WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 12, 2011) - After going back to the drawing board several times in order to appease demands of its extremist Tea Party caucus, House Republicans have released their latest proposal for the so-called continuing resolution (CR) spending bill to fund the federal budget. The resulting bill consists of an extreme and arbitrary package of cuts that would slash federal support for public safety, health care and research, public broadcasting, food safety and inspection, and other critical functions of government upon which the public depends.
The House Republican scheme would gut federal investment in clean energy job development. The GOP bill also makes severe cuts in energy research, clean air and clean water enforcement, climate change, wild lands protections, and even completely eliminates emergency funds for home heating assistance for low income families. And the GOP plan goes after some of the nations most vulnerable and neediest citizens, decimating the institutions directed to cure cancer, prevent disease, educate our children and provide resources to make higher-education affordable for low-income students.
Below is the statement of Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee:
“House Republicans have released a budget scheme that mounts an indiscriminate and excessive attack on middle and lower class families. This is nothing less than a ‘scorched Earth’ budget policy that will leave our air and water more polluted, our nation more dependent on foreign oil, our National Parks despoiled, and the neediest among us shivering in the cold.
"With this resolution, G.O.P. now stands for Gut Our Protections.
“We know that smart cuts need to be made, but House Republicans are acting like a bull in a china shop, hitting poor and middle class families with reckless cuts, while wrecking the Interior Department and the EPA so their buddies in the coal, oil and gas industries can make off with the spoils.
"By slashing the National Institute for Health, they’re endangering our best hope for finding cures and treatments for the devastating diseases and conditions that affect millions of Americans. Health research is also essential to containing soaring medical costs, strengthening our economy, and maintaining our nation’s leadership in innovation and cutting edge research.
“Even as temperatures have plunged below zero degrees in huge swaths of the country this week, House Republicans have the gall to completely zero out emergency funds for low-income heating assistance for our nation’s poorest families. I sometimes think that if you kicked House Republicans in the heart, you'd break your toe.
“In a bill that is supposed to be about spending, the Republicans just can’t help themselves. This scheme is full of new legislation to gut the Endangered Species Act, increase carbon pollution, and destroy potential wilderness areas before they can be protected.
"And by putting the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Pell Grants on the chopping block, Republicans are denying our youngest children and our neediest students the excellence of educational, cultural and informational resources and opportunities both in their homes and in classrooms throughout the nation.
“In the days ahead, I will continue to fight for more reasonable budgetary measures, like the bill I have proposed with other Democrats to rescind tens of billions of dollars in tax subsidies for the biggest oil companies. I also intend to submit an amendment to this bill to ensure that the low-income fuel assistance program LIHEAP is fully funded.
"The American public needs to look at how extreme these proposed cuts are and understa
