Each month I want to provide you with regular updates about what’s going on in our nation’s capital and throughout the 4th District of Kansas. Here’s what happened in October.
Fiscal Year End and National Debt Update October marked the start of the government’s new fiscal year, which brought a sobering reality check along with it. On the last day of fiscal year 2024, our national debt clocked in at a whopping $35,464,673,929,171.69 and at the time of this writing was already up to $35,848,521,510,437 (and counting). This means we added more than $2 trillion to the national debt in the last fiscal year alone. This is completely unsustainable. Spending like this hurts the next generation and our current economic standing as a nation.
I’ve long been committed to trying to correct our nation’s dangerous fiscal trajectory. I’ve cosponsored a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution multiple times and introduced an amendment to cut 1% of non-defense spending in the last Congress. In February, I helped introduce the Business Cycle Balanced Budget Amendment, which would require the federal government to balance its budget and rein in out-of-control spending, and earlier this summer the Budget Committee passed my bill that would require more transparency from the Congressional Budget Office so lawmakers and the public can know how much money is being spent across the whole federal government, including executive orders and judicial actions that never go through the legislative process.
It took years to get into this mess and it will take years to get out, but fiscal year 2025 offers us another chance to change course to improve our nation’s finances. Moving the Farm Bill Forward
Farmers, ranchers and producers play a critical role in the 4th District and also help feed, fuel and clothe the world. As I’ve traveled throughout the district in recent months, many of those working in agriculture have expressed frustrations about still operating under the outdated policies of the 2018 Farm Bill, all while inflation has driven up costs.
As a result, I’ve prioritized ensuring the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 sufficiently meets the needs of our hardworking Kansas farmers and ranchers. I was glad to see this bill pass out of the House Agriculture Committee earlier this year, but we need it to come to the House floor for a vote on passage. That’s why I joined many of my colleagues this fall in sending a letter to House GOP leadership urging them to take up the 2024 Farm Bill, so it is one step closer to being enacted.
New Border Numbers Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released new data that show that fiscal year 2024 (FY24), which just came to end, was the second-worst year for inadmissible alien encounters ever – only surpassed by the all-time record set by the Biden-Harris administration in FY23. When you compare the data from the Biden-Harris administration to the previous administration, the scale of the crisis becomes even more clear. From FY21-FY24, inadmissible encounters were 10.8 million, compared to 3.004 million over the previous four years. The number of illegal aliens on the terrorist watch list who have been stopped trying to enter our country has climbed to 392 in the last four years, compared to only 14 during the same timeframe under the previous administration. Similarly, in the last four years, CBP has seized 9,055 pounds of fentanyl, compared to 1,604 pounds in FY17-FY20.
Our open borders have created a crisis across the country. Crime has increased, state and local budgets are being strained and more fentanyl on the streets has led to more deaths. We must return to tried and tested policies, like remain in Mexico and ending catch and release, that will secure our border and our nation. I’ve sponsored, cosponsored and supported common sense legislation to do just that.
Connecting Kansans To Unclaimed Retirement Savings During my time as Kansas State Treasurer, I worked to reconnect Kansans with hundreds of thousands of dollars in unclaimed property and saw firsthand the life-changing impact that this had on people. Now, I am working to get the Department of Labor to do something similar when it comes to unclaimed retirement benefits.
There are 29.2 million unclaimed 401(k) accounts holding approximately $1.65 trillion in assets across our country. The workers and families who own these funds often have no idea of their existence because they have changed jobs or their former employer has gone out of business. Unfortunately, regulatory ambiguity allows thousands of these 401(k) accounts to go unclaimed.
In an October letter I led with a fellow former state treasurer, I urged the Department of Labor to develop a uniform, nationwide regulation that allows state unclaimed property programs to help reunite individuals with their lost retirement savings. Having the Department of Labor work with state treasurers will go a long way in helping reunite retirees with their hard-earned benefits.
Connect with Me
Interested in receiving regular updates about what’s going on in Congress? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter at estes. house.gov and please don’t hesitate to reach out to my District Office in Wichita at 316-262-8992 if you have questions, concerns or need help with a federal agency.
Ron Estes, one of only a handful of engineers in Congress, worked in the aerospace, energy and manufacturing sectors before representing Kansas’ 4th Congressional District since 2017. He is a fifth-generation Kansan, former state treasurer, and serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, Budget Committee, and Education and the Workforce Committee.
