Udall: New Mexico Families Can't Afford $5 Trillion in Cuts Proposed in Republican Budget

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall delivered a speech on the Senate floor, urging Congress to reject the unprecedented cuts in services proposed in the Republican budget - ranging from Medicare and child care to education and law enforcement - that would continue to hold back New Mexico's economy.

The Senate is in the midst of debating the Republicans' budget, a guideline for Congress as it begins the annual appropriations process to fund the government. The Senate Republican budget would reduce total federal spending by $5.1 trillion over the next 10 years, with $4.7 trillion in cuts coming from domestic, nondefense programs. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Udall will fight for resources that New Mexico families and communities depend on.

"Many New Mexicans are still struggling, still pulling out of the worst recession in over 75 years. How do we go forward? How do we build on the progress we have made? That's the question the voters elected us to solve," Udall said in his remarks.

"The short answer is we have to work together. We have to get past the shutdowns and showdowns. Politics is the art of standing your ground - but also finding common ground," Udall continued. "That is why the Republican budget is so troubling. It doesn't start a conversation. It doesn't reach across the aisle. This budget is bad for working families, bad for the middle class, bad for our economy. It makes a U-turn-right back to failed policies of the past."

Udall has introduced and cosponsored a number of measures to boost resources to help New Mexico children and families, including his Saving Our Next Generation (SONG) Act, to expand programs that have been proven to help improve children's health and education; reauthorization of one of the most successful national child well-being programs, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP); increased funding for Head Start; and the PRE-K Act to expand high-quality, early learning programs for children from birth to age 5.

Udall is also pushing for an end to the devastating across-the-board sequestration budget cuts, which have hurt New Mexico jobs. And he is fighting for permanent funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, which supports local government funding in New Mexico, and to continue investments in transportation, rural economic development and other programs to create jobs and strengthen our state's communities.

"We need to invest in the programs that help all Americans get ahead and strengthen our economy so that every hardworking American has the opportunity to build a better future," Udall said. "I hope we can work together and find common ground with a budget that makes sense, with a fair tax policy, with smart investments. We need to look to the future and move forward. Now is not the time to return to the failed policies of the past."

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