National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility Report

Senate Committee Budget

The co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, testified on the commission's final report. The commission was a bipartisan group created by President Obama to address the federal debt.

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Report on Debt Challenges Goes Before Congress

co-chairs launch project to implement changes

WASHINGTON, DC
Tuesday, March 8, 2011

With Congress still working on the federal budget for last year, the Senate Budget Committee heard today  from the Co-Chairmen of the President’s commission on fiscal responsibility and reform on their final report.

Co-Chairman Erskine Bowles told Senators the “fiscal path we are on today is simply not sustainable” and that our federal debt was a “cancer that will destroy us.” Bowles was joined by co-chairman and former Republican Senator Alan Simpson at a hearing chaired by North Dakota Democratic Senator Kent Conrad, a fellow member of the fiscal commission who voted for the report last year. The final report, which did not receive enough commission votes to be officially issued, calls for $4-trillion dollars in deficit reduction over ten years.

The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform met early last December for a vote on its report recommendations. In order for the commission to submit its suggestions to Congress, 14 of the 18 members were required to vote in support, but only 11 members favored the recommendations.

Also today, the commission's co-chairmen host an event to launch their new self-developed "Moment of Truth Project." The project's initiative is designed to build on the momentum created by the Fiscal Commission and promote bipartisan action on the debt and deficit.