IFPTE Requests Congressional Representatives Reject Debt and Budget Legislation that Hurts American Workers, Veterans, Seniors, and Economic Prosperity
UPDATE:
On Wednesday, April 26, the House of Representatives passed the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” on a party line vote, 217 to 215. See how your Representative voted here.
Last week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA) and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R, TX) unveiled legislation they call the “Limit, Save, Grow Act,” which seeks to extend the debt ceiling but also defunds essential services that working Americans, retirees, veterans, and communities across the country count on. With Majority Leader McCarthy intending this bring this bill to a floor vote this week, IFPTE sent a letter telling Members of the House that this bill will hurt Americans in every Congressional district.
The legislation will set federal government spending levels at the fiscal year 2022 levels and then limit federal budget growth to 1% annually, resulting in a budget that cuts spending by 22% and therefore falls woefully behind with respect to inflation, causing unnecessary harm to the economy, and cutting a wide range of federal programs that touch every part of the country.
IFPTE’s letter to Members of the House of Representatives notes some of the provisions of this bill that will spread economic harm to Americans:
Denial of financial assistance funds for rescuing multiemployer pension plans. Currently, 42 applications are under review, and over 100 pension plans are waiting their turn to file for financial assistance. This pension rescue plan was passed in the House with bipartisan support in the 116th Congress as the Butch Lewis Act (H.R. 397). This will unfairly create a financial burden for workers and retirees who were counting on their pension benefits to be shored up.
Repeal of federal investments to modernize the energy sector. This legislation will hamper job creation in the energy sector, hurt American workers and America’s energy independence, and undermine commitments to achieving clean energy goals. These provisions will eliminate energy production and investment tax credits that will support good paying jobs in advanced nuclear energy, hydrogen production, hydroelectric power, sustainable aviation fuels, and wind and solar power.
Repeals critical funding for the Internal Revenue Service included in the Inflation Reduction Act. The $80 billion funding is necessary for improving the delivery of services to taxpayers, providing the agency resources to effectively enforce tax laws, restore staffing levels, and provide more than $200 billion in tax revenue over 10 years.
Termination of student loan debt forgiveness for federal borrowers and termination of the Department of Education’s income-driven repayment plan. This hurts working people burdened with student loan debt, which has outpaced other forms of consumer borrowing and harms national economic competitiveness and pathways to the middle class.
Cuts federal government spending to Fiscal Year 2022 levels, which will have devastating impacts on our nation’s veterans, seniors, workers, public safety, and national security. Underfunding government services means veterans will wait longer to receive services at the Veterans Health Administration, retirees will face delays and service cutbacks at Social Security field offices, workers would lose job training and registered apprenticeship opportunities, communities would be impacted by significant cuts to FBI personnel and federal support for the COPS hiring program, and some 4,500 wildland firefighters will be furloughed, and some 1 million people will lose mental health crisis support services and an estimated 2 million Americans would lose access to healthcare provided by Community Health Centers.
The authors and backers of the legislation are leveraging the need to increase in the federal debt limit, which is a legislative limit that is expected to be breached sometime in July or August 2023, in order to force Congress and President Biden to agree to budget cuts that will be painful for Americans and the economy. While Congress has raised the federal debt limit 78 times since 1960 without controversy, the failure to raise the limit will trigger an unprecedented and unnecessary default of the federal government’s debt obligations. The Congressional delay in passing a clean debt ceiling increase will harm the credit rating of the U.S. government, which happened in 2011 when Congress delayed raising the debt limit. until the last moment. If the debt limit is breached, it is likely to result in a delay or a suspension of federal payments that Congress has already authorized, including payments related to Social Security and Medicare benefits and all manner of federally funded services and programs. This is likely to trigger a U.S. recession, ripple through global financial markets, and possibly cause a global economic downturn. Again, this would be an unprecedented situation that has been avoided in the past.
Read IFPTE’s letter to the House opposing the “Limit, Save, Grow Act” here.
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