In The News

One of my biggest frustrations since coming to Congress has been trying to reform a top-down system of governing in Washington, where Members – and the people they represent - have little say in affecting legislative outcomes. The system often shuts Members out of the amendment process because some special interest may disagree, refuses to tackle pressing issues because of an “unpleasant” vote for a few Members, and allows leadership to decide committee assignments based on fundraising and who you know, rather than merit.

The end result? Our $18 trillion debt keeps rising, job and wage growth remains anemic and our citizens grow more convinced every day that our government no longer works for them. After three frustrating years, I joined the House Freedom Caucus, Members of Congress who requested reforms to make the legislative process what it used to be - open and fair for all Members - Republican and Democrat alike.

Although we’re a long way away from reaching that goal, we’re making progress. Over the last several months, Congress has passed three major bills through what we call “Regular Order” - governing from the ground-up, allowing legislation to flow through committees in an open and transparent manner, and enabling Members to help shape bills before they're voted on.

The first of these bills was the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which advances vital funding for America’s military. While far from perfect, I supported this overwhelmingly bipartisan bill as an effective solution to strengthen American leadership around the world, responsibly fund the military, and give our troops the pay and benefits they earned.

The second, the “Every Student Succeeds” Act, is a K-12 education bill that replaces the “No Child Left Behind” law. While this bill is a marginal improvement, the main reason I opposed it is that while it relinquished some control back to the states, it simultaneously creates more federal programs that we can't afford. The short term gain of getting the federal government out of state business wasn't worth the long term structural consequence of increasing federal involvement that will never be peeled back and is not paid for.


The third, the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST)” Act, is a five-year, fully funded bill that reauthorizes and reforms federal highway, transit and highway safety programs. While the process and content were far from perfect, I voted for it because it’ll help sustain and improve our highways, bridges, railroads, and other vital transit systems. I was especially proud that it included two provisions I sponsored to make our roads safer and to protect American jobs.

All three bills were signed into law by President Obama. You’ll notice I highlight the education bill despite the fact that I voted against it. I’ve said from the beginning that if these procedural reforms are implemented, common sense won’t always win every debate. For the next year we have to deal with a Democrat President and Senate Democrats that can filibuster and support Presidential vetoes. But I can and will support a process that is open, fair and empowers Members of Congress to vote on the merits of the issues, and allow their constituents to judge them accordingly. An open debate may be difficult in the short-term for some Members. However, it’ll pay dividends in the long run by addressing uncomfortable issues, rather than avoiding them and ultimately delaying their impact.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The last bill Congress passed in 2015 was a $1.1 trillion, 2,000 page Omnibus Budget that was negotiated behind closed doors and presented to Members 48 hours before the final vote. Needless to say, I voted no. But in fairness to House Speaker Paul Ryan, that was a mess he inherited and had limited options to improve due to the timeframe.

2016 will see rigorous debate on a host of critical issues: reducing our debt; reforming our tax code; proposing alternatives to President Obama’s disastrous health care policies, and more. Speaker Ryan said that his top priority is to build off of the progress we’ve made - changing how the House does business and returning the legislative process (“Regular Order”) to the manner our Founders intended. My colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus will hold him to that. Our constituents simply will not - and should not - accept a continuation of the status quo.