[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 134 (Thursday, December 7, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11419-S11422]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           A TERRIBLE LEGACY

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am here because families across this 
country are going to be hurt because this Republican Congress has not 
done its job. We have all heard that this session of Congress is a do-
nothing Congress. It has earned that title. But there is one thing 
everybody ought to understand. When Congress doesn't do its job, it 
makes it harder for all Americans to do their jobs, whether it is 
teaching our children or providing health care or improving 
transportation or making our communities safer.
  This may seem like a debate over process, but it affects you. If you 
fly on an airplane and are concerned about your safety, it affects you. 
If you drive on a highway and are concerned about traffic congestion, 
this affects you. If you want our Government to stop the flow of money 
to terrorist organizations, this affects you.
  Today I want to share with the Senate a few examples of how it is 
going to hurt because the Senate Republican leadership has not done its 
job. I want to point out how it is going to hurt the priorities in my 
State of Washington, from their fight against drugs and gangs to the 
cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. This Republican Congress's 
failure is going to make it harder for all of us to do our jobs next 
year, and that is a terrible legacy for the Republican leadership to 
leave our country.
  Every year Congress has to pass its annual spending bills. They fund 
our Government. We work very hard on those bills. We craft them so they 
meet the needs that our constituents tell us about, on everything from 
health care to transportation to education. Sometimes it takes a while 
to finish those bills, but we get them done. Then the country is able 
to move forward. This year it has been very different. We did our work 
on the Appropriations Committee, but then the Senate Republican 
leadership blocked our progress. I serve on that Appropriations 
Committee. We did our job on time in a bipartisan manner back in July, 
under the leadership of Senators Cochran and Byrd. We completed work on 
11 appropriations bills and sent them to the Senate floor.

  Here is what is impressive. Every single Senator on the committee 
voted to report each and every bill. But since then, the Senate 
Republican leadership blocked our progress. They decided to only let 3 
of those 11 bills move forward. Those bills cover extremely important 
functions--defense, homeland security, and military construction--but 
they are just 3 of the 11 bills. What about the needs of our 
communities? What about the needs of our schools

[[Page S11420]]

and colleges and universities? What about the support of health 
research or investing in infrastructure or meeting the needs of our 
farmers or ranchers or law enforcement? Those are critical needs. The 
Senate Republican leadership decided this past summer that they could 
go on the back burner.
  Never in my 14 years in the Senate have we started a new fiscal year 
with so little progress in the Senate in passing the appropriations 
bills and funding the critical functions of Government. Nine weeks ago 
we entered a new fiscal year. I came to the floor at the time to 
complain about the unfinished business of the Senate and expressed my 
disappointment that we were recessing for the elections without moving 
these bills. I always thought we would come back and the Republican 
leadership would finish its work this session. But they have made a 
different choice. It is now December 7. We have not seen one additional 
funding bill clear the Senate. And we are now hearing talk that the 
Republican leadership may formally adjourn the Senate by the end of 
this week, with most of the 11 appropriations bills never being sent to 
the President.
  I think it is worth remembering that when this happened last time, 
there was a major shift of power back in November of 2002. I was 
serving at the time as chair of the Transportation Appropriations 
Subcommittee. After the election, just as now, the appropriations 
process was not complete. But Democrats still worked to fulfill our 
responsibility by moving bills on the floor and sending them to 
conference. Unfortunately, we were blocked from completing our job. The 
Republican leadership that was due to come into the majority in January 
of 2003 prohibited us from moving those bills forward. They decided 
they wanted to complete the appropriations process when they were in 
control.
  This year Democrats are taking a different approach. We should 
complete the appropriations process now, because it is important to 
America's families and communities. We are already 2 months into this 
fiscal year. The American people are paying a price for these delays. 
Democrats are willing to complete this process now, even under 
Republican control, because we believe the American people have waited 
long enough. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership didn't get the 
message. Now American families are going to pay the price of this 
negligence.
  Some Senators have been suggesting that we simply pass a continuing 
resolution for the next entire fiscal year and everything will be fine, 
claiming there is no real difference between passing these bills we 
have worked so hard to put together and putting Government on auto 
pilot for a full year. There is a big difference. This country will pay 
a price under that scenario for airline safety.
  Under a full year's CR, my colleagues should know we will only be 
able to hire half of the air traffic controllers we need, and we will 
not be able to hire the air traffic safety inspectors who are 
desperately needed. We are going to pay a price in highway safety 
because we are not going to be able to reverse the recent increase in 
traffic fatalities. We are going to pay a price in the fight against 
terrorism, because we are not going to be able to fund the Treasury 
Department's efforts to stop terrorist financing. And we are going to 
pay a price in educating our kids and improving our communities and 
training our workforce. Everywhere you look, we will pay a price if we 
fail to do our job.
  The Republican mismanagement will hurt my State of Washington, from 
the fight against drugs and gangs to the cleanup effort at the Hanford 
Nuclear Reservation. If you sit down with law enforcement officers in 
my home State, as I have, they will tell you they are facing a 
methamphetamine epidemic. It is destroying families and communities, 
and law enforcement needs help to deal with it. Over the past few years 
I have worked to provide funding each year for the Washington State 
meth initiative. It is a coordinated Statewide effort that focuses on 
cleanup, treatment, prevention, and law enforcement, and it is a great 
model for other States. Again, this year in the Senate bill, I got a 
commitment to support my State's meth initiative. But now this funding 
is going to be delayed and put in jeopardy because Senate Republicans 
have refused to do their job and pass the Commerce-Justice-State 
spending bill. Because Republican Senators are not going to do their 
job, they are going to make it harder for police in my State to do 
their job, and that is wrong.
  This failure to act will also delay and put at risk support for an 
antigang program in Yakima Valley. Back on October 16, I was in Yakima 
at the police department for a meeting with two dozen local officials, 
law enforcement, and prosecutors. They told me about the tremendous 
challenges they were facing, and the top issues on their list were meth 
and gangs. I heard their message, and I have fought for a commitment in 
the Senate to support a community-based gang task force. That funding 
is needed immediately. Now I have to go back to Yakima and tell those 
hard-working leaders that the funding I got was delayed and put at risk 
because Republicans don't want to do their jobs and pass the annual 
spending bills. People in my State deserve better than that.
  Let me offer another example of how the Republicans' failure to do 
their jobs is hurting my State. Our Government has an obligation to 
clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland, WA. As I speak, 
that community is working hard to clean up nuclear waste, protect the 
community, and the environment. Here in the Senate I have fought for 
the funding we need to keep that cleanup moving forward. But now the 
Republicans are refusing to move the Energy and water bill. As a 
result, funding for Hanford cleanup is going to be delayed. That means 
it is going to take longer, and it will cost more money. The Republican 
leadership is going to have to explain to the people I represent in the 
Tri-Cities and throughout my State why Hanford funding is being 
delayed. They are going to have to answer for their failure to act on 
these and other priorities.
  It doesn't have to be this way. Rather than spending the month of 
July and September debating unrelated bills for political reasons, we 
could have been debating these appropriations bills that are critically 
needed for our Nation's safety and security.
  We could have been fighting for the people we represent. We could 
have been meeting their basic needs and protecting their livelihoods 
and ensuring their safety. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership 
said ``no,'' and now our families are going to pay a price.
  I think this Senate deserves better, but more important, the people 
we represent deserve a lot better.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Isakson). The Senator from Maryland is 
recognized.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I want to compliment the Senator from 
Washington State for commenting on the law enforcement aspects that are 
going to be lost under the way we are proceeding because she is 
absolutely right. I say to the Senator before she leaves the floor, 
that is in the Commerce, Justice, Science Committee, on which I am 
currently ranking member. We worked on a bipartisan basis--Senator 
Shelby and I--to produce the bill that would have given the financial 
tools to local enforcement to fight the meth epidemic, the gangs that 
are coming, all with the most grim and ghoulish approaches in our local 
communities.
  But we are saying, you know what, we are cutting and running. So we 
are cutting their budget, and we are running out of here. That phrase 
``cut and run'' has been used so cavalierly, but I am telling you that 
is exactly what we are doing now. We are cutting and running from our 
responsibility to fund the programs that meet compelling human needs in 
our own States, in our own country, as well as those things that help 
with the national security, such as funding the FBI and to the security 
in our own communities. We are talking about meth and gangs, but I know 
the Senator feels as strongly as I do about sexual predators. We worked 
with Mr. Gonzales, the Attorney General, in terms of a very good 
antisexual predator approach, with listing and watch lists and those 
things that, again, empower the local law enforcement. We have a 
program that helps sheriffs.
  So if we want to bring in the posse, we have to bring in the bucks. 
What I like about the sheriff initiative is it is in every community, 
not only urban

[[Page S11421]]

areas but also out in the rural areas. But, oh, no, we have to get 
home. Well, I think we have abdicated our responsibility. I thank the 
Senator for what she has said.
  Mr. President, we are abdicating our responsibility, and in 
abdicating our responsibility to pass the outstanding appropriations 
bills, we are having a very dire impact on our own country. Of the 12 
appropriations bills, only 2 have passed. One is Defense and one is 
Homeland Security. I am so glad that we did pass those and we did them 
in a responsible way and in a timely manner. But one can say, then, we 
met our national security responsibilities. Well, not the way this 
Senator sees it. The national responsibility for national security also 
comes to our own FBI, comes to local law enforcement, comes to our U.S. 
Attorney's Offices, and we are walking away from this.
  The voters have said they want us to change the tone and they want us 
to change the tempo. I can honestly say that working in Commerce, 
Justice, Science Appropriations, we have had an outstanding tone. I 
compliment my current chairman, Senator Shelby from Alabama. Gosh, we 
worked so well in producing our appropriations bill. The Senator from 
Alabama made sure I was consulted, along with my staff. We worked on 
the compelling needs that must be funded but in a fiscally responsible 
way. That subcommittee doesn't need to change the tone, but, wow, do we 
need to change the tempo. Not because of what Shelby and Mikulski did. 
We did our bill; we finished it. We have moved it out of the committee. 
It is now ready to go to the Senate floor. We did it on a bipartisan 
basis, and we feel confident, each of us and our members, of the bill 
we produced. So we are ready to go. We are similar to a plane circling 
the airport, but we are running out of fuel.
  I am concerned particularly about those programs affecting the FBI 
and Federal law enforcement agencies, as well as the locals. The FBI to 
the sheriffs are going to be shortchanged, resulting in, I think, very 
serious consequences. We use budget-speak, Senate-speak with words such 
as ``CR'' and ``omnibus,'' but whatever we are talking about, the fact 
is we are not finishing our job, when we could have done it if there 
was a willingness from both the House and the Republican leadership to 
move these bills. Many of them have been worked out--again, on a 
bipartisan basis.
  I come to you today with my great concern about the global war 
against terrorism. I am a member of the Intelligence Committee, I am on 
the Appropriations Committee and I am also a member of Defense 
Appropriations, Homeland Security and also currently ranking--and soon 
to be chair--of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and 
Related Agencies that funds particularly the FBI. I live, along with my 
constituents, in the national capital region. We are a high-risk area. 
So we are committed to national security--whether it is the Port of 
Baltimore or whether it is Bethesda, whether it is the Naval Academy 
and looking out for them, but we need these resources. Sure, we need to 
fund defense and homeland security, but don't we need to fund the FBI? 
The CIA can spy around the world, but ultimately any information to 
come back and protect us against predators here comes through the FBI. 
The National Security Agency--hopefully, completely within the law with 
reforms that need to be made--can pull out these ``cyber snitches,'' 
with the Internet, that is going on somewhere in the Middle East and 
prevent those attacks. We are proud of what they did in working with 
our British counterparts in London. No matter what happens over there, 
when it comes back here, the FBI needs to protect us. But, oh, no, we 
have to get home. That is what I mean about cutting and running. We are 
cutting and running.
  When we do what we are about to do soon, the FBI will be short $100 
million. What does that mean? Well, it means that the FBI will not be 
able to maintain the operations tempo that they have achieved since 
September 11. It means that they will not be able to hire and keep the 
agents that they have, including the important linguists. We have had 
to recruit people who can speak Farsi and a whole variety of other 
languages that are not well known and available in our universities. 
But Director Miller went out and found them. They are ready to go. They 
are already being trained. But we are saying: Oh, no, we cannot hire 
you now because the Congress had to go home. They have to cut and they 
have to run. Let me tell you, linguists, even though the private sector 
will hire you for more money, at an easier lifestyle, we know you were 
ready to join the FBI, but we have to go fa-la-la, fa-la-la somewhere. 
This is outrageous.
  That is the basic kind of thing that will directly impact on our 
ability to fight terrorism here at home. It is what we said during the 
9/11 Commission about the famous watch list and emerging technology. We 
have been working on the integration of the fingerprint systems between 
the FBI, DHS, and also Immigration, to make sure that we truly are 
stopping the people we need to stop who are trying to get into this 
country. But, oh, no, we are going to delay that and other 
technological improvements that the FBI so desperately needs. We are 
shortchanging the FBI.

  Then, when we look at the global war against terrorism and how it is 
acted out in our own communities, I salute the U.S. Attorney's Office. 
For them, this CR and this cutting and running we are doing will 
essentially mean that the U.S. attorneys will be again shortchanged. In 
my own State, they run something called the Joint Terrorism Task Force. 
It is the U.S. attorney who gets all of the stakeholders in the same 
room, providing important legal guidance to all of the police chiefs, 
certainly, in the Baltimore area, and those involved in port security 
and local law enforcement. The people from the Governor's office run 
that. Whether it is in the national Capitol region, that we are in, or 
L.A. or New York, our U.S. attorneys run these forces. The local people 
love it, and they are part of the global war against terrorism because 
we don't have enough FBI agents, but with enough cops on the beat, we 
can do that. So we are shortchanging the U.S. Attorney's Office.
  Let's go to the Bureau of Prisons. We are going to lose correctional 
officers. We might say that they are just thugs anyway. Let's talk 
about those ``just thugs anyway.'' Right this minute, we are very 
concerned and have significant flashing yellow lights about the fact 
that right now in our Federal prisons there could be underground 
recruitment efforts going on to recruit people for terrorism or for 
these Latin American gangs, such as M-13. Talk to the head of the 
Bureau of Prisons and to the Attorney General. We have to stand 
centrally with own Federal prisons that we do not become the incubators 
not only of thugs but of terrorists and terrorizing gangs in our local 
communities.
  When I talk about grim and ghoulish, I am going to use an example 
that is difficult to bring to the Senate floor. In my own State, there 
was a gang attack, where they cut off the arms and legs of a victim, 
using a machete. I could describe more ghoulish things, but I will not 
offend civilized people to give those examples.
  We have to get serious. Are we going to fight the global war against 
terrorism or are we going to cut and run from the appropriations? Are 
we going to stand up for our FBI or cut and run from our duty? Are we 
going to stand up for Federal law enforcement, such as the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who are working here and 
helped us catch the snipers and are working over there so we can deal 
with the IEDs that are killing our troops? Are we going to stand up for 
the DEA that is fighting drugs on the street corners of our communities 
and dealing with the drug problems in Afghanistan, with Mr. Karzai, 
that is now funding the Taliban? Oh, no, we have to cut and run.
  Well, I am opposed to this strategy. I oppose this do-nothing 
Congress. We could do the job. I worked with my Republican colleague 
and, I must say, he worked with me. We don't have to worry about 
changing the tone, but we sure have to change the tempo. That is why 
the voters made a change in the Congress. So we are going to have to 
swallow this, but I will tell you that they can count on Barb Mikulski 
not to cut and run from her duty, her responsibility in fighting the 
global war against terrorism and the thugs and bums on our streets in 
America.

[[Page S11422]]

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may speak 
as in morning business for up to 15 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.