Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, Fiscal Year 2016
Floor Speech
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from
Georgia, Senator Isakson, in supporting the biennial budgeting
amendment. This is legislation we have been working on--this will be
the third session of Congress now--and it is a response to what I think
we would all agree is a broken budget process here in Washington.
Since 1980, we have only had two budget processes that have been
finished on time, according to established process. In that timeframe,
since 1980 when, as Senator Isakson pointed out, every President has
endorsed biennial budgeting, Congress has resorted to more than 150
short-term funding bills or continuing resolutions. That is no way to
govern. While we have made progress in recent years to reduce our
deficits, we need reform of our budget process.
Senator Isakson pointed out very eloquently how this proposal would
work. In New Hampshire, where I served three terms as Governor, I had a
legislature of members of the other party and yet we were able to pass
biennial budgets 3 years, on time, that were balanced. It worked in New
Hampshire. It works in 19 other States. It can work here.
This is an opportunity for us to begin to reform our budget process.
It won't fix everything, but it will go a long way in addressing our
opportunity to provide oversight in the second year of the budget
process.
I hope our colleagues will join us, and that we will again, as we did
in 2013, have a majority to support biennial budgeting in this body.
I yield the floor.
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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, this is about ensuring that women are
not discriminated against because they want to have children. This is
making sure that women don't have to choose between their jobs and
their families. It is about ensuring that all women can be reassured
that if they are pregnant, their employer has to provide reasonable
accommodations.
I hope my colleagues will vote for this amendment.
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