{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=6437155c-9baa-4465-9a23-ee964546d19b", "Alexander to Vote Against Budget Agreement", "2013-12-17", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 \u2013 U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on Senate consideration of the budget agreement passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 332-94:\r\n\u201cI will vote against the budget agreement because it avoids the federal government\u2019s most urgent need: reducing the growth of runaway entitlement spending. Instead, it spends savings that should be used to strengthen Medicare, pensions, and the air transportation system. \u00a0\r\n\u201cIt would have been better to pay for this agreement with a small part of the $1 trillion in entitlement savings that Sen. Corker and I have identified in our \u2018Fiscal Sustainability Act,\u2019 or with entitlement savings suggested in the president\u2019s budget. \u00a0\r\n\u201cAlthough I can\u2019t support it, I appreciate the efforts of Rep. Ryan and Sen. Murray to bring certainty to the budget process, which is why I voted earlier today to allow a Senate vote on their agreement, which had passed the House with two-to-one Republican support.\u201d\u00a0\r\nIn February, Senators Alexander and Corker introduced the\u00a0\u201cFiscal Sustainability Act,\u201d S. 11, to reduce the growth of entitlement spending (Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security) by nearly $1 trillion in the next decade in order to improve the programs\u2019 solvency. The bill incorporates many of the recommendations made by President Obama\u2019s Debt Commission (Simpson-Bowles) as well as by former Republican Senator Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin, budget director for former President Clinton.\u00a0\r\n\u00a0\r\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=6437155c-9baa-4465-9a23-ee964546d19b"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8721200283616781, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}