By U.S. Sen. Susan Collins
(R-Maine)
Everywhere I go in Maine, people tell me that they are tired of partisan gridlock in Washington. They ask why people on both sides of the aisle can’t set aside their partisan differences, come together, and reach compromises on the many important issues facing our country. Recently, Congress took an important step forward when it passed a bipartisan budget agreement for the first time in more than four years.
This budget agreement is far from perfect. It will, however, help move our economy forward, create certainty that has been sorely lacking for far too long, and save some $23 billion over the next decade. The budget will set priorities for federal spending and revenues. While the two-year budget agreement worked out between Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) is not what I would have written, it is a step in the right direction. It will prevent Congress from lurching from crisis to crisis, avoid most of the across-the-board, meat-ax cuts known as sequestration, and will allow the Appropriations Committee, of which I am a member, to do its job of developing bills to responsibly fund the government within agreed to limits.
Over the last nine months since sequestration went into effect, I have met with countless Mainers, including shipyard workers, medical researchers, educators, border patrol agents, small business owners affected by the delayed opening and shutdown of Acadia National Park, and non-profit organizations providing services for the low-income and the elderly. All have shared stories of their personal experiences with how the indiscriminate cuts of sequestration have affected them, their families, and those whom they serve. The sequester has had a detrimental impact on Mainers and our country and is not the right approach to reducing our enormous debt. The $65 billion in sequestration relief provided by this agreement will help mitigate the effect on our economy moving forward and allow Congress to prioritize those programs that are most effective over those that are wasteful, duplicative, or simply no longer necessary.
The agreement will spare the Department of Defense some of the devastating sequestration cuts that Pentagon officials testified could cripple military readiness, harm our national security, and affect thousands of defense-related jobs that are vital to our economy in Maine and in the United States. It also begins to address the harmful impact of indiscriminate cuts made to vital programs such as transportation, education, and biomedical research.
I am, however, deeply disappointed that this agreement includes a provision that, unless fixed, could reduce the annual cost of living increase for some current military retirees. We must honor the service and sacrifice of the brave men and women who served our country so that they can continue to have access to the benefits they worked so hard to earn and that were promised to them. The significant changes to military retirement included in this budget single out current retirees and change the rules for them, and that’s not fair.
I have raised my concerns with my colleagues about the military retirement provisions in this agreement and will work to ensure that this issue is addressed before it is set to take effect in January 2016.
