Polar Opposite Proposals

Christiane Amanpour

Polar Opposite Proposals

Christiane Amanpour

Monday’s Budget and Domestic Affairs Committee meeting commenced with Rep. Katie Porter (Antoinette Damico) introducing her “Farms Feed Children and Schools Act.”

In her bill, Rep. Porter accounts for the 90 percent of the schools involved in the program that face issues of funding shortages and quality food. Since COVID-19, students’ test scores, grades, mental health, quality of education, and physical health have decreased due to the rise in childhood hunger. Rep. Porter’s bill proposes to create a network of “Farms to Schools” to connect school districts to accessible, healthy food.

“Over 100,000 public and private schools partake in the national school lunch program, and a lack of funding causes them to raise costs on other students who do not qualify for the program. This unfair burden amounts to $7 billion of unnecessary fees every year, which is why I have proposed to raise the budget [for the program] by the same amount to account for this issue.” Rep. Porter stated on the witness stand. This bill will benefit local family farms and schools by providing clientele and income to the small farms, and healthy, sustainable food to feed children.

The meeting then progressed to marking up the bill, resulting in amendments in sub-section section six—the budget allocated will be $5 billion, down from $7 billion, and the money should be pulled from the unspent COVID-19 pandemic relief fund, instead of the Department of Education. The first amendment passed with a vote of 5-4, and the second passed with unanimous consent.

In a rather appalling turn of events, Rep. Randy Weber (Jacob Rosenthal) proposed HR-002— “Make American Borders Safe Again.” This bill calls for funding to complete the development of a wall along the Southern border, while also bringing funding to “modernize and strengthen” the Northern border. Rep. Webber proposes utilizing funds from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to “protect America, and all that beautiful stuff that comes with being American.” As eloquent as that sounds, this is a disgusting bill to propose to begin the new session of Congress. Rep. Weber’s nerve to stand in front of the budgetary committee, unprepared, with no concrete budget proposal was shocking to listen to.

Rep. Porter is recognized for the first question, “What information did you use to conclude that the Inflation Reduction Act has anything to do with the border?” Rep. Weber responds, again, ever so eloquently, “Well, the Inflation Reduction Act seems to me to be funding things that it shouldn’t really be funding.”

Thankfully, Rep. Porter continues with her questioning comparing sections 3a and 3c. “In section [3a], you said ‘an amount not exceeding $75 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act shall be earmarked and directed toward this bill’; but then in [3c] you allocate $100 billion, can you please clarify how much money you would like to spend on this?” Rep. Webber attempts to explain his budget by sharing that $75 billion is reserved for the Southern border, and $100 billion is allocated toward the Northern border. Anyone with an elementary level of math understanding can figure out how the math is not ‘mathing.’ Rightfully so, Rep. Porter follows up with, “You want to spend $175 billion and you have not stated that anywhere in the writing of this bill.” As Rep. Weber flounders to defend his bill, his answers are unstructured and unconvincing.

Rep. Maxine Waters is recognized for a question. “Taking out money from a fund that is used to not only contribute to the high inflation rates across the country but also to help stabilize the economic debt we have [with] other countries. Taking out $75 billion would, in turn, remove that money that we owe to countries like China which are on the verge of surpassing America’s economic status. Your party wants to stop China’s economic growth, how do you think that $75 billion being taken out of that fund would stop China?” Rep. Weber responds by claiming that $75 billion is a “very small fraction” of the total $1.7 trillion available in the Inflation Reduction Act, and the remaining funds could easily pay down domestic and international debt. Rep. Waters then asks how Rep. Webber plans to reimburse the money he is reallocating, to which Rep. Weber replies, “Why is there funding going toward climate change?”

Rather disappointingly, Rep. Weber’s bill was voted out of committee by the Democrat’s motion to lay the bill on the table failing. The bill was passed through the Rules Committee on Tuesday.