John Yarmuth: “This is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill…”

“This is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage as amended. Ladies and gentlemen, today, April 15, is the deadline for Congress to enact a budget resolution; but here we are, set to leave town without taking any action. To their credit, Republicans did write a budget and it was approved by their members of the Budget Committee. So why, after months of promises of a return to regular order, would Speaker Ryan refuse to allow a floor vote on the Republican budget, the budget of his own party, the party he leads? Our obligation here in Congress is to control the purse strings of the country. So why would a former Budget Committee chair not want a vote on his party's budget, unless he didn't want people to know what is inside of it. I don't blame him. Our Democratic budget invests in education, infrastructure, medical research, job training, job creation, American priorities that improve our communities today and increase revenue in the future. It is why they are called investments. In contrast, the Republicans took the European austerity approach: eviscerating each of those investments and taking health coverage away from 20 million Americans, ending Medicare as we know it, and jeopardizing the retirement of millions of Americans. It also makes us less competitive, and encourages companies to ship jobs overseas.…”