Westmoreland Votes to Cut Federal Spending Another $6 Billion

Today, the House of Representatives passed a three-week extension to the 2011 fiscal year funding bill, referred to as the ‘continuing resolution.’ This is the second short-term stopgap measure passed by the House this year to address the failure of Congressional Democrats and the White House to pass the legislation during last Congress. The 2011 fiscal year began October 1, 2010 and runs through September 30, 2011. The House passed a permanent continuing resolution last month, but so far the Senate has been unable to put together a comparable package. The short-term extension is expected to be passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president sometime this week, and will run through April 8, 2011. Below is Congressman Westmoreland’s statement.

“I am proud that House Republicans were able to draft a short-term funding resolution that will cut more than $6 billion from federal spending over the next three weeks alone. We are continuing our battle in Washington to cut federal spending, lower the national debt, and get Americans back to work, and this resolution is just another example of how we are doing this.

“However, this is only a small victory. A true victory will be passing a permanent continuing resolution that will fund the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year so we can remove the uncertainty created by these short-term stopgap measures. Senate Democrats and the White House need to stop dragging their feet and come to the table willing to make some real spending reforms. We can no longer afford spend money the way Congressional Democrats and the White House have done over the last two years. We must accept the fact that we are broke.

“So far, the only people driving this discussion – and this effort to actually pass a permanent funding bill – are House Republicans. Not only have we already passed a permanent funding bill, but have also been the leading force behind both of the recent short-term measures, making sure that much-needed cuts are included in each bill. Senate Democrats and the White House have so far only been focused on government shutdowns and who’s to blame for the current mess we are in.

“I strongly urge Senate Democrats to listen to the American people – to their constituents – and work with House Republicans to end the unnecessary, wasteful, and duplicative spending in Washington. It’s what the American people want, and it’s time we listened to them,” stated Westmoreland.