Lois Capps: “I rise in strong opposition to this misguided and misdirected and destructive resolution. The American people have…”

“I rise in strong opposition to this misguided and misdirected and destructive resolution. The American people have charged us with creating jobs and strengthening our economy. My colleagues in the majority appear more focused on getting in a good sound bite before tonight's State of the Union. Procedurally, this resolution empowers a single person to decree the entire Nation's budget for the rest of the year--no hearings, no markups, no vote. And this plan is nothing more than a gimmick that will destroy jobs. For example, reverting to 2008 budget levels will cut more than $17 million from the National Health Service Corp. This program trains and employs health care providers, all while caring for millions of Americans. Moreover, it will cut both nurse faculty loan programs and nurse training programs by nearly 70 percent. These cuts will decimate our health care workforce now and long into the future. Madam Speaker, in 2008, over 27,000 qualified applicants to our Nation's nursing schools were turned away because we didn't have enough faculty to train them. Countless others couldn't even afford to go. This budgetless resolution will do nothing more than exacerbate a real growing problem. Members from both sides of the aisle know that we desperately need to increase our health care workforce, not cut it. Instead of cutting jobs, we should be creating them, so I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this budgetless resolution.”