A budget-busting, bipartisan spending binge passed Congress last week, so I’d like to propose a topic for this week’s Texas Congressional Delegation luncheon:
What is each Texan’s oversight and legislative plan to shrink the number of federal employees and responsibilities in the agencies and departments we oversee and appropriate funds for in Congress?
Frankly, this topic was inspired by President Trump’s budget, which was introduced earlier this week.
He wants to reform the federal workforce and bring it into the 21st Century. New legislation undoubtedly would shrink the number of federal government employees and we applaud the policy. We know there will be howls among lobbyists and Republicans in the D.C. suburbs, but taxpayers expect you to fight for reforms, not friendships and inside-the-beltway dollars.
Taxpayers want each member of the Texas delegation to claim a big scalp from the bureaucracy.
This should be easy. The Lone Star State is well represented in the congressional leadership, including a great many committee and subcommittee chairmanships. So far, too many have done too little with the power they have been given. (Members without chairmanships can still get a scalp if they work hard and prepare for hearings, like Republican U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina appears to do each week.)
Failure by Congress to exercise their Article I responsibilities to rein in the administrative bureaucracy forfeits the right for members to properly call themselves a conservative Republican.
Texas taxpayers want to see the swamp drained; that will only happen if members of Congress start pulling the plug.
It would be nice to see a plan of action from each Texas congressman in accomplishing that goal. It would be nice to see any evidence of action whatsoever.
Merely occupying an office in the Capitol complex while doing nothing but uttering rote rhetoric and making empty promises only lets the Democrats advance their destructive agenda.
To expedite their work, here’s a link to the Modernizing Government 2019 Budget Fact Sheet issued by the White House.
