Foxx Opening Remarks on the Senate Amendment to H.R. 4
As prepared for delivery:
Good evening, the Committee will come to order. Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time.
Today, the Rules Committee is convening to consider a single measure: the Senate amendment to H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act of 2025.
H.R. 4 has returned to us from the Senate for final consideration – we are here to get this legislation across the finish line and to the President.
It’s unfortunate that the Senate was not able to execute all of President Trump’s recommended rescissions.
However, the bill before us today still rescinds $9 billion that President Trump has identified as wasteful and unnecessary spending.
Our work in this committee here today as it relates to H.R. 4 is an exercise in restoring fiscal sanity that was robbed from the American people by the previous administration.
The money that we are clawing back in this rescissions package is THE PEOPLE’S MONEY – we ought not to forget that.
House Republicans have already detailed to the American people the billions in wasteful spending that we are attacking in this legislation.
From surgical, precise cuts to waste within foreign aid to halting taxpayer dollars being funneled to the idealogues at PBS and NPR, we’re making good on the mandate that Americans gave us.
And, let me quickly remind everyone that the process we are engaging in is not some sort of flagrant and outlandish anomaly or even a stark deviation from the norm as some may claim.
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, that Congress set up more than half a century ago, allows for this process of enacting rescissions of funds to be carried out.
This is the same process that has played out in previous congresses – it’s nothing new. Yes, wasteful spending does occur in Washington – the American people know this to be true, and they want to see immediate change.
Republicans in the People’s House are the ones who are orchestrating that change with this rescissions package and rescissions packages to come.
Americans want their tax dollars to be spent prudently and not chucked carelessly at things that do not align with their values and their own fiscal sensibilities.
This is not a hard concept to grasp.
Republicans understand it quite well, believe me. It’s time that we get this rescissions package across the finish line and secure another significant win for the American people.
They are looking to us to act.
With that, I look forward to today’s discussion, and I now yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. McGovern, for any comments he wishes to make.
###