[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17695-17696]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           BUDGETARY IMPACTS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it has been only a few short weeks since 
the needless government shutdown that cost the Treasury more than $20 
billion, disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Federal 
workers and their families in every State, threatened to wreak havoc 
with the world's financial markets, and accomplished nothing.
  But an important deadline, one critical to determining how we resolve 
the current budget crisis, is just a few days away. While this 
approaching deadline does not come with the threat of another 
government shutdown, if Congress is going to complete work on 
appropriations bills before the continuing resolution expires on 
January 15, we need a top-line number from the budget conferees by the 
end of this week.
  By Friday, the budget conferees need to find enough common ground to 
agree on a level to fund the Federal Government for the remainder of 
the fiscal year. While many have expressed their doubts, there is no 
reason this cannot be done. People are fed up with putting the process 
of setting and funding our national priorities on autopilot. It is an 
abdication of responsibility and a wasteful way to do business.
  It is equally important that the level of funding replace 
sequestration. A long-term continuing resolution that funds the 
government at the House level of $967 billion would be a disaster. 
Sequestration would become the new normal, funding programs and 
agencies at levels far below those passed by the Senate Appropriations 
Committee and below fiscal year 2013.
  It is stunning--and frightening--that instead of looking to replace 
sequestration's devastating cuts, we hear from some Members that it is 
``working.'' If their intention is to stunt the economic recovery and 
indiscriminately slash services upon which American families and 
businesses depend, then I guess they are right. But I don't think most 
Members of Congress, or most Americans, see it that way.
  For those of us who want to support our communities and invigorate 
and sustain our economic recovery, another year of sequestration would 
be catastrophic. While we are still trying to gauge the full impact of 
the first round of cuts this year, one thing is clear--another year 
would be far worse.
  Agencies have exhausted their carryover funds and creative budgeting 
options to avoid layoffs, furloughs, and eliminating programs.
  Absent a budget agreement, the entire Federal Government, from the 
Department of Defense to the Department of Labor, will suffer 
significant, mindless cuts. I have spoken several times about the 
impact of another full year continuing resolution at the House's 
funding level.
  I want to take a minute to describe what it would mean for America's 
children, teachers, and families. LIHEAP, which provides lifesaving 
home energy assistance, would not receive the $325 million increase 
over the level included in a continuing resolution, cutting off 
assistance to about 760,000 more households this winter and next 
summer. Nearly 40,000 Vermont families rely on LIHEAP in the cold 
Vermont winters.
  Early Head Start Programs won't be expanded as the Senate 
appropriations bill intended, and the 177,000 children who would have 
received Head Start services will be turned away. Nearly 1,600 Vermont 
children depend on this assistance every year.
  Schools around the country already facing budget shortfalls look to 
the Federal Government to fund services to disadvantaged children 
through title I grants. Those schools would not receive the $852 
million included in the Senate appropriations bill. They would have to 
look elsewhere for money to provide those services to 1.3 million 
students in need.
  Schools would also lose $748 million in grants for special education 
that were included in the Senate appropriations bill, to help cover the 
costs of employing more than 9,000 additional special education aides 
in our schools.

[[Page 17696]]

  NIH would not receive the $2 billion in additional funds included in 
the Senate appropriations bill and instead would not be able to award 
1,300 new research grants. This means that 1,300 additional 
opportunities to achieve scientific advances that could lead to 
lifesaving treatments and cures would be missed opportunities.
  Under a continuing resolution, 159,000 families looking for 
assistance through the section 8 housing program to help keep a roof 
over their heads will be turned away because the funding won't be 
there. In Vermont, 774 families would face losing their housing 
assistance.
  The WIC Program won't be able to provide food to the nearly 500,000 
infants, children, and families the Senate appropriations bill would 
help, and working families won't receive the $291 million in additional 
funding the Senate provides for childcare subsidies.
  Beyond our borders, we would lose the additional $389 million 
included in the Senate appropriations bill for global health programs 
to combat HIV/AIDS and other preventable infectious diseases like 
malaria, tuberculosis, and pneumonia, as well as malnutrition.
  The consequences of such a cut can be measured in lives. Tens of 
thousands of additional deaths would result from these diseases, tens 
of thousands of additional children would be orphaned by AIDS, and 
there would be millions fewer lifesaving immunizations for children, 
resulting in tens of thousands of deaths that could have been 
prevented.
  A full-year continuing resolution would cut the international 
development assistance account that supports the basic needs of people 
in the poorest countries by nearly $115 million, including for primary 
education, food security, and clean water and sanitation programs.
  The examples go on and on. What we face is, in fact, not a hard 
choice. It is a choice between doing what is right or scoring political 
points. The budget conferees have an opportunity to reach meaningful 
compromise, to replace the ``never supposed to happen'' sequester, and 
to prove to the American people that they can put partisanship aside 
when it is in the national interest.
  That is what is at stake, and I commend the chairwoman of the 
Appropriations Committee, Senator Mikulski, and her counterpart in the 
House, Chairman Rogers, for the united stand they have taken for the 
good of the country. I hope the budget conferees follow their example.

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