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[Pages S1285-S1286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GOVERNMENT FUNDING
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday Chairman Shelby, Ranking
Member Leahy, and their House counterparts continued finalizing their
legislative proposal to fund the government. Their negotiated solution
would wrap up this year's appropriations and avoid another partial
government shutdown.
As our colleagues hammer out the final details, I would like to thank
them again for their cooperative, bipartisan efforts that have brought
us to this point. The agreement reached on Monday was achieved because
the conference committee set aside far-left poison pills and utterly
absurd demands. None of these radical nonstarters was allowed to
torpedo the process.
Notwithstanding weeks of over-the-top rhetoric from Speaker Pelosi,
the agreement did not cave to the far-left demand that no more than a
single dollar go toward new barriers on the southern border--no,
indeed, it provides well over a billion such dollars. The negotiators
also prevented last-minute efforts to hamstring the U.S. Immigrations
and Customs Enforcement with an unprecedented statutory limit on their
ability to detain criminal aliens in the interior of our country.
Instead, here is what their agreement does provide. It provides
another significant downpayment on the President's plan to secure our
Nation's borders with new physical barriers and keep American
communities safe. It provides nearly $1.4 billion for new barriers in
the Border Patrol's highest priority areas--enough to build nearly
twice as many miles as were funded last year. It gives ICE the capacity
and the flexibility to continue responding to surges in illegal
immigration. It continues to provide the President with appropriate
reprogramming authority, so he can direct additional funding toward
urgent homeland security priorities should circumstances require. Of
course, in addition to all this, the legislation will wrap up all our
outstanding regular appropriations bills and get the entire Federal
Government funded the right way.
It goes without saying that neither side is getting everything it
wants. That is the way it goes in divided government. If the text of
the bill reflects the principles agreed to on Monday, it won't be a
perfect deal, but it will be a good deal.
I hope that our colleagues will complete the process of turning these
principles into legislation soon and final text that can become law
before this Friday's deadline.
We can't let any unrelated, cynical, partisan plays get in the way of
finishing this important process. I understand, for example, that
Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats are apparently objecting, believe it
or not, to a modest extension of the Violence Against Women Act. They
want this authority to expire on Friday.
Republicans believe that we should follow standard procedure and
extend
[[Page S1286]]
this important legislation through the end of the fiscal year, which is
about 7 months. There are new chairmen in this Congress of both the
Senate and House Judiciary Committees, and a modest extension of this
authority would allow them to work on a longer term reauthorization of
this important law. In addition, a modest extension of this law is
consistent with how this matter has been handled in the past. Every
time a continuing resolution was necessary in the past Congress,
Republicans made sure it included an extension of VAWA.
I don't know what cynical ploy my Democratic colleagues may be trying
to pull here, but surely no political maneuvering should be worth
letting the Violence Against Women Act lapse this Friday, 2 days from
now. It is time to get this done.
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