[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.
____________________