Russ Feingold: “I add my voice of concern over the delay in action of the Federal budget. It is now May 3. That is over a month after…”

“I add my voice of concern over the delay in action of the Federal budget. It is now May 3. That is over a month after the April 1 deadline for the Budget Committee to report a concurrent resolution on the budget. It is also nearly 3 weeks after the April 15 deadline for Congress to have completed its work on that concurrent budget resolution. I raise my concern, Mr. President, knowing that not every budget deadline has always been met, nor do I suggest that the task facing the Budget Committee is an easy one. It is a very tough one. But by this time, during the two sessions of the 103d Congress, we had considered and passed a concurrent budget resolution through the Senate. In 1994, we passed the Senate version of the concurrent budget resolution on March 25, and agreed to a conference report on May 12. Moreover, those concurrent budget resolutions contained politically tough deficit reduction provisions, and were submitted, debated, and passed at a time when a new administration was taking office--the first Presidential party change in 12 years. Mr. President, many of us on this side of the aisle are ready to help craft a budget that will eliminate the Federal deficit. We have demonstrated that we are willing to vote for politically unpopular proposals to lower the deficit. In 1993, when we were the majority party, we developed and passed a $500 billion deficit reduction package.…”