[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 30, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S6601]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, first, I should note how much I agree 
with the senior Senator from New Hampshire and her comments about the 
appropriations process. I mentioned on the floor yesterday that in the 
Appropriations Committee, we reported 12 bills, including the State and 
foreign operations bill. It passed, 30 to 0. It and the other bills 
have now been put on a shelf to collect dust by the House Republican 
leadership. We will probably never get a chance to vote on them. By 
doing so, by deciding to put the government on autopilot and drafting 
another continuing resolution instead, they will reduce by almost $500 
million the amount that the Senate provided for fiscal year 2017 for 
the security of our diplomats and embassies abroad. It is very similar 
to what the House did when they refused to support the Senate's higher 
amount for embassy security prior to the Benghazi attack. They didn't 
want to admit it, as they spent tens of millions of dollars of 
taxpayers' money investigating the lack of security in Benghazi, 
blaming everyone but themselves. It will be interesting to see if they 
acknowledge that they are again cutting funds for embassy security.

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