{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.kaine.senate.gov/tim-in-the-news/kaine-says-budget-deal-will-help-virginias-economy", "Kaine says budget deal will help Virginia’s economy", "2013-12-11", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "VA", "Tim Kaine", "K000384", "www.kaine.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Kaine says budget deal will help Virginia\u2019s economy\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                    By:\u00a0\r\n                    Michael Sluss\r\n                \r\n            \r\n            \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n            Wednesday, December 11, 2013\r\n            \n\t\n\r\n            \r\n            U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said today that the budget agreement struck by House and Senate negotiators will boost Virginia\u2019s economy by averting another round of automatic defense cuts and removing the prospect of another federal government shutdown.\r\n\u201cA two-year budget deal means we\u2019re not going to be doing that kind of brinksmanship,\u201d\u00a0 Kaine said in a telephone interview .\u201dThat is going to have a positive effect on the Virginia economy.\u201d\r\nKaine and fellow Virginia Democrat Mark Warner were on the bipartisan conference committee that struck the deal with House negotiators. The agreement would fund federal agencies through October 2015 and replace automatic defense and discretionary spending cuts with targeted reductions and some fee increases. It also would restore some budget normalcy in a Congress that has lurched from one fiscal crisis to another over the last three years.\r\n\u201cI liked the fact the we got a deal and I like the fact that we stretched it and got a two-year deal,\u201d Kaine said. \u201cI like the fact that we\u2019ve replaced $63 billion of sequester cuts over two years with more targeted cuts and some revenues through fees. The across-the-board cuts make no sense. You should make cuts and all decisions based on priority judgments and performance data rather than across the board.\u201d\r\nKaine noted that the conference committee agreed to a fiscal 2014 spending level of $1.012 trillion, splitting the difference between the House and Senate proposals. And like most compromises, Kaine found some things in the deal he doesn\u2019t like.\r\nThe compromise makes adjustments to military retirement benefits and will require new civilian federal employees to contribute an additional 1.3 percent of their pay to their pensions. It also would end a 14-week extension of the eligibility period for unemployed workers. The Richmond-based Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis projects that 10,000 Virginians could have their unemployment benefits cut off shortly after Christmas.\r\n\u201cI\u2019m disappointed in that,\u201d Kaine said. \u201cThe House position was: \u2018Look, this was supposed to be a temporary kind of extension; it\u2019s already been extended a couple of times, we should go ahead and let it sunset.\u2019 I thought for the good of individuals and, actually, for the good of the economy, it would have been better to extend it.\u201d\r\nKaine predicted that the deal will inject some certainty into the economy.\r\n\u201cWatch the stock market, watch the economic indicators,\u201d he said. \u201cI think if we pass a two budget, companies that have been holding back a little bit on investments will feel some certainty and more able to make them. Companies that have been holding back on hiring will feel some more certainty and will move forward on hiring.\u201d\r\nWarner said in a statement on Tuesday that the compromise \u201callows us to step away from the irrational harm of sequestration, which hits Virginia harder than any other state.\u201d\r\n\u201cThis is a productive step forward that avoids another shutdown and allows the government to operate with more predictability over the short term,\u2019 Warner said.\u00a0 \u201cI have some concerns about the impact on the federal workforce and our military retirees, which is another reason why we need to tackle the larger and more important issues of tax and entitlement reforms to\u00a0 fix our balance sheet over the long term.\u201d\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.kaine.senate.gov/tim-in-the-news/kaine-says-budget-deal-will-help-virginias-economy"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9554310236126184, "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"}