WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today after the Senate voted to approve pay-as-you-go legislation:

"Today the Senate joined the House in taking a critical step toward ensuring fiscal discipline for the long term by passing pay-as-you-go budget rules into law. 

"Strict pay-as-you-go budget rules created record surpluses in the late 1990s.  And when this standard was abandoned under President Bush, it created record deficits.  One of the first actions Democrats took when we assumed the majority in 2007 was to make pay-as-you-go fiscal discipline the rule of the House.  Now it will be the law of the land, and our future generations will benefit.  Like every American family, Congress cannot make spending commitments it cannot afford.

"As the President made clear last night, we must make tough decisions to get our fiscal house in order after a decade of failing to do so. We can strengthen our nation without undermining our future; with pay-as-you-go spending rules, we will."

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House