Concurrent Resolution On The Budget For Fiscal Year 2008--Conference Report

Floor Speech

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - May 17, 2007)

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I just wanted to come to the floor for a few minutes today and talk about the budget that is before us now. It reflects a lot of work. It reflects the priorities of families across this country. Importantly, it returns fiscal responsibility to Washington, DC. It invests in critical needs of all Americans.

I am very proud to be able to say I support it. It is tough and it is strong, which is exactly what we need to be doing today in the United States.

First and foremost, I do want to thank our chairman, Senator Conrad, on his work on this most difficult task. I have served with him through this process time and time again. I am always amazed and impressed by his thoughtfulness, his attention to detail, and, of course, his amazing charts. He always works well, along with his partner from the House, Congressman Spratt, to help us establish priorities of which all Americans can be proud.

Writing a budget of this size and scope is not easy, but Senator Conrad has again proven this year he is up to the task. I am proud to call him a colleague and a friend.

Mr. President, Senator Conrad and all of us as Democrats want a budget that reflects the priorities of American families. We do that in this budget by investing here at home--in our schools, in our infrastructure, and in our communities. We still provide every dollar the President asks for defense spending over the next 5 years.

At the same time, Americans want us to return to fiscal responsibility in Washington, DC. Every family knows the importance of balancing their own checkbooks and paying their own bills. They expect us, the Federal Government, to be responsible with their money as well.

Unfortunately, as Senator Conrad pointed out, for too many years under Republican control we have seen a failure to manage those taxpayer dollars. Year after year, they have produced some of the largest debts this country has ever seen. This budget, our budget, says ``no more.''

Our plan does include strong pay-as-you-go rules, and that means we are being responsible for today and not burdening our grandchildren with future debt. In fact, this budget produces a $41 billion surplus by 2012. I really want to say we owe Senator Conrad a debt for keeping us fiscally responsible yet investing in the right priorities, and still producing a surplus by 2012.

We recognize in this budget that American families want relief from taxes as well. This budget supports middle-class tax relief. It extends marriage penalty relief, child tax credit, and supports reform of the estate tax just to make sure that we protect small business and family farms, and, importantly, provides relief from the alternative minimum tax for 1 year, a tax that increasingly is a burden on middle-class families.

I am especially proud of what we have done in this budget that pays attention, finally, to our veterans when they come home. From stories we have heard of veterans who have been struggling to get mental health care for post-traumatic stress disorder, to some who had to wait months if not years to get the benefit checks they so need, or the lack of focus on traumatic brain injury, the signature issue of this war that is affecting thousands and thousands of our soldiers who have returned home.

What we have seen clearly is the President has not adequately funded veterans care. This budget reverses that terrible trend and provides $43.1 billion for addressing those problems. That is a critical component of this budget that every Member of this Senate ought to vote for.

Importantly, our budget rejects the President's proposal to impose new fees and higher copayments on veterans. The President's budget that came to us said that he wanted to impose fees and copays on the veterans themselves to pay for veterans health care. We say no. We say these men and women have paid the price by serving us. We are not going to charge them again.

Very importantly, we keep the promise to our Nation's heroes and restore that by saying we will not impose fees on our veterans to balance this Nation's budget.

This budget also invests in critical port security needs. I was very proud to work last year on a bipartisan basis to pass the Safe Ports Act. But that bill did not adequately fund the critical infrastructure we need to keep our ports safe. This bill begins that process.

We have increased funding for the Safe Ports Act, which means more radiation detection centers at our Nation's ports, more partners in safe trade, and importantly, the personnel, custom officials to make sure this bill actually works.

On education, our budget reverses the painful cuts that we have seen year after year to education and provides the largest increase in funding for elementary and secondary education programs in 5 years.

Like all of my colleagues, I have been home. I have listened to my teachers, my administrators, my parents, and students at home who tell us the lack of funding in the promise to No Child Left Behind has hindered them from being able to do the right thing, to make sure our children get a good education.

Our budget, this budget that is before us, increases Department of Education funding by $9.5 billion above the President's request and keeps the promise we made when No Child Left Behind was enacted.

As a parent, a former teacher, I know the importance of investing in our children's education. I am very proud this budget does just that.

This budget also provides very important funding for SCHIP; that is the program that Senator Conrad talked about which is the children's health insurance program. Everyone talks about the incredible burden of health care in this country and who it is impacting most, our Nation's children. This budget expands health care coverage to nearly 6 million children.

Certainly, in this country today that ought to be our top priority. That is what Democrats are saying in the budget before us. We provided a very important step forward for American children with the investment in this budget.

I think it is important to note that in 3 of the last 5 years, the Republican majority failed to pass a budget. They had a much larger majority than we do here in the Senate today, and we saw what happened when a budget did not happen: historic debts that were passed on to our children and grandchildren.

Well, last November, in the election, Americans demanded a change. I believe this budget reflects that call. It returns fiscal responsibility to Washington, DC and, importantly, ensures our Nation's priorities are addressed. I am very proud to support this bill. I encourage all of our colleagues to do so.

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