{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://hartzler.house.gov/press-release/updating-you-budget-and-fiscal-situation-washington", "Updating you on the budget and fiscal situation in Washington", "2013-12-17", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "MO", "Vicky Hartzler", "H001053", "hartzler.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "On December 12, 2013, the House of Representatives passed the Bipartisan Budget Act by a vote of 332-94. The Bipartisan Budget Act would set overall discretionary spending for the current fiscal year at $1.012 trillion\u2014about halfway between the Senate budget level of $1.058 trillion and the House budget level of $967 billion. The legislation includes dozens of specific deficit-reduction provisions, with mandatory savings and non-tax revenue totaling approximately $86 billion. The agreement would reduce the deficit by $23 billion without raising taxes. Additionally, the bill would provide $63 billion in sequester relief over two years, split evenly between defense and non-defense programs. Under this proposal, defense spending would receive an additional $22 billion in FY \u201814 and $10 billion for FY \u201915. The sequester relief is fully offset by savings elsewhere in the budget.\nThis agreement will provide certainty by averting a government shutdown in January. This is good for all Americans as it breaks Washington\u2019s pattern of lurching from crisis to crisis. It is not everything we want, but it strengthens our military readiness while cutting spending, and that is good for America.\nFully offset savings in this agreement are achieved through:\n Capping government contractors\u2019 salaries to $487,000.\n\tBlocking prisoners from receiving government checks, such as unemployment benefits.\n\tReducing the risks of Social Security fraud.\n\tReforms to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.\n\tIncreases on Transportation Security Administration fees and simplifying how fees are assessed, which saves the federal government $12 billion over 10 years.\n\tReducing payments to student-loan debt collectors to save $6 billion over 10 years.\n\tIncreasing federal-employee contributions to their retirement program by 1.3 percentage points. This proposal affects new employees hired after December 31, 2013.\n Lastly, one of the most controversial ways in which this agreement achieves savings is through reforms to military retiree pensions. I share the many concerns that have been expressed over this provision. The budget agreement provides for a lower annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for inflation (as measured by the Consumer Price Index). The COLA would be inflation minus 1 percentage point starting with the adjustment in December 2015 \u2013 until the retiree reaches age 62. At age 62, the retired pay would be calculated as if each prior year\u2019s COLA had been the full CPI. This \"catchup provision\" will ensure that at age 62 the retiree's pension returns to where it would have been without the COLA reduction. And after age 62, the COLA itself would be the full CPI to fully protect retirees from inflation over the long-term. Again, it is important to note that no military retiree age 62 and over will see any reduction in their pension.\nIncremental changes to compensation generate uncertainty and are corrosive to the all-volunteer military. If we are going to change compensation,\u00a0I would prefer\u00a0it\u00a0to\u00a0be done at one time in a transparent manner that considers the entire spectrum of compensation. By impacting the pensions of current military retirees while grandfathering current civilian employees, this particular provision represents an imbalance that I expect the\u00a0Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission (an independent panel studying military compensation that should complete its work in May 2014) and the Armed Services Committee\u00a0to reexamine in the coming years.\nI am not happy with everything in the bill, with the changes to military pensions being at the top of the list. However, Chairman Ryan deserves to be congratulated for reaching an agreement when no one else could.\u00a0This agreement will\u00a0provide our military with some near-term relief from sequestration and\u00a0give them the ability to plan for the next\u00a0two years. The restored funding can be used to improve readiness, increase flight-training hours, purchasing new equipment, and help our troops on the front line.\nWhile the agreement falls short of securing everything I would like to have in the budget, with divided government in Washington it is a step in the right direction. There are only a few things Congress should be doing according to the Constitution, and one of them is to provide for the common defense. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a strong supporter of our men and women in uniform, I am pleased that this budget safeguards our national defense and restores $30 billion in previously reduced national defense funding.\nRest assured, I will keep your thoughts in mind as Congress continues discussing ways to reduce our deficit and keep our military strong. I count it a privilege to be your voice in Congress. Thank you for the honor of serving you.", 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": ["http://hartzler.house.gov/press-release/updating-you-budget-and-fiscal-situation-washington"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.321414951235056, "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"}