Contact:
Tim Kauffman
202-639-6405/202-374-6491
[email protected]
WASHINGTON – American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley today issued the following statement in response to the fiscal 2024 spending bills package that goes before Congress this week:
“We appreciate lawmakers’ commitment to enacting bipartisan full-year spending bills rather than resorting to a fourth continuing resolution that would likely necessitate drastic automatic cuts in the spring under last year’s Fiscal Responsibility Act. The six spending bills before Congress this week are far better than the partisan bills the House considered last year, which sought cuts of 20% or more from key programs and had no chance of becoming law. Within the tight limitations under which appropriators worked, the bills that will be considered this week have managed to protect veterans and people in need, while largely rejecting the restrictive social policy riders and anti-worker measures that the House pursued last year and excluding schemes to reduce Congress’s constitutional role in setting budget policy.
“At the same time, the appropriations process remains fundamentally flawed. The fiscal year is already half over. Moreover, the inflexible spending targets imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act have resulted in damaging freezes and reductions to many vital federal programs such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the National Science Foundation. While our country faces unprecedented threats at home and abroad – including runaway global warming, geopolitical conflict with Russia and China, and yawning income inequality – the proposed fiscal 2024 bills are at best an effort to tread water.
“AFGE hopes that Congress completes its appropriations work for fiscal 2024 before the expiration of the current continuing resolution and begins in short order to craft fiscal 2025 spending bills that avoid the needless delays, uncertainty, and partisanship that characterized this year’s appropriations process.”
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