Hoyer: We Need to Work Together to Avert the Sequester
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-5) spoke on the House Floor this afternoon about the need for a balanced and bipartisan solution to avert the sequester. Below are excerpts of his remarks and a link to the video:
Click here to watch the video.
“Here we are once again on the brink of a fiscal meltdown. It's a game that has no winners, only losers, like the 14,000 teachers, assistants and other education staff who would lose their jobs, or the 125,000 families who would be at risk of losing their homes when our rental assistance program is cut, or the thousands of civilian defense personnel in my district alone and throughout this country who would be furloughed for up to 22 days during the year – and the hundreds of thousands around the country, across every service branch. Not to mention the tens of thousands of defense contractors, critical to our national security who would be at risk of losing their jobs.
“Instead, Mr. Speaker, we need to get serious, work together to avert a sequester that could stop our recovery in its tracks and defeat our common goal of helping America's economy grow and its businesses create jobs. Reducing spending in a rational way is important for us to do. Let there be no mistake. Considering additional revenues will be essential. Every bipartisan group has said that, if we are to get a sustainable financial footing.
“The sequester, however, Mr. Speaker, is dangerous and unacceptable. We must stop simply fiddling while the sequester's flames threaten to burn our economy, our national security, and our people. Mr. Speaker, we have no time to waste. I would urge the Majority Leader to bring a bill to the Floor today that would comply with Mr. Lankford, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, who said we ought to pass things that we think the Senate can pass. Not just messages, not just political spin, but pass things that can actually be passed through the United States Senate and signed by the President and made law, made policy, so that America has the confidence that its Congress can work. It must work. America needs it to work.”