Good morning folks - 

Iowans sent me to Washington to Make ‘Em Squealand in 2018, I will continue to research and identify areas of waste, abuse and inefficiencies within our government. Once a month, I give out my Squeal Award, which recognizes a Washington program or concept that has proven to be wasteful and must be cut.

Currently, we are more $20 trillion in debt and that number continues to rise, in-part due to Congress' inability to pass a balanced budget and responsibly appropriate funds. Continue reading our proposed solution below...


Squeal Award: No budget? No pay.

Did you know, that over the last 60 years, Congress has passed a budget resolution and all of our annual spending bills only four times? 

To make matters worse, Congress will likely consider a fourth short-sighted continuing resolution to fund the government in the last six months. 

The responsibility of Congress, as outlined in Article 1 of our Constitution, is to handle financial and budgetary matters of the federal government - in other words, establishing a budget is constitutionally and legally part of our job.

I know I don't have to remind hardworking Iowans of this, but if anyone outside of Washington didn’t do their job, they would not get paid - simple as that.

This is why I have co-sponsored the commonsense No Budget, No Pay Act. This bipartisan legislation would withhold the pay of Senators and Representatives until Congress is able to pass a bicameral budget and all of our appropriations bills by the end of the fiscal year.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Congress has averaged five continuing resolutions per year since 1999. Not only are we shirking our responsibility to thoughtfully appropriate funds, but these short-term spending bills hurt our military and waste millions of taxpayer dollars.

Enough is enough. We can no longer kick the can down the road and continue to pile on debt because we refuse to take the time to pass our spending bills through regular order. 

I have repeatedly called on Senate leadership to cancel recesses and turn on the Senate 24 hours a day, seven days a week in order to get more work done, like passing a balanced budget. 

All that said, this month’s Squeal Award goes to Congress which has repeatedly failed to pass a budget – while still getting paid. Therefore, it’s critical that the No Budget, No Pay Act becomes law to make it clear to our colleagues that if Congress continues to fail to do its job, there will be no pay.


Do you have an example of government waste or inefficiencies that I should take a look at? Send me an email by clicking here.

Thank you!