[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 30, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6599-S6601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONTINUING RESOLUTION
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I came to the floor this afternoon to
talk about our failure, once again, to go through a regular
appropriations process. I share what I know is a disappointment on the
part of many of our colleagues that this Congress is choosing, once
again, to disregard the regular appropriations process and resort to a
short-term continuing resolution.
This will have serious negative impacts on our country's national
security and on the economy. As ranking member on the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Homeland Security, I applaud the chair of that
subcommittee, Senator Hoeven, who was just on the floor, for the
bipartisan work that has gone on. But as I look at the potential impact
on homeland security, our failure to get an appropriations bill will
have serious negative consequences for
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our Nation's emergency preparedness, for our transportation security,
and for cyber security, just to name a few.
Closer to home in our local communities, it will hurt law enforcement
as well as efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. At the beginning of
this 114th Congress, the majority leader pledged to return the Senate
to regular order. Now, translated into simple English for people who
may be watching, regular order means doing our job and doing it the
right way when it comes to the budget process.
It means meeting our Constitutional responsibility to produce an
annual appropriations bill for the American people--legislation that
will allow government at all levels and people from all walks of life
to plan, to invest, to build, and to move our Nation forward. But
instead, we are again being presented with an inadequate short-term
stopgap bill, a continuing resolution that does not get the job done
for the American people.
I applaud the Appropriations Committee chair, Senator Cochran, and
our vice chair, Senator Mikulski, and the great work that has been done
by all of the members of the Appropriations Committee. Senators Cochran
and Mikulski have led the committee in a diligent good-faith effort to
craft appropriations bills that meet our Nation's current needs and
challenges, but unfortunately all those efforts will now be cast aside.
As Vice Chair Mikulski said yesterday, Republican leaders have
decided to ``procrastinate rather than legislate.'' This has brought us
to the final days of the 114th Congress with no regular order and no
annual appropriations bills. This has very serious consequences
nationally as well as in our States and local communities. For example,
just on homeland security, over the last year the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Homeland Security has crafted a bipartisan bill to ramp
up emergency preparedness at the local level to meet the rising threat
of cyber attacks and to address challenges in transportation security,
including at our airports. All of these improvements and gains will be
lost for the time of the continuing resolution.
Over the last year, we have seen terrorist attacks in San Bernardino,
Orlando, and sadly, just this last week, in Columbus, OH. Yet, because
of the continuing resolution, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
will be unable to award more than $2 billion in homeland security
preparedness grants to State and local governments. These are grants
that allow States and local communities to plan and to practice their
emergency response before disasters happen. That is how we cut response
time, and that is how we save lives, but because of Congress's failure
to do our jobs and pass annual appropriations bills, these preparedness
grants will not be able to go forward.
Another area that is a critical national priority is cyber security.
Last year Federal agencies reported more than 77,000 cyber security
incidents. Local businesses that own and operate much of the
infrastructure, from banks to sewage systems, are under greater threat
of cyber attack. Late last month hackers attacked the New Hampshire-
based company of Dyn, which is part of the backbone of the Internet.
This attack on Dyn took down large swathes of Internet all across the
globe. Dyn responded admirably to the attack, but there will be more
and more sophisticated attacks in the future. To address these
challenges, our appropriations bill in Homeland Security tripled the
number of Federal cyber security advisers, and it increased cyber
security funds to harden systems in Federal agencies. But, again,
because of the continuing resolution, all of these advances will be put
on hold for the duration of the CR.
Of course, our Nation faces ongoing challenges in transportation
security. To address increasing airline passenger volume and long
security wait times, we have added nearly 1,400 transportation security
officers, converted about 3,000 part-time officers to full-time status,
funded 50 new bomb-sniffing K-9 teams, and added new screening
equipment. To sustain these efforts through fiscal year 2017, the
Transportation Security Administration needs a funding increase, but
under the continuing resolution, these funds will not be available.
This increases the prospect of staffing shortfalls, and it means that
more and more Americans will be standing in long lines, angry and
frustrated at airports across this country.
The damage done by the continuing resolution will be felt in each of
our States and in communities all across America. This week I heard
from the executive director of New Hampshire's Coalition Against
Domestic and Sexual Violence, Lyn Schollett. She and her colleagues
across New Hampshire are very troubled by the prospect of the
continuing resolution. She told me that crisis centers, which are
critical to help victims of domestic violence, will be stretched. They
will have unpredictability that will make it even harder for programs
to train and retain competent staff. It will affect their ability to
serve victims of domestic violence across New Hampshire.
As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I am also very aware--as
so many of us on that committee are--of the harmful effect of
continuing resolutions on our military. Just yesterday I joined with
other members of the Senate Navy Caucus to hear from the Chief of Naval
Operations, ADM John Richardson. He pointed out that the Navy and all
the other services have lived with 9 years of continuing resolutions. I
want to say that again. Nine years of continuing resolutions. Nine
years of not being able to count on a budget process that would allow
them to plan. He talked about how this chronic budget chaos has been
very costly. He said that military planners now operate from the
assumption that there will be a CR and that any planning for the first
quarter of the fiscal year is rendered unreliable. Year after year,
this has resulted in project delays, multiple contracting actions for
the same work, and it winds up costing more. It winds up costing the
taxpayers more, it winds up costing our military more, and it winds up
having an impact on all of the missions we have asked our men and women
in uniform to take on.
During the current continuing resolution period running through
December 9, the Navy had planned to award $24 billion in research and
development contracts, but now, because of the CR, it will award only
$16 billion in contracts. In my home State of New Hampshire, the CR
limits the ability of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard--one of the four
premier public shipyards in the country--to award contracts for
critical infrastructure projects. This can interfere with submarine
maintenance schedules, which then impacts the readiness of the
submarine fleet. Again, I think it is important to point out that this
costs us more. It doesn't save money to have a continuing resolution.
That is a whole misunderstanding on the part of some people. It costs
more.
Every Senator understands that our failure to pass a full-year
appropriations bill for fiscal year 2017 will do serious harm to people
in communities all across America. As I just said, as we have seen in
past years, it is going to cost us more money.
The Constitution vests in Congress the profound responsibility to
appropriate funds to meet the Nation's needs. We have a duty to do so
in a timely and responsible manner.
I appreciate--I understand, based on news reports, that the reason we
are going to a short-term continuing resolution is because the incoming
administration says they want to put a stamp on government spending.
Well, that is not the way the process is supposed to work. In future
fiscal years, there will be the opportunity for the new administration
to put their imprint on government spending. They will have a lot to do
in the coming months of the new administration with the nominees and
the process of vetting and approval of nominees and with new
legislation. Why set up a budget battle 3 months into the new
administration when we don't need to, when we have appropriations bills
that have been through committee, in most cases have been agreed to by
House and Senate negotiators, and we could move forward with that
process, just as leadership of this body has committed to do?
At the beginning of this Congress, the Senate's Republican leaders
pledged to restore regular order to the appropriations process.
Instead, once again we are presented with a short-term stop-gap funding
bill that shortchanges critical national needs and priorities. I
believe the American people deserve better.
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Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I see the distinguished Senator from
Arkansas on the floor. I suggest we go to him next, but I ask unanimous
consent that I be recognized when he finishes his comments.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Arkansas.
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