This week, while U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar led a legislative effort to prohibit Members of Congress from flying first class using taxpayer funds, at a town hall meeting in Mesa, Representative Matt Salmon announced his latest legislative initiative to highlight and cut wasteful and duplicate programs in every area of government.
Rep. Gosar authored and submitted a request to the Committee on Appropriations for specific language to be included in the Fiscal Year 2015 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act that would prohibit the practice of first class flying.
“If our military servicemen can’t fly first-class, neither should we,” Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tells U.S. News. “We should be leading by example.” Reps. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., and Walter Jones, R-N.C., joined Gosar in asking the House Appropriations Committee to adopt a coach-seating mandate for fiscal year 2015.
Salmon released a video message and statement introducing his latest initiative to restore fiscal responsibility to government. “Our nation is drowning in debt – $17.4 trillion dollars of it…Yet, our nation’s leaders continue to approve wasteful spending without a blink, and continue to spend your tax dollars in the most imprudent ways,” said Salmon. “Enough is enough. We must have the courage to start cutting spending somewhere.”
Rep. Salmon introduced H.R. 4231, his first bill in a series to reduce wasteful government spending. The bill would prohibit United States assistance to the East-West Center.
“All too often, our Congress has refused to make the tough decisions to rein in our out-of-control spending problem,” said Salmon. “The time is fast-approaching where if we do not make these decisions ourselves, they will be made for us, as we have seen happen to our friends in Europe and elsewhere.
“Now is the time to keep our promise to cut wasteful spending, regardless of the political consequences, in order to become fiscally sound,” continued Salmon. “We must put partisanship aside as we pursue fiscal sanity.”
“While many of my proposed cuts would only amount to a tiny fraction of a reduction in total federal spending, we must start somewhere. As any family does in times of hardship, we must cut back on expenses and small luxuries,” concluded Salmon. “This bill is only the beginning of my efforts to help get the federal government out of our spending pit, one step at a time. My first bill addresses the East-West Center, a prime example of government pork.”
The East-West Center was established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus to promote U.S.-Asian Relations. As part of the fiscal year 2014 budget, the East-West Center is scheduled to receive $16.7 million in federal funding. Salmon says that the East-West Center already receives large amounts of private funding through the East-West Center Foundation, which is an appropriate way for the Center to fund its programs. With taxpayer funds, the Center gives out grants with little oversight. Salmon advises that the move is not a comment on the work they do, but instead, it is a position that their work should be privately funded.