Making Washington Focus On Results
Sen. David Perdue – Making Washington More Results Oriented
By Erich J. Prince, Merion West
Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.) took office in January, 2015.
Prior to being elected to the Senate, Mr. Perdue spent decades in the private sector, rising to CEO of Reebok and later Dollar General. His 2014 Senate bid was his first run for political office, and he has emphasized his business background both as a candidate and as a United States Senator.
Since taking office, Senator Perdue has supported infrastructure projects such as the deepening of the Port of Savannah, as well as fiscal accountability issues including pressing for an audit of the Department of Defense. He frequently works closely with President Trump. Senator Perdue joins Merion West’s editor Erich Prince to discuss his experience as a businessperson-turned-politician, bringing private sector concepts to Washington, and his strong support for term limits for members of Congress.
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Our Military Will Pay The Price If No Budget Deal Is Reached
The US military will pay the price if no budget deal is reached
By U.S. Senator David Perdue
July 15, 2019
Right now, Congress is teetering on the edge of a slippery slope that could damage our military capabilities for generations and jeopardize our ability to deal with China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and terrorism.
When President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, the United States military faced a serious readiness crisis. Two-thirds of the Navy’s F/A-18 fighter jets were not mission-capable. Only three of the Army’s 58 brigade combat teams could be called upon to fight that night. Maintenance was backlogged for years. Critical training exercises had been cut. Qualified technicians were leaving the service.
President Trump has taken action to rebuild readiness, modernize our forces and restore our competitive advantage. He launched a new National Defense Strategy to focus on 21st century threats and deter near-peer competitors like Russia and China.
We have since reinvested in our military, and as a result, readiness is on the rise and modernization efforts are underway. But much of this progress will be lost if Congress and the White House do not come to an immediate agreement on a funding plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
Budget negotiations have been going on for months, but little progress has been made. Congress only has so long until the end of the fiscal year, on Sept. 30. As a result, lawmakers and the administration have openly discussed the possibility of a one-year continuing resolution.
The use of a CR would be a grave mistake. It will kill our military’s readiness recovery effort and devastate our defense capability.
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Perdue Pushes Peers On Funding
Editorial: Perdue pushes peers on funding
The Savannah Morning News Editorial Board
Retailers know one way to spur consumers to action during the holiday season is to note Christmas Day’s rapid approach.
In that spirit, Georgia Sen. David Perdue is reminding his fellow lawmakers that there only 20 legislative days left until the next government shutdown.
Perdue flew back to Washington, D.C., on Monday, stopping for a visit with this publication’s editorial board en route to Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport. The looming deadline was foremost on his mind, and his concerns went beyond avoiding another petty, partisan stare down such as the one that partially closed the government for 35 days earlier this year.
Perdue, a first-term Republican, will insist legislators consider passing new budget measures rather than continuing resolutions. The latter is a stopgap measure, maintaining appropriations at the same levels as the previous fiscal year, and the fallout would significantly impact the Savannah region.
Continuing resolutions would delay funding committed to the Savannah harbor deepening and for area military programs for a year, Perdue said. President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed substantial funding increases for those projects, including $130 million to finish dredging the shipping channel.
“We need to move forward,” Perdue said. “Nobody should go home until a budget deal is done.”
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David Discusses His Plan To Fix Washington’s Broken Funding Process
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PERDUE: Disaster Relief: What Can Be Done Better Next Time
Disaster relief: What can be done better next time
By U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA)
The Hill
June 1 marked the beginning of hurricane season, and as we prepare to face this year’s inevitable natural disasters, many Americans are still waiting to receive federal aid to recover from last season’s devastation.
Disaster relief historically has never been a partisan issue. Unfortunately, it turned into one over the last eight months.
Despite Democrats pushing for poison pill proposals, President Trump was able to break through the gridlock, and the House and Senate found consensus on a bipartisan disaster relief package on May 23.
The Senate passed this compromise relief bill the very same day. Now, this week, the U.S. House of Representatives will send it to the President’s desk.
This package contains $19.1 billion of disaster relief, including $605 million for Puerto Rico’s Nutrition Assistance Program, $300 million for additional Community Development Block Grants for Puerto Rico, $3.2 billion to rebuild military bases like Tyndall Air Force Base and Camp Lejeune, $3.3 billion for flood damage repair, and $3 billion for agriculture losses. Additionally, California will be eligible to receive more than $8 billion in assistance for wildfire recovery.
Sens. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, deserve credit for their diligent work in shepherding this process.
However, the fact that it took 237 days for Congress to pass a disaster relief bill after Hurricane Michael is beyond embarrassing. Self-interested politicians have made a mockery of one of their primary responsibilities.
Other disaster aid bills were not held up like this. Within 10 days of Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed supplemental disaster relief funding. After Hurricane Harvey, it took 15 days. Even after Hurricane Sandy, which sparked substantial debate, Congress passed a supplemental funding bill 74 days later.
Most of the delay was caused by partisan demands from Democrats for additional aid for Puerto Rico following 2017 hurricanes – even though the island is already eligible to receive $91 billion to recover from these storms. That’s three times more funding than Texas was eligible to receive for Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and nearly double what was appropriated for Hurricane Sandy in 2013.
President Trump agreed to support additional aid for Puerto Rico in order to pass a disaster relief bill as soon as possible. However, Democrats and Republicans could not find consensus on the level of funding. There was also a disagreement over border humanitarian funds.
After Sens. Shelby and Leahy finally came to an agreement with the House on May 23, Shelby and I called the president. The president agreed to break the logjam by supporting a clean disaster relief bill.
Within hours of Trump’s decision, the compromise bill passed the Senate 85-8. The House could have passed the bill by unanimous consent the very next day. Instead, it was blocked by three Republicans in a pathetic attempt to grandstand and get their names in national headlines.
The last eight months have been the height of partisan politics. Never again should we allow the American people to fall prey to Washington’s intransigence.
There are three actions Congress should take right now to ensure that the federal government can indeed take care of its people in times of crisis:
Establish a reserve fund. Most families and businesses set aside contingency funds in case of emergency, and Congress should do the same. We should expand eligibility criteria for natural disasters in Congress’ existing relief fund, so we’re prepared when disaster strikes and don’t have to rely on supplemental appropriations bills.
Cut red tape. Federal agencies like the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing & Urban Development are responsible for disbursing disaster relief funds after it’s allocated by Congress. Each agency has to go through an arduous rulemaking process before any funds can be released. This can often take months. We need to streamline the process so communities get relief in a timely manner, while providing sufficient oversight.
Fix the funding process. Our national debt topped $22 trillion this year. That’s a full-blown crisis. Because of Washington’s inability to get its financial house in order, we are losing the ability to do the right thing. Every dime of this relief package is borrowed money. We need to tackle this debt crisis and responsibly fund the federal government on time so we can help the American people when they are counting on us most.
It’s time for both sides of the aisle to come together, learn from the past, and prove to the American people that we have their backs.
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GOP Senators: No Official Travel If Budget Deadlines Aren’t Met
GOP Senators: No Official Travel If Budget Deadlines Aren’t Met
By Susan Crabtree
Free Beacon
After President Trump yanked funding for Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D., Calif.) Democratic delegation trip to Afghanistan, a trio of GOP senators are pushing a proposal that would bar any congressional travel if Congress can’t meet its budget deadlines.
The bill would also prevent Congress from leaving Washington if lawmakers fail to complete their job of funding the government on time in an effort to fix the broken budget process and avoid future government shutdowns, stop-gap funding extensions, and bloated, last-minute, “omnibus” spending deals.
“We are on day 26 of the longest-ever government shutdown, and yet Congress is about to go home for the weekend, with some members flying out of the country,” Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.), who is pressing the idea, along with Sens. David Perdue (R., Ga.) and Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), said yesterday. “The proposal that we offer today would keep Congress in town until the budget is finally resolved.”
“During a government shutdown, Congress and the White House should experience pain, not the American people,” Lankford added.
Conservative senators had expressed deep concern about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R., Ky.) original plans to let senators leave town next week, when the government shutdown passes the 30-day mark, while the House remains in session and hundreds of thousands of furloughed government workers remain in limbo.
McConnell on Tuesday said the chamber would not leave for next week’s recess unless the government reopened. With so much scrutiny of Congressional travel in recent weeks, conservatives also are uneasy about senators leaving even for this weekend.
Perdue and Lankford were behind a successful effort last year to press McConnell to take a more confrontational approach with Democrats in order to confirm Trump’s nominees and pass spending bills. They successfully persuaded McConnell to delay the August recess by two weeks to press the Senate and recalcitrant Democrats off the campaign trail before the midterms elections and into action approving a raft of nominees.
“Congress should be held to the same standards of people in the real world,” said Perdue. “Washington’s broken funding process has created a dysfunctional cycle of continuing resolutions, last-minute spending deals and government shutdowns. Enough is enough.”
The senators want to tamp down increasingly vitriolic high-stakes budget showdowns and create what they are calling a “politically neutral platform” to fund the government on time every year. There will be “real consequences” for members of Congress if they don’t get their most basic job of funding the government done, Perdue said.
“We should not go home until we have completed our work. Period,” Perdue added.
Congress’s deadline for passing all spending the bill is Oct. 1, the first day of the new fiscal year. However, since 1976, Congress has only funded the government on time four times, the senators point out. Instead of wrapping up the work on time, Congress has relied on temporary funding extensions called “continuing resolutions,” which are wasteful and create uncertainty.
They also lead to impasses: There have been 21 government shutdowns since 1976, costing billions in retroactive pay and lost economic output. The last time Congress funded the government on time was 1996, more than 20 years ago, and it passed a budget resolution only 11 times in the past 20 years.
The broken budget process inevitably leads to wasteful spending as the appropriations process is dragged out and lawmakers infuse it with spending “sweeteners” to cut deals, instead of forcing painful deadlines. The U.S. is nearly $22 trillion in debt, with the budget deficit projected to exceed $1 trillion in the coming years, the senators point out.
Looking at the Department of Defense alone, the reliance on continuing resolutions has forced the Pentagon to ground or underfund dozens of programs, resulting in $4 billion in waste for the Navy since 2011, the senators argue.
Perdue, Ernst, and Lankford aim change the dynamic by requiring lawmakers to stay put if they have not approved a budget by April 15 and passed all appropriations bills by Aug. 1. If Congress misses those two deadlines, it would not be able to adjourn for more than eight hours, no funds would be available for official travel back to their districts or states, or on overseas trips such as the one Pelosi planned and Trump canceled to Afghanistan.
To ensure that members of Congress can’t leave Washington, both the House and Senate would hold two quorum calls—essentially a head-count check-in—per day that would force lawmakers to show up and remain within a close distance to the Capitol.
“This dysfunctional cycle is not the way our government was designed to function or should function,” Ernst said. “If we fail to pass a budget and spending bills, we should stay in town and work together until we get the job done.”
Perdue: No Recess Until Funding Process Is Done
Sen Perdue: No Congressional Recess Until Funding Process Is Done
Joe Williams
Atlanta Business Chronicle
U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., and two of his Senate Republican colleagues have introduced a proposal to prohibit members of Congress from leaving Washington until the federal government is reopened.
Under the plan, if both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have not approved a federal budget by April 15 or passed all 12 annual spending bills by Aug. 1, Congress would not be able to adjourn for more than eight hours and no funds would be available for official travel. To enforce the measure, two quorum calls would be held each day to ensure lawmakers remain in the capital.
“Congress should be held to the same standards of people in the real world,” Perdue said. “Washington’s broken funding process has created a dysfunctional cycle of continuing resolutions, last-minute spending deals and government shutdowns. Enough is enough. … We should not go home until we have completed our work. Period.”
Perdue is being joined in the effort by GOP Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and James Lankford of Oklahoma.
***
We’ve put forward a plan to keep the politicians in Washington if they fail to get the job done on time. If the U.S. House and Senate have not passed a budget by April 15 and all 12 funding bills by August 1, then:
- Congress cannot recess for more than eight hours.
- No funds will be available for official work travel.
- Both the House and Senate will have two quorum calls a day to ensure Members of Congress will not leave Washington.
Do you agree? Sign here!
Perdue On Shutdown: “Totally irresponsible,” “broken process”
Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) joins CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss the government shutdown as it enters its 26th day.
“This whole shutdown is over less than 10% of our total federal spending for the year,” Perdue explained. “We stayed here in August last year and got to 75% of our discretionary budget. As bad as that is, it is the first time in 22 years that even happened.”
“This is a broken process here. People in America ought to be outraged that we’re sitting here four months into this fiscal year.”
“We only have about 60-70 working days left in this fiscal year to get ready for 2020 in terms of the funding. I’m not betting heavily we’ll get funding done for 2020, so we’ll be right back here doing exactly this, unless we change the way we fund the government.”
Read more in RealClearPolitics.