This week two House Education and the Workforce subcommittees held a hearing focused on the Save Local Business Act (H.R. 3441), of which I'm a co-sponsor. The Save Local Business Act rolls back the expanded definition of the joint-employer rule to define joint employers as two or more employers who have “actual, direct and immediate” control over employees.

In August 2015, the National Labor Relations Board expanded the joint-employer standard to define joint employers as those who have direct or indirect control over employees. Under the new joint-employer standard, employers who contract with a separate company can share control over that company’s workforce.

For example, the standard allows franchisors to control and heavily monitor franchisees, including in the areas of hiring, firing and other day-to-day operations, creating unnecessary burdens for franchisees.

Earlier this week, the House passed an appropriations bill that increases funding for the military, prioritizes national security and border protection and rolls back job-killing regulations.

The bill funds our government and marks the first time in nearly a decade that the House has passed all 12 of its appropriations bills on time. However, I feel even more work can be done to cut spending and help American taxpayers. 

I attempted to make the bill more conservative by introducing several cost-cutting amendments:

• Amendment No. 39 - Decreases the funding for the Public and Indian Housing Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Program by $177,362,500, and transfers the same amount to the spending reduction account. In the bill, the program receives an increase of $354,725,000.

This amendment scales back the increase in appropriations by half to limit excessive spending while still ensuring those who are truly in need are prioritized. 

• Amendment No. 46 - Reduces funding for the Project-Based Rental Assistance Housing Program by $266,000,000, bringing it back to the FY 2017 level.

Costs are skyrocketing out of control within our housing assistance program, and I believe the Department of Housing and Urban Development needs to end wasteful spending and shift more federal resources to those truly in need of help.

• Amendment No. 54 - Reduces the funding level for the Department of Housing and Urban Development by two percent.

A modest cut will help push the department to dedicate funds to those in the most need, reduce fraud and abuse, and begin to reduce HUD’s massive bureaucracy that is costing this country billions of dollars each year. 

• Amendment No. 99 - Reduces Economic Support Fund by $12 million and transfer the savings to the Spending Reduction Account.

In a time when we are in dire need of fiscal responsibility, the U.S. government does not need to be spending money for foreign students to attend higher education institutions where there have been cases of pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel sentiments. 

• Amendment No. 66 – Prohibits funds from being used to implement, administer, or enforce the rule entitled "National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone."

This is the ozone rule was put in place by the Obama administration in October of 2015. The EPA needs to stop the implementation of this rule that will negatively affect our communities, especially small manufacturers and the emissions from your vehicles.

• Amendment No. 105 - Reduces Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-Salaries and Expenses by $64.6888 million (5%), and transfers the same amount to the Spending Reduction Account.

The ATF's budget has grown each year despite its many scandals like Operation Fast and Furious where thousands of guns were handed over to Mexican drug cartels by the ATF and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, resulting in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent. 

• Amendment No. 168 - Reduces funding for the Department of Education's (DOE) Program Administration, Office of Inspector General, and Office of Student Aid Administration by $43.759 million (2%).

These offices are the primary bureacratic offices of the DOE. We must rein in bureaucratic bloat.

• Amendment No. 170 - Reduces National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by $99 million and transfers the same amount to the Spending Reduction Account.

The NLRB's caseload has decreased by 40 percent since 1990, but its funding has increased when adjusted for inflation. This amendment would have made the NLRB's funding consistent to its expected workload for the next year.