Alexander Votes for Balanced Budget

Press Release

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today made the following statement after voting for the 2016 fiscal year budget:

"Today, I voted for the budget because it is a long-overdue starting point to help bring the federal government's $18 trillion debt under control. This budget balances in nine years without raising taxes and proposes to take some initial steps to slow the growth of out-of-control mandatory entitlement spending."

Alexander continued, "Passing a budget is a good first step, but we still have more work to do. The federal debt is not the result of overspending on the military, highways or cancer research. We must continue to fund these priorities and pass a plan like the Fiscal Sustainability Act Sen. Corker and I introduced last Congress to slow the growth of entitlement spending by nearly $1 trillion over 10 years."

Today's vote was on a conference report that is the result of an agreement between the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate on a budget resolution. Congress can now move forward with the so-called "reconciliation" process, which requires committees to produce legislation to reduce federal spending.

Alexander noted that mandatory spending -- which includes out-of-control entitlement spending that is driving the growth in the federal debt -- made up about 60 percent of overall federal spending in 2014. Discretionary spending -- the part of the budget that is already subject to spending caps under the Budget Control Act -- made up about 34 percent of federal spending in 2014 and funds national defense, national labs, national parks and other federal priorities.

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