In this vote, the House defeated an amendment offered by Melvin Watt (D-NC) on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The CBC's amendment would have substituted language reflecting their budgetary priorities as a replacement for those contained in the Republican-drafted budget resolution being considered on the House floor. The CBC priorities included restoring cuts made in the Republican-drafted budget and making increases in particular areas of the budget, including education (including providing full funding for the "No Child Left Behind Act," which authorizes most federal funding for public K-12 schools in America), job training and creation, community development, law enforcement, measures to help veterans, and others. The CBC's amendment also proposed to increase revenue by making a number of changes to the tax code, including rescinding tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and eliminating various tax shelters and loopholes. (The first step in Congress's annual budget process, following the submission of a proposed budget by the President, is to pass a non-binding budget resolution. That resolution establishes priorities and a framework for federal government spending in the coming year.) Arguing the Progressive position, Robert Scott (D-VA) noted the following regarding the CBC's amendment: "Its focus is to reduce disparities that exist in America's communities by investing in the priorities and challenges that Americans face today. It also provides significant support for our troops in Iraq. At the same time, the CBC budget alternative accomplishes these goals in a manner that is much more fiscally responsible than the Republican budget, so much so, as this chart shows, the budget deficit each year is much less, a total of a $167 billion deficit reduction over 5 years, so much so that it saves just in interest cost alone $27.5 billion over 5 years." Republicans countered that the CBC budget would have authorized too much spending in general and not enough defense spending, and that it would have raised taxes. In short, they believed that the amendment reflected the wrong priorities, noting especially that, "I think it is important that we keep cutting taxes for years to come so that we can keep this economic growth going." (Patrick McHenry (R-NC).) The House defeated Progressives and the CBC amendment by a vote of 134 to 292, with 67 more conservative Democrats opting to vote with the Republicans. Thus, consideration of a budget resolution prioritizing tax cuts primarily for wealthy Americans over spending in areas such as education, veterans' assistance, etc. continued.