponsible way to run a government, it is still better than shutting the government down.

Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, Congress has passed two continuing resolutions, the second of which expires on April 28. If that date rolls around and Congress still has not completed the appropriations process, we will yet again be faced with another continuing resolution, or a government shutdown - both of which represent a reckless and irresponsible way of governing.

President Trump and the Republican Congress have a very determined legislative agenda to restore our military capabilities, overhaul our tax code, secure our borders and fix our broken health care system. However, none of this will happen if Congress fails to perform the most basic task of keeping the government open. As a member of both the Budget and Appropriations Committees, I am committed to doing everything in my power to make sure Congress finishes the job they should have completed last October.