Washington, DC  – Today, Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) voted in favor of  S. Con. Res 13, the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution.  S.Con.Res.13 passed by a vote of 233-193.  This budget puts the nation on a long-term economic plan that cuts taxes, cuts the deficit, puts restraints on spending and makes targeted investments in health care, energy and education that will grow the economy and create jobs.  Below are Congressman Dingell’s remarks on the bill as submitted for the Congressional Record:

“MADAM SPEAKER: I rise today in support of the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution.  I know that today’s proposal come as a result of much negotiation and discussion, and makes a number of difficult decisions about our financial future.

“To be frank, 2009 has opened with a number of different challenges Congress and the Administration must address.  We continue to face turmoil in our financial markets, our domestic auto industry and small businesses are struggling to stay afloat, and we have witnessed a dramatic loss of jobs.  Like Roosevelt before him, Obama is facing an economic downturn of enormous magnitude.  Guiding our country and our economy through this will require our government to make difficult and innovative changes.  This budget resolution lays out the guideline for how these changes will be made.

“As we begin to address health care reform, this budget resolution will provide the down payment to implement new changes to the way our health system cares for the sick.  For the nearly 46 million Americans who are without health insurance, this budget resolution is a sign of our government’s commitment to achieve reform that will ensure all Americans, regardless of their bank account, have access to quality and affordable health care.  It also will ensure that our health system makes needed changes to reduce high administrative costs, and cut out fraud and abuse.  Make no mistake; reforming our health care system is vital to the nation’s economic recovery efforts.

“This legislation also increases investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency by nearly 10 percent for 2010.  These investments will allow our country to provide loans for renewable power generation, increase the energy efficiency of our federal buildings, modernize the electricity grid to make it more efficient and reliable, among other things.  Such investments will help to encourage the creation of new “green” jobs for workers who have been displaced, and more importantly, will help ensure that our energy needs are supplied by American innovation.

“I am also pleased to support the conference agreement’s provisions for our veterans.  The agreement honors our veterans by ensuring they have the proper medical care.  Among other things, the bill provides $53.4 billion to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs - an 11.7 percent increase for veterans’ health care and other services, allows Congress to provide advance funding to the VA health care system, and expands enrollment eligibility for Priority 8 veterans.

“Most importantly, this budget makes a commitment to our children and their grandchildren by investing in a quality education that will prepare them for their future careers.  We know now that in order to compete with our neighbors across the way our children need a high quality education and access to either higher education or training to prepare them to compete in a global economy.  This budget will continue to raise the maximum Pell grant in order to ensure that its buying power increases and more low-income students will have access to the aid they need.  In addition, the budget expands on the investments made in primary education and early childhood education ensuring that our schools are increasing student achievement and investing in high-quality facilities.

“There is no doubt that these investments are costly, however, unlike the previous Administration, the Obama Administration and Congress have made a commitment to cut the federal deficit by nearly two-thirds in 2013.  As a parting gift, President Bush provided the Obama Administration a $1 trillion deficit.  This is not a deficit that came about over night; rather it is the result of poor fiscal planning from an Administration that inherited a $5.6 trillion surplus.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of today’s budget resolution not because I believe it will bring our economy out of recession overnight, but because I believe it will go a long way towards helping American families and workers who need it.  For many of those in the 15th District and across the country, this economy has left their bank accounts battered and their 401(k)s depleted.  Many of these folks have no where else to turn.  A vote for this budget is a vote for those in need.”

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