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[Pages S5485-S5486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
APPROPRIATIONS
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on another matter, when the Senate
returned last week, we anticipated our top priority would be conducting
the appropriations process and avoiding a lapse in government funding.
We had a clear roadmap, a bipartisan, bicameral agreement negotiated by
the President's team and the Speaker of the House. It set top-line
funding targets for both defense and nondefense, and it laid out ground
rules to protect the process from partisan politics.
There has actually been reason for optimism. This week, we hope to
move to the House-passed bills for Defense, Energy and Water, Labor-
HHS, and State and Foreign Ops. This would be our first procedural step
to getting the process moving for all of our priorities on both sides.
There is nothing controversial about this particular grouping of
bills. In fact, it was Speaker Pelosi who combined this grouping of
bills to move first. Furthermore, if any of the funding measures were
going to be handled earnestly across party lines, surely it
[[Page S5486]]
ought to be the bill funding the Department of Defense. Our fundamental
obligation is to provide for the common defense of our country, and all
Members feel our responsibility to keep the Nation safe.
Fortunately, the caps agreement specifically allows us to increase
defense funding to meet the growing threats our Nation faces. Yet here
is where we are: One week in, our Democratic colleagues tried to
stonewall the defense funding bill in committee and are now indicating
they may even filibuster a motion to begin considering the House-passed
defense funding bill later this week.
There is only one way to read this. Some of our Democratic colleagues
have determined they would rather stage a political fight with
President Trump than secure the resources that our uniformed commanders
urgently need to do their jobs. National security is taking a back seat
to partisan politics.
Let's be absolutely clear about the concerns and the priorities that
our Democratic friends are de-prioritizing. The defense spending
measure would bolster efforts to modernize our forces and build the
U.S. military of the future. Russia is actively modernizing its own
forces, just as we have seen the Putin regime step up its brazen steps
to exert its destabilizing influence well beyond its borders. In China,
the last decade has seen military spending nearly double. Our regional
partners continue to feel the tightening grip of the Chinese Communist
Party on trade and strategic activity throughout the Indo-Pacific
region while the technological ripples of Chinese cyber meddling are
felt right here at home.
In the face of surging great-power adversaries, simple upkeep is not
enough to keep America and our allies safe from aggression.
Comprehensive funding for research, development, and readiness programs
is what is needed. In Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and beyond,
we continue to face sustained threats from terrorist organizations. In
the Middle East, we have seen how Iran's bid for regional hegemony and
its investment in terror, missiles, and cyber activities threaten the
United States, our allies and partners, key shipping lanes, and global
energy markets.
This bipartisan Defense bill would help us to adapt to meet these new
threats while ensuring our commanders can prosecute existing operations
without being consumed by the instability of short-term continuing
resolutions. Yet our Democratic colleagues would rather provoke a
partisan feud with the President. They would rather have a fight with
the President than stick to the agreement we all made. At least that is
where we are as of the moment.
I remain hopeful that my friends on the Democratic side will join us
in honoring the terms of the agreement that has been struck by the
President and the Speaker and help us to reboot a bipartisan funding
process. The readiness and modernization of America's military and the
safety of the American people should not play second fiddle to our
Democratic colleagues' political strategy.
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