FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 19, 2005

CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616

Pelosi, Hoyer and Spratt Urge Hastert to Cancel Budget Vote That Would Increase Deficit, Hurt Katrina Survivors

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader  Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, and Congressman John Spratt, Ranking Member on the House Budget Committee, sent a letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert today urging him to cancel the budget resolution amendment that is scheduled to come to the House floor tomorrow.  The amendment would make deeper spending cuts to vital initiatives that help working families while increasing tax cuts for the wealthy.

The text of the letter follows:

October 19, 2005

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert

Speaker of the House of Representatives

H-232, The Capitol

Washington, DC  20515

Dear Speaker Hastert:

We are writing to express our strong opposition to the Republican leadership’s reported decision to rush a budget amendment through the House this week without Budget Committee consideration and without adequate time for the House to review the legislation.  Because this budget resolution amendment would alter the reconciliation process to make even deeper spending cuts – increasing the cuts from $35 billion to $50 billion – while still adding to the deficit, we urge you to cancel the scheduled consideration of this budget resolution amendment.

But if you do choose to move forward with consideration of this budget amendment, we urge that the consideration of the legislation not be rushed through the House in rejection of the regular order.  Given that the content of the legislation reportedly has been neither finalized nor released publicly, floor consideration should be delayed until next week.  The legislation should first be considered by the Budget Committee and Members should have the requisite time to review the legislation prior to floor consideration.  Finally, we urge that any floor votes taken on this legislation adhere to established time limits of five or fifteen minutes.

We are concerned that a decision to move forward with this legislation without following regular order would continue the irregular practices that have too often characterized legislative activity in this House under Republican leadership.  In recent weeks, $62.3 billion in supplemental appropriations have been brought directly to the House floor without going through the Appropriations Committee, and on recent energy legislation Republican leadership held open a five-minute vote for 45 minutes to secure a favorable outcome.

We sincerely hope that this pattern will not be repeated once again for the amendment to the budget resolution.  This budget amendment to increase mandatory cuts by 44 percent to pay for new tax cuts represents a major change to our federal budget and could harm millions of working families who depend on critical programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and student loans.  For that reason alone, the amendment merits the careful review by the House and full compliance with House rules and practices.  It took the Congress several months of deliberation this spring to craft a five-year budget; we should at least follow regular order in debating a major change in budgetary policy now.  Changes to the budget deserve serious scrutiny and debate, both of which are precluded if a budget amendment is rushed to the House floor, avoiding any evaluation by the Budget Committee.

We believe that if this legislation is given the careful consideration it deserves, the flaws in it will become apparent.  For example, the proposal to increase mandatory spending cuts to $50 billion comes under the guise of offsetting the cost of the hurricane response.  Long before this summer’s devastating hurricanes, however, the budget resolution’s reconciliation instructions cut mandatory spending by $35 billion as a partial offset to $106 billion in tax cuts, $70 billion of which received the procedural protection of reconciliation.  Similarly, the increase in reconciled spending cuts – likely at the expense of vital programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, and student loans – now being contemplated will still be used to offset new tax cuts, not to offset the cost of hurricane relief.  Meanwhile, even with these additional cuts in spending, the budget would still increase the deficit by more than $100 billion over five years. 

We hope the House Republican leadership will not decide to reject “regular order” for legislative consideration of important legislation so that it can rush the adoption of measures few of our colleagues have had the opportunity to review carefully.

Sincerely,
 

“ Democrats are united in presenting a New Direction for America, one that will make our nation as strong as its people, one that brings opportunity, security, and prosperity to all Americans. ”

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi