[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 148 (Monday, September 16, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5485-S5486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on another matter, when the Senate 
returned last week, we anticipated our top priority would be conducting 
the appropriations process and avoiding a lapse in government funding. 
We had a clear roadmap, a bipartisan, bicameral agreement negotiated by 
the President's team and the Speaker of the House. It set top-line 
funding targets for both defense and nondefense, and it laid out ground 
rules to protect the process from partisan politics.
  There has actually been reason for optimism. This week, we hope to 
move to the House-passed bills for Defense, Energy and Water, Labor-
HHS, and State and Foreign Ops. This would be our first procedural step 
to getting the process moving for all of our priorities on both sides.
  There is nothing controversial about this particular grouping of 
bills. In fact, it was Speaker Pelosi who combined this grouping of 
bills to move first. Furthermore, if any of the funding measures were 
going to be handled earnestly across party lines, surely it

[[Page S5486]]

ought to be the bill funding the Department of Defense. Our fundamental 
obligation is to provide for the common defense of our country, and all 
Members feel our responsibility to keep the Nation safe.
  Fortunately, the caps agreement specifically allows us to increase 
defense funding to meet the growing threats our Nation faces. Yet here 
is where we are: One week in, our Democratic colleagues tried to 
stonewall the defense funding bill in committee and are now indicating 
they may even filibuster a motion to begin considering the House-passed 
defense funding bill later this week.
  There is only one way to read this. Some of our Democratic colleagues 
have determined they would rather stage a political fight with 
President Trump than secure the resources that our uniformed commanders 
urgently need to do their jobs. National security is taking a back seat 
to partisan politics.
  Let's be absolutely clear about the concerns and the priorities that 
our Democratic friends are de-prioritizing. The defense spending 
measure would bolster efforts to modernize our forces and build the 
U.S. military of the future. Russia is actively modernizing its own 
forces, just as we have seen the Putin regime step up its brazen steps 
to exert its destabilizing influence well beyond its borders. In China, 
the last decade has seen military spending nearly double. Our regional 
partners continue to feel the tightening grip of the Chinese Communist 
Party on trade and strategic activity throughout the Indo-Pacific 
region while the technological ripples of Chinese cyber meddling are 
felt right here at home.
  In the face of surging great-power adversaries, simple upkeep is not 
enough to keep America and our allies safe from aggression. 
Comprehensive funding for research, development, and readiness programs 
is what is needed. In Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and beyond, 
we continue to face sustained threats from terrorist organizations. In 
the Middle East, we have seen how Iran's bid for regional hegemony and 
its investment in terror, missiles, and cyber activities threaten the 
United States, our allies and partners, key shipping lanes, and global 
energy markets.
  This bipartisan Defense bill would help us to adapt to meet these new 
threats while ensuring our commanders can prosecute existing operations 
without being consumed by the instability of short-term continuing 
resolutions. Yet our Democratic colleagues would rather provoke a 
partisan feud with the President. They would rather have a fight with 
the President than stick to the agreement we all made. At least that is 
where we are as of the moment.
  I remain hopeful that my friends on the Democratic side will join us 
in honoring the terms of the agreement that has been struck by the 
President and the Speaker and help us to reboot a bipartisan funding 
process. The readiness and modernization of America's military and the 
safety of the American people should not play second fiddle to our 
Democratic colleagues' political strategy.

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