[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 14259]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 REVISING THE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 
             AS IT APPLIES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON KIND

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 24, 2004

  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, budgeting is all about priorities. I strongly 
believe that we can invest in those priority programs important to 
people in western Wisconsin and throughout the nation, while reducing 
the record deficits that threaten our economic prosperity.
  As a member of the House Budget Committee, I worked with my 
colleagues to draft an alternative budget proposal that would have done 
just that. Our alternative provided important funding for chronically 
underfunded education programs such as No Child Left Behind and IDEA. 
The federal government promised that when these programs went into 
effect, it would provide funding to carry them out. Under the 
President's budget and the Majority's budget, we are not meeting this 
promise, and it is hurting local school districts.
  Our alternative budget also provided increased funding to meet the 
demands on our local first responders, provide more for veterans' 
health care needs, and improve the quality of life for our armed 
service members. Further, by making tough choices on spending and 
taxes, we provided more tax relief for middle income Americans while 
reducing the record federal budget deficits. We can do this if we can 
work in a bipartisan manner. Unfortunately, the budget resolution 
narrowly passed by the House earlier this year failed to make these key 
investments while still leading us down the road to the largest budget 
deficits in the history of our nation.
  Today, we have been given the opportunity to address our budget 
shortfalls. The resolution offered by Congressman Obey targets 
increased funding toward ten top priority issues, while providing $4.7 
billion to reduce future taxes on our children resulting from the these 
current budget deficits.
  The Obey resolution:
  Restores funding for training and equipment needs of state and local 
fire fighters, police, paramedics, public health officials, and 
emergency managers.
  Fully funds veterans medical care at levels advocated by the 
bipartisan House Veterans Affairs Committee. Veterans organizations 
expressed outrage at the inadequate healthcare funding levels included 
in the Majority's budget.
  Adds funding for military housing needs to help the families of our 
armed service members. The Department of Defense notes that over 
120,000 service members do not have decent housing.
  Funds the No Child Left Behind program.
  Meets the minimum funding necessary to meet promises for special 
education.
  Increases Pell Grants to more closely resemble inflation increases, 
helping lower income student afford college.
  This is by no means unnecessary or wasteful spending. It simply 
restores cuts to programs important to the people of western Wisconsin 
and provides adequate levels of funding to meet government promises.
  It is also fully paid for. As I mentioned earlier, budgeting is about 
tough choices, and included in this resolution is a reasonable trade 
off. In order to provide this important funding for military service 
members, students, veterans, and local first responders, the resolution 
propose reducing future tax relief for those wealthiest Americans with 
over $1 million in annual adjusted gross income. The tax packages of 
2001 and 2003 included enormous benefits for the wealthiest 1 percent 
of Americans. The Obey proposal will keep many of these tax provisions 
in place. In fact, those with annual adjusted gross incomes over $1 
million will still get around $24,000 in tax relief if this resolution 
is passed.
  Contrary to the rhetoric coming from the other side, this will not 
hurt the vast majority of small business owners. This resolution only 
impacts those with over $1 million in adjusted gross income. I know and 
work with many business owners in western Wisconsin, and this 
resolution will provide more help to them and their communities.
  Mr. Speaker, we need a new approach to help our local communities and 
this resolution provides important funding to meet critical priorities. 
I urge my colleagues to support the Obey resolution.

                          ____________________