[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 138 (Monday, August 20, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5715-S5717]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am very pleased that the Senate 
is now considering legislation to fund the Departments of Defense, 
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for the coming fiscal 
year.
  Both bills have been supported by broad bipartisan majorities. The 
Defense and Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittees are the largest of 
the committee's 12 subcommittees, with 19 members each, almost one-
fifth of the Senate.
  Despite the diversity of views on our committee, each was reported 
out of subcommittee and committee with strong bipartisan support.
  As my colleagues know, these are the two biggest appropriations 
bills, which together comprise almost two-thirds of Federal 
discretionary spending.
  I note that the last time the Labor-HHS appropriations bill was on 
the Senate floor was more than a decade ago, so it is an especially 
welcome development that we are debating this bill here today.
  It is a testament to the work we have been able to do to push aside 
the partisanship and reject President Trump's budget requests and 
poison pill riders, and I am hopeful that this will continue.
  I would like to congratulate Chairman Shelby and Vice Chairman Leahy, 
as well as Senator Blunt, for their commitment to working in a 
bipartisan fashion to restore regular order to the appropriations 
process.
  This isn't the bill I would have written on my own, and it is not the 
bill Senator Blunt--or any other member of the committee--would have 
written on their own, but it is a good bipartisan compromise, and it 
would help so many workers, children, students, families, and 
communities if enacted.
  Overall, we rejected the President's push for massive cuts to 
investments we know are so important, in education, public health, 
research, and workforce training, to programs that affect workers, 
seniors, students, women, and so much more.
  I am particularly proud that Democrats and Republicans stood together 
to roundly reject Secretary DeVos's budget requests, from her attempts 
to privatize and voucherize public schools, to her massive cuts to 
education funding that would have hurt so many students.
  Earlier this year, we reviewed this harmful budget just as we saw 
teachers and parents around the country organizing and standing up for 
public education after years of budgets for education not keeping up 
with needs--because our kids shouldn't be forced to learn in crumbling 
classrooms with shabby textbooks and our teachers should be paid fairly 
for the important work they do.
  Secretary DeVos wasn't listening to these parents and teachers, and 
her budget calls for more cuts.
  It would eliminate afterschool programs for almost 2 million 
students, need-based financial aid that helps make college more 
affordable for millions of students, options for repayment and student 
loan forgiveness for millions of borrowers and their families, and 
grants that can be used to keep students safe and healthy through 
school-based mental health services.
  Despite proposing a discretionary budget that would cut $7.7 billion 
in Federal investments in education, the request includes $1 billion 
for programs aligned with Secretary DeVos's personal privatization 
agenda, but are not authorized by the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds 
Act.
  By contrast, the bill we are considering today chooses to invest in 
public schools and progress for all students, no matter where they 
live, how they learn, or how much money their parents make.
  Our bipartisan bill increases funding for the core Federal elementary 
and secondary education program, title I-A grants to school districts, 
by $125 million.
  This critical program reaches almost 90 percent of school districts 
and half of all schools. I would have preferred to invest even more, 
but this is a good step in the right direction, and I am glad we were 
able to get this done.
  Funding for meeting the 40 percent promise under I-D-E-A, our special 
education law, also goes up by $125 million. In the most recent fiscal 
year, Congress provided just 15 percent of special education funding, 
meaning State and local taxpayers are making up the $20 billion 
shortfall. While I would have invested even more, I am glad we were at 
least able to meet our commitment in this budget and take a good step 
in the right direction.
  Finally, I am glad that I was able to work with Senator Blunt to 
include $93.5 million for meeting the education needs of homeless 
children and youth.
  This increase will help school districts address the barriers 
homeless children and youth face, and if enacted, this would be the 
third year in a row of increased funding.
  Almost 41,000 public school students were homeless during the 2016-
2017 school year in my home State of Washington alone. That is an 
increase of almost 88 percent since the 2009-2010 school year. That is 
unacceptable, and this bill would take an important step to help 
address their needs.
  Making college more affordable is another priority in this bill.
  We were able to do this by rejecting the administration's proposals 
to eliminate grant assistance, cut work-study funding, and slash 
student loan relief that help make college more affordable for millions 
of college students and borrowers.
  The bill also addresses college affordability by increasing the Pell 
Grant maximum award by $100, to a new level of $6,195, for almost 8 
million low-income students.
  When combined with the $175 increase in the maximum award included in 
the fiscal year 2018 omnibus bill, we are sustaining the inflationary 
increases that had been provided with mandatory funding that expired at 
the end of fiscal year 2017.
  These increases build on the bipartisan reinstatement of the year-
round Pell Grant authority that Senator Blunt and I worked together to 
include in the fiscal year 2017 appropriations bill, which allows 
eligible students to receive up to 150 percent of the maximum award 
level for additional classes they take during the summer term--it is 
enabling students to complete their program of study more quickly and 
with less loan debt--and, in my home State of Washington, has already 
helped make college more affordable for an estimated 15,000 students.
  Finally, I am glad Senator Blunt and I were able to work together to 
provide an additional $8 million for the Department of Education's 
Office for Civil

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Rights, despite Secretary DeVos's attempts to cut funding and erode 
civil rights protection.
  This office addresses title IX enforcement on college campuses, among 
other important civil rights workloads, and is more important now than 
ever before.
  The bill also continues and builds on the massive and historic 
investments in childcare and early learning across the country.
  It maintains the increase in the Child Care and Development Block 
Grant that was provided in the fiscal year 2018 omnibus bill, the 
largest increase in Federal child care spending ever.
  States are already starting to increase childcare provider rates, 
improve quality to comply with the bipartisan CCDBG reauthorization 
law, improve services for special populations, and address long wait 
lists. I look forward to seeing the continued progress towards 
addressing our Nation's childcare crisis.
  Our bill also provides an additional $250 million for Head Start, 
providing grantees with a cost-of-living adjustment so they can keep up 
with the cost of inflation and providing additional funds for expanding 
programs' hours of operation.
  Investing in our youngest learners and dedicated early childhood 
workers is one of the smartest investments we can make.
  I consider these investments to be another important step forward and 
down payment on my Child Care for Working Families Act, which would 
help make childcare truly affordable, high quality, and accessible to 
all.
  The bill also rejects the President's proposal to eliminate crucial 
safety net programs. Instead of eliminations, it provides increases for 
the Community Services Block Grant, which helps fund community action 
agencies in every county in my home of State of Washington, and for the 
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, an indispensable lifeline 
for households struggling to pay their energy bills.
  Our bill rejects proposed cuts and continues to invest in the title X 
family planning program, and I am going to keep fighting against this 
administration's attempts to sabotage this critical source of 
healthcare for vulnerable women and families.
  I am especially pleased that this bill includes significant new 
resources to address the truly alarming issue of maternal mortality in 
the United States.
  An American woman is three times as likely to die from childbirth as 
is a woman in Canada and six times as likely to die as a woman in 
Finland, and this disparity impacts women of color disproportionately.
  This is simply unacceptable, so I am very pleased that this bill 
includes $50 million at HHS for a new initiative to help understand why 
mothers are dying as a result of childbirth and pregnancy and prevent 
this from happening.
  We have included $12 million to expand data collection and 
surveillance at State maternal mortality review boards, consistent with 
a bill that Senators Heitkamp and Capito have been working on to help 
support these boards, and $38 million to expand evidence-based programs 
to prevent maternal mortality and advance maternal health equity.
  This is far from the last step we need to take to address this 
crisis, but it is an important step.
  This bill continues the major investments we included in the 2018 
omnibus to address the opioid crisis, including over $3.7 billion to 
increase access to medication assisted treatment, mental health 
services, and provider training for substance use disorders, especially 
focusing on rural area, and an increase of $50 million for certified 
community mental health clinics and $25 million more for the Mental 
Health Block Grant.
  We all know the opioid epidemic is having a tremendous effect on 
millions of children and families, so this bill continues the fiscal 
year 2018 investments in child welfare services to help respond to the 
impacts of substance use on children and families.
  It provides additional funds to States to improve plans of safe care 
to help ensure infants with prenatal substance exposure and their 
families have access to the treatment they need.
  For the fourth year in a row, the bill makes significant new 
investments in the National Institutes of Health to support 
researchers' efforts to take full advantage of opportunities to make 
progress against human disease and disability.
  This includes the largest increase to date for Alzheimer's disease 
research, as well as more than $500 million to address the opioid 
addiction epidemic, and increased resources to combat the growing 
threat posed by antimicrobial resistance.
  The bill also includes important investments in high-quality 
workforce training programs that help workers get good jobs, improve 
the efficiency of businesses, and grow our economy.
  This includes $3 billion for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity 
Act State grants to provide support for our national workforce system 
and help approximately 20 million people each year train for in-demand 
careers.
  The bill includes $160 million for registered apprenticeship grants, 
an increase of $15 million, to expand support for the registered 
apprenticeship program that the Committees on Appropriations first 
established dedicated funding for in fiscal year 2016, and reject the 
President's proposal to create a duplicative nonregistered 
apprenticeship program that would open the door for any employer, for-
profit school, or association to develop a lower-quality program.
  This focuses Federal dollars where there is strong evidence and a 
return on investment rather than on duplicative systems that do not 
guarantee quality training and provide fewer safeguards for workers and 
employers.
  The bill also includes $300 million for veterans training programs to 
help ensure our veterans have the supportive services they need to re-
enter the labor force, including job training and placement.
  The Department of Labor's other important role is enforcing laws that 
protect worker health, safety, and rights in the workplace. The bill 
before us includes modest increases for the Occupational Safety and 
Health Administration and Wage and Hour Division for the first time in 
years.
  These are important investments for workers at a time when they need 
the support. Last year, wage and hour investigations recovered $270 
million in back wages that employers owed their workers, money that is 
now back in the pockets of more than 240,000 workers across the 
country.
  The bill also rejects the cuts to the Women's Bureau and 
International Labor Affairs Bureau proposed in the President's budget.
  These proposals would have curtailed important work on eliminating 
the wage gap for women and deficiencies in labor standards 
implementation in trading partner countries.
  The bill rejects the President's proposal to reduce the budget for 
the National Labor Relations Board, which safeguards workers' ability 
to organize and collectively negotiate for better pay and working 
conditions.
  Finally, so many of us have been horrified by what we are seeing on 
the southern border, and many of us are hoping for even more action 
from this administration to address it right away and without any 
additional action from Congress.
  I was glad we took some action in this bill to restore the cuts 
President Trump proposed to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and that 
we took important steps to increase transparency and hold the 
administration accountable for its policies and actions, including 
requiring HHS to finally respond to the committee's requests for 
information on the resources ORR needs to appropriately care for every 
child in its custody.
  In summary, this bill offers a different direction than the one 
proposed by the administration. It focuses on helping people--on our 
workers, our students, our children, our families, and our economy. It 
will help our country compete in the 21st century, and it will help our 
communities to thrive.
  It is a good bill. It helps educate the next generation, protects our 
workers' rights and prepares them for good-paying jobs, cares for the 
sick and most vulnerable in society, and supports medical research that 
will heal the sick and extend life.
  I urge all Senators to support this bill and move us rapidly to final 
passage.
  Thank you.

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