Nita Lowey: “The budget deal is a breakthrough in a difficult budget year in a dysfunctional Congress. As with any compromise, there…”

“The budget deal is a breakthrough in a difficult budget year in a dysfunctional Congress. As with any compromise, there are elements I oppose; yet this agreement should help us do our jobs to the American people and end the shutdown standoffs. It provides some relief from the devastating impact of the sequester cuts on our economy and American families. Keeping sequestration in place through fiscal year 2014 would cost up to an estimated 1.6 million jobs. Now, the House and Senate must restore regular order to craft bills that instead create new jobs and protect important priorities like medical research, security and infrastructure upgrades, and early education. This agreement restores over 60 percent of the sequester on nondefense discretionary spending in 2014, restores those bills to roughly the FY 2013 enacted pre-sequester levels. It would hold defense funding levels roughly consistent with the 2013 level after sequester. The bill before us includes elements, frankly, I don't like and fails to address others it should. First, I am deeply upset that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle insisted on extending the 2 percent sequester on Medicare providers for an additional 2 years as part of the package's offsets. We should not extend their sequester burden. It is also unconscionable that the deal does not extend long-term unemployment benefits.…”