Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Our Nation's unsustainable budget deficit is staring us in the face, but it is at critical moments like this when we must approach our Nation's greatest challenges with responsibility and prudence. Make no mistake that what's at stake here is grand in scope, and we could have grave consequences for our Nation's security, our infrastructure, and our economy.

Just this morning, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the Republicans' stopgap spending plan "a crisis on our doorstep'' in terms of our national security, and these shortsighted budget cuts could lead to costlier and more tragic consequences later.

The approach we take must focus on responsible cuts which will have a lasting impact on our deficit, not arbitrary short-term cuts to programs to win a few votes back home.

We should be making decisions based on the best available science, not the worst possible politics. For example, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are focused on de-funding the Mexican Wolf Recovery program, instead of protecting the critically important jobs at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

The NNSA is responsible for the management and security of our Nation's nuclear weapons and nuclear nonproliferation, and provides crucial funding for the work being done at our national labs.

Our national labs, like Sandia National Lab in central New Mexico, have a tremendous impact on our local communities and our national defense. Last year, Sandia Labs hired a little over 700 people; 203 of these new hires graduated from a New Mexico university.

I am in favor of reducing government spending. In fact, this week I voted to cut $3 billion in unnecessary spending. But installations critical to our national security which are also successful private sector economic drivers like Sandia National Labs should not take the hit.

Elsewhere in their spending plans, Republicans want to gut the Land and Conservation Fund, a proven economic multiplier that has yielded $4 in economic activity around national parks for every dollar of Federal investment. They want to slash the Antiquities Act, which, since 1906, has provided an economic lifeline to rural communities surrounded by public land.

Madam Speaker, in the West, outdoor recreation and public lands means jobs. They mean hunting and fishing and camping and a western way of life.

Also on the chopping block is vital funding for women's health care and service agencies like AmeriCorps.

In regard to infrastructure, the Republicans' continuing resolution cuts key investments aimed at fixing our crumbling roads, energy grids, and clean water programs. Just this month, in my home State of New Mexico, we experienced a major gas outage emergency. On the coldest night of the year, with temperatures as low as negative 32 degrees, families were left without heat due to distribution infrastructure failures across the Southwest.

In an era of infrastructure failures which wreak havoc on communities, cutting key transportation and infrastructure investments would leave America dangerously vulnerable. At the same time, these cuts will result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The middle class is still on a shaky path to recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Let's not pull the rug out from underneath the hardworking people we came here to represent.

It has been 2 months since the Republicans took over the majority, and they still haven't introduced a jobs package. It was bad enough that the Republicans were ignoring jobs, but with this CR, they are now actively trying to cut jobs. I don't know about you, but a ``so be it'' attitude is simply not going to cut it when it comes to the families I represent back home.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to resist the temptation to politicize the very serious business of reducing our Nation's deficit. That is the only way we will ever rebuild the public's trust in government and grow our economy.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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