[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 167 (Tuesday, October 22, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5944-S5945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Appropriations

  Mr. SHELBY. Madam President, this afternoon, I rise to urge my 
colleagues here in the U.S. Senate to support the pending cloture 
motion on H.R. 3055 so we can get the appropriations process moving. It 
is already day 22 of the current fiscal year. The entire Federal 
Government, as you know, is now operating under a continuing 
resolution, and in less than a month, that continuing resolution will 
expire.
  By this time last year, Congress had already funded 75 percent of the 
government, including America's military. It was the first time in 10 
years that Congress had funded the military on time. That success paid 
huge dividends for our country and for our men and women in uniform. 
Now, they face an uncertain future. The prospect of serial continuing 
resolutions or, worse, another government shutdown casts a dark shadow 
over our previous success. Such uncertainty also wreaks havoc on every 
Federal agency's abilities to plan, and it is acute when it comes to 
the military.
  As our military leaders seek to ensure that planning and operations 
keep pace with activities and challenges around the globe, they are 
faced with the hard reality that Congress is not keeping pace with our 
own duties here. Congress' failure to do its own job makes that of the 
military all the more difficult in this troubled world. I believe that 
is unacceptable.
  Nonetheless, we have hit a stalemate in the appropriations process 
lately. The clock is ticking on the continuing resolution, as I said, 
and we have to break through the logjam. I hope we can do it today. The 
only way to do that is through bipartisan cooperation, as the Presiding 
Officer knows, as a member of the Appropriations Committee and chair of 
a very important subcommittee.
  The vice chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee, my good friend, 
Senator Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, suggested that the Senate 
proceed first to a package of domestic spending bills to try to break 
the stalemate. This is what we are trying to do today. In an effort to 
demonstrate good faith and get off the dime, that is what we are 
hopefully going to do later today.
  I want to take a minute to thank Senator Leahy for proposing a path 
forward out of our stall. I would also just like to emphasize to all my 
colleagues that this path leads to success if it ends with Congress 
funding the entire government, not just part of it. We have a lot of 
work to do, but we can do it. We have also before us the opportunity to 
get it done, so this is where we pick up today.
  Last month, the Appropriations Committee, as the Chair knows, 
reported 10 bills to the full Senate. If we are able to proceed to H.R. 
3055, it is my intention here on the floor to offer a substitute 
amendment that includes four of these bills that we passed out of the 
committee, each of which passed unanimously in a bipartisan way. What 
are those bills, and what do they fund? The Commerce Department, the 
Justice Department, Science bill--we call it Commerce, Justice, and 
Science--the Agriculture bill, the Interior bill, and the 
Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development bill.
  I want to take a minute to thank the chairs of these subcommittees 
for their diligence in producing balanced bills: Senator Moran, Senator 
Hoeven, Senator Murkowski, and Senator Collins. I also want to thank 
their respective ranking members, the Democrats, for their bipartisan 
cooperation here: Senator Shaheen, Senator Merkley, Senator Udall, and 
Senator Reed.
  Together, these four measures before us today account for nearly one-
third--one-third--of all nondefense discretionary spending. Consistent 
with the bipartisan budget agreement, they contain no new poison pills, 
and I would caution my colleagues on both sides of the aisle against 
pursuing poison pill amendments if we are able to proceed today. If we 
are to make any progress on the 2020 appropriations bills, I think we 
must be true to our commitment, enshrined in terms of the budget 
agreement, to refrain from such provisions to move the process.
  I would also like to move this package through regular order so we 
can return quickly to a second package that the majority leader spoke 
to us at lunch today about that funds the military and many more other 
agencies. There is simply no excuse for further delay.
  With all that we ask for our military, with all the challenges it 
already faces, with all the additional uncertainties that stopgap 
funding creates, and with all that has been said recently about the 
need to support our allies and counter our adversaries around the 
world, I hope that our colleagues will not say to our men and women in 
uniform: We will get to you later.

[[Page S5945]]

  We should instead capitalize on the good will that we are trying to 
generate in this first package on appropriations by immediately moving 
to the next one that funds the military and so many other agencies.
  This process only works if we work together in a bipartisan way, as 
Madam President knows. Let's work together this afternoon, and let's do 
our job so we can move forward for the American people. I think we 
should not leave our military and others to think that the government 
is in limbo any longer.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, as the distinguished senior Senator from 
Alabama has said, we are going to be voting soon on our ``domestic 
minibus.'' We will vote on a cloture motion to proceed to H.R. 3055.
  I understand that once we are on the bill, Chairman Shelby is going 
to offer a substitute amendment that will include four bills that were 
reported from the Appropriations Committee with every Republican and 
every Democrat voting for them--the Agriculture bill, the Interior 
bill, the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, and the Transportation, 
Housing and Urban Development bill.
  I know that some feel that sometimes the Congress gets so polarized 
that we could not have a unanimous vote that the Sun rises in the east, 
but this was a case where we did in our committee, which has 
representatives of all wings of the Republican Party and all wings of 
the Democratic Party. We all voted aye, and I would urge Members to 
vote aye.
  I am pleased that the substitute package will not include the 
Military Construction and the Veterans Affairs bill, and let me explain 
why.
  The underlying House vehicle we are moving to contains the House 
version of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill, but the 
Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet considered this bill. We 
have not had debate in the committee. We have not had a vote on it in 
committee. It would be premature to bring it to the Senate floor.
  It is an important bill. It is an important bill that I have always 
supported because it funds critical programs, particularly for our 
veterans. But President Trump wants to insist on using the bill to take 
funding from our troops and their families to fund his ineffective 
wall--a wall that he gave his word Mexico would pay for--and that is 
unacceptable.
  Look at the people who are affected by the Military Construction and 
Veterans Affairs bill. Let's not get them tied up in a Presidential 
campaign promise. Let's look at the military families who are now 
living in substandard housing. Let's look at the veterans who are not 
getting the care they need. Let's have a clean bill.
  Had the bill with the President's wall been in this--the American 
people would be paying for it and not Mexico, as the President 
promised--I would have been unable to support the cloture motion.
  I am going to have more to say about each of the four bipartisan 
bills included in Chairman Shelby's substitute when we turn to them. 
Hopefully we can by tomorrow. Each one funds programs that are 
important to the American people and our economy. They make critical 
investments in affordable housing, infrastructure, rural development, 
our farming communities, our small businesses, and our environment. 
They are good bills. I was glad to work with Senator Shelby so we could 
have these bills before the Senate. They speak to real needs of the 
American people.
  Now we have only 4 short weeks before the continuing resolution we 
are operating under expires. Four weeks can go by very quickly around 
here. We need to do our work. We need to do it quickly. We should be 
able to enact all 12 appropriations bills into law. I was going to say 
the Senate deserves no less, but it is the American people who deserve 
no less. So I will continue to work with Senator Shelby and others, 
both Republicans and Democrats alike, to get these bills done.
  We have a vote coming up soon.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.