[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 19176-19177]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      BIPARTISAN BUDGET AGREEMENT

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to urge my 
colleagues to support the bipartisan budget agreement.
  I congratulate our colleagues, especially Budget Committee chairwoman 
Murray for her outstanding leadership in forging this bipartisan 
agreement with her House counterpart, Mr. Ryan. They reached this 
agreement in a way that is indeed a compromise--not everyone's desired 
outcome but a fair and necessary one. I urge my colleagues to support 
it. I think it is fantastic that they actually got a budget done. This 
is the first time in several years we are actually going to vote on a 
bipartisan budget conference agreement, and I think it bodes well for 
future activity where we return to the due order of passing 
legislation, one in each House, having a conference committee to hammer 
out the disagreements, and then it coming back to us for final 
agreement.
  What I like about this agreement is it creates certainty by avoiding 
sequester for 2 years, giving the top-line funding to us on the 
Appropriations Committee for 2014 and 2015. Many people do not realize 
that we on the Appropriations Committee who actually put money in the 
Federal checkbook to be

[[Page 19177]]

spent have a cap put on our spending by the Budget Committee. That is 
called the 302(a) or the top line. We have not been able to do our 
Appropriations Committee work because we have not had a top line. This 
enables us to have one for 2014. We are under a mandate to bring it 
back to the Senate and to the House by January 14. We will meet that 
deadline. It is going to be tough. It is going to be stringent. But we 
are going to get the job done. It also gives us certainty for 2015 so 
we can return to a regular order of actually knowing where we stand 
with our cap, holding our hearings, and bringing bills to the 
committee.
  The other facet I like about this bipartisan budget agreement is it 
prevents harm. It protects seniors and families. It preserves the 
social safety net, such as Medicare and Social Security.
  Finally, the agreement ends gridlock. The American people are tired 
of shutdown, slowdown, slam-down politics. This agreement ends the 
lurching from crisis to crisis and shows we can compromise and we can 
govern.
  First of all, and foremost, this budget agreement creates certainty 
for America's businesses and families. By avoiding sequester for 2 
years, it prevents further across-the-board cuts--not that we do not 
need strategic cuts, and we will come up with them in the 
Appropriations Committee--but across-the-board cuts where we do not 
know if a program works or if a program is dysfunctional. This way, we 
can actually look at those programs that we do need to cut--those that 
are dated, those that are duplicative, those that are dysfunctional. 
Sure, let's cut those.
  But at the same time let's keep the good programs and make sure that 
they are adequately funded. I believe that avoiding the sequester and 
the meat-ax approach to cuts really helps us to have better governance. 
We will have a more frugal government, and we will have a more sensible 
way of spending.
  It also gives us this top line funding for 2014 and 2015 for the 
Appropriations Committee. It means that we can write an omnibus bill. 
What does an omnibus bill mean? We on the Appropriations Committee have 
12 subcommittees. We would like to have brought these subcommittees up 
one by one and have the House exercise their due diligence in looking 
at the bills to see what they want to add, subtract or change.
  We could not do it because we failed to have this budget agreement to 
give us the top line. What we will now be able to do is for 2014 we 
will be able to bring them all up at one time in a bill called the 
omnibus. I hope it is a bus that really moves. It will enable us to 
make smart choices about our investments in America instead of 
government on autopilot through a continuing funding resolution.
  This agreement saves America from lurching from one continuing 
funding resolution to another. It is a fair compromise. For 2014 it is 
$45 billion above the House-proposed budget, but it is $45 billion 
below the Senate-proposed budget. Our budget leadership met in the 
middle and really thought that would be an adequate compromise. I would 
have preferred the 1.058 level, but it is adequate.
  The bipartisan agreement also, as I said, prevents harm to the middle 
class. What America is looking for, though, is not only numbers and 
programs and so on, they want us to get our act together. They want us 
to really do our job, and do it in a way that is sensible and civil.
  I believe that is what was done in that budget committee. They want 
us to work together across the aisle and across the dome. This 
bipartisan agreement shows what can be done when we do meet in the 
middle to make progress for the middle class and for those people who 
are neither right or left but want to take the middle of the road.
  This compromise is not perfect. Compromises never are. For me, some 
of the pay-fors were not exactly what I was happy about. For example, 
they require new Federal employees to pay more for their retirement and 
working-age military retirees to receive smaller COLAs. I would have 
preferred an agreement that closed tax loopholes or canceled some of 
those out-of-date farm subsidies left over from the 1930s.
  However, by avoiding the sequester, we also will be able to avoid 
furloughs. If you talk to the civilian employees at Defense, and you 
talk to Federal employees in the domestic agencies about this whole 
idea of furloughs and sequester, some of them had to have a double 
furlough, such as at the FBI. We were facing furloughs in the FBI. We 
did not have gas for the FBI cars. That is not right.
  We want to make sure we continue to fund our government and meet our 
responsibilities. I cannot stress enough how important this bipartisan 
agreement is. If we continued the path that we left and the sequester 
was left in place, it is would cost our economy 800,000 jobs in 1 
year--800,000 jobs.
  Maryland already lost 21,000 jobs because of the sequester. We have 
important Federal agencies. We have over 250,000 contractors, both in 
defense and civilian agencies, and the ripple effect through my State 
had an impact on institutions like Johns Hopkins and the University of 
Maryland and on major flagship companies like Lockheed Martin, and it 
was really significant.
  By passing this, we have a certainty that enables us to keep those 
jobs. The Appropriations Committee is ready to write a funding bill 
that will create jobs today and jobs tomorrow. Jobs today and important 
investments in infrastructure, education, research and development, and 
jobs tomorrow.
  Let's take this bipartisan agreement, and we will produce a bill. We 
on the Appropriations Committee will produce a bill that meets our 
national security needs, our compelling human needs, and at the same 
time lay the groundwork for a more prosperous America.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill and end gridlock and 
deadlock. Let's get on with making sure that we have certainty and 
reliability in funding the government of the United States of America.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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