Senator Lankford Named 2020 Fiscal Hero

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) was named a 2020 Fiscal Hero by the Committee for a Responsible Budget. Fiscal Heroes is an award that recognizes Senators and House Members who have distinguished themselves by demonstrating leadership on issues of fiscal responsibility, pushing party leaders to confront the growing national debt, voting responsibly and raising awareness about debt’s dangers to improving the nation’s fiscal condition.

“Our nation faces so many challenges these days: a global health crisis and an economic downturn that no one saw coming at the beginning of this year,” said Lankford. “As we work towards solutions to these problems, we can’t take our eyes off the debt and deficit challenges that continue to increase. The bill on our debt will come due one day and we should not ignore the inevitable by saying we’ll handle it later.  I’m grateful for the Committee’s recognition of these efforts, and I look forward to upholding my commitment to solving our debt and deficit issues with real solutions to reform the budget process and eliminate wasteful government spending.”

“These members are being recognized for going the extra mile to develop and endorse solutions to the nation’s budget crisis,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “They have distinguished themselves by casting fiscally responsible votes, drafting and pursuing legislative solutions, pushing their party leaders to make addressing the debt a priority, and engaging and educating their constituents… We want to commend these members who take the debt seriously. This issue requires their bipartisan leadership and willingness to take hard votes and pursue innovative solutions. They deserve our thanks and praise.” 

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization committed to educating the public on issues with significant fiscal policy impact. As an independent source of objective policy analysis, the Committee regularly engages policymakers of both parties and help them develop and analyze proposals to improve the country’s fiscal and economic condition.

Background

Lankford has pushed for commonsense, practical reforms to address our debt and deficit. Since 2015, Lankford has introduced a federal waste and solutions report to provide ways to address the national debt and deficit called Federal Fumbles: Ways the government dropped the ball. In his latest report, Lankford listed $383 billion in wasteful and inefficient federal spending on a variety of programs and processes throughout the federal government. Following the release in November 2019, Lankford spoke about the report on the Senate floor and covered why addressing our nation’s national debt and deficit is important. Lankford has pursued a number of solutions to address some of the largest and smallest areas of waste, including making significant reforms to the budget and appropriations process. Lankford serves on the Appropriations Committee and served on the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform in 2018. Lankford continues to address government shutdowns, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars with his bipartisan Prevent Government Shutdowns Act. The Prevent Government Shutdowns Act holds Members of Congress accountable and protects the taxpayers by keeping Members and their staffs in DC until the work to fund the government is complete.  In August 2020, Senator Lankford took a procedural step to move his bipartisan legislation forward in the legislative process.

Lankford serves on both the Finance and Appropriations Committee with the opportunity to oversee all mandatory and discretionary federal spending. 

###