Statement by the Vice President on the Budget Deal
Over the last seven years, our economy
has gone from crisis to recovery to the cusp of resurgence. The budget and tax
agreement that Congress negotiated this week will help make it a permanent
resurgence. Neither side got everything it wanted, and there is more we
will continue to fight for. But this agreement reverses self-inflicted wounds
like sequestration, averts another unnecessary government shutdown, and lays a
path forward to the type of governing by consensus that the American people
deserve and expect.
It makes permanent Recovery Act
expansions of tax credits that boost incomes for millions of
working and middle-class families, helping them care for their
children and pay for college. It extends tax credits that will continue an
American-led clean energy transformation that’s unleashing new industries and
creating tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs. It will help hundreds
of thousands of people looking for work know where the jobs are, what training
is needed, where to get trained, and where to find the jobs.
This agreement marks the largest
investment in the NIH in a decade—$32 billion—that will mean more clinical
trials for patients and more research grants for next-generation scientists. It
will help put us closer to curing cancer -- turning deadly diseases into
manageable chronic conditions – and on the verge of countless other life-saving
and life-changing discoveries.
The agreement invests a record $480
million in programs under the Violence Against Women Act. It invests $45
million toward eliminating the backlog of rape kits, so tens of thousands of
rape and sexual assault victims will no longer have to wait years before their
rape kits are tested --allowing them to find closure and bring their
perpetrators to justice. The budget also provides an increase of $3.75 million
to the National Domestic Violence Hotline so fewer women and men remain
prisoners in their own homes.
And as we were reminded in the summer of
2014 when 50,000 unaccompanied children risked their lives to escape crime,
corruption, violence and poverty to find their way to our southwestern
border—the security and prosperity of Central America are inextricably linked
with our own. At the President’s request, I’ve traveled to the region and have
made it clear with the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that the
United States stands ready to support their efforts to reverse endemic violence
and poverty, crack down on criminal networks, and strengthen good governance
and the rule of law. As those leaders have responded, this decision by Congress
to invest $750 million in Central America demonstrates that we honor our
commitments and believe in a future where the Western Hemisphere is middle
class, democratic, and secure.
The agreement is not perfect, but it
will help grow our economy, bolster our security, and it reflects governing by
consensus, not the governing by crisis we’ve seen too often of late.
Source: The White House, Office of the Vice President
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