This week, U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, along with Reps. Glenn Grothman, R-Wisconsin, Marlin Stutzman, R-Indiana, and Ed Case, D-Hawaii, introduced the bipartisan Stop the Baseline Bloat Act to bring more transparency to the federal budget process by removing emergency spending from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline.
Currently, the CBO includes emergency spending in its annual baseline projections, relied on by lawmakers. This practice distorts long-term fiscal projections, skews the baseline budget toward higher spending, allows Congress to claim credit for artificial savings and contributes to our nation’s growing debt crisis, according to a news release from Gluesenkamp Perez.
The bill ensures emergency spending is treated as temporary and does not artificially raise expectations for future spending.
“In order to seriously take on our national debt and avoid passing it on to our kids, we need to address budgetary distortions that help politicians justify spending through the roof,” Gluesenkamp Perez said. “Our bipartisan bill will remove emergency spending from the baseline set by the Congressional Budget Office, creating a more accurate reflection of our annual spending and how we should responsibly budget for the future.”
Last month, Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez stood with her Blue Dog Coalition colleagues and voted against a budget reconciliation bill that would raise the deficit by $3.8 trillion, the release stated.
