Mike Conaway: “This budget resolution we are talking about tonight is a target-rich environment for things that we can disagree about…”

“This budget resolution we are talking about tonight is a target-rich environment for things that we can disagree about that are in there. I have been tasked to talk about the things that aren't in the budget that we wish we would have been able to get in the budget, such as process reform. Every year that we have this opportunity to do a budget, we have an opportunity to reform our processes and do this budgeting process in a better way. We spent all day last week in the Budget Committee during the hearing to try to get some of that done; and, quite frankly, we failed miserably on our side to convince our colleagues of the value of some these reforms. Reforms like strengthening PAYGO to make it really mean PAYGO in the way our folks back home would understand it, to have PAYGO apply to the very first year of this budget. We were unable to get that done. I offered an amendment that said if you are going to start a new program, a new, great idea in this vast array of programs that we have in our Federal Government, you would have to kill an existing program of equal or greater spending. Well, in the rarified air of that room that night, I got laughed out of the room.”