Timothy Roemer: “I rise in support of the Murtha amendment. This amendment is essentially the same as one that I had printed in the…”

“I rise in support of the Murtha amendment. This amendment is essentially the same as one that I had printed in the Congressional Record that I had intended to offer. However, my amendment was not made in order. While I do not support many of the rescissions in this package because they are targeted on programs that benefit children, youth, the elderly, veterans and others in need of assistance, I believe that if we are going to rescind funds for programs, those funds should be used for deficit reduction and not used to pay for tax cuts for wealthy Americans. I recently introduced House Resolution 94 which calls on Congress to make deficit reduction a top priority. Clearly, we need to cut spending if we want to get our fiscal house in order and there are certainly many programs on the books currently that we don't need or can't afford, such as the $10 billion space station. Unfortunately, that program was not targeted for a cut in this legislation. I am pleased that the Murtha amendment requires the net budget savings under this bill go to the Deficit Reduction Fund established by Executive Order 12858 and used exclusively for deficit reduction.”