Centrist House Democrats Warn Leadership About Unchecked Spending Following 'Dreamer' Vote

This content leverages data from USAFacts, a non-profit that visualizes governmental data. You can learn more on its website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Twenty Democratic lawmakers from the centrist Blue Dog Coalition on Wednesday wrote a letter warning House Democratic leadership not to bring bills to the floor that would increase the deficit.

The letter comes after the House on Tuesday passed the American Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 6), which would provide legal status and a path to citizenship for roughly 2.7 million ‘Dreamers’ and recipients of Temporary Protected Status. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that over the next decade the bill would increase deficits by $34.6 billion by making those granted legal status eligible for federal welfare programs, such as health insurance subsidies, Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps).

To bring the bill to the floor, House Democratic leadership had to waive Congress’s Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rule, which requires legislation that would otherwise increase the deficit through changes to mandatory spending programs include offsets (like higher taxes or spending cuts). While the House can waive the PAYGO rule by a simple majority (all but 9 Democrats voted to do so for the bill), it takes 60 senators to waive the PAYGO rule in the upper chamber which is unlikely to occur in this case.

The Blue Dog Coalition’s letter read in part:

“Next year, we will spend more servicing interest on the debt than all federal funding that supports our kids. That means we will soon spend more on our past than we will investing in our future. The least Congress can do is to prevent the problem from getting worse, and PAYGO does just that. We urge you, in the spirit of the House rules, to only advance legislation that is fully paid for.”

The Senate is unlikely to consider the bill, but if it were to become law it would increase spending on Medicaid and SNAP. These charts from USAFacts show how average enrollment in Medicaid grown every year since the program was expanded under Obamacare in 2010, while average enrollment in SNAP has declined in recent years due to a strengthening economy after reaching an all-time high in 2013.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / jetcityimage)