On the recordJanuary 21, 2010
I rise to speak on the budget deficit and a mechanism this body has embraced in two prior budget agreements that I think it is time to put in place now. It is called the CARFA mechanism, the Committee on Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies. It is a BRAC process on spending. We passed it in the budget resolution twice, with votes on both sides of the aisle for it. What it does is it basically says: OK, we have to look at all of the Federal Government. Places that aren't working, we need to eliminate, and the rest, then, we can use to pay down our debt and deficit. If there were ever a time to do this, this is the time. I have argued for a decade that we need to do this, and I put this bill forward for a decade. This is my last year in the Senate, and I hope we can get it done this year. It has received bipartisan votes, as I mentioned, two times before in the budget. It is a simple mechanism. What it does, it is an eight-member commission, four appointed by each side of the House and the Senate. It has to pass by--six of the members, of the eight have to vote to put forward the recommendations of the commission. It takes a fourth of the Federal Government each year and it recommends spending cuts in that fourth.
