Rep. Smucker: Fiscal Commission is Necessary to Address National Debt
Tells Panel: “We can change the trajectory and ensure the promise of America for future generations. In my view, we have no other choice.”
Washington—Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11), a senior member of the House Budget Committee, offered testimony during a hearing examining the need for creating a fiscal commission. Smucker offered comments in favor of creating a commission, based on his experience serving as a member of a successful commission during his time as a State Senator in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Click here to read Rep. Smucker’s written testimony to Members of the House Budget Committee.
Click here to watch Rep. Smucker’s testimony as delivered.
Below are Rep. Smucker’s comments, as prepared for delivery:
“Thank you for this important hearing and for the opportunity to share with you my thoughts regarding a fiscal commission.
I believe our debt and fiscal trajectory pose an existential threat to America’s future, and I think establishing a commission is our best chance of addressing it.
I say that based on my experience with a highly successful commission in Pennsylvania, which was perhaps the most successful legislative effort I’ve ever been part of.
This was the Basic Education Funding Commission, established in 2014 to address a decades-old problem of how state dollars were divided among 500 school districts. It was a bipartisan, bicameral commission that also included representatives of the governor’s administration.
The commission held hearings around the state for over a year, receiving testimony and input from all stakeholder groups, experts and from any member of the general public who wanted to participate. It worked across two sessions and interestingly across two governors’ administrations (one Republican and one Democrat). Recommendations were released unanimously by the committee members in June of 2015 and were enacted into law in 2016.
In a relatively short period of time, this commission solved a very difficult and previously unsolvable problem.
Some factors that were critical to it’s success.
There was broad bipartisan agreement in the legislature on the nature and scope of the problem.
For a fiscal commission to work, both parties must believe it is necessary. That goes for leadership as well. If either party or the President opposes the commission, it will not work.
The right people were placed on the commission. They were members who had skin in the game, including the chairs and minority chairs of relevant committees.
I suggest our fiscal commission should include the Chairs and ranking members of relevant committees, such as the House and Senate Budget, House Ways and Means, and Senate Finance committees, as well as Speaker appointees and members of the Administration.
Everything was on the table and all opinions were welcomed.
A fiscal commission must be willing to consider all options. Deficits and the debt have increased under the watch of both Republicans and Democrats. We all share responsibility and must consider options that we may not like.
Public engagement and education was critical to the commission’s success.
Perhaps the most important key to success of the commission is to convince the American people that debt will impact them directly, and that change is necessary. This is done through a very transparent, public process, and by amplifying the work of a debt commission with a corresponding public relations campaign.
We know this is going to be tough work, but it can be done. We can change the trajectory and ensure the promise of America for future generations. In my view, we have no other choice.”