Rep. Keith Self Lays Out Conservative Budget Vision

Keith Self, a House fiscal hawk, has penned a letter to a key stakeholder in the spending process calling for reining in federal spending and cutting off funding to programs at odds with congressional conservatives’ priorities.

In a March 12 letter to House appropriations committee chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., Self, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, requested that he advance bills that “hold discretionary spending flat, prioritize spending cuts identified in the Trump Administration’s budget request or identified as waste, fraud, and abuse, and contain conservative policy priorities.”

Self recommends a host of conservative policy riders, such as blocking individuals associated with foreign adversaries from buying up American farmland and blocking funds from going towards the enforcement of the National Firearms Act.

Additionally, Self asks for an almost $500 million cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) spending, as well as for cutting funding for organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

There are also policy riders that Self requested to be added to every single subcommittee bill in the appropriations process.

These include Hyde protections to block funds from going toward abortions, a block on funding for programs that encourage critical race theory (CRT), as well as blocking funding for sanctuary cities.

Fiscal Year 2027 begins on Oct. 1, 2026.