Coalition Letter Supporting Budget Control Act

Full Document Available in PDF

CEI and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce joined two-dozen organizations in sending a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to keep their promise and adhere to the spending caps.

Dear Member of Congress:

On behalf of our organizations and the millions of members we represent, we urge you to ensure that any legislation providing discretionary funding for Fiscal Year 2016 adhere to the discretionary spending levels set forth by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA).

Congress passed the BCA with bipartisan support and a promise to cap overall discretionary spending every year for the following decade. Even with these modest spending limits, discretionary spending will still increase in 2016 and every year thereafter.

Since its implementation, the BCA has been a rare victory for fiscal responsibility in Washington and has helped to control the growth of government spending and reduce deficits. Sadly, though not surprisingly, some in Washington want to abandon the BCA caps in order to spend more taxpayer money and add to the growing debt burden for current and future generations.

Facing an $18 trillion national debt, abandoning these modest spending limits by directly breaking the BCA caps or using budget gimmicks to get around them would be fiscally irresponsible and send a dangerous message to the American people. Hard-working Americans deserve to have their policymakers live up to their promises on spending. Under the BCA, total discretionary budget authority in FY 2016 is capped at $1.016 trillion. Any discretionary spending legislation exceeding that level would break the promise made to the American taxpayers.