CONGRESSMAN BISHOP STATEMENT REGARDING BUDGET AGREEMENT, DEBT LIMIT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02), member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement regarding the U.S. House passage of the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1314, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. The agreement provides two years of sequester relief for both defense and non-defense priorities. The deal prevents a sharp increase in Medicare Part B premiums for certain beneficiaries in 2016 and includes a clean debt limit suspension until March 2017.

"After years of damage due to sequestration, the bipartisan budget agreement as passed by the House finally represents a step in the right direction," said Congressman Bishop. "Reflecting the values held by many in Georgia, we have worked across the aisle to pass a budget to protect our seniors, invest in job training and veterans' medical care, and keep America safe."

The agreement provides additional resources and the funding stability needed to protect our country, counter future threats, and take care of the nation's Armed Forces. It provides significant resources for the Department of Defense to ensure military readiness and prepare for threats faced in the future. The passed version of the budget agreement avoids proposed cuts to crop insurance. The budget agreement will also avoid harmful funding cuts for national security activities at non-defense agencies like State, Homeland Security, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"The budget compromise will avert a manufactured crisis, help our economy continue to strengthen, and provide crucial investment in our nation's future as the agreement is major step forward for education, health care research, and our economy," continued Congressman Bishop.

Analysis of CBO's previous estimates suggests that this budget agreement will lead to 340,000 additional American jobs in 2016 alone. It boosts growth and job creation, provides greater certainty to American businesses and workers, and avoids the manufactured crises that have led to shutdowns and fiscal brinkmanship in the past.

"Legislating from one fiscal crisis to another is no way to govern. The budget agreement proves that Congress can still solve problems by working together in a bipartisan manner. It is a win for the American people," concluded Congressman Bishop.

BACKGROUND:

The budget agreement prevents the deep budget cuts that would result from locking in sequestration. Instead, it allows for us to increase investments in key areas like:

Defense Budget: The deal would boost the spending restrictions on the base defense budget by $25 billion to $548 billion in FY 2016 and by $15 billion to $551 billion in FY 2017. In addition, it would provide some $59 billion for the war budget in each of the next two fiscal years, resulting in an overall defense budget of $607 billion and $610 billion, respectively.

Crop Insurance: Congressman Bishop worked with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway and Ranking Member Collin Peterson to reverse a disastrous provision within a previous draft to avoid cuts to crop insurance.

Research: This agreement will allow us to increase research funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). By contrast, despite bipartisan agreement that we need to invest in these areas, a full-year continuing resolution (CR) at sequestration levels would result in $1 billion less in NIH funding and nearly 1,000 fewer NSF grants than under the President's budget.

Education: This agreement will allow us to invest in education and Head Start. By contrast, under a full-year CR at sequestration levels, per-pupil education funding would fall to the lowest levels since 2000, adjusted for inflation, and Head Start would be flat-funded, which would mean roughly 2,000 fewer children served than in 2015, all else equal, and roughly 17,000 fewer children served than in 2014.

Veterans' Medical Care: While Democrats and Republicans agree that we need to invest more in vets' medical care, this agreement is necessary to make that possible. By contrast, a full-year CR at sequestration levels would mean $1 billion less for Veterans' medical care relative to the President's Budget request.

Balanced Budgeting: The agreement is paid for in a balanced way – including tax compliance measures and avoiding harmful cuts to Medicare or Social Security beneficiaries, or other problematic entitlement reforms.

Job Training: While a full-year CR at sequestration levels would result in two million fewer workers with job training and employment services compared to the President's budget, this agreement will allow us to increase investments in job training.

Medicare: The legislation prevents a roughly 50 percent increase in the Medicare Part B premium in 2016, protecting millions of seniors from cost increases. The legislation prevents an unprecedented increase in the Medicare Part B premium of roughly 50 percent in 2016 by spreading out the cost of replenishing the Medicare Supplemental Medical Insurance Trust Fund over a number of years – and prevents the same problem from happening in 2017. The health savings included in the agreement focus on tackling well-documented areas of overpayment and improve program integrity, squeezing waste out of the system.

Social Security: The agreement avoids deep cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) benefits that would occur at the end of next year, ensuring that the program can continue to pay full benefits without reducing benefit levels or imposing new eligibility restrictions.

Tax Reform: It includes $11 billion in revenues from tax compliance, mostly from significant reforms to improve tax compliance among investors in hedge funds, private equity funds, and other large partnerships.

Congressman Bishop supported passage of H.R. 1314. The bill was approved in the House of Representatives by a vote of 266 to 167 and now goes on to the Senate for consideration. For more information regarding H.R. 1314, the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015, please click here.