DeSantis says House should use ‘power of the purse’ to control federal agencies
Jack Birle
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is pressing Republican members of the House of Representatives to use the “power of the purse” to hold federal agencies accountable.
While on America’s Newsroom on Friday, DeSantis, a former congressman, said the federal government is “spending way too much money” and that current spending levels are unsustainable.
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“This government is spending way too much money. They’ve locked in the COVID-era levels of spending, which are totally unsustainable. So they should absolutely have a big fight over righting that ship,” DeSantis said.
The Florida governor continued by discussing how agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI, should be held to account by Congress. He insisted that Republicans, with control of the House, should be willing to “discipline these agencies” while praising Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).
“But then you also have the issue of — they’re funding really bad policies. So, for example, Biden’s border policies are causing a massive influx of illegal aliens. They’re causing a massive influx of fentanyl, human trafficking, sex trafficking. The Department of Justice and the FBI with the weaponization — when there’s memos circulating targeting observant Catholics as potential terrorists, when the FBI has targeted parents going to school board meetings, the power of the purse is really the way that you hold those agencies accountable,” DeSantis said.
“So some of the guys in the House, like Chip Roy, who are raising the alarm about this, I think are right. And I think part of the reason our bureaucracy is so out of control and this deep state has developed like this is because Congress has not been willing to use the power of the purse to discipline these agencies,” DeSantis continued.
Roy is part of a group of House Republicans who are pushing for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s salary to be reduced to $1 over his handling of the border crisis, as a flex of congressional power.
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The House returns to session from its August recess next week, with the federal budget at the top of the agenda. Congress has until the end of the month to pass a spending bill for the government to avoid a government shutdown, but several key divisions between the two chambers remain.
DeSantis is in second place in the Republican presidential primary, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, behind former President Donald Trump.