WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee's new chairman, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., fended off criticism from Democratic lawmakers on the committee's new cut-as-you-go provision and the elimination of a diversity and inclusion subcommittee.
Amid invigorated zeal to slash government spending among the Republicans' more conservative wing, the House has swapped the pay-as-you-go
In the House Financial Services Committee, a provision approved in Wednesday's panel organization meeting will mean that any new legislation coming out of the committee would have to find those cuts within the panel's jurisdiction.
"If you wish to increase spending, you need to find offsets within our jurisdiction," McHenry said. "It's a very straightforward set of rules."
With Democrats maintaining control over the Senate, little is expected to pass through Congress in the next two years, but the cut-go measure could still be consequential. Some bipartisan bills are still in play, such as stablecoin and crypto legislation, which both McHenry and the panel's ranking member, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., say they want to pass. But such a bill will likely require enforcement and technology-based infrastructure whose costs will have to be offset within the agencies under the committee's jurisdiction.
While many of those agencies are self-funded, Waters suggested during the markup that affordable housing funding could be on the chopping block.
"These new provisions will ultimately make any new spending that much harder to pass, including new spending for badly needed affordable housing," she said. "Not to mention that they will pave the way for even more tax cuts that are inevitably tilted towards the wealthy and profitable corporations."
Waters also criticized the exchange of the diversity and inclusion subcommittee that she set up during her time as chair of the panel. Instead, McHenry established a new committee on digital assets.
"I'm deeply disappointed that my Republican colleagues are coming to the conclusion that diversity and inclusion issues simply aren't important enough to prioritize anymore," Waters said.
In a press release announcing the subcommittees under his committee leadership, McHenry listed diversity and underserved communities in the descriptions of the committees, notably the new panel concerning digital assets. Waters said that the commitment wasn't reflected in the official documents concerning the panel's jurisdiction.
"While Chairman McHenry has indicated that diversity and inclusion would be specified as part of the jurisdiction of each subcommittee based on these rules, he's fallen short of that initial commitment," she said.
