Providing for Consideration of H.R. Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. This bill is not about fiscal responsibility. It is about the extreme GOP pushing their extreme agenda.

Extreme Republicans demanded to cut veterans' healthcare; to zero out the toxic exposures fund for sick, burn-pit-exposed veterans; to end protections for our environment and allow polluters to expose workers and communities to toxic chemicals for corporate profits; to cut Medicare, childcare, and education; and to repeal efforts to make our air and water cleaner, especially in vulnerable communities.

If they didn't get their way, they held hostage the American economy and threatened to send America into default, raising costs for families, cutting 1 million jobs for workers, and devastating seniors' retirements.

Mr. Speaker, today, under this Republican-manufactured extreme crisis, we will take up the bipartisan budget agreement to prevent a Republican catastrophic default.

President Biden, in this bill, made sure veterans got the care that they needed by funding the toxic exposures fund for burn pit veterans and keeping in place the key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act's environmental and clean energy protections to stop polluters from harming people. He was able to protect Medicaid, with no changes to Medicaid, and maintain healthcare access for millions of families across the country. He preserved funding for clean energy programs to clean up our air.

Look, if extreme Republicans were serious about fiscal responsibility, they would have accepted President Biden's budget that would have reduced the deficit by $3 trillion. Instead, this bill only reduces it by $1.5 trillion. Nevertheless, today I will vote for the bipartisan agreement.

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