Local Congressmen Describes First Two Months

Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-8th) issued a newsletter Saturday highlighting the news of his first two months in Congress.

He also compared the early days of the 111th Congress with his in the 112th, which can be seen in the images.

First Two Months of the 112th Congress at a Glance:

In the first months of the 112th Congress, House Republicans have passed legislation to reduce government spending by trillions of dollars, including the following:

• Voted to cut our own budgets by 5 percent, saving $35 million each year (H.Res.22).
• Voted to ban all earmarks (House Republican Conference Rules for the 112th Congress).
• Voted to reduce new spending by $2.6 trillion over ten years and reduce the deficit by $700 billion with the repeal of the federally-mandated health care law (P.L. 111-148).
• Voted to roll back current government spending to FY2008 levels or less, which will reduce non-security discretionary spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels (H.Res.38).
• Voted to end the taxpayer funding of presidential election campaigns and party conventions, saving $617 million (H.R. 359).
• Voted to end the wasteful mandatory printing of bills introduced in Congress, which are now available on the Internet, saving the American taxpayers $35 million (H.R. 292).
• Voted to support cops and fire departments.

Last week, the House approved a Continuing Resolution (CR) to provide discretionary government funding for the duration of FY2011 set to expire on March 4, 2011. The House voted to pass the CR after over 90 hours of Floor debate and over 500 amendments submitted for consideration under the first open rule in history of the United States Congress. The CR passed and cut over $60 billion in discretionary spending for FY2011, and $100 billion from the President’s proposed budget for FY2012. This is the largest reduction in discretionary spending in the history of our nation.

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick voted for 46 amendments that cut an additional $26.1 BILLION on top of the original CR, which cut over $60 BILLION.