[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 149 (Thursday, September 14, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S5753]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1061. Mr. McCAIN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2018 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle G of title X, add the following:

     SEC. 1088. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING UNCONDITIONAL REPEAL 
                   OF THE BUDGET CONTROL ACT OF 2011.

       It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) since the enactment of the Budget Control Act of 2011 
     (Public Law 112-25; 125 Stat. 240) budget requests have been 
     guided by artificial constraints rather than the realities of 
     the global strategic environment;
       (2) sequestration and artificial budget caps on national 
     defense, including nondefense agencies that contribute to the 
     national security, are harmful to the security of the Nation;
       (3) for the Armed Forces specifically, such constraints on 
     the budget, along with a sustained high operational tempo, 
     have led to a significant degradation in military readiness 
     in the near term, and the threat that the United States will 
     fall behind its adversaries in the long-term;
       (4) in order to address the degraded state of the Armed 
     Forces and to stop the erosion of the military advantage of 
     the United States, Congress believes that the budget should 
     be based on requirements, rather than arbitrary budget caps;
       (5) this Act authorizes $659,000,000,000 in discretionary 
     spending for defense within the jurisdiction of the Committee 
     on Armed Services of the Senate, which is spending well above 
     the current caps under the Budget Control Act of 2011; and
       (6) Congress agrees with the statement that included in the 
     report to accompany S. 1519 (115th Congress), dated July 10, 
     2017 (Report 115-125) that ``The committee has ongoing 
     concerns about the negative impact of the Budget Control Act 
     of 2011 (P.L. 112-25) on the Department of Defense and other 
     agencies that contribute to our national security and 
     supports its unconditional repeal.''.
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