[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 83 (Wednesday, May 25, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3130-S3131]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION AND DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, over the next few weeks, the Senate will be 
voting on both the Defense authorization and Defense appropriations 
bills, these two very important pieces of legislation. We need to take 
the time to understand them and, of course, to read these bills and 
make sure we are doing the right thing. Just reading the Defense 
authorization bill is not going to be an hour-long deal. It is not 
going to be done watching a ball game or watching television programs. 
Why? It is a very big piece of legislation. This is it. Try reading 
that between innings--1,664 pages.

  Chairman McCain may have read this. He may understand every line in 
it. He would have a better chance than most of us because he is the one 
who conducted the hearings behind closed doors--secret sessions. Few 
outside the committee probably know what is in this monstrous bill, 
this big bill.
  Even though the chairman came here on Monday and started complaining 
about this legislation, if you want to get an idea how the bill was 
hastily put together, consider this. The bill was put together behind 
closed doors. At 5 p.m. last night, Senator McCain's committee voted on 
the classified annex to the Defense authorization bill. He had been 
ranting and raving about Democrats holding up this bill. That is what 
the Republican leader did here today. He didn't rant and rave, but he 
did say we are holding it up. But the committee hadn't finished its 
work as of last night. The bill wasn't done. They just finished it last 
night at 5 p.m. Unfortunately, it appears that this massive bill is 
everything Senator McCain has in the past complained about. He says he 
hated what has gone on in the past.
  This bill is loaded with special projects--loaded with them--
sprinkled with special favors and many different flavors. It has 
extraneous provisions, and who knows what else. If there were ever 
anything that could be identified as an earmark or two or three or four 
or a few hundred, it is in this bill. I thought Senator McCain didn't 
like that. I can understand why some would want to rush this bill 
through the Senate without a lot of public scrutiny, but we are not 
going to do that. This legislation is far too important.

[[Page S3131]]

  I started reading a book last night called ``Red Platoon.'' It is a 
brand-new book written by a man who won a Medal of Honor. It talks 
about a remote outpost in Afghanistan. We know what sacrifices the Red 
Platoon and the men and women who fought in the new wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan made. So we know they deserve better than just rushing 
through this bill. Hard-working American taxpayers deserve better.
  The one thing we can all agree on is that Americans must have a 
strong, strong military with the capability to defend America's 
national security interests around the world and to protect us here at 
home. There is no dispute about that.
  Democrats believe that we must take care of our middle class also. We 
must know that the security of all Americans depends not only on the 
Pentagon--on bombs and bullets--but also on other national security 
interests--the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Drug 
Enforcement Administration, and the help that comes through this 
legislation to local police departments and first responders. That is 
why we fought so hard as Democrats last year to stop the devastating 
cuts from sequestration, which was generated by the Republicans and 
which would have been a disaster for the military, our national 
security, and millions of middle-class Americans.
  We need a bipartisan budget agreement. We reached that, and it is 
commendable that the Republican leader said we want to stick with that. 
Well, we need to stick with it because that bipartisan budget agreement 
was based on the principle that we need to treat the middle class as 
fairly as the Pentagon. That agreement was intended to avoid another 
budget fight this year, but it doesn't appear that is possible.
  I was pleased that my Republican friends stuck to this budget 
agreement in the committee with both authorization and appropriations. 
But we have been told--and told publicly--that they intend to break the 
bipartisan budget agreement and propose $18 billion increases only for 
the Pentagon. This money is going to come from a strange source. It is 
going to come from the military itself.
  I had the good fortune of meeting with the Secretary of Defense last 
Thursday. To use the so-called OCO moneys--they are used for 
warfighting, and that is why they are put in there--to take this and 
use it for some other source or some other purpose is wrong.
  My friend talks about how the military supports this legislation. Of 
course they do. But they don't support what Chairman McCain is going to 
try to do. In the process, we need only to look at what else is going 
on with the Republican Senate. They refuse to provide money to fight 
the Zika virus, to stop the terrible situation regarding opioid drugs. 
The people of Flint, MI, are still waiting for help. We need funding 
for local law enforcement, which has not been forthcoming, and for the 
intelligence agencies and our first responders. It is wrong not to take 
care of these folks.
  We reached an agreement last year. Now both sides need to keep our 
promises and the agreement for the American people. We must treat the 
middle class fairly. Make no mistake, as the appropriations process 
moves forward, we are going to insist on that.
  I will support cloture on the motion to proceed to the Defense 
authorization bill today, even though in 2010 my friend, the chairman 
of the committee, voted with other Republicans to stop moving forward 
on the Defense bill. But Democrats are willing to proceed deliberately. 
We are going to hold Republicans to their word on the budget agreement. 
We are going to do our jobs, as we want them to do theirs. Our Armed 
Forces and middle-class Americans deserve nothing less.

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