Fiscal hawks in the House of Representatives have a new BFF.
A group of lawmakers led by Democratic Rep. Scott Peters of California and Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan have formed the “Bipartisan Fiscal Forum” — BFF, for short — which they say is dedicated to “sounding the alarm about our nation’s unsustainable debt trajectory and working together to get control of our fiscal future.”
The lawmakers say that the group began informally back in 2020 and will now try to elevate the issues of the debt and the broken budget process with fellow lawmakers and the public. They argue that addressing those issues requires bipartisanship. “We owe it to our children to acknowledge our country's unsustainable fiscal trajectory and work together, across the aisle, to address it over time,” Peters said in a statement. And Huizenga tweeted: “It's time for Washington to wake up to the threat our national debt poses and the true cost of financing such a massive burden.”
As part of that approach, the group sent a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling for the creation of a fiscal commission. “Our nation faces debt levels and interest costs that threaten our economy, and we must act as soon as possible, and we must do so collaboratively,” the letter says. “If designed and executed properly, a commission has the potential to make significant strides toward fiscal sustainability.”
The steering committee for the group includes Republicans Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Ron Estes of Kansas, Bill Johnson of Ohio and Blake Moore of Utah as well as Democrats Ed Case of Hawaii, Jared Golden of Maine, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Jimmy Panetta of California. The group did not release a full list of members but said that “more than 70 current members of Congress have participated in BFF activities.”
