WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) announced today that he will serve on the Conference Committee tasked with finalizing the Fiscal Year 2016 Congressional Budget.

Senator King was appointed to the position along with the rest of the Senate Budget Committee. The Conference Committee, which consists of 30 Senate and House lawmakers, will reconcile the differences between the two budgets passed by both chambers earlier this year to create the final Congressional spending blueprint.

“I hope we can use this conference as an opportunity to devise a budget agreement that will put our nation back on solid fiscal footing,” Senator King said. “The simple fact is we can't cut or tax our way out of this hole. Instead, we should try to develop a sensible proposal that balances spending cuts with revenue enhancements and maintains important investments. Our prosperity and the next generation's economic future depend on it.”

Prior to the announcement of his appointment last night, Senator King urged the Committee to develop a more sensible budget. Last month he voted against the Senate budget resolution and criticized its one-sided approach to the nation’s fiscal problems. He did, however, praise the budget’s inclusion of a bipartisan amendment he cosponsored that would pave a legislative path for adopting a more sensible budget that would promote economic growth and reduce the debt and deficit by striking an appropriate balance between spending reductions and revenue increases.

More specifically, the amendment creates an opportunity for future legislation to provide sequester relief to both defense and non-defense discretionary programs, which is a more realistic alternative to the Senate budget passed last month which maintains sequester level spending reductions for defense programs and contains deep cuts to domestic programs.

Senator King has been a strong advocate of a balanced approach – replacing sequestration with more targeted cuts and a close review of tax loopholes to raise revenues while also protecting beneficiaries of important programs.

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