WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the House of Representatives passed S.Con.Res. 21, the Fiscal Year 2008 Budget Resolution Conference Report by a vote of 214 to 207. Representative Xavier Becerra (CA-31), Assistant to the Speaker of the House and a member of the Budget Committee, voted for the resolution. Shortly after the vote, Rep. Becerra released the following statement:
“It has been far too long since we have been able to vote for such a fiscally responsible budget. Right away, it reverses the reckless policies of the last Congress by bringing us to a surplus by 2012. This Congress’ budget prioritizes the needs of hard working Americans by extending middle class tax cuts and shielding middle income households from the Alternative Minimum Tax. The passage of this budget moves us in the right direction, toward fiscal sanity and away from the borrow-and-spend mentality of the last six years.”
Under the Conference Report, the budget is projected to reach a $41 billion surplus by the year 2012. The agreement also restores budget enforcement provisions such as spending caps and the “pay-as-you-go” rule. In addition, it rejects many of the cuts to domestic programs such as children’s health, education and veterans’ health care, providing a total of $954 billion for discretionary programs in 2008.
The budget resolution does not raise taxes. In fact, the agreement extends the child tax credit and prevents more than 20 million taxpayers from being hit by the Alternative Minimum Tax.
S.Con.Res.21 passed in the Senate yesterday.
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Click here to read an overview of the Budget Conference Agreement from the House Budget Committee.
# # # Becerra.House.gov # # #