Jeff Bingaman: “I wish to take a few minutes to speak about what needs to be done before we leave town, before we shut down this session…”

“I wish to take a few minutes to speak about what needs to be done before we leave town, before we shut down this session of the Congress. In my view, Congress needs to do five things before the end of the year to head off difficulties for our economy. First, as many have said, the House needs to take up and pass the middle-class tax cut--a bill that was already passed here in the Senate. That is the first item. That has been given a lot of attention. Second, both Houses of Congress need to head off most if not all of the scheduled sequester. I hope we are able to do that. Third, Congress should pass the tax extenders bill that was reported out of the Senate Finance Committee this summer, and that is going to be the subject of most of my comments this morning. Fourth, the Congress should repeal the SGR. This is the law that governs the rates of reimbursement to providers under the Medicare Program. Unless we repeal that law, we will have to once again patch the law, as we have done for many years now, with a so-called Medicare doc fix. I think the time has come to go ahead and repeal the law. The fifth item I want to mention is that Congress needs to give the President the power to raise the debt ceiling. At the same time, Congress should retain Congress's right to disapprove of that increase. But Secretary Geithner has made a proposal to the Congress that I believe makes good sense.…”