{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://gallagher.house.gov/media/columns/congress-must-pass-budget-deal-rebuild-america", "Congress must pass a budget deal to rebuild America", "2017-12-07", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "WI", "Mike Gallagher", "G000579", "gallagher.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The Hill | Rep. Mike Gallagher\nOver the weekend, National Security Advisor HR McMaster\u00a0cautioned\u00a0that the threat of war with North Korea is \u201cincreasing every day.\u201d McMaster\u2019s warning came only days after North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts believe could strike anywhere in the continental United States. Yet even as threats grow abroad, the biggest danger to our military might come here at home from congressional inaction. In the absence of a budget agreement in the next few days, our military will face further cuts at a time when we are relying on our men and women in uniform more than ever to keep us safe. It\u2019s time for Congress to think creatively and act in a manner worthy of our service members spending this holiday season on the frontlines. Since 2011, Congress\u2019 inability to reach a long-term budgetary agreement has taken a toll on our military\u2014including a reduction of $924 billion compared to the budget path\u00a0laid out\u00a0by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The cuts are enforced through a budgetary process known as sequestration, which uses across-the-board cuts to lower funding to levels established by caps on both defense and non-defense spending. So far, Congress has acted in two-year increments to raise caps on both defense and non-defense spending by a 1:1 ratio. In other words, in each cap deal to date, for every dollar added for guns, we\u2019ve added a corresponding dollar for butter. Over the five years that sequestration has been in effect, bipartisan budget agreements have added back on average, $19 billion per year to the Pentagon\u2014less than one fifth of the Budget Control Act\u2019s yearly cuts of about $100 billion compared to the Gates budget plan. The third and most recent of these agreements, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, raised the defense caps in fiscal years 2016 and 2017 by $25 billion and $15 billion, respectively.\u00a0 So now Congress must reach a new deal to raise the caps through at least fiscal year 2019\u2014and preferably, through 2021, the end of the Budget Control Act\u2019s 10-year window. In the absence of a new deal, defense spending will be capped at $549 billion\u2014$85 billion below the level Congress endorsed just last month on an overwhelming basis in the National Defense Authorization Act. As Armed Services Committee Chairmen Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and John McCain (R-Ariz.)\u00a0have put it bluntly, \u201cWe cannot ignore the warnings of Secretary Mattis and our uniformed commanders. This era of forcing our troops to do more with less must come to end. We call on the negotiators to meet Congress\u2019s Constitutional obligation to give our troops the resources they need.\u201d Time is running out. Because Congress kicked the can down the road back in October, a short-term government funding patch is set to expire\u00a0this Friday. In all likelihood, a two-week stop-gap measure will push the deadline back to\u00a0Dec. 22. This means that Congress will have until then to negotiate a budget deal which could get 60 votes in the Senate.\u00a0 While there is general bipartisan support for increasing Pentagon funding, non-defense spending has been a point of contention in previous negotiations. Democrats have typically insisted on one-for-one domestic increases to match defense plus-ups, while Republicans have generally wanted to limit increases to domestic spending. If there is a way to break the defense to non-defense spending 1:1 increase ratio, as we did in the 2017 appropriations package, even better. We should fund our military first\u2014fulfilling Congress\u2019 most important Constitutional responsibility of providing for the common defense\u2014before then debating how we spend taxpayer resources on subsequent priorities. However, right now, neither side seems all that\u00a0willing to budge. As senior congressional leaders huddle at the White House today, there is a unique opportunity for non-defense increases that both parties can support. Throughout his campaign, President Trump made clear that rebuilding American infrastructure would be a major priority of his administration. Indeed, in his 2018 budget request, the president\u00a0outlined\u00a0an ambitious $1 trillion infrastructure plan, including $200 billion in federal spending. At the same time, Senate Democrats\u00a0have also proposed\u00a0a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, albeit one that relies more heavily on government spending. The outlines of a deal are easy to see: Congress should make good on its promise in the NDAA by raising the defense cap to at least $634 billion in fiscal year 2018\u2014an increase of $85 billion. This could be matched by an $85 billion increase to the non-defense discretionary cap, dedicated to infrastructure spending. Extending the deal a second year could mean a subsequent defense increase of $100 billion\u2014the difference between the 2019 budget cap and the amount recommended by McCain in his\u00a0defense white paper\u2014and an infrastructure investment of $100 billion.\u00a0 An agreement on this scale would go a long way toward rebuilding America\u2014both our\u00a0military superiority\u00a0and our\u00a0crumbling infrastructure. It would meet bipartisan defense spending goals while also coming close to the $200 billion federal infrastructure investment outlined by the president in his budget request. Fiscal hawks, who are rightly concerned about increasing our national debt and deficit, are likely to object to raising the caps. They\u2019ll want any spending increases to be fully offset through corresponding reductions. They\u2019ll also note that DoD, as with any big bureaucracy, has its fair share of inefficiencies and waste.\u00a0 As one of three millennials in Congress, I share these concerns about the current generation bankrupting mine. But as we work to make the Pentagon more efficient, we need to recognize that one of the largest sources of Pentagon waste is Congress itself. For example, according to Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, due to inefficiencies from continuing resolutions, the Navy essentially \u201cput $4 billion in a trash can, poured lighter fluid on it, and burned it.\u201d Additionally, we need to be honest about the real drivers of our national debt (hint: neither defense nor non-defense discretionary spending is ultimately responsible for our long-term skyrocketing debt). So we will have to get clear-eyed and creative when it comes to paying for the rebuild and getting our fiscal house in order. I\u2019m open to hearing any and all ideas. I\u2019d happily revive and participate on a new\u00a0Simpson Bowles-style commission comprised only of members of Congress below the age of 40. There are also plenty of interesting ideas out there for generating new revenue.\u00a0 To be sure, there\u2019s no easy fix. But when I think about my friends who are still in uniform, I know that the costs of painful offsets will be minuscule compared to the costs of failing to provide adequate funding for our military and thereby inviting foreign aggression. I am willing to put everything on the table to reach a solution that works. What I cannot accept is failing to do right by our men and women in uniform\u2014especially at a time when we are at war and global storm clouds continue to gather.\u00a0 Between now and the end of the year, Congress has a singular opportunity to rebuild both our military and our infrastructure. But we cannot let past partisan red lines get in the way. We must come together, make hard and if necessary, painful choices, and most of all, do our job.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://gallagher.house.gov/media/columns/congress-must-pass-budget-deal-rebuild-america"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5863953158259392, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}