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Jordan Asks Pelosi to Include Balanced Budget on Special Session Calendar

August 6, 2010
Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Urbana) asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) to consider his balanced budget proposal on the House Floor on Tuesday, when House members will meet in a special session to consider a $26.1 billion spending package. "Congress is spending like there's no tomorrow, and now they're calling everyone back to Washington to spend even more," Jordan said.  "Instead of holding a special session to spend even more money that we don't have, I believe Congress should hold a special session to pass a balanced budget and get the country's finances back on track.  That's exactly what I have asked Speaker Pelosi to do, and I stand ready to spend the entire August recess in Washington if that's what it takes to bring fiscal responsibility back to that town."

According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Jordan has the most fiscally conservative policy agenda of all House and Senate members.

The text of Jordan's letter to Speaker Pelosi follows.

August 6, 2010

 The Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Speaker

United States House of Representatives

H-232 The Capitol

Washington, DC  20515

 

Dear Madam Speaker:

 As the House prepares to reconvene next week to spend an additional $26.1 billion in emergency bailout funding, I share the concerns of millions of Americans that it will do so in the absence of a Fiscal Year 2011 budget resolution.

 As Budget Committee Chairman Spratt has often said, "If you can't budget, you can't govern."  Majority Leader Hoyer echoed these thoughts when he said that passing a budget is "the most basic responsibility of governing."  Regrettably, Mr. Hoyer has also confirmed that the House will not meet this most basic responsibility this year—which, by statute, should have been completed by April 15.  If the House fails to even consider a budget resolution, it will be the first time since passage of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act that it will have done so.

 With less than two months remaining before the new fiscal year starts, I remain the only House member to have introduced a budget resolution:  H.Con.Res. 281.  My budget would reset the baseline to 2008—to the pre-stimulus, pre-bailout level in place before President Obama took office.  Overall discretionary spending resources would be frozen at that level until the budget is balanced in 2019.  Further, it would allow Medicare to grow at the rate of nominal GDP, allow Medicaid to grow at inflation, protect Social Security, and fully fund our defense obligations.

 Continued delays in passing a 2011 budget will only exacerbate the current fiscal crisis, making solutions more difficult to implement.  Therefore, I respectfully request that H.Con.Res. 281 be scheduled for consideration in the House during legislative business next week.  We owe it to the taxpayers of our great nation to fulfill what we all agree is the most fundamental duty of this Congress.

 Thank you for your consideration of this request.

 Sincerely,

 

 
Jim Jordan

Congressman, Ohio 4th District

 

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