Democratic Amendments to FY18 Republican Budget

Increase Austerity-Level Defense and Non-Defense Funding Caps

Reject Trumpcare

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Wasserman Schultz)

The amendment rejects the House Republican plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicaid, all to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations. The budget contains the House-passed American Health Care Act, which will allow insurers to rig the system against people with pre-existing conditions, drastically raise costs for older and low-income adults, and kick more than 20 million people off their health insurance.

Protect Medicaid for Vulnerable Americans

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Jackson Lee)

The amendment rejects roughly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid driven by ending the ACA's Medicaid expansion and capping federal payments to states. Steep cuts in the budget will ultimately fall on seniors in nursing homes, children with disabilities, and Americans with substance use disorders, as cash-strapped states look to reduce services or drop people from coverage altogether. This amendment protects Medicaid for the most vulnerable Americans.

No Tax Increases for Low-Income and Middle-Class Families

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Boyle)

This amendment rejects increasing taxes on low-income or middle-class families, including any reduction in refundable tax credits. The Trump tax plan could potentially raise taxes on millions of these American families.

Increase Austerity-Level Defense and Non-Defense Funding Caps

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Yarmuth)

This amendment urges increases to the current inadequate limits for defense and non-defense spending. It supports equal increases for defense and non-defense, as has been the practice in past bipartisan agreements, and highlights the urgency of bipartisan agreement to fully fund critical investments in economic opportunity, education, research, and more.

Provide Funding for Proven Anti-Poverty Programs

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Lee)

This amendment restores funding for critical and proven anti-poverty programs. The programs restored by this amendment ensure all Americans have access to basic standards of living like food, housing, and education. This funding protects individuals unable to work such as seniors and persons with disabilities, while investing in job training and removing barriers to economic opportunity.

Prevent the End of Medicare as We Know It

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Jeffries)

This amendment rejects policies that would eliminate the guaranteed health insurance benefits for seniors and people with disabilities under the Medicare program. These policies increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries by establishing a Medicare premium support plan that provides limited payments to purchase health care, or weakens the traditional Medicare program by diverting the healthiest enrollees into private plans and undermining the program's ability to control costs while offering access to a broad range of providers.

Protect Women's Health Care

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Schakowsky)

The amendment makes it the policy of the budget resolution that Congress should protect women's access to quality, affordable health care at the provider of their choice and that Congress should not restrict or prohibit federal funding to Planned Parenthood health centers. The Republican plan to block funding to the organization for one year will make it very difficult for women, especially those in low-income and underserved communities, to obtain the preventive services they need.

Reject Cuts to America's Transportation Infrastructure

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Higgins)

This amendment reverses the Republican resolution's $254 billion in cuts to transportation programs, which represents 25 percent of total transportation funding over ten years. At a time when there is bipartisan agreement on the need to invest in infrastructure, this amendment ensures funding to begin to meet the infrastructure needs in cities and towns across America.

Adopt Comprehensive Immigration Reform

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Jayapal)

This amendment accommodates passage of comprehensive immigration reform, like the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act proposed by House Democrats during the 113th Congress. Immigration reform will bring clear and just rules for those seeking citizenship, help secure our borders, all while boosting the economy, extending Social Security solvency, and reducing budget deficits.

Reject Construction of a Border Wall

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Carbajal)

This amendment rejects construction of an American taxpayer-funded wall on the U.S. southern border by prohibiting Congress from providing funding. President Trump's proposed border wall could cost American taxpayers up to $70 billion. The American people should not be forced to pay for a costly and ineffective wall the President promised they would not have to pay for.

Protect Nutrition Assistance

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Lujan Grisham)

This amendment protects the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by ensuring it retains its current structure and continues to play a vital role in helping vulnerable Americans combat food insecurity. The current structure allows the program to automatically expand as needs increase, ensuring millions of Americans, especially children and seniors, do not go hungry.

Improve the Economy and Create Jobs in Areas with High Poverty, Unemployment, Food Insecurity, Homelessness, and Foreclosure Rates

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. DelBene)

This amendment supports legislation that improves the economy or creates jobs in areas of the country that are struggling, including tribal communities. Investments in these communities are critical to providing economic opportunity.

Fully Fund the Investigation of Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Moulton)

The amendment supports full funding of the investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Uncovering the extent of Russian interference in our election, including any collusion, is the first step in restoring the public's trust in our electoral system and preventing our adversaries from interfering in the future.

Improve the Earned Income Tax Credit

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Khanna)

This amendment supports improving the Earned Income Tax Credit, a refundable tax credit that rewards work and lifts millions out of poverty. This includes an expansion of the EITC for childless workers, and the potential for even more changes to improve the EITC's pro-work, pro-family benefits.

No Fast Track for Millionaire Tax Cuts or Gutting Investments Vital to American Families

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Yarmuth)

This amendment eliminates the resolution's reconciliation instructions so that tax cuts for the wealthy would not be tied to devastating reductions in safety net programs. The amendment also ensures that both tax cuts and mandatory spending cuts would have to be considered under regular order rather than under expedited procedures.

Eliminate Unrequested Overseas Contingency Operations Funding

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Lee)

The amendment eliminates OCO funding in excess of the level our military commanders requested and calls for ending the use of the OCO gimmick to get around funding caps. The OCO gimmick obfuscates the true cost of regular government operations, disincentivizes tradeoffs in the budget, and inhibits long-term planning. In short, it is bad budgeting.

Improving the Availability of Long-Term Care Services and Supports for Seniors and Other Americans

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Lujan Grisham)

This amendment accommodates deficit-neutral initiatives to improve the availability of long-term care services and insurance for seniors and other Americans. Such initiatives could include creation of a comprehensive long-term care insurance program; pilot programs or studies to determine the best options for improving access to long-term care services; or improvements to Medicare, Medicaid, or other programs to provide increased access to long-term care.

Reject Cuts to Diplomatic and Foreign Aid Operations

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Moulton)

The amendment rejects the Republican resolution's $11.2 billion cut to diplomatic and foreign aid operations. These investments are essential in preventing conflict and facilitating stability around the world. They help address the root causes of extremism and engender goodwill around the world by responding to humanitarian crises. More than 120 former admirals and generals called on Congress to support these activities, saying they are "critical to keeping America safe."

No Tax Cut for the Wealthy

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Jeffries)

This amendment rejects giving a tax cut to the top one percent of income earners. Under the Trump and House Republican tax plans, they get trillions of dollars of tax cuts, despite the fact that most of new wealth accumulated over the past several years has already gone to this group.

Protect Clean Air and Water

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Higgins)

This amendment eliminates cuts in the Republican budget to natural resources and environmental programs, ensuring future generations can thrive in a safe and healthy environment. The amendment restores the 2017 funding levels for the Environmental Protection Agency and preserves funding for geographic initiatives such as Great Lakes Restoration, Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, and Puget Sound.

Invest in Science and Research to Find Life-Saving Cures and to Create Jobs

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. DelBene)

This amendment increases spending on science and research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). NIH and NSF have been at the forefront of innovation and scientific discovery and increased investment in these agencies will ensure that the U.S. continues to lead the world in basic research discoveries.

Invest in Early Childhood Development to Ease Financial Burden on Struggling Families and Ensure Academic Success of our Children

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Wasserman Schultz)

This amendment increases spending on early learning and early childhood development programs including Head Start, the Child Care and Development Block Grant, and the Preschool Development Grant. This amendment provides relief for families struggling to pay for quality childcare and improves the chances of future academic success for our children.

Protect Social Security Benefits

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Boyle)

This amendment adds policy language to the resolution rejecting any cuts in Social Security benefits. Social Security ensures that millions of older Americans can retire and live with dignity, and this amendment affirms the ongoing importance of Social Security and expresses Congress' intent to protect retirees and other beneficiaries.

Protect Consumers from Abusive Financial Practices

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Khanna)

This amendment adds language to the resolution opposing efforts to attack the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Rising from the financial crisis of 2008, the CFPB provides critical protections that must be strengthened and enforced rather than undermined.

Reaffirming America's Commitment to the Paris Agreement Combating Climate Change

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Jayapal)

The amendment reaffirms America's commitment to the Paris Agreement, and creates a new initiative to help cities and states in their efforts to abide by the pact. The amendment creates a fund to provide resources to state and local governments, and to fulfill America's commitment to the Green Climate Fund.

Fully Fund Veterans' Benefits

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Carbajal)

This amendment upholds our commitment to veterans by rejecting the Republican budget cuts to mandatory benefits provided to veterans through the Veterans Administration (VA) while fully funding the requested discretionary levels. With so many veterans in need, this amendment ensures that they and their families, can access the benefits they have earned and the care they need while continuing to hold the VA accountable.

Increase Pell Grants to Make College More Affordable

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Jackson Lee)

This amendment increases the maximum Pell Grant award to $6,420 and indexes it to inflation after 2018. The Pell Grant program is the primary federal aid program that helps low-income students pay for college and remains the cornerstone for funding higher education for these families. This increase improves the purchasing power of the Pell Grant, ensuring future academic and economic success for millions of Americans.

Reduce Prescription Drug Costs for All Americans

(Lead Sponsor: Rep. Schakowsky)

This amendment endorses the principle of building on the Affordable Care Act to improve access to, and affordability of, prescription drugs for all Americans. This amendment seeks to hold the health care industry accountable for the prices that consumers and federal programs pay for critical medications, while providing appropriate incentives to promote pharmaceutical innovation that can lead to new cures and more effective treatments.