Arrington Advances Reconciliation 3.0

This press release from Representative Jodey C. Arrington (R-TX) was published on 2026-07-16 and titled "Arrington Advances Reconciliation 3.0".

Arrington Advances Reconciliation 3.0

Washington, D.C. – Today, the House Budget Committee passed the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2027 , a critical first step in unlocking the reconciliation process to support our troops, secure our elections, and strengthen our food supply. Upon passage of the resolution, House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX–19) issued the following statement: “Republicans are united and undeterred in our fight to restore America's greatness,” said Chairman Arrington. “We don't have a country if we can't defend it, and we don't have a democracy if people can't trust the outcome of our elections. Passing Reconciliation 3.0 will support our troops, secure our elections, and SAVE America.” Chairman Arrington delivered the following opening remarks at today's committee markup. Click here to watch. Remarks as delivered: After four years of lawlessness, incompetence, and what I think most Americans believe was a radical agenda after suffering one self-inflicted crisis after another, from the border chaos, to the cost-of-living crisis, 40-year-high inflation, to the projection of weakness on the world stage—the American people said, "Enough." In the historic 2024 election, the American people overwhelmingly elected Donald Trump and unified Republican leadership here in Washington. From day one, President Trump has hit the ground at Mach speed and moved with more purpose and urgency than any president in modern history, certainly in my lifetime. He has secured the border and stopped the flow of crime, criminals, and drugs that have been pouring into our communities and threatening the safety of our families. He has rebuilt the military not on woke ideology but on warfighting, providing for the common defense, and restoring peace through strength. He stopped the unfair trade practices that were perpetrated on our great nation, leveled the playing field for our farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and our workers. He declared war on fraud. One million dollars every minute of every hour of every day for a year is what is leaking in fraud out of the people's government, and he has a whole-of-government attack on that—over $500 billion a year in fraud. He's ended the gravy train, free-rider foreign dependence on America's defense, and a whole lot of other things that are making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. For our part, Republicans in Congress passed the first reconciliation bill with no help from our Democrat colleagues to stop what would be the largest tax hike in history. We advanced what was the largest tax cut in history, providing permanent tax relief to hardworking Americans. We also, in reconciliation one, ended the Green New disaster that was crushing American families and consumers with high energy prices and weakening our country. So, we're restoring American energy dominance. We rooted out record savings in waste, fraud, and abuse: $1.6 trillion. That's twice as much as any Congress in the history of the United States. And I think, probably most importantly, we made the largest investment in the history of our country in national defense and border security. So, we boosted the pay of our troops, along with their morale. And most importantly, we strengthened our military to provide for the common defense. All of this, in the face of what I believe is unprecedented Democrat obstruction. So let me make that case. Exhibit A: the first longest shutdown in America's history. We had an agreement. We put forward a clean continuing resolution to fund the government. We said, let's fund the government at what we agreed to fund it last year until we agree on how we're going to fund it this year. The Democrats said no for the first time ever and shut the government down. Here were their demands: repeal the safeguards for American tax dollars to stop them from flowing to people who are not eligible, or who are here illegally, or are capable of working but refuse to work. So, repealing the work that we did to root out waste, fraud, and abuse—that was their demand. Secondly, later in the process, they demanded that we extend a COVID-era, fraud-ridden program that had defrauded taxpayers by tens of billions of dollars. Those were their unreasonable and ridiculous demands. Fast forward: government shutdown number two. Democrats held hostage the American people's safety and the Department of Homeland Security: our Coast Guardsmen who protect our ports, our Border Patrol who stand in the gap and risk their lives to defend our sovereign border, CISA agents who protect us against cyberattacks—all of it shut down because of what I would say is unserious and even dangerous demands that would have returned our country back to wide-open border chaos, and it would have imperiled the safety of our law enforcement. We had to use Reconciliation 2.0 just to fund Homeland Security. My Democrat colleagues would not do that unless we defunded ICE and CBP. So, we had to use reconciliation as Republicans only—not a sing