Agreement, we will postpone the recorded vote until we have finished the debate on the batch of this seven. Members of the House Budget Committee will return shortly after house floor votes to continue debate and mark up of the gop budget plan for fiscal 2018. While we wait to bring you that live coverage, here is some of the Budget Discussion from earlier. The committee will now come to order and we will proceed with consideration of fiscal year 2018 concurrent resolution of the budget. I want to thank the Ranking Member for working with me to develop a structure for this markup that closely resembles and follows what has been done here in the past. Our goal is to have an open markup which both sides will have an opportunity to debate, the frame work for the fiscal 2018 concurrent budget resolution. We have a long day ahead of us and i thank everyone for their cooperation. We will complete our work by midnight and hopefully well before then. We all can work together, that may be possible. Id like to begin by recognizing the distinguished member from indiana. Good morning, everyone. And thank you, madam chairman. With several floor votes expected later today and other Committee Mark ups i would ask unanimous consent the chairman of the be authorized to declare recess at any time today. Without objection, so ordered. Consistent with the agreement i have reached, i ask unanimous consent that each side be allocated 45 minutes to make presentations in lieu of opening comments. The Ranking Member and i each will make an Opening Statement out of that allotted time. Each side then make presentations out of the remaining time. Members have seven days to submit additional statements for the record and after these presentations we proceed to opening presentations on the budget resolution. Without objection, so ordered. Once the opening presentations have concluded, we will have one hour staff walkthrough, during which the majority staff will briefly summarize the chairmans mark. Members will then have the opportunity to ask questions. After the staff walkthrow, we will consider amendments according to the structure i have worked out with the Ranking Member. Today, we have decided to roll votes. We will debate seven amendments and then hold a series of roll call votes if requested on each of these amendments. I will describe this process in more detail when we get to that point. Once the staff walkthrough concludes, we will recess to accommodate walk ups and other floor votes. Once again, good morning and welcome to our markup of the fiscal year 2018 budget resolution. Our budget is called building a better america because we take real, tangible steps to balance the budget, build a stronger military and support an economy that creates opportunity for all americans. In the past years, our budget resolution was a vision document, but this year is different. With the election of President Trump, our budget goes from being a vision document to being a governing document that outlines how we build america for our children and grandchildren. The time is over. Now is the time for action. When i came excuse me. The time for talking is over. Now is the time for action. When i came to congress six years ago, i had three priorities, repeal and replace obamacare, balance the budget and reform our tax code. This year, we have already taken the largest step yet to accomplish these first of these priorities, and i was proud to sponsor the American Health care act to bring patient reforms to our health care system. This mark up begins the process of tackling a balanced budget by the progrowth reform. Balancing the budget by 2027 is a top priority. Our National Debt stands at 20 trillion with 9 trillion added over the last eight years. Both parties have failed to abide by a principal that all American Families and Small Businesses do, and that is we must live within our means. The Congressional Budget Office and outside experts all agree our current fiscal path is unsustainable. As the United States comptroller general put it in a recent House Budget Committee hearing, if we fail to get control of debt and defici deficits, we are putting our country at risk of fiscal and economic crisis, close quote. Balancing the budget requires us to make tough choices, but the consequences of inaction far outweigh any political risks that we may face. Doing nothing and continuing the status quo of more spending and more debt jeopardizes this american of years in the makes. The budget before us takes real steps to put our country on a sound fiscal path that balances in ten years and allows us to start paying down our debt. Building a better america makes a bold reform and ensure that we can continue to serve them for a generation to come. While our budget includes reforms to Discretionary Spending, we also strongly believe that mandatory spending must be addressed in this budget resolution, and in the budget resolutions to come. Mandatory spending is already more than twothirds of our federal spending, and that number will continue to grow. We agres maddress mandatory spen two ways. First, we believe respect a responsible vision for reforming and saving these programs. These programs would require further legislation and political will to make the tough choices needed to benefit the American People. Second, our budget includes reconciliation instructions requiring savings and reforms in mandatory spending programs. These savings would go toward deficit reduction and cannot be used to pay for tax reform. Our reconciliation instructions require 11 authorizing committees to find a minimum of 203 billion in savings and reforms over the tenyear window with the expectation that the reforms will result in significantly higher savings. This package of mandatory reforms is the largest since the 1990s through reconciliation, and it is the first step to change the culture of the spending here in washington. The goal of the Budget Committee is to return to the traditional budget process and the true purpose of reconciliation, definite reduction through mandatory spending reforms. This is the first step, but it is an important one. Our budget promotes tax and Regulatory Reform to get the federal government out of the way and allow our free market economy to thrive. The larger the government, the less freedom for individuals and businesses to thrive, grow, hire and innovate. The obama economy left millions of people behind with over 14 Million People leaving the labor workforce in just the last eight years. Through reconciliation, our budget specifically paves the way to progrowth tax reform that will be deficit neutral. This progrowth reform will reduce taxes, simplify the tax code and unleash the potential of the American Economy to help those who have been left behind. Many of our friends across the aisle and in the media said Economic Growth is the new normal, that we are doomed to continue the economic stagnation of the obama years. They have a pessimistic view of our nations ability to create jobs. America has the greatest workers, the greatest innovators and entrepreneurs to surpass the growth of the last eight years, if only the federal government would get out of their way. We believe it will result in higher Economic Growth, averaging 2. 6 over the tenyear window because we put our trust in the potential of the American People. But a stronger economy is not enough. We must also strengthen our military. The number one job of the federal government is to protect its citizens. Over the last eight years, the weak Foreign Policy of poth obama has led to increased threats from all corners of the globe, while the funding of our men and women in uniform has failed to keep pace. Building a better america investing money in our military and 75 billion specifically for the global war on terrorism for the fiscal year of 2018. These resources will help our men and women in uniform complete the mission with which they have been tasked. We also must rethink how government runs. We have to measure success in government, not by how much money we put in, but by the results that are created for the American People. We on the Budget Committee and in the full congress have been tasked to be good stewarts of the taxpayer dollars. As director mulvaney outlined, this means considering the interests not just of those that have are receiving government benefits, but also those that are paying the taxes that fund these benefits. The federal government doesnt just spend too much money. It simply does too much. As decade after decade, the slow creep of government has encroached on the responsibil y responsibilities of states, local communities, families and charitable organizations. Returning power back to the states and other components of Civil Society will allow them to provide services more effectively and efficiently. Our budget also takes serious steps to address improper payments, which the u. S. Government Accountability Office estimated to be 140 billion last year alone. Building a better america presents us with an opportunity to change the trajectory of our country forever. The election of President Trump was a signal to all of us that the American People will no longer accept the status quo. Taped to the back of my voting card is a picture of my six grandchildren. I was a nurse for over 40 years and still have my license. Government and Public Service was never an ambition of mine, but when i saw what was happening in my state and this country, i couldnt sit back and do nothing. Im reminded of how i left a career that i love to join the political fray. It is for them, my children and grandchildren and for yours as well. I grew up in america where a poor girl likes me, whose parents had an ambition for me to finish high school, could graduate from high school, become a nurse and become a member of the United States house of representatives. I grew up in an america that was a land of opportunity, of strength and compassion, but that america is slipping away for us, for too many people in this country, the American Dream is out of reach. A government that was supposed to be of, by and for the people has left too many people behind and building a better america requires a government that spends within its means, a military with the resources to complete its mission, an economy that recites opportunity for all and a federal bureaucracy that respects the taxpayer. But it requires an understanding that the greatness of america does not lie in the stone pillars here in washington, d. C. It lives in the spirit of ten nasty of people. We design building a better america put that vision in practice to empower individuals to live their version of the American Dream. Again, i welcome everyone here to our markup for this budget resolution and with that i yield to the Ranking Member. Thank you, chairman black. Nearly two months ago in this same room, we debated President Trumps budget. It was a shockingly extreme document that gave to the rich and took from everyone else. I urge my republican colleagues to see the harm it would bring to American Families, the damage it would cause to our chances for a Better Future and choice a different path when crafting their own budget. But here we are today with a budget that displays total indifference to the challenges americans face. Tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires at the expense of American Families, our economic progress and our National Security. The budget includes 5. 4 trillion in mandatory and Discretionary Spending cuts, and it ultimately reduces nondefense discretionary investments to the lowest level relative to the size of the economy since the 1960s. My republican colleagues are proud to talk about those cuts in washington. But what they dont want to talk about is how these cuts hurt the American People. So we will. The enormity of these cuts and the severity of the consequences for American Families cannot be overstated. Education, job training, transportation, medical research and veteran services are all at risk. This budget cuts nearly 1 trillion from mandatory spending that helps provide basic Living Standards for struggling families. Then it cuts nearly a half a trillion dollars from medicare and ends the fundamental guarantee of medicare coverage. It embraces trumpcare, which would strip more than 20 million americans of Health Coverage and makes nearly 1 trillion in cuts to medicate. These arent just comes. They represent people. They are families that have never had a chance to get ahead, and they are individuals like the woman i met at my town hall last week. She told me, quote, i think there is a misconception that medicate is just for the poor. In 2014, my husband lost his job of 25 years, and we were suddenly without Health Insurance or income. But we were covered for the 11 months leading up to him finding a new job through the medicaid expansion. Medicaid was a lifeline for this woman and her family, as it has been for millions of americans all across the country. All of that is at risk for them and millions of other families because of the drastic cuts in this budget. It is an incredibly cold document that willfully ignores the needs and priorities of the American People. But its not just the Economic Security of millions of families thats at risk in this budget. Its also our nations security. My republican colleagues have put on display a narrow world view, one where our countrys security is only about the size of our military. The republican budget increases defense spending by an astonishing 72 billion above the current cap and more than 18 billion above what President Trump requested. We have a responsibility to make sure our men and women in uniform have the tools needed to safely and successfully ensure their mission. But military experts across the board also stated that diplomacy, foreign aid and environmental factors like Climate Change are key components of our National Security. Yet, my republican colleagues ignored these facts and recklessly cut funding from the state department and foreign aid agencies by 11 billion and environmental and Natural Resource protection by over 6 billion. Funding our military at the expense of Critical National priorities is not a choice my republican colleagues have to make. And its certainly not a choice the American People want them to make. Which begs the question, why are they making it . The answer is as simple as it is disgraceful. So that millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations can get a tax cut. They have made the choice to give everyone at the top 1 , a 240,000 annual tax cut while taking breakfast and lunch away from Hungry School children. They have made the choice to give everyone in the top onetenth of 1 of income a 1. 4 million tax cut while Cutting Health care for seniors, nursing homes, low income children and the disabled. These are not choices my democratic colleagues or i would make. The list of upside down priorities and irresponsible priorities in this document is lengthy and we will do our best to go through as many of them as we can today. We will show a different vision of our country and for the American People. We want to invest in the future of American Families, create good jobs and help grow our economy. Democrats support investments in education, health care, National Security, job training, innovation and infrastructure. We support programs that help individuals with nowhere left to turn and a tax code that helps families get ahead. Those are american priorities and they should be the priorities of this congress and our committee. That, madam chair sorry. Chairman black, i yield back the balance of my time. I thank you, gentlemen. And i yield to the gentleman of indiana. Thank you, chairman black. I want to thank you for your commitment to produce a responsible federal budget. I appreciate your leadership and the efforts of our committee members. You know, to get to this budget, our committee had to make some tough decisions, and we had to create priorities that elevated those of our fellow citizens who are the most vulnerable, who truly needed help. That was President Trumps request, Vice President pences request and they did their job admirably as well. In short, they led. And in short, this committee, at le