Key Vote Alert – “NO” on Emergency Supplemental (HR 2266)

KEY VOTE ALERT

“NO” on Emergency Supplemental (HR 2266)

The Club for Growth opposes the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act of 2017 (HR 2266) and we urge all House members to vote NO on it.  A vote is expected later today.  The vote will be included in the Club’s 2017 congressional scorecard.

This plan increases spending by $36.5 billion without any offsets.  The “emergency” designation assigned to this bill is nothing more than a gimmick that allows politicians to avoid the hard work of cutting spending elsewhere in the budget.  Supporters will say that disasters like hurricanes can’t be anything but emergencies since they are so unpredictable.  But the truth is that natural disasters are predictable – we know with 100% certainty that they will occur in the future.  So fiscally responsible stewards of American tax dollars should plan accordingly, just as American families save money for a “rainy day”.

Also, this proposal includes a bailout of the unnecessary and convoluted National Flood Insurance Program.  This government-run plan distorts the insurance market, creates bad incentives, and is very expensive for taxpayers.  It should be abolished immediately, and it certainly shouldn’t be bailed out.

Perhaps worst of all, the House is trying to pass this plan under suspension of the rules, which means limited debate and no amendments.  When doling out billions of tax dollars, House leadership owes it to the American people to at least have a robust debate about this bill.

Our Congressional Scorecard for the 115th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public.