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This week, Congressman Rick W. Allen (GA-12) offered amendments to H.R. 7617, a Fiscal Year 2021 minibus that totals over $1 trillion, to cut spending by 5 percent. However, under the Democrat majority, only one of Congressman Allen’s amendments -- in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education division of the bill -- was ruled in order. Today, Congressman Allen’s amendment was rejected by House Democrats and the House passed H.R. 7617, by 217 to 197, without addressing our national debt crisis.

Congressman Allen’s remarks during debate on the House floor can be found below.

Today we are considering six of the twelve traditional appropriations bills in one package.

We must get back to regular order - a process where we carefully consider and examine each bill - and one that works for the American people!

The bills in this package would spend $1.3 trillion in total discretionary spending, a 13.9% increase from the budget that was agreed to.

I would once again like to state for the record that the Democrat majority can’t even stick to the bipartisan budget that was agreed to last year!

The first appropriations package that was passed last week contained $37 billion in “emergency” measures, and this package adds another $207 billion of such spending.

With that addition, according to the Congressional Budget Office estimate, this level of spending is 23.5% higher than the President’s request.

No business or family in this country would ever dream of spending money they don’t have – so why does this body think we are an exception?

Unfortunately, that is business as usual here in the 116th Congress.

My amendment today is simple – it would reduce the total amount of funding for the Labor, HHS, and Education division by 5% for Fiscal Year 2021.

HHS alone is a $1.2 trillion agency, and employs hundreds of lawyers.

Without my amendment, this division provides a net total of $222.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2021 discretionary budget authority.

If you do the math, my amendment would cut about $9.8 billion.

I urge my Democrat colleagues to support my amendment, since they will still be overspending, just a bit less than they initially intended.

And I just want to note that I wanted to offer a five percent cut to multiple divisions throughout this bill but continuing the Democrats’ shadowy process, only this one amendment to this bill was ruled in order.

We can no longer neglect our national debt crisis, which is at unsustainable heights.

It is morally wrong to burden our children and grandchildren with excessive debt because we can’t seem to get our act together and exercise fiscal constraint.

How in the world can we create a standard of health care, and a standard of living in this country, on the backs of our children and grandchildren?

We can’t pay for it!

So what do we do?

We send it to our children and our grandchildren...

I urge my colleagues in this body to support my amendment today, and let’s start having a serious discussion about how we can once again unleash economic growth in this country by restraining spending.