Chuck Grassley: “I very much thank Senator Judd Gregg, chairman of the powerful Budget Committee, for his leadership and for doing what…”

“I very much thank Senator Judd Gregg, chairman of the powerful Budget Committee, for his leadership and for doing what has not been done in this Senate, it is my understanding, since 1997: We have a budget reconciliation bill that will reduce the deficit by changing programs that are either appropriated or on automatic pilot that tend to never get reviewed as often as they should in order to watch the taxpayers' money wisely. Senator Gregg's commitment to fiscal discipline has informed and defined this process, and I am grateful for his efforts. As he just did, I congratulate the chairmen of seven other authorizing committees whose titles of this bill, along with the Finance title that I am going to talk about, comprise this giant legislation that we call reconciliation that Senator Gregg successfully reported last week. I know that it was not easy for the chairmen of these eight committees to reach consensus and to move their titles forward. These chairmen and the members of their committees have every right to be proud of the work they have done achieving savings but also implementing policies that will help American workers. Today, we have saved nearly $40 billion over 5 years--to be more accurate, $39.1 billion over 5 years--and that is $4.1 billion more than Congress even directed these committees to do back in April when the budget was adopted.…”