[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 89 (Thursday, June 4, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3733-S3734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SEQUESTRATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, every Senator wants to keep America safe, 
and that is why every Senator should be concerned about a particular 
threat to our national security. This threat to our national security 
is called sequestration. Sequestration puts in place drastic cuts to 
all funding, defense and nondefense.
  The Defense authorization bill that is before us today doesn't fix 
that--and that is a gross understatement. We should not start spending 
until we develop a bipartisan budget that does. That is the only 
responsible way to protect both our national security and America's 
middle class.
  Sequestration results from what happened 4 years ago with another 
threat of a government shutdown because the Republicans couldn't get 
their financial house in order.
  The Budget Control Act of 2011 passed. That act included a number of 
significant spending cuts and established a supercommittee led by 
Senator Murray and Congressman Hensarling from Texas to produce a 
balanced, bipartisan agreement for additional deficit reduction. 
Unfortunately, Republicans could never agree. There was a lot of this: 
Yes, we are almost there, we are almost there. But they could never 
pull the trigger and agree. There was a refusal to close a single tax 
loophole to reduce the deficit; not a single one could they agree on.
  So the supercommittee failed to reach an agreement, and the Budget 
Control Act triggered deep, automatic cuts.
  Sequestration was never intended to happen. The point was to threaten 
cuts so deep and so stupid that Congress would never let them happen. 
But never put that beyond this Republican group over the last 10 years 
and who are still here in Congress. They allowed this stupid thing to 
happen. The cuts affected both defense and nondefense programs so 
everyone would feel compelled to move it, because the cuts were equal.
  Unfortunately, what was stupid in 2011 is now official Republican 
policy. Congressional Republicans incorporated sequestration into their 
recent budget resolution. That resolution leaves sequestration cuts in 
place in parts of the budget that affect the middle class, and it also 
directly threatens national security. There are many examples of this.
  How does it affect the middle class? The list is really endless. It 
cuts investments in roads, bridges, rail, and transit. That costs 
jobs--lots and lots of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs. It puts 
travelers at risk, and it weakens our economy.
  Sequestration cuts education. That means fewer children with a shot 
at going to school. If they can't do that, they don't have a shot at 
success. It means fewer Americans who can afford college. That is the 
way it is. It means less economic opportunity for millions of 
Americans.
  Sequestration cuts research. That means fewer chances to beat cancer, 
heart disease, and Alzheimer's. As a result of sequestration, the 
National Institutes of Health, the premier medical research institution 
in the world, was whacked by sequestration to the tune of $1.6 billion. 
They have never, ever gotten that money back. It stopped the 
finalization work done on the universal flu vaccine. The list is 
endless as to what they can't do because of that money being lost.
  While sequestration is a dagger pointed at the middle class, it also 
represents a threat to our society in many different ways. It means 
fewer opportunities for American businesses and consumers to benefit 
from cutting edge innovations.
  Sequestration threatens cuts to the FBI, the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation. It means fewer FBI resources devoted to terrorists and 
hunting them down.
  Sequestration threatens cuts for the Transportation Security 
Administration, which helps protect us from another 9/11.
  Sequestration threatens cuts for fusion centers, which have worked so 
well--these centers help law enforcement officials work together--and 
for the Coast Guard and border security officials who protect Americans 
from dangers from abroad.
  These are cuts that are in place right now.
  The bill before us is designed to provide an end run around 
sequestration for the Department of Defense by exploiting a provision 
that exempts from spending caps what is called the overseas contingency 
operations, or OCO. We all know that OCO was put in the budget many 
years ago, and it was set there so we would have the money to fight 
wars. It is always very hard to determine how much wars are going to 
cost. We know that because we had to borrow almost $2 trillion for wars 
in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in Iraq.
  But the OCO gimmick does not solve the problem of sequestration, and 
that is true. I am disappointed that even Senators who long have had a 
reputation for fiscal honesty, such as the chairman of the Armed 
Services Committee, my friend, are turning a blind eye to the OCO 
gimmick. There has not been a word from people who have had a 
reputation for fiscal honesty--not a word--about this gimmick.
  The Department of Defense says it won't work. It is just a 1-year 
gimmick, and that will make it impossible for military leaders to 
prepare for threats we face in the future.
  The OCO gimmick does nothing for agencies that protect us here at 
home, such as, as I have indicated, the FBI and even the Department of 
Homeland Security. That leaves all Americans vulnerable to attacks if 
they don't get the resources they need.
  So until we reach a balanced, bipartisan agreement on the budget--an 
agreement that protects both national security and the middle class--
not a single spending bill will become law. If any bill reaches the 
President, he will veto it. He has said so publicly many times. He 
should. It is critical for the middle class, and it is the only way to 
be fiscally responsible. We ought to budget before we spend.
  Days after letting critical national security tools expire on their 
watch,

[[Page S3734]]

Republicans are showing yet another way they can't govern. Now we are 
wasting time on a bill that has no chance of becoming law--no chance. 
No troops will be helped by a bill that can't be signed into law by the 
President. Our military needs all the help they can get. They deserve 
it.
  If Republicans want to join us in supporting our troops, they should 
start taking their responsibility to govern seriously and work with us 
on a Defense bill that can actually become law to help those in our 
Armed Forces.
  Let's be straight. At the moment, we don't have a budget.
  Without the vote of a single Democrat, Republicans approved a 
nonbinding resolution with their own wish list. It means nothing. The 
budget means nothing. There was a lot of back-slapping here: Oh, it is 
a great budget; we are going to balance the budget. But everyone knows 
that is just a farce.
  Until both parties join together, the government does not have a 
budget to actually guide decisionmaking. We need one.
  This is not rocket science. After all, budgeting for the Federal 
Government is not all that different than budgeting for a family. If 
two spouses are trying to resolve differences over their own budget, 
would it be responsible for one spouse to go out and buy a new car on 
credit? We all know the answer to that--no. It is the same here in 
Washington. Shouldn't we agree on a budget first and spend later? That 
is not asking too much, I don't believe.
  We don't need political theater and meaningless votes on bills that 
are going nowhere. We don't need another manufactured crisis. We just 
need to sit down, get real, and fix sequestration in a way that 
protects both national security and the middle class. They go together.

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