Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, today expressed disappointment that the Senate-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) would fail to stop irresponsible spending cuts through sequestration and neglects priorities that are critical to American families. However, it would prevent a government shutdown on March 27th that would have disastrous consequences for the economy.
"Like any compromise, this measure is far from perfect," said Lowey. "It fails to prevent reckless across-the-board spending cuts through sequestration, neglects funding needed to give millions of Americans access to health insurance and financial protections, and shortchanges services and investments on which American families rely. Nevertheless, a government shutdown could wreak havoc on our already fragile economic recovery and must be prevented."
"Once this bill has passed and we have avoided government shutdown, we must ask ourselves, 'why are we here?'" said Lowey. We are here to ensure every family has access to high-qulity health care and every child has the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. We are here to protect the safety and economic security of Americans and to leave our world and our country better than we inherited it for our children and grandchildren. We are failing that test, and we must do better."
The bill as amended by the Senate includes five full-year 2013 Appropriations bills: Defense; Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Homeland Security. It provides full-year continuing resolutions for the remaining seven bills with some anomalies requested by the Administration to help address current needs.
The Senate improved the CR passed by the House on March 6th, yet deep and damaging across-the-board cuts through sequestration will diminish improvements. For example, the Senate-passed CR increases funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $71 million, while sequestration slashes $1.6 billion from its 2013 budget.
Improvements:
• Additional Appropriations Bills - The Senate-passed CR adds full-year Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Homeland Security Appropriations bills to the House-passed CR, rather than forcing departments and agencies to operate on Fiscal Year 2012 plans and levels.
• Small Funding Increases - The Senate-passed CR slightly increases funding levels from House-passed CR levels for distracted driving grants, Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grants, embassy security, supplemental nutrition for women, infants, and children (WIC), state and local law enforcement grants, the COPS program, and scientific research through NIH and NSF.
• Additional Anomalies - The Senate-passed CR extends authorization for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and authorizes loan guarantees for Jordan.
Remaining Shortcomings:
Significant omissions and flaws remain in the Senate-passed CR, including:
• Sequestration - Across-the-board spending cuts through sequestration will eliminate 750,000 jobs according to the Congressional Budget Office. Reductions in services and investments on which millions of Americans rely unfortunately far outweigh the small increases above House-passed CR levels for some priorities. The CR reaffirms these damaging across-the-board cuts.
• Implementation of Affordable Care Act and Dodd-Frank Financial Protections - The Senate-passed CR contains no additional funding for implementation of Affordable Care Act (ACA), critical to create, operate, and promote federal health insurance exchanges due to begin enrollment in October 2013. It also contains no funding to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed to protect consumers from the worst practices and excesses of the financial industry.
• Failure to Fund Cost-Saving Initiatives - The Senate-passed CR contains no additional funding for Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control or Social Security disability reviews and SSI eligibility determinations, both of which return more money to the treasury than they cost.
• Funding Cuts Even Below House-passed CR Level - The Senate-passed CR funds some important services and investments at a level even below the House-passed CR, including environmental protection, rural rental assistance, NASA, federal law enforcement including the FBI, NOAA weather satellites, Army Corps of Engineers construction projects, and fighting wildland fire.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
