House Republicans Win Hollow Victory on Budget, America Loses

After weeks of struggle, House Republicans managed to pass their flawed budget blueprint late Wednesday night by a vote of 218-210. Twelve Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the resolution.

Republican leaders ignored objections over the insufficient domestic funding levels from House Democrats as well as moderates in their own party. The Republican's $873 billion budget plan cuts discretionary funding for domestic services by $9.4 billion below current levels and $3.2 billion below the level passed by Republicans in the Senate. It cuts funding for the Department of Education by $2.2 billion, eliminating 42 education programs, and cuts funding for health care by $20 billion below current services over the next five years.

Republicans claim that these reductions in aid to the neediest Americans are necessary to balance the budget, but they have made no attempt to scale back their massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in the name of fiscal discipline. Not surprisingly, the resolution includes $228 billion in additional tax cuts over the next five years for the nation's top earners, part of a $3 trillion ten-year Republican tax cut agenda.

"The Republicans' budget is fiscally irresponsible and morally misguided," said Congressman Serrano. "It deepens the deficit with tax cuts for the richest people in the nation while cutting social programs for the most disadvantaged. As in previous years under Republican control, the budget ravages our nation's finances by piling billions of dollars of debt on our children and grandchildren."

Serrano pledged to continue his fight on behalf of the disadvantaged in this country. The budget resolution now awaits action by the House-Senate conference, where prospects for an agreement are slim.

Serrano Condemns Senate Action on Immigration

Congressman Serrano denounced the Republican-led action on in the Senate this week on immigration reform. The Senate adopted one amendment on the floor that would designate English as the national language. He also objected to a portion of the Senate's draft which would use arbitrary time cutoffs to determine eligibility for citizenship or deportation.

Serrano has long championed his "English-Plus Resolution," which recognizes the value of multilingualism, rather than the English-only proposals by Republicans that seek to make English the official or national language of the United States.

"Giving in to linguistic isolationism does nothing more than further isolate us in this vast multi-cultural world," Serrano said. "We should be encouraging proficiency in other languages at the same time as we are offering opportunities to learn English. My bill would increase access to English as a second language classes— a real solution to linguistic barriers rather than meaningless declarations. It would also recognize multilingualism as a national resource."

Serrano also expressed opposition to the Senate bill's time cutoffs for earned legalization. "If we base immigration status on date of entry, we will inevitably split families apart," Serrano said. "Ironically, the supporters of penalizing recent arrivals are the same folks who say that they care about family values. They should know better."

Serrano Proposes National Park Study of Oak Point Site

On Thursday Congressman Serrano introduced H.R. 5423, The General Slocum Memorial Study Act, which would require a study of the suitability and feasibility of designating the shoreline portions of Oak Point and North Brother Island in the East River as a unit of the National Park System.

On June 15, 1904, the steamship General Slocum loaded 1,300 New Yorkers, mostly German immigrants, from the Lower East Side to take them to a picnic on the Long Island Sound. As the ship steamed up the East River, a fire broke out in the boiler room. As the fire worsened, the captain of the ship beached it on North Brother Island. More than 1,000 women, men and children perished in the flames, despite the best efforts of rescuers from the Bronx side of the East River and the staff of the sanatorium on North Brother Island.

"As the site of the most tragic disaster before September 11th, the area where the General Slocum burned and sank deserves to be commemorated appropriately," Serrano said. "I have asked for this study because I believe that we must not forget the tragedies of generations past. This disaster devastated 'Little Germany', and captured national attention. The site should have been preserved long ago. Now we have our chance to preserve this historic site, rather than letting it be paved over for the installation of an unwanted prison."

House Passes Interior Appropriations Bill with Amendments

On May 18, 2006, the House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill to fund the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among other agencies.

Before final passage of the bill, the House voted to make some significant improvements, supported by Congressman Serrano. The House voted to keep in place the current moratorium on offshore drilling. Congressman Serrano believes that our coasts and fragile marine ecosystems must continue to be protected for future generations. The House also passed an amendment to prevent the Interior Department from entering into new offshore drilling leases with oil companies that, under their 1998 and 1999 leases, are receiving unlimited royalty relief. Suporters of the amendment hope that it will encourage these oil companies to instead agree to market-based limits on royalty relief.

In addition, an important amendment to protect our nation's water was also agreed to by the full House, with Congressman Serrano's strong support. This amendment would stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from eliminating Clean Water Act protections for more than 20 million acres, or 20 percent, of the wetlands remaining in the coterminous United States. The current EPA policy has led to the destruction of numerous streams and lakes that should have been protected under law.

Finally, Congressman Serrano's supported a successful amendment to prevent the implementation of two changes to the Toxic Release Inventory Program, a publicly accessible pollution database. The proposed changes would restrict the access of communities and workers to important health information. In the past, this information has been crucial to the identification and reduction of heath risks for our communities.