HOLT STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2009 BUDGET RESOLUTION

(Washington, DC) – Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) today issued the following statement in support of the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Resolution, which passed the House.

A budget is a moral document that demonstrates our values and priorities. I want to congratulate Chairman Spratt for again bringing forth a budget that represents values of which we can be proud. This budget would make real investments in education, hometown security, veterans’ programs, healthcare, and research and development while bringing the budget back to surplus by 2012.

I am pleased that this Fiscal Year 2009 budget continues to follow the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) principle that the House restored at the start of the 110th Congress. This ensures that every new dollar of spending is offset and will not worsen the deficit. Although the budget resolution does not set the taxes or appropriation money, it does lay out the plan for the coming years to spend money and to raise revenues.

The budget would require the Ways and Means Committee to find the savings required to prevent millions of new Americans from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which has slowly morphed into a middle-class tax hike. More families in Central New Jersey are affected by the AMT than anywhere else in the country. Last year, Congress prevented nearly 23 million Americans, including more than 88,000 in the 12th Congressional District, from paying the AMT in 2008. Without action on this issue even more Americans would be affected by the AMT in the future.

With the price of oil now over $130 a barrel, this budget would make a significant investment in our nation’s energy future by providing $7.7 billion for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other energy programs. This is $2.8 billion – or 55 percent – more than the Fiscal Year 2008 budget. In doing so, the budget would reject the President’s budget cuts to energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, and instead invest $2 billion in new programs to create “green collar jobs.”

This budget honors our commitment to our nation’s children by investing in education. The budget would provide $8.4 billion above the President’s request – new funding that could support vital programs like Head Start, special education, school improvement programs, and Title 1. The budget also would help make college more affordable and accessible for students in New Jersey and throughout the country by increasing funding that could support Pell grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, and programs that broaden access to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Facing difficult and uncertain economic times, this budget would invest in job creation and job training. In addition to investing in programs to create “green collar jobs,” we reject the President’s cuts to Community Development Block Grants and his proposal to eliminate four job training programs. We also look to a long-term economic growth strategy, one that invests in science and research and development. This budget would support our Innovation Agenda by increasing funding for the America COMPETES Act, which authorized robust funding for research at the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

Our budget also addresses the fact that our nation has more Americans than ever living without health insurance, including over nine million children. We would include funding to provide up to $50 billion for children’s health insurance. This would help insure millions of children. Likewise, our budget recognizes the importance of Medicaid and Medicare and would reject the President’s harmful proposal to cut Medicaid by $94 billion and Medicare by $479 billion over ten years.

I’m proud of this budget’s commitment to making America more safe and secure. Notably, we would provide additional funding to implement the 9/11 commission recommendations, including required 100 percent screening for shipping and air cargo. We would also place a greater emphasis on funding nuclear nonproliferation programs, one of the most severe threats to our security.

Additionally, we would restore funding for vital first responder programs, including the State Homeland Security Grant Program (cut $705 million), Firefighter Assistance Grants (cut $463 million), Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (eliminated all formula funding), and COPS (cut $599 million).

This budget continues our commitment to fully fund veterans' health care by providing $48.2 billion for 2009, which is $4.9 billion (11.4 percent) more than the 2008 level. In fact, it would provide $3.3 billion more than the President's budget for 2009 and $39 billion more over five years. Consistent with past practice, the President's budget actually cuts funding after the first year. This budget also would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to treat 5.8 million patients in 2009, including an estimated 333,275 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, many of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, or blast-related injuries. Additionally, the budget rejects the health care fee increases imposed by the President's budget, which total $2.3 billion over five years, including a new enrollment fee and pharmaceutical co-payment increases. Finally, this budget increases funding to speed disability claims processing, so that VA can continue to reduce its backlog.

I would like to recognize the budget’s impact on voting reform. Implementing a nationwide requirement for independently auditable, and audited, vote counts is a priority of mine. As such, I was deeply disappointed that the President’s budget made no request for funding under Title II of the Help America Vote Act. Approximately $560 million of the funding authorized under that Title remains unappropriated, and jurisdictions across the country could use that funding to improve the accuracy, integrity and security of their voting systems, as well as improve the administration of elections generally. Additionally, I was disappointed to see that the President requested only half of what remains authorized to fund disability access grants to ensure polling place accessibility. As we continue to debate the budget, we should address these budget shortfalls.

This budget reflects values for which we can be proud. We reject cuts to important healthcare, education, veterans, and national security programs while maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility. By adopting this budget and supporting the designated funding levels throughout the appropriations process, we would be investing in priorities important to our future.

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