Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for yielding and for his kind words, and I return the compliment to him.

To the staff of the Budget Committee, the staff of the other committees of jurisdiction on both sides of the aisle who enabled this important agreement to come forward, thank you very much.

Madam Speaker, today we are proud to come to the floor with legislation that moves America forward, affirming the full faith and credit of the United States of America, as our Constitution says should never be in doubt, and passing a budget agreement that creates jobs, protects seniors, and invests in our future.

Today we cast our votes for a bipartisan budget package that represents significant progress for hardworking American families.

Throughout the budget process, I am proud that Democrats have been united by our values and our determination to win progress for those hardworking American families. We showed we had the votes and the resolve to sustain the President's vetoes of funding bills that did not meet the needs of those people.

Working with our Republican colleagues on a compromise enabled us at long last to bring to the floor a bill, a bill with which we have broken the sequester stranglehold on our national defense and our investments in good-paying jobs and the future of America.

In this agreement before the House, we achieve equal funding; we honor the principle of parity between defense and domestic priorities. We achieve equal funding increases for defense and domestic initiatives, amounting to $112 billion over the next 2 years. We prevent a 20 percent cut in disability benefits for millions of people in 2016 and extend the solvency of the Social Security Disability Insurance program. We prevent a drastic increase in Medicare part B premiums and deductibles for millions of seniors next year. And we affirm the full faith and credit of the United States is nonnegotiable and unbreakable, with a clean debt limit suspension.

We push through the gridlock to provide more economic certainty and, according to the Council of Economic Advisers, create an additional 340,000 jobs in 2016 alone.

Budget and senior groups and groups for disability are lining up in strong support of this agreement. As AARP wrote to congressional leaders--I'm sure you saw this, Mr. Rogers, and thank you for your courageous support of this legislation, our great chairman of the Appropriations Committee--AARP wrote, ``AARP strongly supports the bipartisan agreement you have reached to avert deep reductions in Social Security Disability Insurance benefits in 2016, and to address the imminent spike in Medicare Part B premiums which many older Americans would otherwise experience. Your efforts to reach across the aisle and together find sensible solutions to significant problems are appreciated and commended.''

Working together, Madam Speaker, Democrats and Republicans, we have found a way forward for the American people. I thank the Republican leadership for their partnership in reaching this agreement.

Again, I thank the staffs of the committees of jurisdiction: the Budget Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, and others. I commend our colleagues for speaking out on this important agreement.

Let us pass this agreement. Let's vote ``yes'' today together. Let us pass this agreement, move swiftly to keep government open, and make progress for the American people.

Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I hope it is a big strong one.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source