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Congressman Paul Tonko has offered eight amendments to the irresponsible Republican spending plan, which will be considered on the House floor starting today. The amendments would call for common-sense solutions to the extreme cuts that Republicans want to make at the expense of jobs, the middle class, and innovation for the future.

“Creating jobs, protecting the middle class and reducing the deficit are my top priorities,” said Congressman Paul Tonko. “We should be working together to accomplish these goals. Instead, Washington Republicans are trying to ram through an irresponsible spending bill that would threaten jobs, undercut American innovation and clean energy investment, take cops off the street and reduce our transportation systems at a time when our economy is finally beginning to recover.”

The Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, released by House Republicans last week, would fund government operations for the seven months remaining in this fiscal year, which ends September 30th.  The current continuing resolution expires March 4, 2011.
The Irresponsible Republican Spending Bill would cut $99.6 billion from this year’s spending, including reductions in the following critical areas:

Education – Ensuring that the next generation of students is prepared to become the educated workforce of tomorrow
• More than 200,000 children kicked out of Head Start and thousands of teachers would lose their jobs
• $800 reduction per student in the maximum Pell Grant award

Innovation – America’s competitiveness depends on our ability to innovate and keep America number one
• 20,000 fewer researchers supported at the National Science Foundation
• $1.4 billion reduction in science and energy research to spur clean energy economy of the future
• $2.5 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health, representing a significant setback in cancer and other disease research

Rebuilding America – key investment in roads, schools, bridges that are critical for businesses to grow and that create good-paying American jobs
• Rescinds $2.5 billion for high-speed rail projects already awarded
• Loss of 25,000 new construction jobs and the cancellation of 76 projects in 40 states
• $234 million in cuts to improve our nation’s air traffic control system

Public Safety – keeping American families safe
• 1,330 fewer cops on the beat by eliminating the COPS hiring program
• 2,400 fewer firefighters on the job protecting their communities by eliminating funding for SAFER grants
 

Congressman Tonko submitted eight amendments to the Irresponsible Republican Spending Bill to protect and grow jobs, out-innovate other countries in clean energy, protect seniors and ensure quality education for our children.  Congressman Tonko supports efforts to balance the budget.  However, he will not support a spending bill that threatens our economic recovery or that is achieved on the backs of our middle-class, senior citizens and children. 

The amendments address the following areas:

Seniors
- Restores funding from the cuts to the Social Security Administration to prevent the shutdown of the SSA and ensure seniors receive their checks on time.

Energy
- Restores cuts made to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides assistance to seniors and low to middle-income families to keep the heat on in the winter and the air conditioning on in the summer.

- Strikes language that restricts funds from being used to enforce the Clean Water Act and jeopardizes drinking water for 117 million Americans and put at risk 20 million acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat to polluters and developers.

- Strikes language that would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from enforcing the Clean Air Act to protect our lungs from soot and smog and keep our kids safe from asthma.

Education
- Restores funding to Title I and special education to prevent thousands of layoffs to our nation’s teachers.

Innovation/Jobs
- Maintains funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program and State Energy Program to promote energy efficiency, renovate homes, protect tens of thousands of jobs and leverage investments by ratios of ten to one.

- Removes unobligated funding from Fossil Energy Research and Development and transfers those funds to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. 

“To ensure a bright future for our children and country, I agree with President Obama that we must out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world,” stated Congressman Tonko.  “Instead, Washington Republicans have failed to take a single step to create jobs and are now jeopardizing American jobs and our economic future by rolling back investments that will help our private sector grow and put people back to work with this irresponsible spending plan. ”

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