Sep 02 2025
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD: Here's how I'm working to bring back fiscal sanity and deliver for Nebraskans
By U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE)
Omaha World-Herald
But to me, cutting frivolous spending has always been about bringing Nebraskans’ hard-earned tax dollars home to support programs that my constituents tell me are most helpful to them and their communities.
By doing so, we provide local tax relief across our state for these federally funded projects that make Nebraskans’ commutes shorter, our neighborhoods safer, and our water cleaner.
In the Senate Appropriations Committee, we’re not swinging a sledgehammer in our work to bring fiscal sanity back to the appropriations process. We’re using a scalpel as we craft the 12 annual government funding bills — carefully identifying programs that waste taxpayer dollars and cutting them so the money can be put to better use.
Last November, voters sent a clear message: it’s time to restore fiscal responsibility. That’s why Congress passed a $9 billion rescissions package in July.
While the package represented only one-tenth of one percent of the federal budget, it was a start in eliminating wasteful Biden-era projects that ran counter to congressional intent and had no business being funded with Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars.
For example, gender diversity initiatives for street lighting in Mexico, an Iraqi version of “Sesame Street,” and wind farms in Ukraine. These cuts were a small but important step toward reducing the reckless spending that has helped push our national debt past $37 trillion.
Our scalpel approach is exemplified by the Appropriations Committee’s bipartisan vote to rescind more than $11 billion in unspent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funds from the partisan Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Democrats and signed into law by then-President Biden. This poorly named bill did nothing to reduce the rising prices we saw under the previous administration.
But cutting this type of waste is only half the job. The other half is making sure federal dollars are invested where they make a real difference — and for me, that means delivering for Nebraska.
Since joining the Senate Appropriations Committee, I’ve worked to ensure our state gets its fair share of federal resources, focused on projects that strengthen our communities, modernize our infrastructure, and protect our national security. I take this seriously because I know Nebraskans don’t want career government bureaucrats deciding where their hard-earned money is going.
This year, I successfully advanced $18 million to modernize health care facilities across the state, including funding for the University of Nebraska Medical Center to build a training facility for the air transport of infectious disease patients.
I also secured more than $200 million for critical defense programs based at Offutt Air Force Base, home to U.S. Strategic Command, the 55th Wing, and the 557th Weather Wing, along with $54.3 million for the next generation of “doomsday” aircraft that will operate from Offutt.
In communities across Nebraska, I helped secure over $18 million for water infrastructure improvements — from repairing and upgrading McCook’s water treatment plant, to building a retention lagoon and sanitary sewer extensions in Greeley, to reconstructing water and storm sewer facilities in Gothenburg.
I also advanced more than $60 million for road, bridge, and safety projects, including enhancements to the Heartland Expressway, improvements along Highway 136 in Fairbury, and bridge repairs in Brown County. And I was proud to secure $16 million for the USDA Agricultural Research Service facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Innovation Campus, an investment that will keep Nebraska at the forefront of agricultural research.
These are the kinds of investments Nebraskans expect and deserve — targeted, results-oriented projects that deliver value for our state and our nation, not wasteful pet projects that advance a political agenda.
With these funding bills now out of the Appropriations Committee, my priority when the Senate returns to Washington will be to get them passed before the September 30 deadline.
Thanks to Republican leadership in the Senate, we will finally be voting on individual appropriations bills — restoring a process that was ignored under Senator Chuck Schumer. That’s how we bring transparency back to spending decisions and ensure every dollar is scrutinized.
The path forward is clear: cut waste where we find it, invest wisely in what matters, and always put Nebraska’s interests first. That’s exactly what I’ll keep fighting to do.
