IFPTE Statement Regarding President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy's Debt Ceiling and Budget Compromise

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                             
 

Union Leadership Express Relief at Legislation to Extend the Debt Ceiling to 2025 and Appreciation for President Biden’s Efforts to Limit Long-Term Damage to Federal Programs that Americans Count On

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The executive officers of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), a labor union representing upwards of 90,000 professional employees, issued the following statements offering qualified support for the legislation that Congress will consider this week to extend the U.S. debt limit to January 2025. In exchange for increasing the debt limit before it is breached in early June 2023, the legislation proposes to cap federal discretionary spending levels to fiscal year 2023, cut recent funding increases for the Internal Revenue Service by 20%, increase the age for work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to 54 years, and abruptly ends the pause on student loan repayments and interest accruals. This legislation is a result of month-long negotiations between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a significant improvement on the draconian demands originally put forward by the Speaker, including 10-year federal spending limits, cuts to federal clean energy investments, and added time limits and administrative hurdles to SNAP, Medicaid and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. IFPTE officers made the following remarks.

IFPTE President Matthew Biggs and IFPTE Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson:

“Our union is relieved to see the Biden Administration and Congressional leadership agree to a deal that raises the debt ceiling and averts economic disaster that is just days away. Make no mistake, Congress could have passed a clean, bipartisan debt ceiling increase and proceeded with a budget appropriations process that considers the needs of Americans. Congress also missed an opportunity to legislate tax increases on corporations and the wealthy that are necessary to responsibly reduce budget deficits that are driving the increase in federal debt.

Instead, Americans witnessed Members of the House of Representatives pass the so-called Limit, Save, Grow Act, partisan legislation that has held the U.S. economy and the global economy hostage by threatening to allow the federal government to default on its obligation to pay its debts unless the Senate and President Biden agreed to devastating budget cuts of around 25%, plus 10-year caps on federal spending. This agreement and the legislation before Congress to pass it are a rejection of the fiscally irresponsible approach expressed in the “Limit, Save, Grow Act,” which started these negotiations with a proposition that would have hurt veterans, seniors, students, and working Americans, and triggered a recession regardless of the outcome.

We appreciate that the agreement to raise the debt limit between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy limits discretionary spending limits to two years starting at fiscal year 2023 levels instead of 10 years budget caps and starting at fiscal year 2022 levels. We commend negotiators for excluding the Department of Veterans Affairs and DoD from budget caps for fiscal year 2024, expanding access to SNAP benefits for the homeless and veterans, leaving intact Inflation Reduction Act incentives, and adding improvements to energy project permitting to support clean energy investments.

As we look to Congress to pass the negotiated agreement, IFPTE intends to work in a bipartisan manner to minimize the negative impacts caused by the two-year budget limitations, make sure the services and programs that support Americans and the American economy are appropriately funded, address student loan affordability, and pass the “End the Threat of Default Act” so that debt ceiling hostage-taking is no longer a possibility. Finally, IFPTE will continue to advocate for responsible and fair tax policies, like those in the President’s 2024 budget, that support pathways to the middle class and provide needed solutions to lowering the budget deficit and national debt level.”

Across the United States and Canada, IFPTE represents 90,000 highly skilled workers in the federal, public, and private sectors. IFPTE is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO and the CLC. More information can be found at www.IFPTE.org.

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Read IFPTE’s statement on the agreement and legislation on the debt limit and federal budget.