Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) and bipartisan congressional colleagues have introduced proposed legislation to make the current national debt crisis more transparent to both Congress and the American people (Image courtesy of Peter G. Peterson Foundation).
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Blake Moore has introduced bipartisan legislation to make federal spending more transparent both to Congress and to the American people.
The Fiscal State of the Nation Act would require that the Comptroller General of the United States annually deliver a nonpartisan, objective and public analysis of the nation’s finances to a joint session of Congress.
“At a time when our national debt is the highest it has ever been,” Moore explained, “the Fiscal State of the Nation Act will communicate the scope of the budgetary challenges we face and the need for bipartisan reforms that reduce deficits and balance America’s checkbook.”
On Jan. 16 – the day that Moore introduced that bipartisan legislation into the 118th Congress – the U.S. national debt topped $34 trillion.
Experts correctly point out that debt has been part of America’s political climate since its inception more than 240 years ago. As of 2004, however, the national debt was only a manageable $7 trillion.
Thanks largely to continuing wars in the Middle East since 2001 and the bursting of the “housing bubble” in 2008, the debt skyrocketed to nearly $20 trillion by March of 2020.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and a parade of economic relief legislation that pushed the national debt up to $27 trillion.
In the three years since President Joe Biden took office, the national debt has jumped by another $7 trillion.
The growth of the national debt has been a continuing source of tension on Capitol Hill and a major factor in the polarization of America, according to the inside the Beltway website Roll Call.
Congress narrowly avoided a default in the fall of 2023 through compromise legislation that neither Republicans nor Democrats liked very much. On Jan. 14, House and Senate leaders announced another short-term spending deal that will keep the doors of government open through March, with a spending ceiling of $1.66 trillion for fiscal year 2024.
Moore says that the Fiscal State of the Nation Act will enhance public awareness of the nation’s deficit crisis and highlight bipartisan opportunities to rein in wasteful federal spending.
The current Comptroller General of the United States is Gene Dodaro, who was appointed by President Barak Obama in 2010.
Dodaro heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which works in a non-partisan and non-ideological manner with congressional clients and external parties. GAO supports the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and in helping to improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people.
The agency also carries out audits; evaluative and investigative assignments; and, provides legal analyses to the Congress.
If the legislation introduced by Moore and his bipartisan colleagues is enacted, the GAO would also be responsible for preparing an annual analysis of the nation’s finances that would become part of the congressional current resolution on the budget each year.
The Fiscal State of the Nation Act is being co-sponsored by Representatives Scott Peters (D-CA), Andy Barr (R-KY) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA).
“As stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Moore promised, “this commonsense legislation will hold members of Congress accountable to the American people for how they spend federal funds.”