Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Donald Norcross joined his colleagues on the House Budget Committee to markup the FY 2016 Budget Resolution. During his opening statement, Congressman Norcross delivered the following remarks detailing his priorities for the budget:

“In Congress we talk a lot about the American dream. The American promise, that if you work hard you can make a better life for yourself and your children. At the center of that dream is opportunity.  Yet this opportunity only exists if the American people are given the tools to succeed.  Today we are marking up a budget that falls short in advancing the cause of economic opportunity by making strategic investments in those tools.

“Today, we on this Committee will have the choice to give hardworking families these tools by voting for changes to this budget that adequately invest in putting people back to work repairing our roads, bridges, ports, and other critical infrastructure; provide affordable access to a strengthened education system; and provide for a fair tax system that rewards hard work.

“While we have to make tough choices to deal with the deficit and the debt, we need to remain committed to a strategy that invests in our transportation and energy infrastructure in a sustainable way, and that ensures American workers can compete and win in the global economy.  Investing in domestic transportation networks and infrastructure will create jobs, grow our economy, facilitate American exports, and increase the return on taxpayer investments.

“Along with jobs, we need citizens that have the training and tools to succeed in rewarding careers. This requires investments in high-quality affordable education, whether in 4-year colleges, our community colleges, or vocational and technical training focused on the industries that are expected to experience significant growth in the coming decades: health care, energy, advanced manufacturing, transportation and logistics, cybersecurity, and information technology. This training must prepare our students for a competitive world, and it must be affordable, because they won’t be able to spend and reinvest in our economy while mired in debt.

“The final tool to create opportunity is a fair tax system that rewards hard work.  This means putting more money back in the pockets of hard working families so that they can invest in their own their children’s education; so that they can spend money at stores and restaurants in our communities; and they can take trips and vacations that stimulate the US’s tourism economy in places like the Jersey Shore. 

“All of these proposals are designed to give hardworking families the tools to grow our economy from the middle out instead of the top down. Today we will see Democrats offer amendments that will each reflect this priority in a different way. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to make hardworking families their priority as well by voting for the Democratic amendments.”