Senator Stabenow Statement Following Passage of Legislation to Stop Middle Class Tax Increases and Avoid the Fiscal Cliff

Statement

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, issued the following statement tonight on passage of the Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act of 2012:

"It is critically important that the U.S. Senate has come together to prevent tax increases on middle class families and small businesses, extend unemployment benefits for those struggling to find a job, and end tax breaks for millionaires our country can no longer afford. This agreement accomplishes that, providing certainty for families and businesses and allowing our economic recovery to continue.

"However, I am deeply concerned that Republican Leader Mitch McConnell insisted on including an incomplete Farm Bill extension that ends funding for important parts of the bill, including disaster assistance, while continuing costly taxpayer subsidies that were ended in the Farm Bill passed by the Senate. Rather than embrace the Senate's bipartisan Farm Bill which cuts $24 billion in spending and creates certainty for our agriculture economy, Senator McConnell insisted on a partial extension that reforms nothing, provides no deficit reduction, and hurts many areas of our agriculture economy.

"The Senate Agriculture Committee will once again begin work in the new year to enact a new Farm Bill that works for our farmers and rural communities as well as American taxpayers."

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