{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://smucker.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-smucker-fiscal-commission-necessary-address-national-debt", "Rep. Smucker: Fiscal Commission is Necessary to Address National Debt", "2023-11-29", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "House", "PA", "Lloyd Smucker", "S001199", "smucker.house.gov", "smucker", "https://smucker.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington\u2014Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11), a senior member of the House Budget Committee, offered testimony during a hearing examining the need for creating a fiscal commission. Smucker offered comments in favor of creating a commission, based on his experience serving as a member of a successful commission during his time as a State Senator in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.\n\nClick here to read Rep. Smucker\u2019s written testimony to Members of the House Budget Committee.\n\nClick here to watch Rep. Smucker\u2019s testimony as delivered.\n\nBelow are Rep. Smucker\u2019s comments, as prepared for delivery:\n\n\u201cThank you for this important hearing and for the opportunity to share with you my thoughts regarding a fiscal commission.\n\nI believe our debt and fiscal trajectory pose an existential threat to America\u2019s future, and I think establishing a commission is our best chance of addressing it.\n\nI say that based on my experience with a highly successful commission in Pennsylvania, which was perhaps the most successful legislative effort I\u2019ve ever been part of.\n\nThis was the Basic Education Funding Commission, established in 2014 to address a decades-old problem of how state dollars were divided among 500 school districts. It was a bipartisan, bicameral commission that also included representatives of the governor\u2019s administration.\n\nThe commission held hearings around the state for over a year, receiving testimony and input from all stakeholder groups, experts and from any member of the general public who wanted to participate. It worked across two sessions and interestingly across two governors\u2019 administrations (one Republican and one Democrat). Recommendations were released unanimously by the committee members in June of 2015 and were enacted into law in 2016.\n\nIn a relatively short period of time, this commission solved a very difficult and previously unsolvable problem.\n\nSome factors that were critical to it\u2019s success.\n\nThere was broad bipartisan agreement in the legislature on the nature and scope of the problem.\n\nFor a fiscal commission to work, both parties must believe it is necessary. That goes for leadership as well. If either party or the President opposes the commission, it will not work.\n\nThe right people were placed on the commission. They were members who had skin in the game, including the chairs and minority chairs of relevant committees.\n\nI suggest our fiscal commission should include the Chairs and ranking members of relevant committees, such as the House and Senate Budget, House Ways and Means, and Senate Finance committees, as well as Speaker appointees and members of the Administration.\n\nEverything was on the table and all opinions were welcomed.\n\nA fiscal commission must be willing to consider all options. Deficits and the debt have increased under the watch of both Republicans and Democrats. We all share responsibility and must consider options that we may not like.\n\n\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\n\nPublic engagement and education was critical to the commission\u2019s success.\n\nPerhaps the most important key to success of the commission is to convince the American people that debt will impact them directly, and that change is necessary. This is done through a very transparent, public process, and by amplifying the work of a debt commission with a corresponding public relations campaign.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "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://smucker.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-smucker-fiscal-commission-necessary-address-national-debt"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4608020428568125, "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"}