Dr. Ruiz Floor Statement on Bipartisan Budget Agreement

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-25) took to the House floor ahead of this evening’s vote on H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, also known as the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, to highlight Republicans’ manufactured debt ceiling crisis, fight for funding for key veterans’ programs, and call for action to protect Americans from a catastrophic economic default. Below is Dr. Ruiz’s floor statement as delivered during the debate on the rule for H.R. 3746.  

Let’s be clear: this bill is not about fiscal responsibility. It’s about the extreme GOP pushing their extreme agenda.  

Extreme Republicans demanded to cut veterans’ health care; to zero out the toxic exposure fund for sick burn-pits-exposed veterans; to end protections for our environment and to allow polluters to expose workers and communities to toxic chemicals for corporate profit; to cut Medicaid, to cut child care, and to cut education; and to repeal efforts to make our air and water cleaner, especially in vulnerable communities.  

And if they didn’t get their way, they held hostage the American economy and threatened to send America into default, raising costs for families, cutting one million jobs for workers, and devastating seniors’ retirements.  

And so, under this Republican-manufactured extreme crisis, we will take up the Bipartisan Budget Agreement to prevent a Republican catastrophic default.  

President Biden, in this bill, made sure veterans got the care that they need by funding the toxic exposure fund for burn pits veterans, [and that the bill] keeps the Inflation Reduction Act’s environmental and clean energy provisions to stop polluters from harming people.  

He was able to protect [Medicaid with no changes], maintain access to health care for millions of families across the country, and preserve funding for clean energy programs to clean up our air.  

Look, if extreme Republicans were serious about fiscal responsibility, they would have accepted President Biden’s budget that would have reduced the deficit by $3 trillion. Instead, this bill only reduces it by $1.5 trillion.  

Nevertheless, today, I will vote for the bipartisan agreement, and I yield back.  

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