[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 62 (Thursday, May 18, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E878-E879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. SOLOMON P. ORTIZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 17, 2006

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration of the concurrent 
     resolution (H. Con. Res. 376) establishing the congressional 
     budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2007 
     and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal 
     years 2008 through 2011:

  Mr. ORTIZ. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the deficits 
proposed by this budget. We are at war. This should be a time of 
sacrifice for all Americans; it is not the time for gutting programs 
that help working families to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy among us. 
Sacrifice should be shared, not dumped on some of us.
  Everywhere I go these days, people ask me when Congress will do 
something about the budget deficit--whch will mean profound taxes on 
their children down the road . . . Republicans, Democrats, business 
people, laborers--everybody.
  I keep telling them each budget we pass is worse and worse, growing 
the deficit at an incredible level. People used to say Congress was 
taxing and spending. These days Congress is borrowing and spending . . 
. worse, we're borrowing from our children. This budget grows both the 
deficit and the national debt. The deficits in this budget would, 
according to the report accompanying the resolution, lead to another 
debt limit increase of $653 billion--on top of the $3 trillion in debt 
ceiling increases already approved since President Bush took office.
  And still . . . this resolution makes deep and harmful cuts to 
critical services for working families--including border security, 
education, and veterans' services. Democrats offer a budget today, that 
this House will certainly reject, that does not include the harmful 
cuts to domestic priorities while still reaching balance in 2012. It 
has smaller deficits than the Republican budget, accumulates less debt, 
and returns us back to paying for what we pass.
  If we pass this budget resolution today--and I will vote no--this 
House is following the bad ideas in President Bush's budget, which 
continues the policies of the past 5 years that deeply cut into the 
spending for our homeland security, simply to pay for tax cuts to the 
wealthiest Americans.
  The budget makes long-term damage in our real security . . . at a 
time the President and many in this Congress are saying the needs on 
the border are so severe that we must send the National Guard to 
protect the border. First, let me say how much I oppose deploying the 
Guard to the border . . . but let's talk about how we got to crisis on 
the border: it is entirely about calculated disregard to the security 
forces on the border.
  The House budget shortchanges homeland security programs--cutting 
them by up to $488 million this year and up to $6.1 billion over 5 
years from the amount needed to keep up with inflation. In December, 
when the 9/11 Commission issued its final report card, it gave the Bush 
Administration and this Congress a series of C's, D's, and F's on many 
areas in homeland security--including border security.
  The only thing we have given border security is promises, but no 
money. We know generally how much it would cost for the recommendations 
the 9-11 Commission said was the very least we must do to make a dent 
in illegal immigration:
  $375 million for the detention beds the 9/11 Commission determined we 
need,
  $340 million for the Border Patrol agents the
9/11 Commission determined we need.
  Even with the VA treating more than 144,000 veterans from Iraq and 
Afghanistan,

[[Page E879]]

the House budget cuts veterans' health care by $6 billion over 5 years, 
and increases TRICARE health care premiums for more than 3 million 
military retirees and their families.
  Despite record enrollment growth from pre-K to college, the House 
budget makes the largest cuts in education in 23 years and provides 
$15.4 billion less in funding than promised by the No Child Left Behind 
Act.
  Even as college costs have risen 40 percent since 2001, this budget 
freezes the maximum Pell Grant for college at $4,050--for the fourth 
year in a row. The budget denies more than 460,000 students low-cost 
loans and eliminates eight higher education programs, including GEAR-
UP, TRIO Upward Bound, and TRIO Talent Search--all of which have made 
all the difference in the lives of South Texas students. These 
insulting cuts come just 2 months after the majority in this body voted 
to raid federal student aid programs by $12 billion.
  The other thing people are saying to me everywhere I go is: when will 
Congress raise the minimum wage? Gas prices are going up, food prices 
are going up . . . the cost of everything is going up EXCEPT for the 
minimum wage.
  I urge my colleagues to reject the budget before us.

                          ____________________