On May 2, FMA National President Craig Carter expressed concern and objections with House-passed legislation to address the debt ceiling. The legislation, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811) passed on April 26 by a vote of 217-215, mostly along party lines. "FMA recognizes Congress and the Biden Administration clearly need to craft a solution to the looming debt ceiling issue,” Carter wrote. “No one – Democrat, Republican, or independent – wants to see the country default on our debts, knowing the financial crisis that would cause around the world, and we acknowledge H.R. 2811 as a continuation of the dialogue toward a reasonable, sustainable solution. However, the bill, as passed by the House, regrettably misses the mark.

“The bill would undercut all federal agencies by capping spending at Fiscal Year 2022 levels, resulting in a 22 percent cut for all but the Department of Defense. This would cripple most agencies, resulting in catastrophic job cuts, hiring freezes, furloughs, pay cuts, and elimination of overtime for remaining employees. This is unacceptable treatment of the dedicated public servants who worked through the Covid-19 pandemic at their own personal risk to provide services to the American people: services such as providing for the country’s defense, health care for our veterans, ensuring food safety, processing of Social Security benefits and tax returns, and so much more. Many field offices providing these services would close, and the extreme reduction in resources would directly impact all Americans with increased wait times, delays, and unenforced laws.

“We often hear about the ‘growing’ size of the federal workforce. The reality is federal employees make up approximately 2.1 million tax-paying Americans, which is less than the number of federal employees in 1980. The U.S. population was 225 million in 1980 compared to more than 334 million today. It stands to reason that the workforce needs increased resources to provide these citizens the services they expect.

“FMA respectfully opposes H.R. 2811, and pledges to work with both chambers of Congress and the Biden Administration as they work on a debt ceiling solution, FY24 appropriations, and beyond.”