[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 29 (Thursday, February 28, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1006-S1007]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           DOD APPROPRIATIONS

  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I rise to discuss an amendment I have 
filed to the bills dealing with sequestration. I am pleased that 
Senator King has joined me as a cosponsor.
  Our amendment is the fiscal year 2013 Department of Defense 
appropriations bill that was approved by the Senate Appropriations 
Committee by a bipartisan vote of 30 to 0 on August 2, 2012.
  There is no doubt we must find a way to avoid the meat-ax approach to 
budgeting that will occur under sequestration.
  At the same time, we must recognize that a continuing resolution also 
presents real challenges for those trying to carry out the necessary 
functions of the Federal Government, including providing for the 
national defense. Continuing resolutions have become far too routine. 
This familiarity, however, should not blind us from the harm these 
stop-gap measures cause to the effective and efficient functioning of 
government.
  A yearlong continuing resolution would be just as devastating as 
sequestration. I am not alone in that judgment. After a New York Times 
editorial that claimed the Pentagon can easily absorb the cuts of 
sequestration, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter wrote the 
following in a letter published on February 27, 2013:

       Good management is undermined by sequestration and by 
     something that your editorial does not mention but that is as 
     much of a problem--the fact that we have no new 
     appropriations bills and are living under last year's law. 
     These two factors together lead to dangerous absurdities like 
     having to curtail soldiers' training, ships' sailing, and 
     airplanes' flying. Our military will therefore not be fully 
     ready to meet contingencies other than Afghanistan.

  Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the service chiefs have also 
repeatedly warned that the effects of sequestration or a yearlong 
continuing resolution will be devastating to our national security and 
defense industrial base.
  On January 14, 2013, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and 
the heads of each military service signed a letter warning that ``the 
readiness of our Armed Forces is at a tipping point'' and the unfolding 
budget conditions, including the continuing resolution, are causing 
this readiness crisis.
  Regardless of what happens with sequestration, a continuing 
resolution presents two major problems.
  First, the readiness of our military will be put at risk unless the 
Department of Defense is able to transfer funds from investment 
accounts into readiness accounts. Under the continuing resolution, the 
Department cannot do this. That is why the letter signed by seven four-
star generals said the current budget uncertainty will ``inevitably 
lead to a hollow force.''
  Second, a yearlong continuing resolution prevents the Pentagon from 
performing three responsibilities crucial for national security: 
increasing production rates for existing weapons, starting new programs 
not previously funded the year before, and signing multiyear 
procurement contracts that provide significant savings while reducing 
the unit cost for taxpayers.
  There are several examples of these multiyear procurement contracts 
that cannot move forward without an appropriations bill. For example, 
Congress authorized the Navy to procure 10 destroyers during the next 5 
years in the Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. The 
Navy has the bids for these ships in hand and the Navy is

[[Page S1007]]

ready to sign, but the Navy cannot sign these contracts without an 
appropriations bill. We risk throwing away savings on the order of 
hundreds of millions of dollars if we do not enact the fiscal year 2013 
appropriations bill.
  The ramifications of inaction on a full-year appropriations bill are 
not limited to the 6 months remaining in this fiscal year. Failing to 
enact a full-year appropriations bill that allows new starts and cost-
saving multiyear procurement contracts will jeopardize the long-term 
stability in the shipbuilding industrial base that the Congress and the 
Navy have worked long and hard to preserve.
  When I questioned Deputy Secretary Carter on February 14, 2013, at a 
Senate Appropriations Committee hearing about what the continuing 
resolution means for shipbuilding, he testified that ``we're in the 
absurd position where we're five months into the fiscal year and we 
have the authority to build the ships that we built last year and no 
authority to build the ships that we plan to build this year. That's 
crazy. . . And that has nothing to do with sequester, by the way, 
that's the C.R.''
  The existing continuing resolution expires on March 27. That deadline 
is just 4 weeks away, but each week that passes puts our military 
increasingly at risk and makes it less prepared.
  I know the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its 
ranking member, Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby, share my concern 
that continuing resolutions are not the way to govern. I am also 
encouraged about reports that the House of Representatives may consider 
a bill next week which includes a full-year defense and a full-year 
veterans affairs and military construction budget.
  At least as far back as 1974, Congress has never failed to pass a 
Department of Defense appropriations bill. Now is not the time, with 
troops in the field and the looming threat of sequestration, to 
establish a dangerous precedent of denying our military services the 
support they need to accomplish the mission we have asked them to 
perform.
  This year's continuing resolution hurts our military readiness now 
and, even more, in the future.
  It is time to show the American people that we can act responsibly 
before the very last minute. The men and women who serve our country 
are performing every task we have asked of them. It is long overdue for 
the Congress to do the same, so I urge the Senate to act to replace the 
current CR with a full-year Department of Defense appropriations bill 
as our amendment would provide.

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