[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 30, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S564-S566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               The Budget

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I cannot help but note that the fiscal year 
began October 1 last year. Four months have passed. That is 122 days 
since the start of the fiscal year, and we still don't have a budget 
deal to allow us to finish the fiscal year 2018 appropriations bills. 
That is 122 days, and the Congress has not done their job.
  Recently, President Trump has taken to Twitter. He has accused 
Democrats of holding up funding for our troops. Well, the idea that 
Democrats are holding up defense spending doesn't pass the laugh test. 
I mean, last July--7 months ago--I called for bipartisan budget 
negotiations, something we have always done in the past. As the vice 
chairman of Appropriations, I put forward a proposal that would 
increase defense spending by $54 billion and would increase nondefense 
spending by an equal amount of $54 billion. Basically, what we did when 
Senator Murray and then-Congressman Ryan worked out the budget 
agreement. We did that years ago based on parity. The proposal was 
responsible, it was reasonable, and it was based on parity. It was 
something we have done for years. It would have fully funded President 
Trump's budget request for our military, but it would also have 
provided much needed relief from the damaging effects of sequestration 
that we have seen on both sides of the ledger, defense and nondefense.

  But instead of trying to reach a bipartisan budget deal to allow us 
to finish our spending bills on time, the Republican leadership, which 
controls the agenda, had other priorities. They spent the last 7 months 
trying to repeal healthcare for millions of Americans and rolling back 
important consumer protections. They cut environmental and workplace 
protections, protections for women in the workplace, and they passed 
budget-busting tax cuts that primarily benefit big corporations and the 
wealthiest Americans. As a result of doing that, the funding for our 
troops, as well as for key domestic priorities, has been left to limp 
along under four continuing resolutions.
  Yesterday, the Trump administration--and I wonder if they have 
actually looked at the President's budget--accused Democrats of holding 
defense spending hostage over arbitrary demands for lower priority 
domestic programs.
  I am curious. What are the domestic programs the Trump administration 
considers a lower priority? Do they consider the services for our 
veterans that are lacking around this country--do they think helping 
our veterans is a lower priority? What about the funding to combat the 
opioid epidemic? Every single State represented by every single Senator 
here, Republican and Democrat alike, in every corner of our country, 
has been hurt by the opioid epidemic. Is the Trump administration 
saying that is a lower priority? How about investments in education for 
our Nation's children? Is that a lower priority? Is disaster relief for 
our communities that have been devastated by hurricanes--there are so 
many--a lower priority? What about replacing our crumbling bridges all 
across the country before people start dying in record numbers? Is that 
a lower priority?
  The President puts before us a false choice, and it makes me wonder 
if he is actually seeing the budget his administration proposes. There 
is no reason we

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can't fight for and fund both our military and other domestic programs. 
It is not an either/or choice. It has never been an either/or choice, 
whether we have had a Democratic or Republican administration.
  One thing we do know is that operating under four continuing 
resolutions is no way to govern. I think it is time to get serious 
about reaching a deal.
  Later today, the House is going to pass another Defense 
appropriations bill that will exceed the budget caps by $73 billion, 
and they don't even know where it will be spent. But if you don't have 
a budget deal to raise the caps, this would be a false promise to our 
military because that funding level would trigger a sequester. It would 
force a 13-percent across-the-board cut on defense programs. It is not 
a serious bill; it is a messaging bill.
  There are those who are going to tout it on the floor of the House, 
saying: Look what we are doing to raise it. Will they at least take a 
moment to say that it actually cuts our defense programs 13 percent 
across the board? I asked the Secretary of Defense what he thinks about 
that. He says it would be a disaster.
  What we are doing is we have been substituting sound bites for 
substance. I think we are past the time for that kind of messaging.
  The budget and the appropriations process are where we set our 
priorities as a nation and where we put those priorities into action. 
That has been our policy here in the Senate under Democratic and under 
Republican leadership for decades. Instead of doing this basic job, 
Congress and the President have put the Federal budget on perpetual 
autopilot, so it never gets done. It comes up, we talk about it, and it 
doesn't get done. It comes up again, we talk about it, and it doesn't 
get done. The can has been kicked down the road over and over again.
  It makes me think of ``Groundhog Day.'' We are coming up on Groundhog 
Day. Well, it is ``Groundhog Day,'' plus a sequel, plus another sequel, 
plus another sequel and yet another sequel. Well, that may have been a 
funny movie, but this is real life for over 300 million Americans, and 
100 Americans are entrusted to make their lives better.
  Kicking the can down the road and playing ``Groundhog Day'' is 
corrosive and damaging to our Nation and to the American people in 
countless ways.
  Certainly, my experience with a Republican administration and a 
Democratic administration, many times in the majority in this body and 
many times in the minority in this body--one thing I have learned, and 
many of my Republican colleagues tell me the same thing, is that you 
can't govern by continuing resolution. It is easy. It means you don't 
have to do your work. But neither the military nor our country can 
properly function under sequestration. They can't function if we don't 
do our jobs.

  This week, we are taking another recess after this afternoon. I wish 
we would just stay here and get these bills passed. I am willing to. 
Vermont is a very nice place to be this time of year--great skiing, 
lovely place. I have kids and grandkids there, but I will stay here if 
it means we can get the appropriations bills passed, get us off this 
corrosive, wasteful continuation of a continuing resolution and 
sequestration.
  The continuing resolution expires on February 8. That is 9 days from 
today. It is up to the Republican leadership in both Chambers to get 
serious about striking a bipartisan budget deal. I believe there is 
something we can do. Talking with both Republican and Democratic 
Senators, I think we could have a budget deal that would get 60 votes 
in the Senate. We could raise the caps. We could take care of defense 
but also take care of a lot of priorities we hear about when we walk 
down Main Street in the towns and cities we represent. These aren't 
people who have a partisan attitude; they just want to see the 
government work.
  The States that have suffered from hurricanes and flooding want to 
see us help them as a nation. If their community is devastated by 
opioids, they want to see us do something about it. They would like to 
see the Federal Government do something about stopping the millions of 
opioids flooding into this country illegally from China. They are not 
coming across the wall; they are coming from China through the mail, 
through the post offices we all have in our communities.
  Let's start to look at the real threats to America. You don't do it 
by sound bites; you do it by substance and hard work. There are many 
Senators on both sides of the aisle who are willing to do that hard 
work. We have unbelievably talented staff from both Republicans and 
Democrats who have been working very hard to get us there. Let's start 
doing that. Let's stop looking for the sound bite. Let's start looking 
for the substance. I am ready to. I have talked with key Members of 
both parties about this. It can be done.
  I felt honored the other day when Senator Robert Dole, one the titans 
of this body--a Republican, a conservative Republican--asked me to be 
one of the two Senators to speak when he received the Congressional 
Gold Medal. We had a chance to chat first about how we used to do it. 
Without sounding like the old-timer talking about the good old days, 
what we would do is the Republicans and Democrats--key Members of both 
parties--would sit down and we would work something out because we 
could take each other's word for it. We set aside political posturing, 
and we did what was best for the country.
  Senator Dole joined with Senator Moynihan--a conservative Republican 
and a liberal Democrat--and they saved Social Security. Senator Dole 
joined with Senator George McGovern--again, a conservative Republican 
and a liberal Democrat. As a result, millions of children were fed, 
others were fed, hungry people were fed in this country and in other 
countries. What a great humanitarian gesture. Both Senator Dole and 
Senator McGovern fought in World War II. Both had a distinguished 
military career. Senator Dole was severely injured. Senator McGovern 
volunteered to fly many, many missions beyond the number he was 
required to, even though so many planes in those missions were being 
shot down. But they came back and said: OK. We did that. Now what are 
we doing for the people we fought to save?
  We should listen to people like that. We should listen to them. We 
would be a better Senate, we would be a better country if we did.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cruz). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I wish to speak for 5 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized.
  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I rise today on this 13th day of January 
to call out this body, the body of the U.S. Senate, for its dereliction 
of duty. Enough is enough. We need a long-term budget bill for all of 
America, including my home State of Montana, because that is what 
Americans expect because it is our job.
  It has been 122 days since Congress has failed to pass a budget. What 
makes this even more egregious is the fact that we haven't done 
anything but continuing resolution after continuing resolution after 
continuing resolution. There is no certainty in that. And even if we 
passed a long-term budget deal, it isn't even for that long of a term--
through the end of this fiscal year, which is when it needs to be done 
by.
  For the last 122 days, Congress has left community health centers, 
small business owners, America's families, Montana's families without 
the certainty of a long-term budget. During that time, Congress has 
instead settled for four short-term, crisis-funding bills that don't do 
what is necessary and that provide more uncertainty and more chaos.
  I have heard a lot of folks say that government needs to be run like 
a business. There is no business that would put off what it is doing 
just because it is convenient. In my real life, I am a farmer. I know 
that you have to plan. I know that you can't go from month to month 
with uncertainty ahead of you because if you do, you will end up in a 
situation where it will put you out of business. You have to be able to

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plan, whether it is for the seeds you buy or equipment maintenance or 
anything else in agriculture. It is the same way in any business, and 
by the way, it is the same way in government.
  Unfortunately, the norm has been a month of funding in continuing 
resolutions, or 3 weeks, instead of coming to a point where we can fund 
things until the end of the fiscal year, which will give folks 
certainty, whether it is the military or our southern border or 
community health centers.
  Why do I bring this up? It is because fully 10 percent of the 
citizens of Montana depend on community health centers for access to 
their healthcare. It is in some cases the only source of healthcare for 
these folks. I have had listening tours and roundtables and over a 
dozen different public meetings on healthcare over the last year, and I 
can tell you that these facilities are critically important.
  So who cares? Why should we worry about that, because we have a 
continuing resolution. Why? Because these folks right now, if you go 
talk to them in the State of Montana and I think in any other State in 
the Union, they will tell you they are not sure whether they will keep 
their doors open. That does not provide the kind of certainty they need 
and the kind of access to healthcare folks in our country need, and 
Montana is no exception.
  We cannot continue governing from crisis to crisis. Montana deserves 
better. America deserves better. We need a budget that goes to the end 
of the fiscal year, that provides the kind of certainty and security 
the American people elected us to do. Congress simply needs to do its 
job.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.