James Comer: “I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 272, the…”

“I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 272, the Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act. This bill is a timely and important reform to ensure Congress and the public can review all Federal spending. This bipartisan legislation make it possible for the public and every member of Congress to readily find and compare the annual budget justification and supporting materials that each agency prepares and sends to Congress. This detailed review is critical to ensuring that our tax dollars are spent properly. This reform is also needed now more than ever. Last year alone, the Federal Government spent more than $6.8 trillion. Unfortunately, this trend in massive government spending does not seem to be slowing down any time soon. The Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act will require all agencies to make their budget justification materials available online in plain language. In doing so, this legislation will empower Congress' ability to conduct oversight of Federal agencies' use of taxpayer dollars by consolidating agency data. It will also provide much-needed transparency to the American people. Requiring each agency to provide detailed plain language explanations of how they intend to spend taxpayer dollars ensures Americans can review those decisions at any time. I want to thank my colleague, Congressman Mike Quigley, for working with me on H.R.…”