Washington, DC - Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D) Missouri praised passage of the Fiscal Year 2010 House-Senate Budget Conference Agreement. The bill, which will fund federal operations in FY 2010, starting on October 1st, passed the U.S. House today by a vote of 233-193. “Today’s budget agreement refocuses our national priorities on creating jobs, investing in distressed communities, reforming our healthcare system and making energy independence a reality,” said

Congressman Clay. “This plan will make America stronger and give middle-class families more tools to achieve prosperity. And it also represents, for the first time in many years, an honest budget that includes the real costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other essential federal functions. I’m also very pleased that President Obama and this Congress are restating our commitment to statutory pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules, an essential tool to restore real fiscal discipline and cut the budget deficit."

The Democratic budget is designed to lower the deficit from $1.7 trillion in 2009 to $523 billion by 2014. The budget agreement includes tax cuts of more than $1.7 trillion over the next ten years for middle-income Americans, permanently extending the middle-income tax cuts adopted in 2001 and 2003, including the 10 percent bracket, the child tax credit, and marriage penalty relief. It also indexes the alternative minimum tax to keep it from burdening middle-income taxpayers, and extends estate tax exemptions at 2009 levels, while indexing them for future years.