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Source: Congress.gov
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I'm very proud of this committee on both sides of the aisle for the professionalism, for the civility, mutual respect. I mean, we disagree on a number of things and sometimes vehemently, and we have great, robust debate, but we conduct ourselves in a way that I think reflects the very best of the American people. And that means a lot in this town, not just to me. It's not easy to do, but you guys do it every, you did it, throughout the last Congress, and I want to speak to some of the things that I'm very proud of what we've been able to accomplish, I think as a result of that, quite frankly. But the purpose of the meeting today is it's an organizational meeting to formally ratify our committee membership. We have some new members on both sides. You'll introduce your colleagues, and I'll introduce the Republican colleagues. and then we'll adopt the committee rules and oversight plan for the 119th Congress, which has, to cut to the chase, no substantive changes to it. So, Mr. Ranking Member, I'm just gonna launch into a few opening comments, and then I'm gonna ask you to, and then we'll get on with the business of today. So when I say I'm proud of what we've been able to do collectively, You know, you do, there's some things that we all will do because we believe in our hearts. And with the deepest of personal convictions that they must be done, whether they're done as a, in a bipartisan way, or if we have to do it sort of alone as one caucus or another. And I think both sides have demonstrated that. But I believe, also strongly that when we can work together when we can find common ground i think that's a much more sustainable proposition for the country and thanks to my friend who happens to be my ranking member brendan boyle and his commitment and my democrat colleagues and republican colleagues we've done a lot
They've been nickels and dimes, as I would call them in West Texas, not the big dollar changes. But the nickels and dimes add up on making the budget process, which is completely dysfunctional. But as Tom McClintock, my good friend, would say, the fault is not in our stars. It's in ourselves. So maybe the dysfunction lies within us.
Well, when you, within all modesty with Shakespeare, well, when you hear Tom McLintock enough, you start to get a sense of the Shakespearean spirit. But nevertheless, we were able to pass 17 bills out of this committee. In one Congress, which is more than any Congress from this committee, in the history of its formation in 1974. And 11 of the 17 were done together, collectively. We said, this will make the process more accountable, make us more responsible, and the outcomes better for the country as a result. And Mr. Boyle, you had one that you led where I was in a support role that became law, where we give CBO greater access to data, and they can't be expected to do a good job on accurate projections if they don't have good data. so you helped in that endeavor and then glenn growthman got his first bill passed not only on the house floor but signed into law and um and that was going to reduce the unnecessary and burdensome reports that have no meaningful effect other than to cause people to waste time and taxpayer money but we did it together so my call to you all as we look ahead is, yes, there will be things we will do, like we did our 10-year balanced budget resolution. We will probably end up doing that as a partisan effort. But I hope that we can continue to work on fixing the broken budget process together. I think there's more work to be done there. Secondly, we have to continue sounding the alarm for the American people that this country and their government is on a completely unsustainable path.
Now, I may have one way to address it, you may have another, but at the end of the day, we have to do something. And quite frankly, Jimmy Panetta, you know this better than anybody, some of those things will require both sides to work together or they won't get done and there will be real pain and serious consequences. And I'm talking about Medicare, Social Security that are already on a glide path to insolvency. So I'm excited about the year and two ahead in this Congress and the 119th. I'm excited personally about advancing our new president's America First agenda, but I'm also excited to continue to advance the policies and priorities that we've established in our reverse the curse balance budget blueprint, which essentially is to restore fiscal responsibility and sanity to Washington, to unleash prosperity through economic freedom, and to make sure that taxpayers
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