{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-votes-no-on-ryan-murray-budget-deal", "Inhofe Votes No on Ryan-Murray Budget Deal", "2013-12-18", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "OK", "James Inhofe", "I000024", "www.inhofe.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Inhofe Votes No on Ryan-Murray Budget Deal\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, December 18, 2013\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), released the following statement after voting against the Ryan-Murray budget deal, which\u00a0passed\u00a0the Senate by a vote of 64-36.\r\n\u201cToday I voted no on the Ryan-Murray budget deal because it failed to do enough to fix our country\u2019s national security crisis and even further targeted the earned benefits of our service members in order to pay for Washington\u2019s reckless spending,\u201d said Inhofe. \u201cOur country has gone more than four years without a budget, which has been devastating to our economy and our nation\u2019s standing on the international stage. While\u00a0the deal was an opportunity to get Washington back on track, what we were presented with\u00a0failed to prioritize Congress\u2019 constitutional duty to \u2018provide for the common defense.\u2019 The Ryan-Murray agreement continued the discriminatory nature of the sequester cuts by maintaining\u00a0disproportionate\u00a0cuts to\u00a0our military, a budget that has already been\u00a0cut\u00a0by $487 billion under the Obama Administration. While the deal provided some relief to\u00a0our military men and women, it was not a significant enough fix to ease the impacts sequestration will have on\u00a0their\u00a0readiness. As Air Force Chief of Staff, General Mark Welsh said during a committee hearing: \u2018The mechanism is what breaks us.\u2019 This is why today I have introduced a bill to lessen the devastating near-term impacts of sequestration by phasing the sequester cuts in a way that would allow our senior military leaders to enact reforms without degrading our ability to train and prepare our military to\u00a0defend the United States. Unlike the Ryan-Murray deal, my bill\u00a0provides\u00a0both the funding and time necessary in the first two years to implement critical reforms\u00a0to\u00a0preserve our military capability\u00a0and readiness.\r\n\u201cI was also disappointed that the budget deal cherry picked the spending cuts from current and future military retirees by targeting their earned retirement benefit. Last year, Congress established the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission to provide a comprehensive review of opportunities for meaningful pay and benefit reform. That Commission was told they could recommend any option as long as it grandfathered those who currently serve and those who are currently retired. The Ryan-Murray deal instead jeopardizes the commission\u2019s review process and targets promised benefits to current recipients, which also\u00a0affects\u00a0pensions for veterans who retired as a result of being wounded while serving our country.\u00a0As Ranking Member of Senate Armed Services Committee, I will be working closely with Chairman Levin to ensure these benefits are rightfully restored to our servicemembers.\u201d\r\nInhofe\u2019s bill to backload defense sequester cuts was first introduced as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014 on\u00a0Nov. 20, which was given a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score of zero. The legislation would rephase defense\u00a0sequestration in a way that reduces the impact in Fiscal Year2014 and 2015 to a more manageable level. Below is a chart provided by the Office of Senator Jim Inhofe comparing Inhofe\u2019s bill to the Ryan-Murray deal and their efforts to ease impacts to military readiness.\r\nInhofe joined Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) on Monday in introducing an amendment to the Ryan-Murray budget deal that would restore full retirement pay for current and future military retirees. The budget deal as introduced finds savings by subtracting a full percentage point from uniformed service retired pay Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for those under the age of 62 and who retire at the 20 year point.\u00a0Majority Leader Harry Reid blocked a vote on the amendment.\r\n\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.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-votes-no-on-ryan-murray-budget-deal"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9198539666831493, "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"}