H.R. 5305: Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act

This resolution would simultaneously provide continuing appropriations for federal functions after the expiration of the fiscal year on October 1st, and suspend the debt limit to allow the Treasury to finance these appropriations through continued borrowing.

As the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaches, Congress is asleep at the wheel. Instead of doing their job and fulfilling their primary responsibility of passing a federal budget, Congressional Democrats are seeking to kick the can down the road yet again. In the midst of reconciliation, fiscal conservatives should be appalled by the audacity Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer have shown with this legislation.

It has been a quarter of a century since Congress did its job and passed a complete budget through the statutory process before the end of the fiscal year. The past 25 years have seen five presidential administrations and numerous flips in Congressional control, yet the result is always the same. Seemingly incapable of meeting a deadline, Congress continually uses budgetary gimmicks like this Continuing Resolution to absolve themselves of their constitutional responsibility.

To make matters worse, Congressional Democrats seek to tie continuing federal appropriations to a suspension of the debt limit. With our total national debt rapidly approaching an incomprehensible $29 trillion, this provision alone should be a poison pill for any self-respecting Republican.

Senate Minority Leader McConnell has urged his colleagues on the other side of the aisle to remove this poison pill, but even that is not enough to justify such fiscal irresponsibility. To be clear, fiscal conservatives should support neither a “clean” or “dirty” Continuing Resolution.

Historic levels of inflation, coupled with a national debt that continually mounts, should be the only signals needed to confirm that the current direction of expanding government is entirely untenable. Whether it be a $3.5 trillion budget, a $1.5 trillion “compromise” budget, or a Continuing Resolution, Republicans in Congress have a responsibility to stand firmly against the continual expansion of federal spending at the expense of current taxpayers and our financial future.