Poliquin Supports Saving Taxpayers $15 Billion

WASHINGTON – Congressman Bruce Poliquin (ME-02), an original cosponsor and longtime supporter of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, released the following statement today in support of a measure that would rescind $15 billion of taxpayer money that is unspent or expired and would otherwise be wasted, and which would not impact any beneficiary of the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP), according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO):

“Washington’s spending is out of control and, as an original cosponsor and strong supporter of a Balanced Budget Amendment to our Constitution, I’ve long called for changes to our processes in Congress to make sure we can get our spending under control regardless of which party is in power or political pressures,” said Congressman Poliquin. “Only in Washington, D.C. would you find criticism that $15 billion is not a lot of money to save for our taxpayers, especially considering these dollars are unspent or expired, would have no impact on any beneficiary of CHIP, and would otherwise be wasted.”

Congressman Poliquin is a cosponsor of the measure that would rescind $15 billion of taxpayer money that is unspent or expired and would otherwise be wasted. The proposed rescissions would have no impact on any beneficiary of CHIP, according to the CBO.

Since 1974, Democratic and Republican presidents have used this rescission tool to propose nearly $76 billion in cuts to federal spending, of which approximately 40% were enacted by Congress totaling an estimated $25 billion.

Background on Funding for CHIP:

With bipartisan support, Congressman Poliquin helped pass, and the President signed into law, a six-year extension to CHIP in January, the longest and most generous extension of the CHIP program in its 20-year history. Specifically, CHIP funding was authorized at $21.5 billion for FY 2018 with gradual increases to $25.9 billion for FY 2022 and FY 2023.

The rescission proposal would only rescind funds that are either no longer necessary or simply cannot be spent because the authority to do so has expired. Specifically, the proposal would rescind $5.1 billion in amounts made available by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 to supplement the 2017 national allotments to States. It would also rescind $1.9 billion in amounts available for the CHIP Contingency Fund. Neither of the parts of the rescission proposal regarding CHIP would have any programmatic impact, impact on enrollment, nor would have any effect on federal funding outlays.