Donald M. Payne: “Let me begin by thanking the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, Congresswoman Donna Christensen, our distinguished…”

“Let me begin by thanking the gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, Congresswoman Donna Christensen, our distinguished chair of the CBC Health Braintrust, for anchoring this evening's Special Order on the budget. Her leadership and continued diligence in addressing the issues that confront our Nation in general, but African Americans in particular, are imperative to our progress as a Nation. Recently, Republican House leadership introduced a continuing resolution containing the largest spending cuts in history. Subsequently, President Obama unveiled his FY 2012 budget to support the Nation's competitive growth while making difficult decisions to address our economic deficit. I rise today to urge my colleagues to remember that, as we consider these spending proposals, in addition to our economic deficit, we have a job deficit, which continues to worsen, in part, by an ever-growing educational deficit. They work together. While we must work to rein in spending, we must not cut funding to the extent that our development and growth in the areas of education and employment will be hampered if we do that.”