A new federal budget that would stave off a potential government shutdown early next year has won the support of local Congressman Lynn Westmoreland as it passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

While as of press time Tuesday the bill faces an unknown outcome in the Democrat-controlled Senate, Westmoreland said last week that the bipartisan budget deal brokered between the Republican and Democratic party leaders “is a step in the right direction.”

“This budget creates a path for actual appropriations where real spending reforms can be made,” Westmoreland said. “Cutting funding at the EPA, the Legal Services Corporation, the IRS — none of this can be done through a continuing resolution.”

Westmoreland said the budget deal also “replaces the draconian sequester cuts to our defense with cuts that are split equally between defense and non-defense programs.”

Westmoreland noted that since President Barack Obama took office, nearly $7 trillion has been added to the national debt, and by passing the budget, Congress is taking back its constitutional right “of setting the budget and controlling the purse strings.”

“I will be the first to admit this is not a perfect bill,” Westmoreland said. “Of course I wanted more spending cuts to be included in this bill. But at the end of the day I truly believe this budget is a step in the right direction because it gives appropriators a budget number and includes deficit reduction.”