WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced a breakthrough on what could be the first federal budget passed by Congress since April 29, 2009.
However, Murray’s counterpart on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, won’t be supporting the agreement. In a statement released by his office late Wednesday afternoon, Sessions laid out his reasons for not supporting the Ryan-Murray deal.
“A series of concerns, on balance, cause me to be unable to support the legislation produced by Chairman Ryan and Chairman Murray, including:
- While I favor reorganizing elements of the Budget Control Act to smooth the impact, I do not favor increasing total discretionary spending above what was agreed to over the 10-year BCA period (exchanged for the already-exhausted $2.1 trillion debt increase in 2011).
- I specifically do not favor using trust fund savings to increase discretionary spending.
- Much of the spending increase in this deal has been justified by increased fees and new revenue. In other words: it’s a fee increase to fuel a spending increase—rather than reducing deficits.
- Disappointingly, CBO’s analysis states that $47 billion out of the $85 billion in offsets occur outside the original BCA window, and the spending cut portion of those outyear offsets are of dubious validity. It is not disputable that net spending in the BCA window is increased.”
According to Sessions, previously budget resolutions passed by the two chambers were not acted upon in this agreement. Sessions also said the agreement doesn’t constitute a budget. He did, however, praise the members for their work.
“Senate and House budget resolutions were committed to Conference,” Sessions added. “They were not acted on. The result is legislation from Chairman Ryan and Chairman Murray, leaving Congress without a budget resolution for the fourth straight year. This legislation is not a budget and was never formally considered, crafted, or voted upon by the conferees. I appreciate the hard work Chairman Ryan and Chairman Murray put into their deal, but I am not able to support it.”
Follow Jeff on Twitter @Jeff_Poor
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