The Coalition to Reduce Spending and FreedomWorks, along with 12 other organizations, have released a coalition letter urging members of Congress to reject the "Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019," H.R. 3877. The text of the letter follows, and the PDF can be found here.

Schedule: The House and Senate are in session this week.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing titled “Keeping Congress Accountable: Term Limits In the United States.” Chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the primary sponsor of the Senate’s constitutional amendment to impose term limits on Congress, the hearing included testimony from former-Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) as well as from a panel of two professors -- Lynda W. Powell and Dr. John David Rausch, Jr. -- alongside Nick Tomboulides, the Executive Director of the nonprofit group U.S. Term Limits.

FreedomWorks is proud to honor Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) as the member of the month for June 2019. He serves in the House of Representatives to represent Texas’ 21st Congressional District, which spans to the north and west of Austin, Texas. But in reality, Rep. Roy serves not only to represent his constituents but also to better the lives of all Americans by exposing and fighting against the status quo Washington ways that have put us $22 trillion in debt and left us more burdened by government than our founding fathers ever could have imagined.

FreedomWorks’ activist-chosen dumpster fire of the month for May 2019 is the Medicare for All Act, S. 1129, sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Not only would implementing “Medicare for All” add upwards of $32 trillion to our federal expenditures -- It would also result in, as our own Dan Savickas noted in FreedomWorks Foundation’s recently released booklet on entitlement reform, healthcare for none.

FreedomWorks is proud to announce that our bill of the month for May 2019 is the Death Tax Repeal Act, H.R. 218, sponsored by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and boasting an impressive 82 cosponsors. The Death Tax Repeal Act would fully repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes that wreak havoc on American families who are already suffering the loss of a loved one, often causing them to lose their generations-old family businesses because of the excessive greed of the federal government.

As the House Education and Labor Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) continue their discussions around reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), most of the public chatter in the space centers around hot-button issues, including college affordability and student debt. This means that other aspects of a potential deal on HEA reauthorization are flying under the radar.

On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) put out a release outlining its intentions for and the status of the implementation of the First Step Act. Signed into law on December 21, 2018, the First Step Act is a comprehensive overhaul of the federal prison system, run by the Bureau of Prisons. Certainly, it is encouraging to see the department taking affirmative steps toward implementing the law.

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.