May 31, 2023 Press Release WASHINGTON DC – Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Brianna Keilar on "CNN News Central" to discuss the Bipartisan Budget Agreement. Below is the transcript from his answers and a link to the interview: Image Click here to watch the full interview. ON THE BIPARTISAN BUDGET AGREEMENT "Well, first of all, let me say that Democrats have believed all along that defaulting on the debt is not an option. Speaker McCarthy said that in his speech on Wall Street. Unfortunately, [Republicans have] conflated both appropriations and the debt, they should be separate issues. When they talk about spending more money or less money on the debt, they're really talking about the appropriations process, but let me say that I think the overwhelming majority of Democrats believe, matter-of-fact almost unanimously, default is not an option and would hurt literally everybody in the United States and around the world. So that we need to make sure that [the Bipartisan Budget Agreement] gets passed and gets passed tonight, whether it's June 1st or June 5th, we would default at some point in time and that's not an option because it would be catastrophic consequences to America and to the global economy." ON THE RULE PROVIDING FOR THE BIPARTISAN BUDGET AGREEMENT "Look, I think that the Republicans voted against every Rule that we are offering, and that tends to be the practice. We think this Rule ought to allow some amendments to this bill to improve it, to lessen some of the harsh phases of it. But having said that, the Administration, Shalanda Young, Steve Ricchetti, others who are involved in this negotiation did I think a wonderful job in protecting the economic progress and the investments that we made in the last Congress to lift up business, to make people healthier, to bring their costs down, so that was a success. Did we get everything we want? No. You don't get everything you want in a negotiation. It's a give-and-take, which means you have to give some and you take some. But we think on the whole, this bill is worthy of support and then there will be a lot of work on the Appropriations Committee in the years ahead but what we have done has been protected by the Administration, and so I think that we'll pass this bill. On the Rule, we'll see what the Republicans do. They have the responsibility as the Majority party— they passed the Rule out. They have the votes to either kill or pass a Rule and they need to step up to the plate. If Speaker McCarthy’s comments [are] that default is not an option, then every one of the Republicans ought to vote for this bill and ought vote for the rule." ON DEMOCRATIC PRIORITIES IN THIS AGREEMENT "I think there are people who rightfully believe that there are provisions of this bill that we don't like and would not support, but that's not the issue. The issue is this bill is before us as it is. I think it has done, as I said, the Administration has done very, very good work at protecting the most important—they protected our veterans, the Republicans wanted to cut veterans' benefits very deeply, particularly those who have been exposed to toxic substances as they served in the armed forces. They protected the homeless. They protected foster care children. They protected Social Security and Medicare so that, yes, are there some things I would oppose? Absolutely. But, again, the harm that would be caused by defaulting far exceeds the harm that would be caused by this bill. We can work and will work to correct those things that we think are wrong. And very frankly, this bill is a two-year bill as opposed to a ten-year bill, that the Republicans proposed, which would have been extraordinarily harmful to the United States. I think the Administration has gotten an agreement that is supportable. It's not perfect, it's not everything we would have done, but it is a bill which does in fact thwart the threat that Republicans made to the creditworthiness of the United States and paying its debt. Had we not done that, if we do not do that, every American will be harmed."
