{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=e3617c65-6af7-48d3-91b5-e4c23c416782", "Alexander Votes Against Budget Agreement", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Lamar Alexander", "A000360", "www.alexander.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 \u2013 U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on his vote against the Ryan-Murray budget agreement:\r\n\u201cI voted 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. It is particularly troubling that the budget agreement takes money from pensions in a way that treats military retirees worse than the civilian federal employees.\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 Tuesday to allow a Senate vote on their agreement, which had passed the House with two-to-one Republican support.\u201d\u00a0\r\nIn addition to its failure to address growth of mandatory entitlement spending \u2013 such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security \u2013 Alexander cited four major objections to the budget agreement. Alexander objected to the agreement because it:\r\n \r\nCuts $22 billion in 2022 and 2023 in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and other health care providers, for savings that may never materialize.\r\nIncreases pension premiums paid by employers to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. by $7.9 billion, to pay for unrelated spending.\r\nCuts the annual cost-of-living benefits for military retirees under the age of 62 by 1 percent, to pay for unrelated spending. This would impact current retirees, as opposed to new hires as in the case of changes to civilian federal employee pensions.\r\nIncreases by $12.6 billion airport security fees \u2013 which generally get passed on to airline passengers \u2013 to pay for unrelated spending. Such fees should be used to improve airport security.\r\n \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=e3617c65-6af7-48d3-91b5-e4c23c416782"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6557930503040552, "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"}