“What’s happened is that the debt, and the interest on the debt, has finally caught up to us to the point where people in both houses of Congress are starting to be really worried and they’ve seen the cycle repeat itself so many times,” Lee said.
“It would be a good thing if we could avoid a shutdown in a way that doesn't entrench the omnibus package and that builds support for dealing with these bills one by one, that builds support for the idea that we need to rein in federal spending and have more accountability,”
Sen. Mike Lee doesn’t want a shutdown, but wants ‘out-of-control’ spending to stop
In an interview with the Deseret News, Lee says he would support a continuing resolution but lawmakers need to take the appropriations process back from party leadership
What needs to change?
Lee said he “wholeheartedly” supports rule changes secured by House Freedom Caucus members during the debt ceiling deal, and the efforts of Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in the Senate, to reinstitute the norm of voting on spending bills separately.
“The way it’s supposed to work is that Congress is supposed to pass spending bills by category,” Lee said, listing the dozen categories from memory. “The reason that we should do it that way, and it works better that way, is because you don’t want funding for one part of government, and disputes surrounding that, to be held hostage to hold back funding for every other part of government. It becomes dangerous.”
Lee hopes the current spending fight will communicate to House and Senate leadership, who control the calendar of when members of Congress are in session and when bills will appear for a floor vote, that in the future they must incentivize Appropriations Committee members to finish their proposals, and members of Congress to work through them, long before the fiscal year nears its end.
“The American people and the people of Utah, regardless of what their view of any particular government program is, and regardless of what they think is the appropriate level of government sponsored spending, either generally or in any particular area, they all have an interest in having Congress, as an elected legislative body, be in a position where each member can have adequate time to review and debate and discuss and confer with their constituents about spending levels and the contents of a spending bill,” Lee said.
“This is about restoring that. And by restoring that we will be in a better position to control total levels of spending, and with it our out-of-control debt and deficit, which is going to cripple us if we don’t stop it.”
“The way it’s supposed to work is that Congress is supposed to pass spending bills by category,” Lee said, listing the dozen categories from memory. “The reason that we should do it that way, and it works better that way, is because you don’t want funding for one part of government, and disputes surrounding that, to be held hostage to hold back funding for every other part of government. It becomes dangerous.”
Lee hopes the current spending fight will communicate to House and Senate leadership, who control the calendar of when members of Congress are in session and when bills will appear for a floor vote, that in the future they must incentivize Appropriations Committee members to finish their proposals, and members of Congress to work through them, long before the fiscal year nears its end.
- He also supports the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, sponsored by his colleagues Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and championed by Sen. Johnson in recent days, that would avert shutdowns — and remove them as leverage to pass an omnibus bill — by initiating an automatic 14-day continuing resolution upon reaching the appropriations deadline and requiring lawmakers to stay in Washington seven days a week to work through each of the 12 spending bills until a final budget is passed.
“The American people and the people of Utah, regardless of what their view of any particular government program is, and regardless of what they think is the appropriate level of government sponsored spending, either generally or in any particular area, they all have an interest in having Congress, as an elected legislative body, be in a position where each member can have adequate time to review and debate and discuss and confer with their constituents about spending levels and the contents of a spending bill,” Lee said.
“This is about restoring that. And by restoring that we will be in a better position to control total levels of spending, and with it our out-of-control debt and deficit, which is going to cripple us if we don’t stop it.”
...While saying it’s not his place to make judgements about “internal House dynamics,” Lee suspects House Republicans holding this view, like Eli Crane [R-AZ], or Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., want to strengthen their negotiating position by not committing to avoiding a shutdown and might be concerned that by passing a continuing resolution they would signal things can return to business as usual, with party leadership stitching together a massive spending bill and forcing a last minute vote.
Despite Republicans lacking control of the Senate or White House, Lee says the Republican majority in the House should mean something.
“And there are a number of them that want it to mean something,” Lee said.
“And they want to make sure that there are some Republican priorities, especially spending, that are addressed in some meaningful way.”
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