News
House votes with 76% majority to pass Ryan-Murray bipartisan budget agreement
Congressman Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee and Senator Patty Murray, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, talk about their budget agreement reached Tuesday in a press conference.
helpful links:News Articles:
-"Here's What's In Paul Ryan and Patty Murray's Mini-Budget Deal" by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, December 10, 2013 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs /wonkblog/wp/2013/12/10/heres-whats-in-paul-ryan-and-patty-murrays-mini-budget-deal/ Including 1.5-minute explanatory video, courtesy of Neil Irwin, Washington Post Economic Columnist (view at Washington Post to view full-size): "The Budget Deal in Plain English" by Lisa Desjardins, CNN
Capitol Hill Reporter, December 10, 2013 http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/ 2013/12/10/the-budget-deal-in-plain-english/ Including link to "Summary of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013," Dec.
10, 2013 http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bba 2013summary.pdf all sources:This article was written compiling information from news articles, government websites, and youtube clips of press releases and news coverage, including the following sources as noted:
[1] "House Passes Budget Agreement in 332-94 Vote" by Janet Hook of the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 13, 2013 [2] "Murray and Ryan introduce bipartisan budget-conference agreement," press release at paulryan.house.gov, Dec. 10, 2013 [3] Video "Ryan: deal eliminates shutdown in January" in The Situation Room, CNN, Dec. 10, 2013 [4] "Here's what's in Paul Ryan and Patty Murray's mini-budget deal" by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, Wonk Blog, Dec. 10, 2013 [5] "The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013: Resources from House Budget Committee" on budget.house.gov, accessed Dec. 13, 2013 [6] "2013 United States federal budget," Wikipedia, page last modified Dec. 9, 2013; Note: see also links to other useful sources via footnotes. [7] "The Budget Deal in Plain English" by Lisa Desjardins, CNN Capitol Hill Reporter, CNN Politics/Political Ticker, Dec. 10, 2013 [8] "Airlines win concessions in budget deal," by Erik Wasson at The Hill, Dec. 11, 2013 [9] "Who voted for the budget bill?" by Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post, The Fix, Dec. 12, 2013 [10] "Labrador votes against budget plan," press release at Labrador.house.gov, Dec. 12, 2013 [11] "Mulvaney releases statement on Ryan/Murray proposal," press release at mulvaney.house.gov, Dec. 12, 2013 [12] "Rep. Sanchez votes against budget proposal," press release at lorettasanchez.house.gov, Dec. 12, 2013 [13] "Statement on opposition to budget proposal," press release at bass.house.gov, Dec. 12, 2013 [14] "Rep. Peters advances bipartisan deal to end sequester and restore NIH funding," press release at scottpeters.house.gov, Dec. 12, 2013 [15] "Chaffetz supports budget deal," press release at chaffetz.house.gov, Dec. 12, 2013 |
By Alicia Moulton - Dec. 13, 2013
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, the two-year budget agreement introduced by Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), passed 332-94 in the House on Thursday evening. 169 Republicans and 163 Democrats voted for the measure with 62 Republicans and 32 Democrats in opposition.[1-WSJ] Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman and Murray, the Senate Budget Committee chairman, announced the budget agreement on Tuesday, December 10, ahead of the budget conference’s December 13 deadline.[2-House] Congress has until January 15, 2014 to approve a budget deal. “From the outset, we knew that if we forced each other to compromise a core principle, we would get nowhere,” Ryan said in a press conference with Murray. “That is why we decided to focus on where the common ground is…. That means to me a budget agreement that reduces the deficit without raising taxes and replaces some of the arbitrary across-the board spending cuts with smarter, permanent reforms that pays for this relief."[3-CNN] The new budget agreement essentially rolls back some of the budget cuts that were set to go into effect in January under the sequester while replacing some of these cuts with new revenue from government fees and with cuts in different areas. About one half of 2014 sequester cuts and about three fourths of 2015 sequester cuts will still go into effect. However, the government will be spending about $45 billion more in 2014 than it would be were all of them to go into effect.[4-WashPost] According to the House Committee on the Budget website, the agreement would set overall discretionary spending for the current fiscal year at $1.012 trillion: $520.5 billion for defense discretionary spending and $491.8 billion for non-defense discretionary spending.[5-House] [4-WashPost] These amounts are for discretionary spending only and do not include mandatory spending, which is set at different proportions for each department and government program than is discretionary spending.[6-Wiki] The Ryan-Murray agreement is able to relieve some sequester cuts—$45 billion for 2014 and $20 billion for 2015—through revenue from new government fees and from other cuts enacted instead. [7-CNN] The fees? Watch the cost of your airplane ticket. Currently, passengers on a one-way flight with no connecting flights pay $2.50 as a TSA government fee. With the budget agreement, the fee is raised to $5.60.[8-TheHill] [7] New cuts? Some sequester budget cuts would not be replaced, but would be pushed back to 2023 and 2024. However, there would be some new cuts in a variety of areas: Federal workers would be required to pay more into their pension fund, amounting to a 1.3 percent pay cut. Companies that participate in the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation would also have to pay more money to guarantee their pensions. Cost-of-living adjustments would be cut for military retirees by 1 percent. Contractor pay would be capped so that contractors with the federal government cannot be earning more than $487,000. A government research program for private energy companies would be cut as well as a provision in which private energy companies can earn money through interest accrued on putting their money in government accounts. Non-profit student loan companies off the automatic payment list, which means their funding will be determined yearly by Congress. The budget deal would try to block cases of people fraudulently receiving government checks for deceased persons by limiting access to the master file of deceased persons and their social security numbers and by raising penalties for its misuse. Additionally, the deal would increase coordination of prisoner lists in an effort to decrease the incidence of incarcerated individuals receiving unemployment benefits. “I’m proud of this agreement,” Ryan said in a statement prior to the bill’s passing. “It reduces the deficit—without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it."[2-House] Ryan said in the press conference that although earlier budget would have balanced the budget within ten years and paid off the debt—Republicans’ ultimate goals—this bipartisan agreement is a workable step towards those goals. “But I realize that [the House budget] is not going to pass in divided government,” he said. “I see this agreement as a step in the right direction…. Instead of the arbitrary cuts, we make smart, targeted reforms… It also allows Congress to finally exercise power of the purse…. We want to reclaim that from the administration instead of having all of these continuing resolutions."[3-CNN] Murray agreed that the agreement is a step forward and that it breaks through the gridlock in Washington. “Our deal puts jobs and economic growth first by rolling back sequestration’s harmful cuts to education and medical research and infrastructure investments and defense jobs for the next two years,” Murray said. “Now I know there were some people who thought these cuts should continue, but I’m glad that we increased these key domestic investments and that we averted the next round of scheduled cuts to military programs, bases, and defense jobs in our country."[3-CNN] Murray said the deal builds on the deficit reduction that began in 2011 and continues the objective that sequestration shouldn’t be replaced with spending cuts only. Although the bill passed easily with bipartisan support, 62 Republicans and 32 Democrats voted against the bill.[9-WashPost] In general, Democrats voted against the bill because it does not continue unemployment benefits and Republicans because it replaced sequester cuts with more spending now. “Once again, Congress is making promises of future spending decreases in exchange for actual spending increases today,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. “Republicans should keep the promise they made to the American people that they would use the sequester to address the true drivers of our debt and fight for real entitlement reform."[10-House] Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) said that he supports parts of the bill including federal worker pension reform. “However, instead of using these modest savings to pay down our debt, this bill uses those savings to spend more money,” Malvaney said. “It is difficult for me to vote for something that trades spending increases now for promised reductions in the future."[11-House] Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) disapproved of cuts in federal worker pensions and the lack of extending long-term unemployment insurance. “This is a real problem in places like my district, where the unemployment rate remains at nearly 7.5 percent,” she said. “[This budget] puts off making real decisions about the sequester for two years.... We need to accept the hard truth of the size and scope of our budget crisis and find a long term, effective solution."[12-House] Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) voted against the agreement for a similar reason. “I could not in good conscience support legislation that did not extend unemployment insurance and still will force through cuts to vital programs while not closing corporate tax loopholes,” Bass said.[13-House] Although with some disagreement, 332 other representatives voted for the bill. “I supported today’s budget agreement because it is the sort of bipartisan, reasonable solution that the people of San Diego expect from Congress,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.). “For the first time in four years we will replace crisis-to-crisis budgeting with a two-year plan that provides stability and predictability to agencies, basic scientific research programs, and the military."[14-House] Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said even though the agreement doesn’t address the largest areas of the federal budget, he voted for the bill because it helps avoid another government shutdown, will reduce the deficit over 10 years, and avoids larger-than-necessary cuts to defense spending. “While the bill is far from perfect, the benefits far outweigh the costs,” Chaffetz said.[15-House] In all, the bill passed with a 76 percent majority vote. The Senate will vote next week. |