|
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives today gave final approval to a conference agreement on the budget resolution for fiscal year 2009, marking the first time Congress has passed a budget in an election year since 2000. The Senate approved the fiscal blueprint yesterday.
“This agreement charts a new course,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-SC). “It accommodates tax cuts for middle-income families; supports investments in energy, education and infrastructure; and returns the budget to balance. This is a balanced budget with balanced priorities.”
The conference agreement rejects the failed fiscal policies of the past seven years. It returns the budget to balance – reaching a surplus of $22 billion in 2012 and $10 billion in 2013. It adheres to key budget enforcement tools implemented last year, such as the pay-as-you-go rule. And it includes additional procedural protections to help ensure fiscal responsibility.
Recognizing that energy costs are straining our economy and squeezing the middle class, the conference agreement responds by helping promote renewable energy, clean fuel technology and energy efficiency.
The agreement makes education and innovation investments that will generate economic growth and jobs, make college more affordable, improve student achievement, and reverse the Bush administration’s under-funding of education.
The conference agreement also invests in our nation’s infrastructure to repair crumbling roads, bridges, transit, and airports.
The budget agreement does not include any tax increase. To the contrary, it supports significant tax relief, including extension of marriage penalty relief, the child tax credit, and the 10 percent bracket, as well as allowing for estate tax reform. It also accommodates relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax.
The conference agreement makes our country safer by funding national defense and ensuring that resources are available to address the most critical threats facing the nation. The agreement provides increased funding to help veterans get the quality health care they need and deserve. It also protects the homeland and rejects the President’s cuts in law enforcement, the COPS program, firefighters, and other first responders.
“Our nation cannot afford to continue the Bush Administration’s policies of deficits and debt. People are struggling. This conference agreement begins the process of recovery. While it may not be a grand solution, this budget moves us in the right direction, enforcing fiscal responsibility but not to the exclusion of values that we hold dear,” Spratt said.
|
