DeLauro Praises Budget as Blueprint for the Future

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn. -3), who serves on the Budget Committee and was one of eight budget conferees, voted for the final House-Senate budget resolution for fiscal year 2010. The resolution passed the House by a vote of 233 to 193 and is expected to be approved by the Senate later today. It does not require the signature of the President.

"As a member of the Budget Committee and a budget conferee, I was proud to have worked with Chairman Spratt and the other members of the committee on a 2010 budget resolution that reinvests in America and reinvests in hardworking middle-class families that make up the backbone of this country," DeLauro said in strong support of the resolution on the floor of the House. "We began to bring that desired change with the economic recovery program, and we continue on that path by providing a blueprint in this budget that will bring tax relief to hardworking families across this Nation and make investments in health care, education, energy, and elsewhere that are needed to move this economy from recovery to long-term growth.

The budget restores fiscal responsibility, while also making investments critical to our future. It helps American families by cutting taxes on almost all families and takes steps to reduce health care costs – a drag on family budgets and American businesses – improve the quality of care and expand coverage, without adding to the deficit. This long-term economic plan also increases investments in new energy technologies made in America, and lays the groundwork for legislation that will cut pollution and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Below are DeLauro's full remarks from her floor statement in support of the budget resolution.

"As a member of the Budget Committee and a budget conferee, I was proud to have worked with Chairman Spratt and the other members of the committee on a 2010 budget resolution that reinvests in America and reinvests in hardworking middle-class families that make up the backbone of this country.

"As we all know, the voters spoke this fall overwhelmingly, voting for change and a reorientation of our priorities so that, in fact, we are strengthening the middle class and making the critical investments needed to build a better tomorrow.

"We began to bring that desired change with the economic recovery program, and we continue on that path by providing a blueprint in this budget that will bring tax relief to hardworking families across this Nation and make investments in health care, education, energy, and elsewhere that are needed to move this economy from recovery to long-term growth.

"Our friends on the other side of the aisle will decry this budget claiming that it will burden future generations with crippling debt. But let's be clear. It was under their leadership that a $5.6 trillion surplus turned into the historic budget deficit that President Obama and this Congress inherited a deficit of well over $1 trillion in 2009. If you listen to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they were missing in action over this last 8 years. It is hard to believe that they were in charge. It is a little bit like ``see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.'' They were gone from the playing field over these last 8 years. "We will also hear the other side rail against the instructions that are included in this resolution--to bring about what? Education and long-awaited health care reform, despite the fact that they used this same procedure to pass massive tax cuts for the wealthiest people in this Nation.

"When it comes to health care reform, the American people have watched as Congress has failed since 1993 to make a serious attempt to fix our broken system. Health care reform, making health care coverage affordable, available to all, improving safety and quality, and providing Americans with a choice of health plans and physicians, including the choice of keeping their current health plan, is long, long overdue.

"We will work to craft bipartisan legislation, but the American people are not interested in process. They are interested in results. We will not let a party of ``no'' stand in the way of a reformed health care system that the majority of Americans so desperately want.

"Along with health care, this budget also invests in education by expanding access and increasing funds for early childhood education, creating a new tax credit to help cover college costs, and raising the Pell Grant award.

"It invests in energy, builds a framework for developing and producing new energy and jobs, modernizing the electricity grid to make it more efficient, secure and reliable, increasing the efficiency of Federal buildings, and helping to make State and local governments more energy efficient.

"This conference agreement invests in rebuilding America, including the establishment of a national infrastructure bank which would allow the government to objectively consider a wide range of infrastructure projects and leverage the private sector to fund those with the most significant economic, social and environmental benefits.

"Finally, this budget plan reflects on the economic recovery program that we passed, including its provisions to provide tax relief to middle-income families. This includes room to expand the refundable child tax credit. By lowering the eligibility threshold to $3,000 in the Recovery Act, we provided relief to the hardworking families of nearly 16 million children, including 5.5 million newly eligible children.

"This budget builds on our efforts to create jobs and rebuild the economy through the economic recovery plan by providing a forward-looking economic blueprint that makes the strategic investments necessary to move from recovery to long-term economic growth while putting us back on a path to fiscal sustainability.

"I urge my colleagues to support this rule, to support the underlying resolution and do not let our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, who had 8 years--and what did they do in those 8 years? They brought this Nation to its economic knees. It's time to look to the future. Support this resolution."