December 10, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 197 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S6952-S6953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION

      By Mr. LANKFORD (for himself, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Johnson, 
        Mr. King, and Mr. Kaine):
  S. 3009. A bill to provide for a period of continuing appropriations 
in the event of a lapse in appropriations under the normal 
appropriations process, and establish procedures and consequences in 
the event of a failure to enact appropriations; read the first time.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, 2019 is almost over, but there is a lot 
that still has to be done on this floor.
  A lot of bills have moved through this year. In fact, we have had 78 
bills that have been signed into law so far this year.
  This year, as we worked through the process, we have had quite a few 
judges and nominations that the Senate has actually worked through. In 
fact, by the end of this week, we will have confirmed our 50th circuit 
court judge.
  There is a lot of engagement, but with a week and a half left on this 
floor, we still have issues like the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade 
Agreement. That agreement, which is called the USMCA, has been sitting 
over in the House for 14 months. It looks like the House is now going 
to take it up this week or next week after 14 months of its being 
there. We are pleased to see some movement there. We have to see the 
final implementing language on that.
  We hope to move the national defense authorization bill. That has 
been waiting for months and months and months under the capable 
leadership of Senator Inhofe, who is trying to negotiate with the House 
to get that done. Hopefully that will get done either this week or next 
week, but it is cramming into the end of the year.
  We have 12 appropriations bills that are still unfinished, and we 
face a deadline of December 20, or we will run into another government 
shutdown, which brings me to a bill that Senator Hassan and I are 
dropping today, something we have negotiated for months across party 
lines to be able to have a nonpartisan solution to how we can never 
ever again discuss government shutdowns.
  This past week when I was flying back to DC from home, on the plane 
as I was coming up, there was a Federal employee who caught me in the 
aisle of the plane and said: Hey, I hear you are working on stopping 
government shutdowns. Thank you.
  Her next comment surprised me, though. She said she has worked for a 
Federal agency for years, but she is retiring in January because she is 
so tired of constantly having to prepare for, get set for a government 
shutdown that may be pending in the days ahead. It has worn her out.
  Someone who has great wisdom and experience and is serving in one of 
our Federal agencies is retiring in January, and we will lose those 
years of experience because she is tired of dealing with shutdowns. I 
don't blame her, quite frankly, although I wish she wouldn't leave. I 
don't blame her because year after year we end up in this same 
conversation: Are we going to have another shutdown?
  It seems like every year, as we approach Christmas, Federal families 
across the country wonder if they are about to be furloughed and won't 
get a check soon.
  Federal agency leaders--those who are Senate confirmed all the way 
through the process of leadership--aren't spending their time on 
vision-setting and on oversight; they are spending their time in their 
office having to figure out what to do in case there is a government 
shutdown or working through the process of a continuing resolution 
because they only get funding a few days at a time.
  All of us know this is bad, but for years, we have discussed ending 
government shutdowns but have never done it. Senator Hassan and I have 
put together a nonpartisan bill that is a very straightforward approach 
that we bring to this body and to the House to say: Let's take 
government shutdowns off the table forever. Let's make this so that in 
the decades ahead, we will talk about the way back days long ago when 
we used to have government shutdowns. In this body now, we have had 21 
government shutdowns in the last 40 years. Let's talk about the days 
that used to happen but never happens again.
  We have a very straightforward, simple solution. Our simple solution 
is, if we get to the end of the funding cycle--at this point, it would 
be December 20--we will have an automatic continuing resolution that 
kicks in so that Federal families don't feel the effect of that across 
the country. They are not on furlough, but Members of Congress and our 
staff work 7 days a week. We have session here 7 days a week, and we 
can't move to bills other than appropriations for 30 days so that we 
are locked into settling the appropriations issue.
  The simple resolution is, if we get to the end of the fiscal year and 
our work is not done, we keep working until it is done. It is not that 
hard, but we have never made the commitment to each other that we will 
stay here and continue to work until it is done. What we have done 
instead is one of two things. We just punt a CR, a continuing 
resolution, for months at a time and say ``OK. Let's get back to this 
in 8

[[Page S6953]]

weeks,'' which is what we did before, and then before that, there was a 
4-week continuing resolution. So we just punt it out and say, ``We will 
keep going, and we will try to figure this out later,'' which puts a 
lot of chaos in agencies, or we do a government shutdown while we 
argue. We go home, and Federal workers are on furlough.
  Let's commit to each other that we will never do that again. We will 
never put Federal workers on furlough because we can't resolve our 
differences. Let's also commit to each other that when we get to the 
end of the fiscal year, we will resolve the problem right then. There 
is nothing different this week than there was 7 weeks ago when we first 
started a continuing resolution. There is nothing different about it 
other than we have just decided to go ahead and get it resolved.
  When we get to the end of the problem, this Congress needs a deadline 
to resolve it. Let's make it, and let's make it very simple and 
straightforward: We will stay at it until we solve it--that is our 
commitment--and we will hold Federal workers harmless through that 
process.
  Senator Hassan and I have worked on this for months. We have three 
Republicans and three Democrats as we are putting this in front of this 
body today. We have multiple folks who have already contacted us and 
said they want to be added as cosponsors as soon as we drop it.
  Well, today is the day we have introduced that bill, and we would 
welcome any of the 100 of us to join us in a nonpartisan bill to end 
government shutdowns forever. Let's keep working until we solve the 
problem.

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