Date: October 31, 2019

Subject: Increasing Debt by Removing a Mass Transit Budget Control Mechanism

Description: Jones (D-AL) amendment to a continuing appropriations and health extenders bill allows mass transit programs to be exempted from the financial discipline of being paid for based on anticipated tax collections. Since spending was projected to exceed the amount of funds available within the mass transit account of the Highway Trust Fund, a 12% across-the-board cut was scheduled to go into effect. Instead, this amendment allows Congress to violate the "Rostenkowski solvency test" which is named after a longtime liberal Democrat from Chicago who realized Congress must find a responsible way to pay for public transportation projects before Congress authorizes them. Yes, even Rep. Rostenkowski (D-IL) realized government must have a way to pay for things before committing taxpayers to government projects. ACU opposes removing an imperative, decades-old safeguard that has protected taxpayers from wasteful and out-of-control government spending and believes the fact that Republicans also voted for this measure demonstrates the country truly has a bipartisan spending problem. (The underlying bill was signed into law without this fiscally responsible measure.)

Result: Amendment Agreed to, 82-11

Democrat: 40 Yeas, 0 Nays, 5 Not voting
Republican: 41 Yeas, 11 Nays, 1 Not voting
Independent: 1 Yeas, 0 Nays, 1 Not voting

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