Press Releases

Yesterday, the House Budget Committee, on which Congressman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) serves, completed markup of the fiscal year 2019 budget resolution, a Budget for a Brighter American Future. Among key achievements, the FY 2019 budget balances in nine years and addresses the rising national debt by achieving $8.1 trillion in deficit reduction and cutting at least $302 billion in mandatory spending over a ten-year window. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD CLIP FOR BROADCAST During his opening statement and remarks, Arrington stated in-part: “It’s nice to know that there is a group of legislators that will heed the call of the American people to do our [Congress’] job and get a budget that works - where we can live within our means like every other American household, business, and community. The federal government is the only place I know that spends like there is a money tree at the Treasury. “If we don’t change our trajectory, a sovereign debt crisis will wreak havoc on our country and our country’s economy, and it will leave a bleak and abysmal set of circumstances for our kids and grandkids. Congressman Arrington continued by stating that the FY19 budget sets the country on a sustainable path by chipping away at the deficit, balancing the budget over nine years, and reducing the real driver of the national debt – mandatory spending. Additionally, Arrington debated three amendments that addressed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Obamacare, and immigration policies. Click HERE for video of Arrington debating an amendment on SNAP. “SNAP reform is anything but heartless – it believes recipients have God-given potential that they haven’t fully realized. “We have got to get away from this backward notion of being heartless just because we ask people who are work-capable to go to work. We are not taking their benefits away. We are saying if you can work – work, and we will help you. That’s all it says! This idea that we are going to starve kids is ridiculous. This has nothing to do with kids. This has nothing to do with pregnant women. This has nothing to do with the elderly or the disabled. “We need to restore the dignity, and respect, and value, and culture of work in this country. There’s not a better time to do that when you have the economy growing after 10 years of Obamanomics. Click HERE for video of Arrington debating an amendment on welfare programs. “It is immoral to trap people in a cycle of poverty and dependence on the government, and that’s exactly what our policies have done. “If we are going to measure success on inputs, the Democrats have been successful. They spent 16 times more today than they did in the 1960s - $22 trillion - and we have not moved the needle a bit. “The best cure to poverty is a job.” Click HERE for video of Arrington debating an amendment on Obamacare. “The Affordable Care Act was anything but affordable…Six and a half million people paid three billion dollars in fines because they didn’t want the government to do something that would break the bank for their family. “The House had a solution. Let us have a real market in health care. Let us have insurance providers and health care providers actually treat the American people like consumers; compete for our business, give us choice, give us plans that we can afford and that we do need. That competition is the best way to bend the cost curve.” Click HERE for video of Arrington debating an amendment on immigration. “We need rule of law to be reestablished and respected after eight years of chaos. This President is doing everything he can with the tools and the resources he has, which are wholly inadequate to keep the American people safe and to enforce the laws of the land. “We need to do something for the DACA folks. Let us give them peace of mind; let us give them a legal status; let us put them in the back of the line. I will do that if we can get what the President needs to actually stop the madness of having folks come over here and exploit our broken immigration system. “We need to secure the border, stop illegal immigration, deal with the DACA folks, and go from random to merit-based citizenship.” BACKGROUND Click HERE to read the plan. Click HERE to read a one-page summary. Click HERE to read the legislative text. Click HERE to view illustrative charts and graphs. Click HERE for video of Rep. Arrington at the House Budget Committee press conference announcing the release of FY19 budget plan.