H.R. 5652: Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act of 2012

Floor Speech

Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 5652, the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act. The proposed cuts in this bill directly attack low and moderate-income Americans while protecting an excessive defense budget.

More than 40 percent of the cuts in this legislation come from programs that support low-income families. The bill abandons millions of Americans who rely on food assistance programs by making drastic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Free School Lunch and Breakfast program, and Meals on Wheels. The bill slashes funding for the Social Services Block Grant Program, which provides more than 20 million children and seniors services ranging from protection from abuse to transitional housing. Simply put, H.R. 5652 disproportionately cuts assistance targeted to low- and moderate-income families and will only deepen the poverty that they experience and leave more of them hungry.

H.R. 5652 cuts the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and restricts any unused funds for deficit reduction. Though initially flawed, my efforts and those of my colleagues to improve HAMP have helped to make it is an essential response to the foreclosure crisis. Rather than completely eliminate it, as H.R. 5652 would do, the program should continue to be revamped to better serve the needs of the American people.

This legislation includes provisions to require that all current and future federal workers pay an additional 5 percentage points of their salary toward their federal pensions. This cut in benefits would result in an annuity that is worth approximately 40% less than is the case under existing laws. Federal workers have already endured pay freezes and large programmatic budget cuts.
Congress should not be playing politics with the pensions of the thousands of hard-working federal employees that are dedicating their lives to public service.
In addition, H.R. 5652 weakens Americans' protections in the event of another financial crisis like the one that started our current recession. The bill prevents the FDIC from intervening to slow the chain reaction of investment bank failures that happens when one of the firms begins to fail, bringing the others with it because they are so closely tied together. The bill also eliminates the ability of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to fine law-breaking financial entities under its jurisdiction.

The premise behind this legislation is that we should go back on the agreement that was reached and codified in the Budget Control Act by preserving a massively bloated Defense Department with funding from Americans of greatest need. I strongly oppose this bill.

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