[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 184 (Thursday, December 17, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8789-S8791]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          OMNIBUS LEGISLATION

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I support this bipartisan budget package

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that is an important step forward for our country.
  With this deal, we have avoided the devastating sequester cuts--which 
is incredibly important for our economy, for our workers, and for our 
businesses.
  We did not allow the government to shut down over divisive issues--
like taking away access to reproductive health care for millions of 
women.
  We fought to protect investments that are vital to our families, 
children, seniors, veterans, women, college students, communities, and 
our environment.
  By definition, no deal is ever perfect. No one will get everything 
they want--especially in a divided government, but this agreement is 
good for our country in many ways.
  I will start with the extension of the clean energy investments 
included in this package.
  Look at my State. We know what is at stake. Clean energy has proven 
to be a huge engine of economic growth in California.
  So extending the wind and solar energy tax incentives will help 
create tens of thousands of clean energy jobs across the country that 
will benefit American families and the environment, increase our energy 
independence, and protect our children and grandchildren from dangerous 
pollution.
  Extending the wind and solar tax incentives will eliminate over 10 
times more carbon emissions than lifting the oil export ban will 
create. Combined, these incentives are expected to reduce annual carbon 
emissions equal to the emissions from 66 coal-fired power plants or 50 
million passenger cars.
  Extending the Investment Tax Credit, ITC, for solar would create an 
estimated 61,000 jobs in 2017 alone and avoid losing 80,000 solar jobs.
  And extending the Production Tax Credit, PTC, would allow the wind 
industry to grow to over 100,000 jobs in 4 years and continue toward 
supporting 500,000 jobs by 2030.
  These provisions are a game changer--and I am thrilled they were 
included.
  I also strongly support the 9/11 First Responders provision. In this 
country, we take care of the people who put their lives on the line for 
us. These men and women answered the call of duty when our Nation was 
under attack.
  I never understood why it took so long to do this, and it is a moral 
outrage that this program was allowed to expire in the first place. We 
should never have left them in limbo for health care.
  We would never ever leave our wounded soldiers on the battlefield, 
and we should have never ever have given these brave first responders 
even a moment of doubt that we would be there for them.
  I want to praise Senator Gillibrand, Senator Schumer, and Jon Stewart 
for putting this issue on the map--and getting these 9/11 heroes the 
health care they need--and deserve. And I want to say this: it was 
then-Senator Hillary Clinton who, as a member of EPW, called attention 
to the dangerous, dangerous toxic air pollutants at Ground Zero, and I 
praise her for that work. She secured millions for a health screening 
program for Ground Zero workers and first responders.
  I am also thrilled this deal renews the Land and Water Conservation 
Fund, LWCF, for 3 years. The fund--our country's most successful 
conservation and recreation program--ensures that all Americans have 
access to our beautiful outdoor spaces.
  Since 1964, the fund has created recreation opportunities in every 
single State and protected national parks, national wildlife refuges, 
national forests, and other Federal areas--and doing so has benefitted 
our economy. Outdoor recreation, conservation, and preservation pumps 
more than $1 trillion into the U.S. economy every year and supports 1 
out of every 15 jobs in the U.S.
  There are a number of other critical provisions in this package.
  Veterans--this bill demonstrates our dedication to our veterans by 
providing $163 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans 
Affairs. A majority of this funding will go directly to medical care 
and medical research for our veterans.
  Education--this legislation will also provide billions of dollars in 
funding to ensure more access to quality education for our students--
including $22.5 billion for the Pell Grant Program--which when combined 
with mandatory funding will increase the maximum grant to $5,915 and 
ensure that more than 8 million low-income students can attend college 
in the next school year.
  The bill also invests significant funding in title I grants and Head 
Start--which gives our youngest children more opportunities for 
educational success.
  Afterschool--the bill boosts funding for afterschool programs by $15 
million, expanding access to the critical programs for approximately 
15,000 students.
  Fighting the opioid epidemic--the bill also includes robust funding 
to fight the growing use of drugs in this country and increase 
awareness of the dangers of prescription drug abuse by providing $3.8 
billion for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services.
  Preserving our national parks--the bill provides $2.8 billion to 
preserve and protect our beautiful national parks.
  Drought--I want to thank Senator Feinstein for including $271 million 
to help alleviate hazards caused by drought, floods, fires, windstorms, 
and other natural disasters. It also helps farmers and ranchers repair 
damage to farmlands caused by these natural disasters.
  Included in this package are also important tax provisions that will 
help our families, our communities and our environment.
  The tax extenders package made permanent the child tax credit, CTC, 
earned-income tax credit, EITC, and American opportunity tax credit for 
college expenses.
  This will increase the tax refunds of working families by several 
hundred dollars per year, depending on the size of the family.
  Other important tax extenders made permanent are the deduction for 
State and local sales taxes, the deduction for donations of property 
for conservation purposes, tax-free retirement plan distributions for 
charitable donations, and the deduction for teachers' out-of-pocket 
expenses, as well as parity for parking and transit subsidies. The bill 
also extends the favorable tax treatment of forgiven mortgages through 
2016.
  I am pleased that we were able to stop more than 100 poison pill 
riders.
  We stopped Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood and 
depriving nearly 3 million Americans of health care.
  We stopped them from undermining the Food and Drug Administration's 
ability to protect Americans from the dangers of e-cigarettes.
  We stopped them from restricting the authority of Health and Human 
Services, HHS, to administer and enforce the Affordable Care Act.
  We stopped them from weakening the Department of Homeland Security's 
DACA program, which helps DREAMers succeed.
  We stopped them from barring FEMA State and grant funds to sanctuary 
cities.
  We stopped them from gutting the President's landmark Clean Power 
Plan and weakening the Endangered Species Act and destroying the Clean 
Water Act.
  And we stopped them from eliminating the housing trust fund, which 
provides affordable housing for families across the country.
  I am proud that Democrats stood together and fought against these 
dangerous provisions that would seriously hurt the American people.
  Now, there were several provisions that ended up in the legislation 
that I do not support--measures that Republicans insisted on, such as 
lifting the oil export ban permanently, which I oppose.
  I also do not support Republicans' decision to flat-fund the EPA--
even though the EPA is incredibly popular with Americans.
  And it doesn't provide the IRS with any new funds--which hurts our 
ability to administer the Affordable Care Act, as well as crack down on 
tax cheats and frauds.
  The package also provides inadequate support for family planning--
especially abroad.
  At a time when we should be doing everything we can to prevent gun 
violence, this legislation does not overturn a prohibition on 
government-funded studies of gun violence.

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  I am also disappointed that the House's visa waiver language was 
accepted--rather than Senator Feinstein's language that I supported.
  But in the end, that is what a compromise is--and that is what it 
means to negotiate and to govern.
  I want to praise Senator Reid, Leader Pelosi, Senator Mikulski, and 
all of my fellow Democrats who fought so hard to make this the best 
agreement we could reach. I also praise their Republican counterparts.
  I believe this is a good deal for the American people. It is good for 
our families, our children, our economy, and our environment, and I 
urge my colleagues to support it.

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