John Kerry
U.S. Senator for Massachusetts

Legislative Update [ more ]

Last year, ideology stood in the way of  an historic opportunity to get America’s fiscal house in order – just as ideology brought the country to the brink of three government shut-downs, the edge of default, and a credit downgrade that should’ve been prevented by common sense.  I'm deeply disappointed with the way Congress isn’t working – and I’m fighting to change it.  It’s too easy just to say that Washington is broken or Congress is broken.  These issues aren't going away; in fact, they are becoming more urgent.  Workers across Massachusetts could at least breathe a sigh of relief when Democrats successfully extended tax cuts for middle class families temporarily before they expired. It was a show-down that never should have come to the brink: you’d think no one would want to see every American’s paychecks go down to start the new year. When we return to Washington later this month, we must extend middle class tax cuts through the end of the year.

We must also continue to work together to reduce both our jobs deficit and our budget deficit at the same time.  I will be working to push Congress to make the difficult but necessary decisions.  We must spend the next year finding the balanced and fair solution our country needs that grows our economy and create jobs.

Read more about issues in front of Congress here.