Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2005

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank my colleague for his tremendous leadership on the Budget Committee over the years and for his leadership in making sure we do the right thing in terms of deficits and also investments for this country.

I have served on the Budget Committee for the past 11 years, through recessions and economic expansions and during periods of surplus and periods of deficit. I know what responsible budgets look like because I have worked with chairmen from both parties.

I believe this Republican budget doesn't do what we must do to create jobs, improve our security, and to meet our country's needs. I think we can do better. That is why I am speaking out on the floor this evening. It is why I offered amendments in committee last week, and it is why I will be offering amendments on the floor this week.

Mr. President, this is a critical time for our country, and we need a Federal budget that meets our needs. We are facing many challenges today, from supporting our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, to improving our security at home, to recovering all the jobs that we have lost, and addressing the growing deficit.

This budget resolution should help us meet those challenges, but instead it offers the wrong priorities. It favors tax cuts over our Nation's security. It favors boardrooms over classrooms. It favors deficits over job creation. Frankly, this budget offers too little help for families in my State of Washington. My State still has the fourth highest unemployment in the Nation. This budget does not give families in my State the support they deserve as they work to turn our economy around and build for the future.

The people of Washington deserve a real Federal commitment because they work to create jobs and provide health care and improve our security and transportation. On the issues important in my State, this budget comes up short. I am particularly disappointed that the President's budget doesn't fulfill the Federal commitment to secure our ports, care for our veterans, to invest in education, to improve health care, or to provide the infrastructure we need to move our communities forward.

Not only is this budget bad for Washington State, but it is also bad for our country's economic future, lining up massive deficits for years to come. I hear many in the majority speak of the need for "fiscal discipline," but the rhetoric in this budget doesn't meet the reality. This budget continues the fiscal policies that have put our Nation's priorities in jeopardy.

Two weeks ago, Americans learned that the majority's policies are threatening America's retirement security in order to pay for their own irresponsible fiscal policies. Rather than backing away from a misguided economic policy that has cost us millions of jobs, the administration now appears ready to cut Social Security benefits for millions of hard-working Americans. I am not willing to tell the people of my State that they must suffer because of the fiscal mistakes of this administration or this majority in the Congress.

I want to turn to a few of my top concerns with this budget: port security, veterans, education, health care, and transportation.

In Washington State, we depend on our ports. One in 4 Washington jobs rely on international trade, and our ports are critical economic engines. Unfortunately, as we all know, in today's world, America's ports are vulnerable. A terrorist attack launched on or through our ports could bring our commerce to a standstill, threatening lives and jobs and really our economic future. We have an obligation to improve the security of our ports.

Unfortunately, this budget tells our communities that the Federal Government will not be a full partner in port security. This budget literally sticks our local ports and communities with unfunded mandates at a time when local and State budgets are already stretched incredibly thin.

The President's budget undermines port security in 4 ways:

First of all, it eliminates Operation Safe Commerce.

Second, it underfunds the Maritime Transportation Security Act by 93 percent.

Third, it doesn't provide the Coast Guard with the funding it needs to meet its growing missions.

Finally, the President's budget cuts port security grants by 63 percent.

Last week in the Budget Committee markup, I offered an amendment to stop the President's cut to port security grants.
My amendment failed on a party-line vote. This fight is not over. I will continue to push this White House to pay its share of port security instead of passing those bills on to our local communities.

Mr. President, this budget also shortchanges our veterans. Washington State is home to more than 670,000 veterans today. They rely on services they were promised when they signed up for service to our country. But the President's budget is $2.6 billion below the independent budget recommendation for the VA.

The VFW, in fact, called the President's budget "harmful to veterans." The Disabled American Veterans called it "utterly disgraceful."

This is the wrong message to send at a time when the next generation of combat veterans is today risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last week, I offered an amendment in the Budget Committee to increase the VA construction account by $400 million. Last year, Congress authorized the VA to take money out of its health care budget for these construction projects that will begin in this fiscal year. Unless we can increase that construction account, our veterans are going to face a $400 million cut in their health care services.

The amendment I offered in committee would have protected our veterans from that cut. Unfortunately, the veterans amendment was defeated in the committee on a party-line vote.

Our American veterans deserve better, and I will keep fighting for them.

Let me talk about education. I really believe this budget fails, as we all know, to provide the funding that was promised in the No Child Left Behind Act. This Republican budget comes up $8.6 billion short of what our local schools need to fully fund No Child Left Behind. I represent nearly 28,000 Washington State students who will be denied title I services this year under the President's budget request.

The President's budget falls $84 million short of the title I funding that was promised to my State under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The President's budget also freezes funding for impact aid, dropout prevention, school counseling, afterschool programs, teacher quality, migrant education, and rural education.

How can we expect our students and teachers to succeed when we fail to provide them with the resources they need? That is why I offered an amendment to provide $8.6 billion to help our local schools implement the No Child Left Behind Act.

Once again, in committee my amendment failed on a party-line vote. We cannot expect our schools to do everything we required of them under the No Child Left Behind Act without the support we promised to them.

Let me talk about health care. I believe this budget also seriously jeopardizes health care for many in my home State of Washington. This budget could jeopardize critical support for community health centers, the community access program, NIH, and the CDC.

This budget also reduces our commitment to Medicaid. That is a program we should be expanding and strengthening to address the rising number of uninsured and increasing costs of health care.

Today, Washington State is struggling to keep its commitment to low-income children through the Medicaid and CHIP programs. Medicaid cuts could result in another 74,000 uninsured individuals in my home State alone. We need more help from the Federal Government and, frankly, this budget falls short.

Finally, let me say a word about transportation. Less than a month ago, this Senate passed a strong, bipartisan bill to invest in our Federal highways, transit, and transportation safety programs for the next 6 years. Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming support of the Senate, the budget that we see now before us today cuts $62 billion for investment in our surface transportation needs. That is about jobs and about economic growth.

It is estimated that for every $1 billion we spend on transportation infrastructure, we create over 47,000 good paying family wage jobs.

We know that investing in our transportation priorities today will help us not only improve our quality of life but will provide for our future economic growth. If this Congress truly cares about investing in jobs, we will provide the funding agreed to by the Senate less than 1 month ago today.

As I see it, as this budget is written today, it fails our families in areas such as security, veterans, education, health care, and transportation. I am hopeful that we can improve this resolution through the amendment process this week and really create a budget that makes the right investments, that is fiscally responsible, and reflects the priorities of working families across this country.

I look forward to working with my colleagues throughout this week to address those issues.

I thank the Chair, and I thank the Senator from North Dakota for his work. I see the chairman of the Budget Committee. I know this is the last budget he will shepherd through the Congress. I thank him for his commitment to our country as well.