Dan Kildee: “My constituents and the American people deserve a budget. One of our principal duties in Congress is to pass a budget.…”

“My constituents and the American people deserve a budget. One of our principal duties in Congress is to pass a budget. Yet Congress has already missed the legal deadline this year because the Republican leadership has not yet appointed conferees to continue budget deliberations. Yesterday, I joined many of my colleagues in signing a resolution calling on the GOP leadership to appoint conferees to a conference committee to continue working on the fiscal year 2014 budget. After years of calling for regular order and for the Senate to pass a budget, which they did in March, I now find it ironic that Republicans are dragging their feet and stalling budget negotiations by refusing to appoint conferees. We certainly have differences of opinion regarding budget priorities, Mr. Speaker; but that's no excuse for continued dysfunction and delay. I ask you to appoint conferees today, and let's work to find a bipartisan compromise on a budget. Democrats stand ready to act to pass a budget that grows our economy, creates jobs, strengthens the middle class, and replaces the reckless, across-the-board sequester cuts. ____________________”