Anne Arundel Today

WASHINGTON DC – On May 31, 2023, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) delivered the following remarks on the House Floor about the necessity to pass the Bipartisan Budget Agreement to pay our bills and avoid default. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video: 

Click here for a link to the video.

“Mr. Speaker, there's been a lot of argument about who is responsible why we're here. Mr. Roy, the gentleman from Texas, as I was coming in, spoke about keeping leverage. Now, what do you keep leverage for? You keep it so you can make something that you want to happen, happen.  

“The Speaker of this House has said, 'default is not an option.' The Leader of the Democratic Party in this House has said, 'default is not an option.' But that wasn't good enough that we agreed. It was, as the gentleman from Texas said, our Republican friends wanted to keep leverage — to accomplish essentially in the appropriation bill, or what they couldn't either accomplish or pass in the Appropriations Committee here, because of their extraordinarily devastating bill that they offered and passed, which some of them are going to have to answer for in the next election.  

"But what today is about is whether we're going to hurt 330 million Americans. Whether we're going to hurt the global economy. That's what this is about. And from my perspective, there is only one answer: to pass a bill that in fact does not have America welch on its debts. Or, alternatively, to defeat a bill, which will devastate our economy and be catastrophic globally. That's why we're here.  

“I urge every Member to think of those 330 million Americans, all of whom will be hurt if we fail to do our duty. And I yield back the balance of my time.” 

Original source can be found here.