[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 126 (Thursday, July 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5073-S5074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BUDGET AGREEMENT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, today we expect the House of 
Representatives will pass the 2-year government funding agreement the 
Trump administration and Speaker Pelosi announced earlier this week. I 
stand with the President, who has publicly expressed his support for 
the agreement on several occasions. I am grateful to the members of his 
administration who led the negotiations: Secretary Mnuchin, Acting 
Chief of Staff Mulvaney, and Acting OMB Director Vought.
  Considering the circumstances of divided government, this is a good 
deal. After the House approves it today with bipartisan support, I 
expect the Senate to do the same next week. Here is why it is a good 
deal: It achieves the No. 1 goal on the Republican side of the aisle of 
providing for the common defense and continuing our progress in 
rebuilding the Armed Forces of the United States and modernizing them 
so they can continue to keep Americans safe and project power for years 
to come. This has been a top shared priority for this Republican Senate 
and this Republican White House for 2\1/2\ years.
  Pentagon leaders need stable, reliable, and sufficient resources. The 
greatest military on Earth should not drift in uncertainty. Our 
servicemembers deserve better than a string of funding crises and 
continuing resolutions. Our commanders need predictable resources and 
sufficient resources to lay the foundations for the future of our 
national defense.
  Servicemembers deserve to deploy armed with state-of-the-art training 
and cutting-edge equipment; their families deserve the best support 
services the Nation can offer; and the Nation as a whole deserves the 
global presence that is up to snuff and competitive with the leaps 
forward in which our adversaries have invested heavily.
  That is why we have delivered historic increases in resources for 
modernization and DOD reforms--to ensure the U.S. military is strong 
and agile enough to confront a growing number of threats to America and 
our interests. That is why just a few months ago we authorized the 
largest year-on-year increase in defense funding in more than a decade. 
This funding agreement is the next step forward in that process.
  Every Member of this body knows the threats we face are serious and 
getting more serious: the resurgence of great power competition with 
nations like Russia and China; the destabilization of influence of 
state-sponsored terror and regional aggression from bad actors such as 
Iran; and the testing of historic alliances.
  Amidst the growing international chaos, the preeminent obligation of 
the U.S. government is to provide for the common defense. This 
agreement prioritizes that commitment to the safety and the security of 
the American people.
  A nation that understands these threats and takes them seriously 
makes serious investments in the readiness of its own defenses today 
and the modernization that will preserve their strength into the 
future.
  For years, we have seen China extend its strategic reach, testing the 
waters of the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

[[Page S5074]]

We have watched its Communist leadership nearly double military 
spending in the last decade and push the boundaries in everything from 
offshore territorial claims to 5G technology.
  America's edge is in jeopardy. Our allies in the Pacific are uneasy. 
The administration's budget agreement with the Speaker will allow 
America to ensure that our own foot stays on the gas pedal as well.
  Meanwhile, in the Middle East, we are confronted daily with 
escalating threats to our allies and interests. State-sponsored terror 
and proxy actions are becoming bolder. Gray zone activity in places 
like the Straits of Hormuz is raising the economic and geopolitical 
stakes of Iran's meddling.
  From Syria to Crimea, Russia continues to stretch its legs. Not since 
the height of the Soviet Union have we seen Moscow this focused on 
extending influence beyond its borders. All over the world, historic 
alliances and partnerships like NATO need to be strengthened and 
renewed for this new landscape.
  Fortunately, in the coming days, we will have the opportunity to 
address all these areas--Europe, the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific, and 
beyond. That opportunity is this bipartisan spending agreement. So I am 
grateful to the administration for ensuring that such robust funding 
for our national security is included in this package. It will make us 
safer worldwide and make needed investments in our own facilities right 
here at home, like Fort Knox, Fort Campbell, and the Blue Grass Army 
Depo, which Kentucky is proud to host.
  What is more, I commend the President's team for firmly holding the 
line on the laundry list of leftwing policy riders that some House 
Democrats had sought to push throughout their partisan appropriations 
process over there on the other side.
  We are talking about far-left wish list items, things like reversing 
the Trump administration's decision and getting title X taxpayer 
dollars flowing back into the pocket of Planned Parenthood, weakening 
the conscience rights of healthcare professionals, removing protections 
for the Second Amendment, and efforts that would have weakened ICE and 
defunded the President's efforts to secure our border.
  These are just some of the policy riders the far left had hoped to 
smuggle into the appropriations process--perhaps using the full faith 
and credit of the United States as leverage, but the administration 
froze all of them out. They are not in this deal. They shepherded an 
agreement that delivers on our most basic responsibility to the 
American people. They set the stage to provide for the common defense. 
Today it is the House's turn to follow through, and then, in the near 
future, it will be ours.

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