December 9, 2013

The holiday season is upon us. While some are crossing items from their shopping lists, there are those across America who are wondering how they will heat their homes, purchase food or pay for child care. The year 2013 was difficult, but according to the Center for American Progress, 2014 will be worse.

As a member of the House Budget Committee and as someone who has lived in poverty, I understand how our budgetary decisions directly affect American families. This week, the bicameral, bipartisan budget committee will reach its deadline for presenting a budget deal. Should this committee succeed, it is my hope that its compromise finds a solution to the sequester cuts affecting families across this nation. Simply put, Americans cannot afford the sequester.

The across-the-board spending cuts known as the “sequester” took effect in March. This reduction has been deeply felt across the nation as struggling families continue to squeeze their resources to support themselves. Though we did not experience immediate economic calamity and family financial ruin as predicted, we must not survey the consequences of these cuts with a myopic lens. What some do not realize is that without a fix, the pain these cuts have caused will continue into 2014 with far greater severity.

At least 23 federal lawmakers are traveling to South Africa to attend a memorial service for the country’s former leader Nelson Mandela, who died last week at age 95.

The service will be held Tuesday in Johannesburg at a soccer stadium that can hold roughly 95,000 people.

A government aircraft carrying 22 members of the House and one U.S. senator departed from Andrews Air Force Base on Monday morning, ahead of Air Force One, which is carrying President and Michelle Obama, former president George W. Bush and Laura Bush and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to the White House.