[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S618-S619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as we continue discussions about another 
extension of government funding, Senate negotiators are working on a 
deal to lift the spending caps for both defense and urgent domestic 
priorities.
  From the very beginning of the budget debate, Democrats have made our 
position in these negotiations very clear. We support an increase in 
funding for our military and our middle class. The two are not mutually 
exclusive. We don't want to do just one and leave the other behind. The 
sequester caps have arbitrarily imposed austerity on both sides of the 
ledger, defense and the nondefense programs that benefit middle-class 
people, such as education, infrastructure, and medical research. The 
caps have hamstrung the Pentagon's ability to make reliable 
investments, no doubt, but they have also cut support harshly and 
unintelligently from middle-class programs.
  We ought to get out from sequestration entirely because our men and 
women in uniform deserve the resources they need to keep our country 
safe--as do our veterans waiting for better healthcare; as do young men 
and women, many of them veterans, seeking treatment for opioid 
addiction; as do rural families waiting for high-speed internet to 
connect themselves and their kids to the world; as do hard-working 
pensioners who forewent salary increases and bonuses to secure a 
pension that is now evaporating before their very eyes.
  That is why Democrats have pushed consistently to increase funding to 
fight the scourge of opioids, to improve veterans healthcare, to build 
rural infrastructure, to shore up pensions, and to deal with childcare. 
These are the kinds of things we are pushing for in addition to, not to 
the exclusion of, increasing defense.
  Some of our Republican colleagues, particularly in the House, think 
that only defense should get the help it needs, not the middle class. 
We Democrats have stood against that for years and will continue to 
stand against it.
  House Republicans continue marching down a very partisan road, 
proposing a CRomnibus that will raise defense spending but leave 
everything else behind. As I have said many times before, a CRomnibus 
will not pass the Senate.
  Speaker Ryan and House Republicans keep running into the same brick 
wall. When will House Republicans learn that they must chart a 
bipartisan course to get a bill through the Senate? I don't think a 
single Democrat--that I am aware of, at least--has been consulted on 
the Republican bill. It is done because Speaker Ryan is in a

[[Page S619]]

pickle. How is he going to pass a bill with just Republican votes? It 
is not easy. So they come up with this distorted, unfair proposal--
unfair to so many people in the middle class who depend on our help.
  Hopefully, House Republicans will change their tune, because even 
though a deal has eluded us for months, negotiators are now making 
significant progress. The Republican leader and I have been working 
together quite productively. Of course, there are still some 
outstanding issues to be resolved, but we are closer to an agreement 
than we have ever been.
  I would like to express my appreciation to the Republican leader, in 
addition, for his invitation to address the McConnell Center next week 
in Louisville, which I have accepted.
  As leaders, the two of us can work together to get things done around 
here, and the best opportunity to work together is the budget. It is an 
opportunity not just for us but for our country, not only to escape the 
terrible damage of sequestration but to condemn it to the past, and we 
should seize that opportunity.

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