Utah congressmen speak at PDI

  • Published
  • By Mary Lou Gorny
  • Hilltop Times editor
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  As Congress faces a potential stalemate over the need to authorize funding for the federal government, two Utah congressional representatives delivered conservative talks on the need to be fiscally responsible to a group of budget and finance professionals assembled at Hill Air Force Base on Feb. 22.

Rep. Rob Bishop and Sen. Mike Lee, both Republicans, in turn reviewed their positions on the stalemate in Congress over the continuing resolution to fund the federal government, at the Professional Development Institute. The professional conference was hosted by the Utah Chapter of the American Society of Military Comptrollers.

Rep. Bishop said, "We have to be very careful in Washington that we don't forget that one of the few purposes of government in Washington is defense," as he reviewed briefly some of the recent budgetary battles over military programs and platforms.

Sen. Lee, later that day, talked about the constitutional authority Congress has to provide for defense, his own concerns about the federal deficit, and an amendment he has co-sponsored in the Senate which would eliminate the ability of Congress to raise the debt ceiling which then could only be circumvented with a two-thirds super majority vote in both houses of Congress.

Lee acknowledged that there were other such proposals before Congress, but described the amendment proposal he backed as one of the strongest. "Mine, so far, in the Senate at least, is the only one that I've seen that cannot be overridden except by this kind of super majority vote."

"It's going to be an interesting time," said Lee, of the coming decisions faced by the nation's leaders and the challenging decisions to be faced.

Both congressmen addressed in turn, the differing challenges and options in regards to discretionary and non-discretionary government spending.

Bishop noted it was best to first address discretionary programs and get Congress to agree on that, and that while funding for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid needed attention, that wasn't likely if Congress couldn't at least agree first on the discretionary spending programs.

Bishop also addressed the need to keep jobs here through adjusting corporate tax structures and the economic climate, noting that not only was the U.S. losing jobs to China and Mexico, but Europe as well. "If we want jobs to come back here, if we want the manufacturing jobs to come back here, if we want those kind of service jobs to come back here, we have to deal not only with the budget so that we are not driving ourselves in debt, but we also have to deal with the regulatory and tax climate that will encourage people to invest here and keep these jobs over here in the United States."