Cooper’s push for financial watchdog commission getting attention

In a Friday afternoon speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) endorsed the idea first put forward by Nashville’s U.S. Representative Jim Cooper and a small bipartisan group to form a non-partisan commission to confront the nation’s looming fiscal crisis.

Cooper (D-Tenn.), along with Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), earlier this week introduced a bill in the House to create the SAFE (Securing America's Future Economy) Commission to keep watch over what the bill’s sponsors say is the unsustainable imbalance between long-term federal spending commitments and projected revenues.

The SAFE Commission would also help shepherd legislation through Congress that is aimed at increasing the net national savings “to provide for domestic investment and economic growth,” and look to revise the Congressional budget process to place greater emphasis on long-term fiscal issues.

Though Hoyer said he has concerns about some specific provisions of the SAFE Commission Act, he endorsed the Cooper-Wolf Commission in concept.

“It is imperative that we get serious about our long-term fiscal challenges,” Hoyer said. “There is plenty of room for debate over the mix of options that should be considered. But we do not have time to waste… While I would like to believe that Congress could address these issues through the regular legislative process, the experience of recent years suggests that this is extremely difficult in the current political environment.”

Cooper said he was pleased to learn of Hoyer’s endorsement.

“This is truly a bipartisan idea designed to preserve the social safety net for our children and grandchildren,” Cooper said in a statement. “Congressman Wolf and I will continue to solicit support from across the political spectrum, and we hope the full House will act soon to save our country from financial ruin. Every day we wait, the looming crisis grows nearer and more severe. Only bipartisan leadership can prevent it.”

The SAFE Commission Act also won praise today from The New York Times columnist David Brooks, who said the commission as proposed by Cooper and Wolf, and in the U.S. Senate by Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Judd Gregg (R-NH), would be one “with teeth.”

“Deficits, obfuscations and trickeries that were once unthinkable are now the norm,” Brook wrote in his Friday column. “The commission would come up with a plan to restore fiscal balance, and the plan would immediately go to Congress for an up-or-down vote.”