LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County's two members of the House of Representatives voted on Thursday in favor of a bipartisan federal budget bill.
Congressmen Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) and John Garamendi (D-Fairfield) cast votes in favor of House Joint Resolution 59, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013.
The resolution passed by a bipartisan vote of 332-94. It now goes to the Senate where it is expected to be voted on next week.
This legislation is a result of the deal struck by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-WA).
It legislation sets concrete spending levels for the next two fiscal years, partially replaces across-the-board sequestration cuts mandated by the 2011 Budget Control Act and helps restore some needed funding to research, infrastructure, education, and support for struggling Americans, and makes it more likely that vital missions at Travis and Beale Air Force bases will be preserved.
The budget compromise also prevents a government shutdown for upwards of two years.
“This bipartisan budget deal doesn’t include everything I want, nor does it include everything Republicans want. It’s a compromise and both sides had to give,” said Thompson.
“While this deal is far from perfect, it provides our country with fiscal stability, allowing us to avert another costly government shutdown, and it eases the job-killing, across the board sequestration cuts,” Thompson said. “Now we need to build on this modest compromise and focus on finding a long-term budget solution that lowers our debt and deficit by creating jobs, growing our economy, cutting spending, and requiring everyone to pay their fair share.”
He added, “We also need to extend unemployment insurance since the House Majority refused to include an extension in today’s budget deal. Cutting off these benefits hurts families, is bad for our communities and our economy. That is why I have co-authored separate legislation extending these important benefits for one year.”
“This bipartisan compromise earned my support because it rolls back some of the job destroying sequester cuts that are holding back American businesses and workers,” said Garamendi. “More jobs will exist with this deal than without it. That being said, this agreement is woefully inadequate and uninspiring in vision.”
Garamendi said he is disturbed that the deal fails to extend unemployment insurance for Americans who are still struggling to find a job in a tough economy, and he thinks Congress should act on a comprehensive jobs package to expand the recovery to more hardworking Americans.
Last Friday, Congressman Garamendi held a Job Fair in Solano County in the 3rd Congressional District, where 971 people, including 146 veterans, waited in line in the cold for a chance at a job. Many of those jobseekers will lose their unemployment coverage on Dec. 28 without immediate Congressional action.
“At my job fair last week, I met hundreds of people who just want a chance at a job. People on unemployment insurance want to work; the jobs just aren’t available,” Garamendi added. “This Congress needs to extend unemployment insurance and develop a comprehensive jobs package, including Make It In America policies to rebuild American manufacturing, to make this economy work for everyone willing and able to contribute. The middle class is forged by an investment in manufacturing, advanced research, infrastructure, and job skills.”
Congressman Garamendi joined 165 other House Democrats in signing a letter to Speaker Boehner urging him to allow a vote on a one-year extension of the unemployment benefits extension scheduled to expire on Dec. 28.
He believes such an extension has majority support in the House, but it requires action by the Republican leadership to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. However, this did not happen.
As reported by the Washington Post, in recessions in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, federal aid for the unemployed did not end until the long term unemployment rate had dropped to around 1.3 percent. It is currently around 2.6 percent.