Washington, D.C. - Last year's budget and appropriations process presented the then-Republican-controlled Congress with a choice:  Either make the tough decisions they were elected to make, or abandon their fundamental responsibility to pass a fiscally sound budget and 11 appropriations bills that reflect the priorities of the American people.

 

Unfortunately,  they closed out the 109th Congress with nine of the eleven appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2007 (FY07), which is now four months old, not enacted into law.  As a result, the federal government was faced with a huge budget mess.

 

Federal departments and agencies, and state and local governments lost the capacity to plan properly for the future, so Congress had to act to resolve these funding issues.  If we had waited any longer, the 110th Congress would lose valuable time needed to work on the President's war supplemental and the Fiscal Year 2008 budget submission in a manner equal to their importance to the American public.

 

President Kennedy once said that "to govern is to choose" and the new Democratic Majority did not shy away from the tough choices that define effective governance.  We have passed a joint funding resolution for FY07 that seeks to clean up the mess in a bipartisan and bicameral fashion.  This resolution isn't perfect, but it brings this regretful abdication of responsibility to a close and it offers the best option for moving forward under the constraints that the previous Congress created.

 

Under this measure, most programs will continue to be funded at Fiscal Year 2006 levels, adjusted for increased pay costs, while others will be significantly increased to meet critical national needs such as health care for veterans and Pell Grants.

 

This joint resolution also seeks to continue our commitment to fiscal responsibility by eliminating all earmarks until a new, reformed process for incorporating earmarks is in place.  Earmarks can provide valuable funding to local communities, but it is critical that they are transparent and that Members are held accountable.

 

The Fiscal Year 2008 budget and appropriations process, which will begin next week, will represent a new beginning for earmarks - one where worthwhile requests will be considered under the transparent, responsible process outlined in the ethics and fiscal responsibility package that passed the House as our first order of business.