WASHINGTON, DC – With less than four weeks to reach a bipartisan deal and avoid a government shutdown, U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (OK-04) discussed what it is going to take to keep the government up and running in remarks before The Ripon Society yesterday morning.
Cole, who currently serves as the 43rd Chairman of the committee with significant influence over federal spending, opened with an honest observation about why federal spending has gotten so out-of-hand.
“The whole thing is driven by the retirement of the baby boomer generation” the Chairman shared, “an aging population — and frankly, the inability and unwillingness of either party to do anything on entitlement spending ever. And so, to finally actually do something, which we did in the Big Beautiful Bill, was really historic.
“Nobody thinks about balancing the budget. We don't pay for tax cuts, and we do lots of tax expenditures quite frankly. So, if you want to find the real root of the deficit problem, it's not in our committee — it really is in all the places where we don't have jurisdiction.”
Cole was first elected to the House in 2002. He served as Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2006 to 2008, and is viewed as one of the top political and legislative strategists in today’s GOP. In his remarks yesterday morning, he shared that partisan tensions have escalated since President Trump was reelected, but that he still can rely on three whip-smart legislators to work with him to get a deal done: Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Susan Collins (R-ME), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03).
“We always got a deal done. I respect them. We disagree on issues, but I will tell you, they're tough, talented, but honest and fair negotiators. Susan Collins is very much that same mold.”
He also credited Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for his vote earlier this year to keep the government open.
“Either you shut it down or you pass it, one or the other. But in the end, Senator Schumer did what I think, and what President Trump said at the time, was the right thing and the smart thing. The right thing was to keep the government open for the American people. The smart thing was not to shut it down. They'd have to come back and reopen it three weeks later with nothing to show for it.”
But despite their bicameral, bipartisan efforts, a shutdown still looms overhead.
“Whoever is perceived as being responsible will get the blame,” the Sooner State legislator continued. “And over whatever issue, it won't matter. Because as soon as the government shuts down, that issue disappears. And the discussion becomes who shut down the government? Why? And when are they going to open it again? And every single day, more people get inconvenienced.”
Cole then reflected on the positive work being done in the upper chamber.
“The Senate has started in a very bipartisan way, where they come to agreements and they're starting to move bills. This is the first time in seven years that the United States Senate has moved a bill across the floor, an appropriations bill, before September.
“That's really where we're at now. We could have a shutdown, in which case I think the Democrats would regret it because if we get something out of the House or the President puts on the table, 'I'll sign a clean CR for X amount of time to give you guys a chance to finish up your work,' and they shut down the government. I think they still have the problem that they had before Democrats shut down the government.”
“We'll see what the Democrats want to do, but they're smart. They'll come to a deal. The deal is a compromise, but it's going to be a deal that Donald Trump is willing to sign. The idea that we will have the Congress of the United States, which is run by Republicans, take on the Republican President of the United States because the Democrats feel bad about that – that ain't happening.
“You want to have a check on spending, go win the next election. Right now, you've got votes, you've got cards to play, but you don't have the ability to force us to take on the President of the United States because you're mad at him.”
“If you want to make a difference, you have got to be responsible. And for this to work, it has to be bipartisan. We're coming out of a period where in the Congress, because of the 'Big Beautiful Bill' – that's reconciliation – it's shirts and skins.”
“We think we've found the right balance. We think we have the right negotiating partners. But I've got to have leadership in both chambers and both parties and an administration that think a deal is better than a CR. … So, I'm hoping for an outbreak of sanity between now and the end of the month. And I see hopeful signs.”
To view the remarks of Chairman Cole before The Ripon Society Thursday morning, please click the link below:
