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December 19, 2013

Senate Approves 2-Year Budget Deal Without Jobless Benefits 
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The Senate has approved a two-year budget deal following passage by the
House last week. The deal eases across-the-board spending cuts, but does
not extend unemployment benefits for some 1.3 million people, which are
set to expire next week. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, who crafted the
bipartisan deal with Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, called it a step
forward.

Sen. Patty Murray: "The Bipartisan Budget Act puts jobs and economic
growth first by rolling back those automatic and harmful cuts to
education and medical research and infrastructure investments and
defense jobs for the next two years. If we didn't get a deal, we would
have faced another continuing resolution that would have locked in those
damaging automatic cuts, or worse, a potential government shutdown in
just a few short weeks."

The bill's passage reduces the chances of another government shutdown at
the beginning of the year. Congress will have until January 15 to
approve a series of spending measures under the new 2014 limit of more
than $1 trillion.

 

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