WASHINGTON, D.C. — Trimming the U.S. deficit is a top priority for U.S. Rep. Blake Moore and he has joined a new bipartisan legislative group focused on the issue, the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum.

“The group’s mission is to elevate the debt issue with their colleagues and the public while providing members of Congress with opportunities to improve the fiscal policy debate in Congress,” Moore’s office said in a press release Thursday. The group started informal efforts in 2020 but publicly launched on Thursday.

“Since my first day in office, I have been laser focused on addressing our ballooning national debt and unsustainable fiscal trajectory,” Moore, a Salt Lake City Republican, said in a statement. “Washington can no longer accept business as usual when it comes to our federal spending habits.”

The group is led Rep. Scott Peters, a California Democrat, and Rep. Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican. Moore — who represents Utah’s 1st District, which includes Weber County — is one of eight House members serving on the body’s steering committee.

Among the principles guiding the group are the ideas that debt costs threaten the nation’s future, that solutions should come from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and that lawmakers should be putting forward solutions, “not tearing each other down,” reads Moore’s press release.

The new group outlined its aims in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

“If designed and executed properly, a commission has the potential to make significant strides toward fiscal sustainability,” the letter reads.

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