WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17) voted to pass the Bipartisan Budget Agreement negotiated between President Biden and Speaker McCarthy to prevent a disastrous default on our nation’s debt.
After months of vocal opposition to Republican efforts to strip away funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund, House Republicans ultimately folded to pressure from President Biden, House Democrats like Rep. Deluzio, and veterans’ advocates to fully fund veterans and the VA.
Following the vote, Congressman Deluzio released the following statement:
“The people of Western Pennsylvania sent me to Washington to govern and to fight for them. This deal to avert economic disaster is far from perfect, but I refuse to risk tanking America’s economy in the race against time to avoid a default.
“Time and time again throughout this process, Republicans attempted to use my fellow veterans as a bargaining chip to advance their radical right-wing agenda. Thankfully, the pressure from President Biden, House Democrats, and veterans’ advocates to protect the VA and to stop Republican efforts to underfund the PACT Act’s Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund worked. In the end, we protected veterans from the worst of the Republican-proposed attacks—and the American people saw plainly that extremist Republicans are more than willing to play politics with veterans’ health care.
“Speaker McCarthy manufactured a crisis to try to hold hostage our economy, working families’ retirements and livelihoods, veterans care, and the full faith and credit of the United States—and failed.
“The agreement that I voted for today achieves the most important task at hand, avoiding a debt default, but it does not tackle the underlying issue of Republican fiscal recklessness. The Republican tactic to hold our economy hostage while protecting obscene tax cuts to the wealthiest and massive corporations is fiscally irresponsible. It was a dereliction of duty and set a dangerous precedent.
“The path to long-term fiscal health is not through the fairy tale of trickle-down economics, but instead through fair taxation that requires the ultra-wealthy and biggest corporations to pay their fair share. Every single American ought to know that House Republicans prioritized tax cuts for the rich over programs that millions of hardworking families and count on.
“The American people should decide the path forward: the Republican plan—fiscal irresponsibility and slashing all of government to protect tax cuts for the richest people and corporations in human history—or a government and economy that grows our shared prosperity and rewards work, not just wealth. I will keep fighting for the latter.”