Utah Sens. Mitt Romney, Mike Lee want Congress to budget for natural disasters

Utah Sens. Mitt Romney, Mike Lee want Congress to budget for natural disasters

(File photos)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's two GOP senators and two other Republicans introduced a bill Tuesday to build room in the federal budget for natural disaster spending.

The legislation, sponsored by Utah Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, would require future disaster funding to fall within the budget, according to a joint press release.

Romney said Congress planning ahead — instead of borrowing billions each year — for natural disasters is long overdue.

"By building disaster spending into the annual budget process, instead of busting our spending limits and adding to our national debt, our bill will both ensure that funding is available for disaster assistance and save taxpayers billions of dollars every year," he said.

Lee said the government should not be able to avoid difficult financial realities by simply marking funds as "emergency" or "disaster relief."

"We’ve seen in the last five years that Congress would rather borrow and spend instead of cutting wasteful, unnecessary programs and saving for a rainy day," he said. "While this bill would only impact a small portion of total federal spending, it is a step in the right direction.”

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahPolitics
Dennis Romboy
Dennis Romboy is an editor and reporter for the Deseret News. He has covered a variety of beats over the years, including state and local government, social issues and courts. A Utah native, Romboy earned a degree in journalism from the University of Utah. He enjoys cycling, snowboarding and running.

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast