[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 12, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3953-S3955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Getting Our Work Done

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, as we know, yesterday the majority leader 
announced that he plans to delay the start of the August recess by 2 
weeks. He stated that this delay is necessary in order to ``complete 
action on important legislative items and process nominees that have 
been stalled by a lack of cooperation from our friends on the other 
side of the aisle.'' Those are the majority leader's words.
  I have no problem with the leader's decision. I will happily stay 
here an additional 2 weeks. I will stay 3, 4, or even 5 weeks as long 
as we have a plan to address the serious issues that face this Nation.
  My friends, when the Senate completes its work this week, we will 
have considered a whopping total this entire week of three nominations, 
one of them being a noncontroversial district judge nominee on which 
the majority leader was forced to file cloture. That cloture vote was 
unanimous, 97 to 0. Yet we were still forced to burn postcloture time--
30 hours--before being allowed to vote earlier today on his 
confirmation--a vote that was again unanimous at 100 to 0. What? That 
is the way we are doing business in the Senate? I will repeat. The vote 
to stop debate was 97 to 0 after 30 hours. After we burned 30 hours, 
then we were allowed to vote earlier today--a vote that was again 
unanimous at 100 to 0. Why?
  We have a war on. We have men and women in harm's way. We have 
nominees stacked up, and so we are spending an entire week with three 
nominees. So with an incredible act of another chapter in ``Profiles in 
Courage,'' rather than say, OK, we will stay here

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Friday, we will stay here Saturday, we will stay here Sunday, but by 
God we are going to do the people's business--we are not doing the 
people's business.
  I can't go through all the machinations between the Democratic leader 
and our majority leader, and I can't go through all the tos and fros 
and all of that, but I am supposed to go back and speak to a high 
school civics class and say: I am happy to be here. I have had a very 
tough week this week in the Senate, my young friends who may want to be 
engaged in public service someday, and we voted on a district judge 97 
to 0. Thirty hours later, we were allowed to vote on his nomination, 
and the vote was 100 to 0.
  That is what the Senate is supposed to do? There was no reason why we 
needed to take 3 days on this nominee.
  I say to my friend the Democratic leader and I say to the Republican 
leader: This type of obstruction has gone on long enough, and it has to 
stop.
  As I said, I am happy to stay here for the entire August recess to do 
the work the American people sent us here to do, but we must first have 
a plan of what we are going to do and how. What are we to say to the 
American people if we stay here for several weeks, have no legislative 
plan, and accomplish nothing? We have been in for 6 months now. What 
have we done? We have done Gorsuch, and we have done Gorsuch, and we 
have done Gorsuch, and we have repealed some regulations--all of it 
with my party in control of all three branches of government. I am not 
proud to go back to Arizona and talk about that record of 
nonaccomplishment.
  Right now, we have no consensus on how to repeal and replace the 
failed policies of ObamaCare. I can't tell you the number of hours I 
have heard the same arguments go around and around and around and 
around. As far as I know, there is no consensus on how to best fund the 
government, no plan to do a bipartisan budget deal, and no path forward 
on appropriations bills. This is disgraceful.
  What I am asking for is simple. If we are going to stay here to work, 
then let's get some work done. Why aren't we working now? Why aren't we 
working tonight? There are nominees in the Department of Defense who 
are before this body, and we are in a war, and what are we doing? We 
are doing a vote on a district judge that we took 30 hours--30 hours--
to discuss.

  If we are going to stay here, let's get the work done. Let's come in 
early, stay late, negotiate a healthcare bill, and process nominations 
to make sure the administration is adequately staffed so the executive 
branch can function. Let's renew FDA user fees to streamline the 
regulatory process for lifesaving prescription drugs. Let's fund the 
Veterans Choice Program to ensure our veterans are able to access care 
in their communities. Let's address the debt limit before we default on 
our payments. Let's debate, amend, and pass the fiscal year 2018 
National Defense Authorization Act. Perhaps, most importantly, let's 
get to work on the budget so we can begin moving individual 
appropriations bills to fund the government and not have to resort to a 
continuing resolution or omnibus.
  To those who may be watching, the fact is that a continuing 
resolution and an omnibus means that we have two choices--yes or no. We 
don't have an amendment. We don't have a way to improve it. We are 
talking about trillions of dollars, but we are going to wait until we 
are right at the edge of the cliff, and then my distinguished friends 
and leaders on both sides will say: You have to vote aye; you have to 
vote aye because the government is going to be shut down. I am tired of 
that choice. We know it is coming. We know the cliff is here. So what 
did we do this week? We spent 30 hours discussing a district judge--30 
hours debating a district judge. Is that the right use of American 
taxpayers' dollars?
  Have we no shame?
  The Senate Armed Services Committee successfully reported out the 
fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act 27 to 0, supporting 
$650 billion for the base budget for national defense and an additional 
$60 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations. At these levels, the 
national defense budget would be $91 billion above the Budget Control 
Act spending cap. To put it another way, there was unanimous, 
bipartisan support for an increase in defense spending of the Budget 
Control Act, capped by more than a quarter of this body--more than a 
quarter of this body, on both sides of the aisle. In one sense this 
consensus isn't surprising because after years of budget cuts under the 
BCA sequestration, our military faces a serious crisis. As we ask them 
to do more and more in an increasingly dangerous world, Congress has 
failed to provide our men and women in uniform with the training, 
resources, and capabilities they need.
  I will repeat that. Congress has failed to provide our men and women 
in uniform with the training, resources, and capabilities they need.
  However, simply passing an authorization bill at higher defense 
spending levels will not solve the funding problems for our military. 
We know we must pass a bipartisan budget deal to undo the Budget 
Control Act caps and set an agreed upon budget top line to allow the 
appropriations bills to move forward. Absent a bipartisan budget deal, 
we will be stuck with another continuing resolution, which, I might 
add, will be below the BCA budget caps for defense, or, worse, we will 
be facing--guess what--a shutdown of the government.
  Has it been that long since we had the last shut down?
  I have come to this floor several times already this year demanding 
that we start negotiating a budget deal. We are 2 months away from the 
start of the fiscal year. We know that a budget deal must be done. The 
failure to begin negotiations means we are knowingly driving toward an 
outcome that will fund our military at levels below the Budget Control 
Act caps.
  I don't understand why we haven't started. It is not because we think 
the BCA levels are acceptable. It is not because we believe there is a 
way to responsibly fund the government without adjusting the BCA caps. 
Even our leader, Senator McConnell, has publicly stated that we will 
need to adjust the caps. This leads me to believe that there is only 
one reason why we are stalling negotiations on a budget deal and 
forcing the government and our military to start the year on a 
``continuing resolution'' and that is one word, and that word is 
``politics.''
  The same tactic that the Democratic leader is employing on nomination 
stalling is being applied to a budget deal. I find that to be shameful.
  There is plenty of blame to go around. The White House has also been 
surprisingly absent. Their own budget submission asked for defense 
spending above the budget control caps and repeal of the defense 
sequester, but none of that--none of that--is possible without 
negotiating a bipartisan budget deal. Yet we have heard nothing from 
the White House--nothing. Any budget deal that would pass both the 
House and Senate and be signed by the President will be extremely 
difficult to negotiate. That is why we should have started long ago, 
and we must start now.
  I have been ready and willing all year to begin working. My door and, 
I know, the majority of my colleagues' doors are open to any Senator, 
Republican or Democrat, but what we really need is for a select group 
of key Members to come together with leadership's blessings to begin 
negotiating.
  Unless and until this body gets to work on a bipartisan budget deal, 
we will continue down the path we have been on for years, lurching from 
crisis to crisis, with no strategy for how to meet our budget 
responsibilities or fund our national security needs.
  My friends, colleagues, and fellow Americans, we must summon the 
political courage to do the hard work the American people expect of us 
to do a budget the way we are supposed to--a budget that is sufficient 
to meet the complex threats of today's world. Our brave servicemembers 
who are facing those threats every single day deserve no less.
  Finally, every year for many years now, I have taken my time on the 
Fourth of July to have the honor of spending that national holiday in 
Afghanistan with the men and women who are serving in the military with 
courage, sacrifice, and skill. As part of our activities there, we have 
a townhall meeting with several hundred of the men and women in uniform 
who are serving. My friend Lindsey Graham,

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who occasionally has a good idea--once every decade--asked the group: 
How many of you are here not for the first time? Almost everybody in 
that room raised their hand.
  He said: How many of you have been more than twice? Two-thirds of the 
men in that room raised their hand.
  He said: How many of you have been here multiple times? A good number 
of them raised their hand.
  The point is that they are out there serving time after time after 
time, away from their homes, away from their families, working more 
than maybe 2 weeks in August. And what are we doing? What are we doing 
for them?
  There are a lot of things they need, and there are a lot of things we 
need to give them. Yet, somehow, we can't see our way clear--
Republicans and Democrats--to sit down and do the right thing for these 
men and women--to do the right thing so they can win.
  We now have a new President, a new National Security Advisor, and a 
new Secretary of Defense. I don't agree with this President very often, 
but I do know that this President is committed to rebuilding the 
military and a winning strategy. The strategy for the last 8 years has 
been ``don't lose.'' I know that General Mattis and General McMaster 
are people who want to win, and they have a strategy to win, and we 
have to be of assistance to them to provide the men and women with what 
they need to win.
  So I ask my colleagues, with passion, that we sit down and figure out 
the budget deal, move forward with it, and not spend a week like we 
just spent this week with 30 hours in order to confirm one district 
judge.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PERDUE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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