In a letter to Illinois' members of Congress, Gov. J.B. Pritzker asks Congress to rally for more help, warning of doom and threatening schoolchildren if the federal government doesn't prop up our financially broken state. Five months after Democrats in the state petitioned members of Congress for more than $41 billion in federal bailouts, the nation's richest governor has picked up the cry. Pritzker acknowledges, "I have never pretended local and state governments don't need new solutions." But rarely do we see Pritzker or the lawmakers in charge in Springfield look at their own behaviors to figure out how to secure Illinois' financial position and guarantee funding for core services people here depend on. There's a lot of head-scratching in Congress when people consider Illinois -- and sending more federal dollars its way. Why should federal taxpayers bail out Illinois' pension system, which was circling the drainpipe for decades before COVID-19 hit? Why should we prop up a bloated state budget, which Illinois politicians haven't worked to balance in 20 years? Another federal aid package looms but has failed to materialize as both sides sit on the extremes, with one camp favoring $1 trillion in unrestricted funds to state and big-city governments and the other questioning whether to bail out bad actors at all. The best answer sits somewhere in the middle, leaving open the option of providing aid while ensuring reforms so feckless states don't throw good money after bad actors. The Taxpayer Protection Act, being filed Thursday in Congress, guarantees any future state and local government aid must flow to the services people depend upon, not be squandered on debt and pension spending that don't support an economic recovery or a lifeline for those who need it. This legislation creates the Taxpayer Protection Program and allows for federal aid to flow to states, localities, tribal governments and territories. It also limits the amount of money they can receive to actual experienced revenue losses. To protect taxpayers from financial mismanagement, this legislation structures federal aid to states as forgivable loans contingent on sound pension funds, truly balanced budgets and rainy-day fund protections. Many states meet these best practices already. Thirty-nine states have truly balanced budget requirements. Forty-two states had sufficient rainy day funds before COVID (about 5% of budget saved). Forty-one had pension funding ratios above 60% in 2018, which can serve as a proxy for sound funds. All pension systems should be built on sound funding plans with benefit structures that help protect taxpayers from risk. The Taxpayer Protection Program also requires mandatory benefit reform in states where pension systems cannot be fully funded in fewer than 25 years without increasing taxpayer costs, or else TPP loans must be repaid at an interest rate commensurate with each state's credit rating. It prohibits federal funds from being used for pensions or other debt service. Illinois, which hasn't had a truly balanced budget in two decades, is a case study for the Taxpayer Protection Program. It makes federal aid contingent upon true balanced budget requirements and realistic accounting, ensuring state lawmakers cannot hide deficits with accounting gimmicks or rack up excessive operating debt. Some states have been able to weather the current economic downturn because of responsible planning. Going into the downturn, Arizona had a rainy day fund and budget surplus worth a combined $1.7 billion, enough to absorb a 15% revenue shortfall without making cuts. By comparison, Illinois' rainy day fund was worth about $1.19 million in March, which could fund state government for about 15 minutes. The Taxpayer Protection Program places restrictions on when lawmakers can make withdrawals from rainy day funds and procedures for making automatic deposits during growth years. There are legitimate calls for state and local government aid, and then there's Illinois. Illinois' spending on pensions has grown by over 500% in the past two decades while spending on social services for the poor has dropped by one-third. Requests to throw more money into that black hole cannot solve the problem, but real reform can. We can't support a system that prioritizes spending on debt and pensions over people. That's why we stand behind a plan that ensures a rescue for systems that truly need it, while it protects taxpayers in mismanaged states and the nation from those willing to sink them under the same failed status quo. These policies are common sense to responsible adults: Don't spend more than you earn; save for a rainy day and for old age. They can carry us beyond a recovery and on to a better future in Illinois.

By Rep. Darin LaHood The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the foodservice distribution industry has been devastating. Foodservice distribution is an enormous yet relatively unknown industry, which before the pandemic, totaled more than $300 billion in annual sales and employed 350,000 Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The industry is bigger than the airline industry, with thinner operating margins. Preserving this essential industry is critical to helping our economy recover. Congress must act now to pass the Providing Liquidity for Uncollectible Sales (PLUS) Act to ensure distributors can continue to provide the support their restaurant customers need to survive this crisis. Foodservice distributors feed America, delivering 8.7 billion cases of food and food-related products annually. They ensure fresh, safe food produced by America's farmers and manufacturers fills the kitchens, shelves and pantries of our nation's restaurants, schools, hospitals, entertainment venues, military bases and other public service institutions. In Illinois alone, it's an $11 billion industry with 570 distribution centers that employ 13,300 people. But the uncertainties of coronavirus including state shutdowns and limited re-openings have pushed the foodservice industry to the brink. Four in ten restaurants have closed their doors completely; some may never re-open. Thousands of schools and universities are going virtual for the school year, and professional sports teams are struggling to keep players on the field, never mind fans in the stands. America cannot fully re-open without a strong foodservice distribution industry. Foodservice distributors serve as the bank for America's restaurants and play a critical role getting our economy up and running again. Restaurants buy their supplies on payment terms that allow them to generate revenue before the bill comes due. Over the last five months restaurant sales have plummeted, and they have not been able to pay their distributors for purchased inventory. This uncollectible debt has created a significant limitation on distributor liquidity when they need it most to extend credit to their customers so they can restart their businesses. Foodservice distributors currently have more than $12 billion in unpaid debt as a result of this crisis. The PLUS Act would provide tax credits for these uncollectible accounts receivable, ensuring that distributors can continue to provide financing to their customers. With restaurants facing capacity restrictions or renewed shutdowns in many locations, this assistance is even more critical. Reopening America's restaurants begins with foodservice distributors and the PLUS Act will provide distributors with vitally needed assistance. Foodservice distributors have sustained wars, recessions and natural disasters. But nothing has threatened the livelihood of so many distributors, their employees and customers as much as the current crisis. We need Congress to act now.

By Rep. Darin LaHood & Rep. Anthony Gonzalez When operating properly, the World Trade Organization raises the standard of living around the globe, including in the United States, by creating transparent rules for conducting trade. The U.S. was a key author of these rules, which discipline unfair and distorting trade practices by reducing barriers to goods and services, protecting intellectual property, and challenging subsidies that distort trade. These rules have created new markets for American-made goods and services to drive our economy and create U.S. jobs. Despite these admirable intentions and the clear benefits that we've seen from our leadership at the WTO, it has become abundantly clear that the WTO needs significant reform, especially to hold China accountable for its predatory trade practices and abuse. The White House, with the help of Congress, is leading the charge because reform of the WTO is needed. An important component of this reform is to tighten the WTO rule that allows any country to self-declare, without any standards, that it is a "developing" country and therefore entitled to "special and differential treatment." The People's Republic of China and other countries are abusing this rule, which undermines the legitimacy and usefulness of the WTO and hurts countries that truly are developing. Developing country status is intended to allow less-developed countries greater flexibility to adjust when implementing trade agreements agreed to by WTO members. This status provides them a path to open their economies as they open their markets to us and raise their standards. China is now the world's second-largest economy behind the U.S. with a $13 trillion GDP, yet it is allowed to declare itself a developing country at the WTO and receive all the benefits thereof. This status might have been appropriate when China joined the WTO 20 years ago, but there is no question that it is no longer the case. China in 2020 should no longer receive such special treatment, as if it were one of the poorest or smallest economies in the world. For far too long, China has taken advantage of international trade laws, harming American workers, technology, and businesses -- as well as the global economy. Its failure to forego this form of special treatment, even though it is so advanced economically, is an important example of this abuse. China is taking advantage of developed and developing countries that, in contrast to China, have taken on full commitments to the economic rule of law. And so many undeserving WTO countries follow China's lead in refusing to update their commitments to reflect their economic reality. This WTO rule must be reformed to restore credibility to the institution. In 2019, the Trump administration made a commonsense proposal that the WTO establish objective criteria for "special and differential" treatment under any future agreements. Under this proposal, a WTO member would be ineligible for "developing" status if it is classified as a high-income country using objective and well-recognized standards or if it accounts for at least 0.5% of global trade in goods. Since then, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has made important progress. Brazil, Costa Rica, Korea, and Singapore have each publicly agreed to forego this special treatment in future negotiations. We urge all other WTO members to work with the U.S. to end the abuse of this status by China and other WTO members. The House Ways & Means Committee easily passed a bipartisan resolution, H.R. 746, to reaffirm strong congressional support for the WTO and insistence that other WTO members work with us to achieve much-needed reforms. In addition to tightening the developing country definition, these reforms include improving the speed, predictability, and scope of dispute settlement and its appellate mechanism and holding our trading partners, particularly China, fully accountable for their commitments to us. Our mission as members of the China Task Force is to develop forward-thinking solutions and a global strategy to take on China. Republicans are aligned in our mission to reform the WTO and to negotiate ambitious trade deals that strengthen American agriculture, manufacturing, services, and workers and allow our innovative companies to compete and win. As we rebuild our economy in the wake of COVID-19, this strategy is essential to the economic health of the public. Reforming the WTO to hold China accountable can help secure our economy for American innovators, technology, supply chains, and agriculture for generations to come. As members of the House Republican China Task Force, we are committed to enacting reforms that maximize opportunities for the U.S. and its allies and prevent China from taking advantage of international trade laws. We must level the playing field in the global economy.