Washington – Business Roundtable (BRT), an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, today issued the following statement on the news that Congress and the Administration have reached an agreement to avoid the “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax increases and spending cuts:

“H.R. 8 only just begins to address the scale of the fiscal and spending problems confronting our country and falls short as economic policy that could encourage a sustained and strong economic expansion. When pressed to the limit, political leaders averted some of the most immediate negative consequences of the short-term fiscal cliff, but left unaddressed the most serious and fundamental reforms required for the country’s long-term economic health.

“Over the past months we encouraged a timely political process that favored principled compromise over a political paralysis harmful to the economy. We hope political leaders will now work continuously to agree on market-credible structural fiscal and spending reforms needed for America to compete in a modern global economy. If elected leaders in Washington do not seize this opportunity the pathway to compromise will become more narrow, the challenges more profound, and the consequences of failure more grave.

“American business—large and small—will remain active in the ongoing debate because we are part of the solution. We know how to compete and win in the global marketplace; we know how to create jobs and to fuel economic expansion. We are poised to do so if our elected leaders can rebuild the trust needed for our political system to deal with major political, social and economic challenges.”

Click here to view BRT’s December 11, 2012 letter signed by 171 CEOs on smart reforms and the fiscal cliff.