Congressman Denny Rehberg

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today joined House Republicans in declaring a unilateral moratorium on earmarks, including tax and tariff-related earmarks for fiscal year 2011.  This moratorium comes in the wake of a year that saw record spending, record deficits and record expansions of government.

“Earmarks have become the symbol for all the abuse and waste in Washington.  While every aspect of my own earmark process has been open and transparent at unprecedented levels, many of my colleagues weren’t as open.  That’s why I have joined in this effort to enact some spending reform.  This earmark moratorium won’t balance the budget by itself, however it is an important first step and demonstrates to the American people that we are serious about bringing true fiscal reform to Washington.

“Like the Montanans I’ve heard from, I’m upset about the dramatic increases in the budget and downright furious about all the new spending.  From taxpayer-funded bailouts for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, AIG, Banks and the auto industry totaling more than $1 trillion, to a $1 trillion so-called stimulus that only stimulated bigger government, to a $1.2 trillion government takeover of health care, this Congress can’t spend money it doesn’t have fast enough.  I’m proud to be the only member of Montana’s delegation who voted against all of these big spending plans and in favor of true fiscal responsibility.  Montanans are rightfully upset about these dramatic increases in spending, which is why I am an original cosponsor of a Constitutional Amendment to require the Federal Government to balance the budget.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today released the following statement regarding the President’s budget proposal for 2011.

“Despite promises of fiscal restraint, this blockbuster budget spends too much, borrows too much and taxes too much. It’s full of the same failed policies that gave us record spending, record debt and double-digit unemployment over the past year. It’s time to get this country on track for a true economic recovery. Instead, this budget plan offers more irresponsible and unsustainable government spending.”

The President’s budget contains $3.8 trillion in spending for Fiscal Year 2011. It pushes the deficit to $1.6 trillion this year and ensures that it will never drop below $700 billion over the next decade. It also raises taxes by $2 trillion through 2020.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman Denny Rehberg issued the following statement on the President’s 2010 State of the Union Address to a Joint Session of Congress.

“ America must look forward not backward, but we also must remember the lessons of the past.  Last year, we saw reckless deficit spending with no tangible benefit to the taxpayers.  While unemployment reached double digits, government spending increased 66% - in a single year.  Clearly, we can’t spend our way into prosperity.

“Last year, I called for ‘bipartisan restraint.’  We must balance the budget by cutting spending, not raising taxes.  Without Congressional action, Americans will face the largest tax increase in our history.  It will further harm our economy and cost real jobs.  There’s never a good time to raise taxes, but I can’t think of a worse time than now.

“It’s time for Congress to abandon its pursuit of job-killing policies.  Whether it’s cap and tax legislation or a government takeover of health care we can’t continue to saddle small businesses with the burden of special interest priorities.  It’s time for a real economic stimulus that empowers small businesses and families.

“Finally, we must not turn our back to the real threat of terrorism.  Recent events have demonstrated the need to increase our national vigilance in order to protect our lives and our way of life.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today issued the following statement supporting a request by C-SPAN that all future health care negotiations be open to the public through media coverage.

“Despite promises that this Congress would be the most open and transparent in history, every single major piece of legislation we have considered has been stitched together in secret back rooms and then rushed through the legislative process, bypassing committees and public scrutiny.

“Now, as the government takeover of health care is being finalized, Republicans have been kicked out of the room and the doors have been closed to the public.  This is not how a Representative Government behaves.

“With health care, we’re talking about more than one sixth of our economy.  We’re literally talking about life and death and the very standard of living we enjoy in this country.  If we get this wrong, we can’t undo it.  The public has a right to see this process in its entirety.

“President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about he value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s heath care system,” wrote C-SPAN in a letter to House and Senate Leadership.  Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.”

Last year, Rehberg signed a pledge not to vote for any health care bill that hasn’t been online for at least 72 hours and that he hasn’t personally read.  This pledge came after several major bills were passed without enough time for them to be read.

In February, 2009, Congress passed a so-called “stimulus” bill that was the largest spending bill in American history. Members of Congress were given only 13 hours to examine the bill, which was 1,100 pages long. At the time, Rehberg said, “The bill was dropped on us [the U.S. House] at 11 o’clock at night. I would have had to read each and every page in that bill in 24 seconds or less. That’s how much time we had.”

In June, 2009, a 300-page amendment was added to the Cap and Tax bill at 3 a.m. on the day the bill was passed in the House. The complete bill was never made available in its entirety by the time of the vote. Even more troubling, Speaker Pelosi demanded a vote on the legislation even though it included blank pages as placeholders for portions that would be added later.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today criticized the passage of a second stimulus bill which spends $154,000,000,000 of borrowed money on more of the same efforts contained in the trillion-dollar “so-called” stimulus. While the vast majority of the funds from the first stimulus have yet to be spent, the House of Representatives today voted to seize the inbound TARP repayment funds in order to pay for more spending. Provisions contained in the original bill obligate those funds to pay down the national debt.

“While Montanans desperately need a true economic stimulus that empowers entrepreneurs and small businesses to create jobs, we instead got another dose of the prescription that has failed us so spectacularly since February. More spending and larger government hasn’t helped anyone outside the public sector, and the record debt it incurred puts our shared future in serious jeopardy. It’s hard to imagine a policy that’s more out of touch with what I’ve heard at the 36 listening sessions I hosted across Montana this year. There’s a word for doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, and this exemplifies it.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today released the following statement after voting against a $290 billion increase in the federal debt limit.

“While we were able to delay Speaker Pelosi’s reckless effort to increase the federal debt limit by nearly $2 trillion by the end of the year, today’s increase to $13 trillion – the unprecedented fourth increase since 2008 – represents another major step in the wrong direction. Every man, woman and child in Montana, already owes nearly $40,000. We can’t afford to delay fiscal sanity; it’s time to cut up the federal credit card.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. -  Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, joined every other Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee in sending a letter to House Speaker Pelosi and Appropriations Chairman Obey indicating that they would not support the Defense Appropriations bill if it was used as a vehicle to increase the federal debt limit.

“Using troop funding to pass politically unpopular measures in a time of war is nothing short of legislative extortion and it needs to stop,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.  “A line needs to be drawn, and a message sent: you don’t support the troops by holding the resources they need hostage to legislation that can’t pass on its own merit.  The majority promised to clean up Washington, and they can start by introducing a clean defense funding bill.”

Although a final Defense Appropriations Bill has not been formally introduced, reports have surfaced indicating that a massive increase in the statutory debt limit is going to be attached.  This isn’t the first time House Democrats have used military funding to pass other parts of their agenda.  In October, controversial hate-crime legislation was attached to the House version of the Defense Authorization Bill.

Rehberg has cosponsored legislation that would require all increases in the Statutory Debt Limit to be considered as a stand-alone measure, and to pass by a 2/3 supermajority.

Federal debt is capped by a statutory limit set by Congress.  The limit, which is ordinarily increased as a part of the Federal Budget Resolution, was recently increased to $11.315 trillion by TARP and then again to $12.104 trillion in the so-called Stimulus that passed in February.  Another increase to as much as $13.2 trillion is expected to be added to the Defense Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010.

“My support for our brave men and women serving in harms way overseas is a matter of record,” said Rehberg.  “In fact, it’s that support that compels me to stop some members of Congress from treating soldiers like a bargaining chips.”

Letter:

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Obey,

We are writing today to express our extreme concern over the potential composition of a Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations bill package, and the process by which you intend to bring the bill to the House floor.

Recent reports indicate that you are considering attaching costly and controversial non-defense legislative items like an increase in the debt limit to the Defense Appropriations bill. We object to this maneuver, and we will oppose a Defense Appropriations package that includes such provisions.

Let us be very clear: House Republican members of the Appropriations Committee will not support passage of the Defense Appropriations measure if it is used as a vehicle to raise the debt limit.

Our troops have been aggressively fighting to protect American interests overseas and our security here at home. Their exemplary service has accomplished much in ensuring the safety of all Americans and stopping terrorist threats around the globe. Now, especially with a heightened effort beginning in Afghanistan, we must honor the service of our troops by providing them with the support they need to accomplish the mission.

Our men and women in uniform deserve this support without strings and caveats, and without being used as bargaining chips to accomplish other unrelated legislative priorities.

It has been four months since the House passed its version of the Defense Appropriations bill, and two months since the Senate did the same. However, this critically important piece of legislation has languished in legislative purgatory, being held hostage to indecision and partisan maneuvering. There is no valid reason why a clean Defense Appropriations bill could not have already been approved and signed into law, giving our troops a much needed infusion of resources, as well as the knowledge that they have the support of their Congressional leaders.

Congress should move immediately to pass a clean Defense Appropriations bill as prompt action on this legislation is vital to the well-being of our troops and our national security. However, while time is of the essence, we will not support a process that circumvents basic legislative responsibilities in order for the Democrat majority to force through controversial and costly legislative items.

It is time to pass a clean Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that we all can be proud to support. Our troops deserve no less as we bring this challenging year to a close.

Sincerely,

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, released the following statement after he joined members of both parties in voting against the massive $446.8 billion “Multi-Bus” Appropriations Act, which included six different appropriations bills: Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Commerce, Justice, Science, Financial Services – District of Columbia, Labor, Health, and Human Services, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and State and Foreign Operations.

When added to the $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Bill that passed less than a year ago, non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending has increased by more than 85% over the last two fiscal years.

“Although we’ve been working on these bills since March, the majority has been so busy devising new ways to spend taxpayers’ money that it couldn’t get its normal work done.  The result was a 1,088-page spending bill that was so wasteful that even 28 Democrats couldn’t stomach voting for it.  After the Omnibus and the Multi-bus, the American people are shouting ‘Stop the Bus!’  It’s time to pull the emergency brake on this spending.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has cosponsored a resolution that would require any increase in the federal debt limit to be considered as a stand-alone bill and require a supermajority of 2/3 of the House of Representatives to pass.

“Montanans can’t vote themselves new credit cards when they’ve maxed out their credit, and it shouldn’t be easy for Congress to effectively do the same thing,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.  “We currently owe almost 100% of our annual GDP, and rather than reducing spending, some in Congress want to borrow more and more money – money that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back.”

Federal debt is capped by a statutory limit.  The U.S. Treasury Department issues debt to fund government operations, but cannot borrow more than the total debt allowed by Congress.  Currently, this increase can be attached to must-pass legislation, such as war funding, and requires only a simple majority to pass.

The limit, which is ordinarily increased as a part of the Federal Budget Resolution, was recently increased to $11.315 trillion by TARP and then again to $12.104 trillion in the so-called Stimulus that passed in February.  Another increase to as much as $13.2 trillion is expected to be added to the Defense Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2010.

The Resolution that Rehberg cosponsored would amend House Rules to require that any increase in the statutory debt limit be considered as a stand-alone bill and pass with a supermajority of 2/3.

“This isn’t monopoly money,” said Rehberg.  “We’re talking about real debt that will have consequences for the rest of our lives and long into the lives of our children.  We need to get a handle on spending, and this legislation is an important step toward doing that.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, released the following transcript of a speech he delivered to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.  His remarks address recently released figures on the website recovery.gov which is being roundly criticized for claiming the so-called stimulus created jobs in non-existent Congressional Districts.

“When Congress passed the trillion dollar “so called” stimulus, the national unemployment rate was 7.6 percent.  Some politicians warned that without the stimulus unemployment could pass 8 percent.  This month, unemployment blew past 10 percent, and like you, I’m wondering where the jobs are.

In the infinite wisdom of government, $18 million was spent on a website to tracks jobs.  The just-released job figures for Montana are listed by Congressional District.  Montana, of course, has only one district.  Yet, the federal government spent $372 thousand to create one single job in Montana’s nonexistent 8th  Congressional  District.  Our imaginary 16th District did better with 32.5 jobs.  Only a bureaucrat would count half a job  in a district that does not exist.

The government spent a trillion dollars to save and create jobs, and the opposite has happened.  Millions more Americans have lost their jobs , and now, they want to fix health care like they fixed the economy.”

The site, which Rehberg has previously criticized for its $18 million price tag and biased perspective on stimulus spending listed jobs in several Montana Congressional Districts.  Montana has only one At-Large district.

The $18 million website lists stimulus money spent and jobs created in the following Montana Congressional Districts: 00, 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 14 and 16.  It also identifies money spent in the following districts without creating jobs: 6, 11, 30 and 87.

The Montana section of recovery.gov can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/yzvtmjk (The site was referenced on 11/17/09, and was amended after published reports of the glaring inaccuracy.)