Quigley Calls on Congress to Avert Sequester Citing Damaging Local Effects

| March 1, 2013

WASHINGTON —image004 U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) issued the following statement after speaking on the House floor regarding the damage sequestration will have to Illinois and the Chicago area:

“For the dozens of groups I’ve met with over the last week, the sequester is not some abstract budgeting term but something that will have real, damaging effects. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago estimates 125 AIDS-afflicted families will lose their housing under sequestration. Illinois Partners for Human Service and the Ounce of Prevention Fund informed me that 4,000 children in Illinois won’t receive Head Start Services.

“There is no question we need to address our unsustainable debt and deficit but the cure shouldn’t be worse than the disease. Sequestration is budgeting with a meat cleaver, it’s absurd, and it’s got to end. Congress must come together now and compromise on a solution that is a big, balanced, bipartisan like the plan modeled on Simpson-Bowles.”

To watch Congressman Quigley’s speech on the House floor,click here.

Quigley currently serves on the House Committee on Appropriations, which recently releaseda report on consequences of sequestration. To read the report,click here.

 The White House also issued a Fact Sheet on Sequester Impacts on Illinois, which isavailable here.

Guided by principles of the Simpson-Bowles budget alternative, Rep. Quigley has led a push for a “3B Budget Plan” that isbipartisan, achieves big deficit reduction, and balances spending cuts with tax reform. He is the author ofReinventing Government: The Federal Budget, a report which offers 60 recommendations to save $2 trillion over the next 10 years. Quigley is also a member of theNew Democrat Coalition, which promotes an agenda of focused on American innovation and entrepreneurship as a path economic grown and job creation.

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