[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 30 (Monday, March 4, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1089-S1093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. NELSON (for himself and Mrs. McCaskill):
S. 436. A bill to require that the salaries of Members of Congress be
sequestered during any sequester under the Balanced Budget and
Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985; to the Committee on the Budget.
Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I, like many of my colleagues,
have just flown in our Nation's airways, going through a fairly crowded
airport in Florida, coming into a crowded airport here in Washington,
and in 30 days those TSA lines are going to get longer.
For the international flights, I and others have worked very hard to
get additional customs agents to cut the time it takes to process our
international visitors. In airports such as Miami and Orlando where
there is quite a bit of international traffic, getting those additional
customs folks has meant a great deal because we even had some airlines
that would come in, for example, to Orlando, and they would have to
keep the international passengers on the airplane for upwards of an
hour before they could get off the airplane so that there was room,
with the personnel available.
Well, you see where I am going, because all of that is going to
change unless--as the Good Book says, come, let us reason together.
Unless our sharply divided politics--be it partisan, be it
ideological--unless we can come together and reach consensus to stop
this ridiculous thing that went into effect last Friday called the
sequester, which was never intended to go into effect, but because of
the inability of the parties to come together, in fact, it is in
effect, and it is cutting, in an indiscriminate way, like a meat
cleaver across the board.
In certain agencies, such as the Department of Transportation, it
even gets exacerbated because the cuts can only occur in certain
accounts. Thus, civilian employees are going to be furloughed.
It is also happening in the Department of Defense. In my State of
Florida alone, there are going to be 31,000 defense civilian employees
who are going to be furloughed. What does a furlough mean? It means
that after the 30-day notice, so about 30 days from now, that number of
employees--in this example, in the Defense Department--is going to be
laid off 1 day a week, under the law, for up to a maximum of 22 weeks.
Is that in the interest of national security? Of course not.
Why is it exacerbated in the Department of Defense? Because the
existing appropriations law--remember, we are not operating on a
current law; we are operating on last year's appropriations
[[Page S1090]]
law. That has so constrained the managers--in other words, the
Secretary, the Deputy Secretary--that they can't move the money around,
and what they are having to do is to take the sequester cuts out of
operations and maintenance instead of out of acquisitions of systems or
programs. That is the worst possible place--out of operations and
maintenance.
Now, I am an optimist. I couldn't be in this business if I were not
an optimist. I have ultimate faith in the American people. And I know
every one of these Senators here, from the extreme left to the extreme
right, are all good people, and there can be consensus found if
everybody would get out of their little silos and realize the greater
good.
Senator Claire McCaskill and I want to help them, so we are filing a
bill today. Since this was never intended and all these civilian
Federal employees are going to be furloughed, our bill will say that
Members of Congress will get docked the same percentage of their pay
that the furloughed workers are docked in the percentage of their pay.
Now, the question is, Will this pass? I hope it doesn't pass because
I hope it is not necessary to pass. We have 30 days of notice before
the furloughs take place. I am certainly hopeful that happens by the
end of this month, clearly by the time of March 27 when the existing
appropriations bill--which is last year's appropriation--ceases to
exist and the government can come to a screeching halt unless we
continue the appropriations for the remainder of the fiscal year.
I am hopeful our legislation will not pass, but somebody needs to
understand how ridiculous this whole thing is. Conservatives want to
cut spending. You can do it in a more intelligent and rational way. If
we are going to get serious about $4 trillion of deficit reduction over
the decade--and we have already enacted policies that will take us down
about 2.5 trillion of deficit reduction--we have about $1.5 trillion to
go in enacting policies over that decade and we ought to be able to do
that in a nanosecond.
Senator McCaskill and I want to try to help nudge the process along.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. You are going to
dock all of these civilian employees who have lives, who have families,
who have children, who have expenses, who need to buy milk and so forth
and so on. You are going to dock them their pay because of the
inability of the Members of Congress to get together to do what should
have been done, by the way, a year and a half ago when this whole thing
was enacted. The meat cleaver sequester was put there because it was so
ridiculous that surely it would encourage, a year and a half ago, the
supercommittee of six from the House, six from the Senate, half and
half of each party--surely it was going to encourage them to come
together in agreement. All it needed was one vote. Instead of a 6-to-6
deadlock it would have been 7 to 5. It did not happen, and here we are
a year and a half later.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If you are going
to dock Federal workers' pay because you are going to force them into a
furlough which was never intended, is not rational policy, is not good
administration, then you are going to be docked your own pay.
This is not pontificating. Again, I say I hope this never passes
because I hope it is moot. But it is trying to bring into focus just
how ridiculous the goings-on here are right now. So I am very hopeful.
I say I love the Members of the Senate, every one of these Members of
the Senate. I have a great relationship with almost every one of these
Senators. They are all good people. We need to come together, give a
strong statement of consensus building, and then send it down there to
the House and tell them they have to get off the dime.
______
By Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Durbin, Mrs.
Gillibrand, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Blumenthal, and Mr. King):
S. 443. A bill to increase public safety by punishing and deterring
firearms trafficking; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. LEAHY. Today I am proud to introduce modified legislation to
combat the practice of straw purchasing and illegal trafficking in
firearms. Since my initial introduction of the Stop Illegal Trafficking
in Firearms Act at the very beginning of the 113th Congress on January
22, I have had productive conversations with several Senators who share
my goal of reducing this destructive criminal conduct. Today I am
pleased to be joined by Senator Collins, Senator Durbin, Senator Kirk,
Senator Gillibrand, and Senator Blumenthal. These Senators understand
the weaknesses in our current law and the challenges faced by law
enforcement officials. I thank them for their commitment to this
legislation, for their support of law enforcement, and for their
cooperation in making progress in our collective efforts to prevent and
reduce gun violence.
I hope that as other Senators on both sides of the aisle become more
familiar with our bipartisan proposal, they will understand how it
provides law enforcement with the tools they need to go after those who
engage in the straw purchasing and illegal trafficking of firearms. The
practice of straw purchasing is used for one thing to put firearms into
the hands of those that are prohibited by law from having them. Many
are then used to further violent crimes.
I have heard again and again from Senators on both sides of the aisle
that keeping guns away from those who should not have them is a goal
worth pursuing. This bill will further that effort and help answer the
call from Gabrielle Giffords and so many Americans for us to take
action.
I want to commend the senior Senator from Maine, Senator Collins, for
her leadership on this matter and for her willingness to work across
the aisle to make real progress. She helped unite us to get this done.
Without her, we would not have made the progress we have, or be in
position to consider this comprehensive response to what law
enforcement has told us they need.
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue our
consideration of four measures to reduce gun violence. The issue of gun
trafficking and straw purchasing is before the Committee. I will amend
my original trafficking bill that is pending on the Committee agenda
with the text of this bipartisan compromise, which combines the
proposals that I put forward with Senator Durbin at the beginning of
this Congress as well as proposals that have been championed by Senator
Gillibrand and Senator Kirk. Our substitute amendment will improve the
language already pending before the Committee. As I did before
introducing any measure related to gun violence this year, I also hope
to continue my outreach to the Judiciary Committee's Ranking Member. I
invite Senator Grassley and other members of the Committee from both
sides of the aisle to join with us so that I can report this measure
with strong bipartisan support and without delay for consideration by
the Senate.
Law enforcement officials have complained for years that they lack
the legal tools necessary effectively to combat illegal straw
purchasing and firearms trafficking. Congressional inquiry during the
last Congress put a spotlight on the very difficult legal environment
within which law enforcement officials currently operate. In fact, one
of the whistleblowers who testified about the misguided tactics used by
Federal law enforcement in firearms trafficking investigations in
Arizona described the current laws as ``toothless.'' If we are to
address gun violence, we should respond to this clear vulnerability
that is being exploited by criminals.
The Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act will make important
changes to Federal firearms statutes that will better equip law
enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute the all-too-common
practices of straw purchasing and illegal trafficking of firearms.
Straw purchases typically involve a person, who is not prohibited by
Federal law, purchasing a firearm on behalf of a prohibited person, or
at the direction of a drug trafficking or other criminal organization.
These practices result in the support of larger criminal organizations,
and the illegally obtained guns are often sold and re-sold across state
lines. This trafficking in firearms results in the proliferation of
illegal firearms and gun violence in our communities. Straw
[[Page S1091]]
purchasers circumvent the purposes of the background check system, and
they put law enforcement officials and law-abiding firearms dealers in
difficult positions. Gun trafficking and straw purchasing make our
communities less safe.
Under current law, there is no specific statute that makes it illegal
to act as a straw purchaser of firearms. Nor is there a law directly on
point to address the illegal trafficking of firearms. As a result,
prosecutors must cobble together charges against a straw purchaser
using so-called ``paperwork'' violations such as misrepresentations on
a Federal form. These laws are imperfect, and do not give prosecutors
the leverage needed to encourage straw buyers, often the lowest rungs
on a ladder in a criminal enterprise, to provide the information needed
for investigators and prosecutors to go after those directing and
profiting from such activity.
The bipartisan bill we introduce today will add two new provisions to
our Federal criminal code to specifically prohibit serving as a straw
purchaser of firearms and trafficking in firearms. The bill establishes
tough penalties for these offenses in an effort to punish and
importantly, deter this conduct. We need a meaningful solution to this
serious problem. Talk about prosecuting mere paperwork offenses is no
answer.
Under current law, it is a crime to transfer a firearm to another
with the knowledge that the firearm will be used in criminal activity.
This bill would strengthen this existing law by prohibiting such a
transfer where the transferor has ``reasonable cause to believe'' that
the firearm will be used in criminal activity. We listened to concerns
about family members who give firearms as gifts and other transfers
that are not designed to get around the existing background check
system. As a result, the bill contains important exemptions for the
innocent transfer of a firearm as a gift, or in relation to a
legitimate raffle, auction or contest.
Another key provision of our bipartisan bill is that it complements
existing law that makes it a crime to smuggle firearms into the United
States by specifically prohibiting the smuggling of firearms out of the
United States. In light of what we know is occurring, particularly on
our Southwest border, this is an important improvement to current law
and another tool that was needed but missing over the last few years.
The provisions laid out in our legislation are focused, commonsense
remedies to the very real problems of firearms trafficking and straw
purchasing. Our bill does not affect lawful purchases from Federal
firearms licensees, and in no way alters their rights and
responsibilities as sellers of a lawful commodity. I hope Federal
firearms licensees welcome a stronger deterrent to keep criminal straw
purchasers out of their business.
The problems of gun trafficking and straw purchasers, particularly
along the Southwest border, are matters we have been talking about for
years. Senator Durbin chaired a hearing on border violence back in
early 2009. Law enforcement officials have called for a firearms
trafficking statute that can be effective to go after straw purchasers.
That is something agents did not have when they initiated Operation
Wide Receiver during the Bush administration and later the disastrous
Fast and Furious effort. Their frustration with the limits of the
current law contributed to their looking for another way to make a
difference in their fight against gun trafficking. Their initiative was
a failure. What we need to do now is to create better law enforcement
tools. I hope that those who have been concerned about Fast and
Furious, whose investigation established that it was the local ATF
agents in Arizona who initiated and so poorly implemented that effort,
will join with us to close the loophole in the law that Mexican drug
cartels are continuing to exploit.
Our bill was drafted at the request of law enforcement. It will
provide needed tools to fight against the drug cartels and other
criminals who threaten our communities. It will not undermine the
Second Amendment rights of lawful gun owners. It has the support of
many law enforcement organizations--both leadership and rank and file.
Indeed, the original bill I introduced with Senator Durbin has been
supported by the National Fraternal Order of Police, the National Law
Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, the Federal Law
Enforcement Officers Association, the International Association of
Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National
District Attorneys Association, and the Police Executive Research
Forum. I urge everyone who cares about keeping firearms out of the
hands of criminals to join in this effort.
We have an obligation to find solutions to reduce gun violence and I
thank these Senators for their strong leadership. We can do this in a
way consistent with the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. I
believe our bipartisan legislation meets those goals. As Chairman of
the Judiciary Committee, a Senator, a Vermonter, an American, a father
and a grandfather, I look forward to continuing our progress on this
important legislation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, let me begin my remarks by thanking the
distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Committee for his very gracious
comments and for his extraordinary leadership on a bill that I believe
can bring all of us together.
I also want to thank our other cosponsors of the bill, particularly
Senator Gillibrand, who has had a great interest in cracking down on
the practice of straw purchasing.
The practice of straw purchasing is intended to achieve one result--
to put a gun in the hands of a criminal. These individuals are easily
exploiting currently weak Federal laws to obtain guns.
Peter Forcelli, ATF Supervisory Special Agent and Fast and Furious
whistleblower, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
in June of 2011 that: ``Some people view [the current penalties for
straw purchasing] as no more consequential than doing 65 in a 55
zone.''
These guns are frequently sold, resold, and trafficked across State
lines, resulting in the proliferation of illegal firearms in our
communities. This has also fueled the violence across our southern
border associated with Mexican drug cartels as well as gang violence in
our cities.
Straw purchasing and gun trafficking put guns in the hands of
criminals. According to the ATF, of the nearly 94,000 firearms that
have been recovered in Mexico in the last 5 years, more than 64,000
were sourced to the United States. Similarly, a large percentage of the
guns used in crimes in our largest cities were trafficked across State
lines.
The congressional inquiry into the ATF's Wide Receiver and Fast and
Furious investigations revealed how difficult it is for law enforcement
officials to deter and punish these crimes effectively.
Current loopholes in Federal law make preventing and prosecuting
these offenses very difficult for law enforcement officials. Right now,
a straw purchaser can only be prosecuted for lying on a Federal form,
which is treated as a paperwork violation.
Because straw purchasers by definition are nonprohibited persons and
can lawfully purchase a firearm, prosecuting these individuals is
difficult and any potential punishment is likely to be minimal.
Because of these weak laws, prosecutors have minimal leverage over
straw purchasers who, in turn, have little incentive to cooperate and
assist law enforcement in investigating trafficking crimes and crimes
involving gun violence. For years, law enforcement has been asking
Congress for better tools to crack down on this type of criminal
conduct.
It is time to give law enforcement the tools it needs to combat this
activity effectively.
Our bill reflects a combination of advice from law enforcement
officials and leadership by many Senators. It gives law enforcement
officials the comprehensive framework they have been seeking from
Congress.
First, the bill creates new, specific criminal offenses for straw
purchasing and trafficking in firearms. Instead of a slap on the wrist,
these crimes would be punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
The proposal also increases the punishment for an individual who
serves as
[[Page S1092]]
an organizer of a straw purchasing or trafficking enterprise.
This bipartisan bill also strengthens existing laws that make it
unlawful to smuggle guns into the United States.
The bill protects legitimate private sales and is drafted to avoid
sweeping in innocent transactions and placing unnecessary burdens on
lawful private sales.
When buying from a private seller, the buyer is only in violation of
the new straw purchasing prohibition if the buyer purchases a firearm
for someone known to the buyer as a prohibited person, meaning a felon,
drug addict, someone subject to a domestic violence order, or someone
with serious mental illness.
When buying from a federally licensed firearms dealer, it is
prohibited to buy a firearm on behalf of or for another person. This is
consistent with current law that requires a person buying from a dealer
to certify that they are the ``actual buyer.'' It is important to note,
however, that the bill also expressly exempts transactions like gifts
and transfers that occur in raffles and auctions.
The bill is supported by numerous organizations, including the
Fraternal Order of Police, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers
Association, the FBI Agents Association, the International Association
of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the National
Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, the National
District Attorneys Association, and the Police Executive Research
Forum.
This bill helps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals without
infringing in any way upon the second amendment right of law-abiding
citizens.
I urge my colleagues to support this much needed legislation.
I am, again, very pleased to have been able to work under the
leadership of the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. I am delighted
he is going to proceed to mark up our bipartisan compromise this week,
and I thank him for the opportunity to work with him.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I rise to talk about an issue that
every mother in America is thinking about. Every parent in America who
saw what happened in Connecticut bleeds for this issue. We have to do
something in our country about senseless gun crime. We have to do
something about making sure criminals do not have easy access to
weapons to shoot down our children and loved ones in the areas that
should be the safest places for them. We have seen these mass deaths,
whether at a school, whether at a university, whether in a movie
theater, whether in a community center; these crimes are happening over
and over again.
I can tell you that from when I was first appointed to the Senate in
2009, I have realized our State of New York suffers from grave gun
crime all across our State. We have gang violence. We have gun
trafficking. We have straw purchasing. Networks of weapons flow into
our State. Eighty-five percent of the weapons used in crimes in my
State come from out of State and 90 percent of those weapons are
illegal.
I had to look into the eyes of parents who had just lost their
daughter because of a stray bullet from a gang member. Nyasia's parents
deserve an answer. The parents of the children in Connecticut deserve
an answer.
I have good news today because the Senate is working on a bipartisan
bill that is introduced today by the chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, Chairman Leahy, to begin to solve this problem. This bill
has wide bipartisan support. It started out with Senator Mark Kirk and
I working together. He has a real tough problem in Illinois with gang
violence that he wanted to address and crack down on. That bipartisan
work began to address other bipartisan work. The ranking member,
Senator Grassley, was very interested in this bill and has been working
with us to shape the bill, make it stronger. Susan Collins, who has
been a leader on this issue, began to work with us to shape this bill
and make it better. Senator Leahy and Senator Durbin have been working
on the issue separately. We all joined forces to begin to write a bill
that can tackle this problem, to make it a stronger solution, a better
solution.
We now have cosponsors. We have the Presiding Officer right now,
Senator Joe Donnelly. We have both Senators from Connecticut who must
answer the parents of their State, that they are doing something about
these senseless deaths. Senator Blumenthal, a former attorney general,
knows what law enforcement needs to take on these criminals. Senator
Murphy, Senator Klobuchar--also a previous attorney general--know what
it takes to crack down on these kinds of crime and this senseless
death. Senator King, an Independent, also signs on to this bill because
he knows it can do something to crack down on gun violence in this
country.
Of all the laws on the books in this country today, not one Federal
law says you cannot buy a truckload of guns, bring them to another
State, and sell them to a criminal network. It is not even prohibited.
You would not believe it. How could that be true in a country such as
ours, where the Federal Government's No. 1 job is to protect our
families? That is what this bill does. It makes it a Federal crime to
traffic, to be a straw purchaser, to sell these guns to criminal
networks with the intent of breaking the law.
The law enforcement agencies--whether it is ATF, NYPD, FBI--will now
have the tools they need on the Federal level to begin to tackle this
crisis.
I urge my colleagues on both side of the aisle, if they want to do
something about the senseless gun deaths in this country, this is a
bill they can support. For all the law-abiding gun owners in this
country who support the second amendment, as I do, they can look at
this bill and say: That is a bill we are supporting; that bill should
pass because it goes after the criminals and the illegal weapons that
are the scourge of this country. Thirty people get killed a day because
of gun violence--30 deaths. One is too many. When I look at Nyasia's
parents, one is too many.
Enough is enough. I am certain that when this bill passes this
Chamber and when law enforcement begins to have the tools, we will save
lives.
I thank my colleagues again for all the hard work they have done. I
thank Senator Mark Kirk for his courage for being the first Republican
to stand up to do a gun bill, the first bipartisan gun bill introduced
in this Chamber.
Mr. KIRK. Mr. President, I rise in support of the Stop Illegal
Trafficking in Firearms Act of 2013, which I am proud to join in
introducing with Senators Leahy, Gillibrand, Durbin and Collins. There
are an estimated 33,000 gangs with 1.4 million active members who live
in our neighborhoods, towns and cities across the United States. With
more than 100,000 gang members, the city of Chicago has more gang
members who terrorize its residents than any other city in the United
States. The Chicago Crime Commission also reported the existence of an
additional 15,000 gang members operating in our suburbs.
Gangs such as the Vice Lords, Gangster Disciples, and the Latin Kings
are responsible for nearly 80 percent of the city's homicides, which
just last summer amounted to 500 deaths in Chicago. These homicides are
most often perpetrated with illegal weapons. Law enforcement officers
in Chicago confiscate an average of 13,000 illegal weapons each year.
It must end.
That is why I have joined this bipartisan group to take serious
action to prevent weapons trafficking and straw purchasing, where a
third party member legally purchases a firearm then sells or trades it
to a criminal who is legally barred from purchasing such a weapon. Our
bipartisan, consensus legislation includes the Gun Trafficking
Prevention Act, which Senator Gillibrand and I introduced earlier this
year, that would for the first time make it a Federal crime to traffic
illegal guns. The Stop Illegal Trafficking in Firearms Act also
strengthens the tools law enforcement need to crack down on straw
purchasers, particularly those who transfer those weapons in
furtherance of crimes of violence or drug trafficking. This legislation
also calls upon the Sentencing Commission to substantially increase the
penalties when these crimes are committed by individuals affiliated
with gangs and other criminal enterprises.
A portion of this new anti-illegal gun trafficking legislation is
named after
[[Page S1093]]
Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old who was shot and killed by gang gunfire
in Chicago. For Hadiya and thousands of other victims, my hope is we
can break through the gridlock here in Washington to actually get
something done to save lives.
______
By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. King):
S. 444. A bill making appropriations for the Department of Defense
for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes;
to the Committee on Appropriations.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss two separate
problems facing our Nation--the first is sequestration, which is
underway now and indiscriminately affecting a wide range of programs.
The second is the prospect of a long-term Continuing Resolution to fund
the Federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year, also not
the way we should be doing business. Both will result in damage to our
military readiness.
In order to tackle these two separate but equally devastating
problems, I am introducing two measures today.
The first bill, which I am pleased to join my colleague, Senator
Udall, in sponsoring, will help mitigate the consequences of
sequestration by providing Department and agency heads additional
flexibility in implementing the cuts. The second bill, which I am
introducing with my colleague from my home state of Maine, Senator
King, will fund the Department of Defense for the remainder of the
fiscal year at levels approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee
in the funding bill that was reported unanimously by the Committee on
August 2, 2012.
As Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has repeatedly warned,
failing to pass an annual defense appropriations bill and requiring the
Pentagon to operate under last year's law will continue to lead to
dangerous absurdities that have ramifications that last far beyond the
six months left in this fiscal year.
Military readiness will suffer. A hollow force will be created. The
Pentagon will be unable to increase production rates for existing
weapons, start new programs, or sign multiyear procurement contracts
that would provide significant savings for taxpayers.
When I questioned Deputy Secretary Carter on February 14, at a Senate
Appropriations Committee hearing about what the continuing resolution
means for the Navy and our domestic shipbuilding capability, he
testified that:
We're in the absurd position where we're five months into
the fiscal year and we have the authority to build the ships
that we built last year and no authority to build the ships
that we plan to build this year. That's crazy . . . and that
has nothing to do with sequester, by the way, that's the CR.
I have long argued that we need to bring the annual appropriations
bills to the floor to be considered individually on their merits. I
believe that CRs represent an abdication of our responsibility and
should be avoided altogether. But given where we find ourselves today,
at the very least we should be able to come together to pass the full-
year Department of Defense funding bill and the Military Construction/
Veterans Affairs appropriations.
With regard to sequestration, we have known this day could arrive for
a year and a half now. Yet, instead of working together to avert
sequestration and replace it with a more rational alternative, the time
has been spent jockeying for partisan advantage and engaging in a blame
game. Last week, the Senate spent time voting against proceeding to
debate on two partisan proposals that both sides knew beforehand were
doomed.
The bill Senator Udall and I are introducing today is a bipartisan
effort to mitigate the harmful effects of sequestration. As a result of
sequestration, vital priorities such as defense, education,
transportation, and biomedical research, all face indiscriminate, meat-
ax cuts. No distinction is made between high-performing programs and
poorly performing ones.
The legislation we introduce today seeks to fix that. Instead of
mindless across-the-board budget cuts, this legislation provides the
heads of Federal agencies and departments with the flexibility to
implement the savings targets required by the Budget Control Act until
such time as a bipartisan agreement is reached to replace the sequester
cuts or until Congress passes new appropriations bills for fiscal year
2013 that meet the sequester levels.
The bill requires these agency and Department heads to submit their
proposals to the Appropriations committees of both the House and the
Senate for approval.
This approval is an important step in the process because these
Committees know the budget of each agency and can provide oversight of
agency plans. This provides a strong incentive for each agency to put
forth serious plans in order to avoid the across-the-board
sequestration cuts that would otherwise take effect.
Let me emphasize that while our proposal is intended to mitigate the
harmful and mindless across-the-board approach of sequestration, a
comprehensive, bipartisan approach to put our fiscal house in order
must remain a top priority.
I urge my colleagues to support both bills that we are introducing
today.
____________________