Citing Successful Amendments And The Need For Fiscal Discipline,Senator Collins Votes For Budget Resolution

WASHINGTON, DC - Senator Susan Collins said tonight that she decided to vote in favor of the Fiscal Year 2006 budget resolution after amendments addressing her concerns about funding for homeland security, Medicaid, and education were adopted on the Senate floor. These amendments include one she offered successfully with Senator Joseph Lieberman that restores $855 million in proposed budget cuts to first responder programs in the Department of Homeland Security and ensures funding for port security grants. Senator Collins also pointed to the inclusion of a resolution she and Senator Trent Lott authored that expresses the Senate''s disapproval of the Navy's proposed DD(X) acquisition strategy, which would result in only one shipyard building all the new destroyers. The DD(X) is a vital program for Bath Iron Works.

"The budget, as amended, restores funding for a number of programs that are important to Maine, while being fiscally responsible. The budget blueprint is the first step on a path to cut the deficit in half over the next five years and will impose fiscal discipline that is sorely needed," Senator Collins said.

"I am particularly pleased that the Senate adopted the Collins-Lieberman homeland security amendment that provides funding for training, equipment, and other assistance to our firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel, and emergency managers. In addition, the budget includes language that I authored with Senator Trent Lott that puts the Senate on record against the Navy's proposed winner-take-all DD(X) competition," Senator Collins said. "I also supported a successful amendment providing a significant increase in Pell grants, which help our neediest students afford higher education - an increase identical to legislation I introduced earlier this year."

"This budget is by no means ideal. I am very disappointed that, over my objections, it includes language aimed at allowing drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a move that I will continue to oppose. Furthermore, I am disappointed that the new budget enforcement provisions, while significant, do not include stronger "pay-as-you-go" provisions that would apply to new tax cuts as well as new spending," Senator Collins concluded. "But on balance, I felt that the budget was sufficiently improved by floor amendments to warrant my support, and the budget enforcement mechanisms will impose needed fiscal restraint as Congress considers spending bills throughout the year."

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