Granger Remarks on FY22 Subcommittee Allocations

Madam Chair, thank you for yielding.

These spending allocations will increase discretionary spending by hundreds of billions of dollars to an all-time high of $1.5 trillion.

This nearly 9% increase above fiscal year 2021 comes at a time of record-high deficits and debt:

• This month, the national debt reached an astonishing $28.3 trillion. 
• In the first 8 months of this fiscal year, we have already borrowed $2.1 trillion. 

We must exercise fiscal responsibility and return to reasonable levels of federal spending, now that the pandemic hopefully is nearing an end.

Although these allocations do not show the exact split between defense and non-defense programs, we know the topline is based on the president’s budget.  Those numbers included an enormous, 17% increase to non-defense programs. At the same time, the president’s budget cut defense spending to below inflation.

We are facing increasing national security and technological threats from adversaries like Iran, Russia, and China.  Underfunding our national defense right now is completely unacceptable to members on my side of the aisle.

This year marks the first time in over a decade that the Appropriations Committee will consider bills without any budget caps in law. 

Unfortunately, instead of coming together with Republicans to figure out common-sense funding levels, the Biden Administration doubled-down on increasing domestic spending, while refusing to provide our military with even baseline levels of support.

We also need to be mindful that many of the non-defense programs in this year’s appropriations bills have already received huge amounts of funding this year in the $1.9 trillion mandatory spending bill that the majority pushed through Congress without bipartisan support. 

On top of that, the Biden Administration wants $4 trillion more in mandatory spending this year, and trillions of tax increases over the next decade. 

I am afraid these appropriations bills will only serve as messaging documents and leave us in a continuing resolution in October. 

With less than 100 days left before the end of the fiscal year, we need to get to work now to craft bills that can be enacted.

I urge the Majority to work with us to ensure responsible funding levels – especially for our national defense – and to remove controversial policy riders that will prevent bills (laws) from being signed into law. 

In closing, I am disappointed in our failure to come together to find bipartisan consensus on spending levels and allocations.  I hope we can find common ground during markups over the next few weeks and in the months ahead.

I urge a no vote and I yield back my time.