Last Friday, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) closed the extended public comment period for their proposal to reform broad-based categorical eligibility for food stamps. The proposal would close a loophole that allowed thousands of Americans who did not qualify for food stamps to be eligible for benefits regardless.

Welcome to FreedomWorks Foundation’s eighth regulatory review of 2019! Our Regulatory Action Center proudly updates you with our favorite tidbits from the swamp. We want to smash barriers between bureaucracy and the American people by delivering regulatory news straight to FreedomWorks activists. Check back in two weeks for the next edition.

FreedomWorks is proud to announce that our bill of the month for April 2019 is the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act, H.R. 1917 and S. 565, introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), joined by cosponsors Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.). The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act would require the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit an annual report detailing the costs and timelines of projects that are behind schedule, over budget, or both.

As the economy begins to take off as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the next big thing we're going to see is a need for workers.

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and urge him or her to cosponsor the Audit the Pentagon Act, H.R. 3079, introduced by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas) and cosponsored by several House conservatives, including Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). The bill would reduce by one-half of one percent the discretionary budget authority of the Department of Defense (DOD) every fiscal year after every previous year that the department was not audited.

There’s a show from the 1980s called ALF about an alien that ends up having to live with a family after accidentally crashing into their garage. In one episode, he runs up a major gambling tab and to pay it off raises the prices on items at the family’s garage sale without their knowledge to get the money needed to pay off his debts.

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool." - William Shakespeare

The federal Highway Trust Fund, after years of being raided by Congress to pay for wasteful transportation and extravagant infrastructure projects, faces a $160 billion shortfall over the next decade, which has some lawmakers from both sides of the aisle openly floating a bailout in the form of a gas tax hike.

Before the Continuing Resolution and debt ceiling battle last year, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), in an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley, tried to dismiss the push for spending cuts. “[T]he cupboard is bare. There’s no more cuts to make. It’s really important that people understand that," said Pelosi. "We all want to reduce the deficit. We’re all committed to that. Put everything on the table. Review it. But you cannot have any more cuts just for the sake of cuts. Right now, you’re taking trophies."