WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee and the conference committee tasked with reconciling the budgets passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, issued the following statement on the agreement reached by conference committee chairs Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
“Congress’ inability over the last few years to agree on something as fundamental as a budget has undermined its ability to effectively confront the challenges facing our nation. The agreement announced Tuesday is the product of months of negotiation and years of political obstruction, and it is a critical first step in what must be a sustained effort to restore economic certainty, create jobs, and reduce our dangerous annual deficits.
“This agreement accomplishes perhaps the most important thing it could have: temporarily curbing the destructive nature of the reckless sequester. In addition to increasing overall funding to a more responsible level while still reducing our deficit, the agreement restores our ability to prioritize investments and find savings.
“While I do not agree with everything in this agreement, compromise was the only way an agreement was even possible. It is regrettable, for example, that federal workers will see their pensions trimmed as a means of finding cost savings, and that the agreement did not include an extension of unemployment insurance, but any deal that could pass in both chambers would require both sides to accept choices with which it may not agree. Shared sacrifice was inevitable and necessary, and to pretend otherwise would be to continue an unproductive trend in our recent political history.
“It is my hope that this agreement will be the first step on a positive, productive, bipartisan path forward, and that Congress will use the momentum the deal creates to pursue a larger agreement on the broader fiscal challenges facing our nation. Congress must come together on policies that will create jobs and grow our economy, while responsibly reducing our deficits.”