“President’s Salary SUBMIT Act”
In four of the past five years, the president has missed his budget deadline, signifying how little importance he places on getting our deficit and debt under control. With a $16.7 trillion debt, it is imperative that Congress and the president put forth a plan to get our nation’s fiscal house in order. Just like hardworking families do in Western North Carolina and across the country, the federal government needs to rein in its spending and set fiscal priorities.
After the president signed the No Budget, No Pay Act into law, it is time that he is held to the same standard of not getting paid until he produces a budget. That is why I recently cosponsored the President’s Salary SUBMIT Act which places the president’s salary in escrow starting with the budget deadline until he submits one to Congress. It is time that elected officials are held responsible for failing to govern, and this legislation would do just that.
Welfare to Work Legislation
Since 1996, work requirements for welfare recipients have given Americans a hand up rather than a handout. Devised under the Clinton administration, the work requirements in the heavily bipartisan welfare reform law have incentivized people to escape from poverty and a life of government dependence. Unfortunately, on July 12, 2012, the Obama administration attempted to undermine this key component of welfare reform by allowing states to opt out of the work requirement. With almost half of Americans living in a household where at least one person is dependent on a government benefit, work requirements for welfare recipients play a pivotal role in breaking that reliance.
This week, the House passed H.R. 890, the Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act of 2013. This legislation prohibits the administration from waiving the work requirements that were established 17 years ago.
Getting Americans Back to Work with the “SKILLS Act”
With 20 million Americans unemployed or underemployed and 3.6 million job openings unfilled, it is imperative that we overcome what experts are calling “the skills gap.” In 2012, President Obama called on Congress to work with him to develop a skills training program that is more efficient. However, it has been a year and the president has failed to act.
That is why Congress has taken action by recently passing the SKILLS Act. This legislation aims at cutting through bureaucracy and streamlining our federal workforce development programs so we can provide Americans with the skills they need to seek one of those 3.6 million jobs. By identifying duplicative and wasteful programs and reforming the broken workforce development system, we can help get Americans back to work and boost our struggling economy.
Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations
I am proud to announce that I will now be serving in a leadership capacity on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Chairman Darrell Issa has recently named me the new Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations. I look forward to working with Chairman Issa to streamline how our government operates so it becomes more efficient, less costly and accountable to the American people.
