Statement of Congressman Danny K. Davis on Bipartisan Budget Agreement

Statement of Congressman Danny K. Davis
On Bipartisan Budget Agreement
December 11, 2013

I express my support for the Ryan-Murray Budget agreement. In recent years, Washington has been plagued by debilitating budget battles; this deal marks a step toward a more stable and bi-partisan legislature that can actually govern. Although the budget agreement is far from ideal, it lessens the financial burden for America's most vulnerable populations. I am pleased to see that mandatory spending on Social Security and Medicare remain intact and that this agreement balances cuts between domestic and defense spending. These changes will help increase funding for critical education, health research, and Head Start programs. Sequestration's automatic spending cuts have proven destructively harsh; this budget agreement alleviates somewhat these cuts. I hope that this recent progress in budget discussions means that we can completely replace sequestration in the near future.

While I support the Ryan-Murray deal, I was disappointed that it failed to include the extension of emergency jobless benefits for long-term unemployed workers. As Congressional Democrats stated in our letter to Speaker Boehner, if Congress does not pass the extension, 1.3 million workers will lose their benefits the week after Christmas. In my home state of Illinois, over 79,000 citizens would lose benefits immediately, followed by an additional 39,000 Illinoisans in the first quarter of 2014. The effect is estimated to cost up to American 300,000 jobs in 2014 - jobs that our fragile economy simply cannot afford to lose. Unemployed individuals face one of the bleakest economies in decades. Congress must help these individuals by passing legislation that creates rather than cuts American jobs. As the House majority plans to provide a three-month extension of relief for physicians from scheduled cuts to Medicare payment rates, I hope for similar compassion for the long-term unemployed.