[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

[[Page S6600]]

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.

[[Page S6601]]

  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.

                          ____________________