EGO Act

Mr. President, I wish to submit to the Senate the budget scorekeeping report for April 2018. The report compares current-law levels of spending and revenues with the amounts the Senate agreed to in the budget resolution for fiscal year 2018, H. Con. Res. 71. This information is necessary for the Senate Budget Committee to determine whether budget points of order lie against pending legislation. The Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee and the Congressional Budget Office, CBO, prepared this report pursuant to section

308(b) of the Congressional Budget Act, CBA.

The enforceable levels included in this report reflect all of the numerical adjustments made to the resolution since its passage. The information contained in this report captures legislative activity from passage of the budget resolution through April 9, 2018. The only law enacted with significant budgetary effects since my last filing, on February 28, 2018, was the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, P.L. 115-141.

Republican Budget Committee staff prepared tables 1 to 4 of this report.

Table 1 gives the amount by which each Senate authorizing committee exceeds or is below its allocation for budget authority and outlays under the most recently adopted budget resolution. This information is used for enforcing committee allocations pursuant to section 302 of the CBA. For this reporting period, 10 of the 16 authorizing committees are in compliance with their allocations. As previously reported, the Senate Veterans' Affairs; Energy and Natural Resources; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Finance; and Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committees are in breach of their allocations. Since my last report, several committees' allocations were affected by changes in the nonappropriations provisions included in the omnibus appropriations bill. Still, the only new committee creating a breach was the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which spent $100 million more in both budget authority and outlays through Division P of the omnibus, Ray Baum's Act of 2018, than allowed under the budget resolution.

Table 2 gives the amount by which the Senate Committee on Appropriations is below or exceeds the statutory spending limits. This information is used to determine points of order related to the spending caps found in sections 312 and 314 of the CBA. Appropriations for 2018 are consistent with the statutory limits as modified by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.

The budget resolution contains two points of order limiting the use of changes in mandatory programs in appropriations bills, CHIMPS. Tables 3 and 4 show compliance with fiscal year 2018 limits for overall CHIMPS $17 billion, and the crime victims fund CHIMP, $11.2 billion, respectively. This information is used for determining points of order under sections 4102 and 4103 of H. Con. Res. 71, respectively. CHIMPS included in the 2018 omnibus comply with the existing limits.

In addition to the tables provided by Budget Committee Republican staff, I am submitting CBO tables, which I will use to enforce budget totals approved by Congress.

CBO provided a spending and revenue report for fiscal year 2018, which helps enforce aggregate spending levels in budget resolutions under CBA section 311. CBO's estimates, which now include the full effects of appropriations for this year, show that current-law levels of spending for fiscal year 2018 are above the amounts assumed in the budget resolution by $152.2 billion in budget authority and $105.5 billion in outlays. For fiscal year 2018, Social Security outlay levels remain consistent with the budget resolution's assumption

Current-law revenues continue to be in excess of the levels assumed by the budget resolution. On-budget revenue levels currently exceed assumed levels by $3.2 billion in fiscal year 2018, $39.8 billion over the fiscal year 2018-2022 period, and $94.2 billion over the fiscal year 2018-2027 period. For fiscal year 2018, Social Security revenues are $446 million below levels assumed in the budget resolution.

CBO's report also provides information needed to enforce the Senate pay-as-you-go, PAYGO, rule. The Senate's PAYGO scorecard currently shows deficit reduction of $24 million in fiscal year 2018, but deficit increases of $10 million over the fiscal year 2017-2022 period and $11 million over the fiscal year 2017-2027 period. For fiscal year 2018, legislation has been enacted that would reduce outlays by $24 million. Over the fiscal year 2017-2022 period, legislation has been enacted that CBO estimates will decrease outlays by $13 million and decrease revenues by $23 million. Over the fiscal year 2017-2027 period, legislation has been enacted that CBO estimates will decrease outlays by $11 million and decrease revenues by $22 million. Consistent with recent congressional practice, the direct spending and revenue provisions included in the non-Appropriations Committee portion of the fiscal year 2018 omnibus, which increased deficits by $2.8 billion over 10 years are being excluded from PAYGO calculations. This is due to provisions in the omnibus that mandated the exclusion of those budgetary effects both from the Senate and statutory PAYGO scorecards. The Senate's PAYGO rule is enforced by section 4106 of H. Con. Res. 71.

Also included in this submission is a table tracking the Senate's budget enforcement activity on the floor since Congress adopted the budget resolution. Two points of order were raised since my last filing. On March 14, 2018, Senator Sanders raised a PAYGO point of order against S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. This point of order was waived by a vote of 67 to 31. On March 21, 2018, Leader McConnell raised a PAYGO point of order against Senator Wyden's amendment, S. Amdt. 2213, to H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017. This point of order was sustained with a vote of 21 to 78 on Senator Wyden's waiver motion.

All years in the accompanying tables are fiscal years.

I ask unanimous consent that the accompanying tables be printed in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 188) to prohibit the use of Federal funds for the costs of painting portraits of officers and employees of the Federal Government, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration, including an exchange of letters on the House companion bill, H.R. 1701, between the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on House Administration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 188, the Eliminating Government-Funded Oil-Painting Act, a bill introduced by Senator Bill Cassidy. In years past, the Federal Government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on portraits of government officials. Taxpayer funds should be invested in programs that benefit taxpayers and our country, not oil paintings of Cabinet members to boost their egos.

That is why today we consider S. 188, the Eliminating Government- Funded Oil-Painting Act, otherwise known as the ``EGO Act.'' The EGO Act makes clear, once and for all, that government agencies cannot spend taxpayer dollars on oil paintings.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, bipartisan legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and

Government Reform,

Washington, DC, December 6, 2017.

Hon. Gregg Harper,

Chairman, Committee on House Administration, House of

Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: On September 13, 2017, the Committee on

Oversight and Government Reform ordered reported H.R. 1701,

the ``Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting Act'' with

an amendment, by voice vote. The bill was referred primarily

to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, with an

additional referral to the Committee on House Administration.

I ask that you allow the Committee on House Administration

to be discharged from further consideration of the bill so

that it may be scheduled by the Majority Leader. This

discharge in no way affects your jurisdiction over the

subject matter of the bill, and it will not serve as

precedent for future referrals. In addition, should a

conference on the bill be necessary, I would support your

request to have the Committee on House Administration

represented on the conference committee. Finally, I would be

pleased to include this letter and any response in the bill

report filed by the Committee on Oversight and Government

Reform, as well as in the Congressional Record during floor

consideration, to memorialize our understanding.

Thank you for your consideration of my request.

Sincerely,

Trey Gowdy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to make the gentleman from Virginia aware that I have no further speakers and I am prepared to close. I enjoy my colleague from Virginia's rather dry sense of wit and humor.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This is a sad day in the swamp, to eliminate oil paintings of men and women who consider themselves very important, to make sure that taxpayer funds are never used for such a thing; sad day for the swamp in Washington.

One can come to the Capitol and look at oil paintings that bestride every corridor and wall, in hearing rooms here in the Capitol, and not know most of these people. We haven't got a clue who most of them are. We recognize John Adams, but when we go to committee hearing rooms, one or two chairmen past, we often don't know who they are.

I guess it was an attempt to achieve immortality, but it really is an act of ego that is a little embarrassing, even for Washington, D.C.

This is an important bill, a commonsense bill, that brings us all back to Earth; that none of us is expendable and that, frankly, we make our contribution and we move on.

This bill strikes at the uncontrolled egos and, I hope, sends a message to those narcissists among us that they can stay that way if they wish, but the taxpayer is not going to pay for their oil painting.

I thank my friend from Iowa for bringing up the bill. I support the bill, and urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Iowa, with whom I share a dry sense of humor. I will remind him, being Irish, that leprechauns are always on the shoulder, especially this time of year.

Mr. Speaker, I like this bill. I think most taxpayers are going to like this bill. I think it is high time we acted on this kind of improvement and injected a sense of humility and humanity into our enterprise here in the United States Capitol. I urge passage of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 188, the Eliminating Government-funded Oil-painting Act, an acronym for the EGO Act.

S. 188 is the Senate companion to H.R. 1401, legislation that I introduced along with Representatives Jim Bridenstine, Cheri Bustos, Walter Jones, Leonard Lance, David McKinley, Pete Olson, and Tom Rice.

My friend and former House colleague, Senator Bill Cassidy, is the lead sponsor of S. 188 which passed the Senate unanimously on September 18, 2017.

The EGO Act would prohibit Federal funds from being used to pay for the costs of painting portraits of officers and employees of the Federal Government. Federal agencies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on portraits that are displayed within agency buildings, often in secure locations that are not open to the public. Although this money is only a fraction of a percentage of the federal budget, it represents a failure to exercise fiscal restraint. Every dollar the government spends on vanity projects for federal officials is a dollar that is not spent improving the lives of everyday Americans.

Congress has the responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used efficiently and effectively. For these reasons, I am proud to sponsor the EGO Act, and urge the House to pass S. 188, sending it to the President's desk.

Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany S. 188.

The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives:

Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 188) entitled

``An Act to prohibit the use of Federal funds for the costs

of painting portraits of officers and employees of the

Federal Government.'', do pass with amendments.

Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendments, and I ask unanimous consent that the motion be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.