[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 173 (Thursday, October 31, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6309-S6310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on another matter, later today we are 
going to vote on something that should not be controversial: funding 
for our national defense, for supporting servicemembers and their 
families, for sustaining American global leadership and strategic edge. 
This vital priority is not something that can take a back seat to 
partisan dysfunction.
  Our men and women in uniform don't get to go on sabbatical while they 
wait

[[Page S6310]]

for Congress to get its act together. They have to stay vigilant, 
remain in harm's way, and stay at their posts.
  Our military commanders don't get to put critical overseas operations 
on pause until Washington does its job. Their objectives loom large 
whether or not we give them a predictable planning foundation.
  Russia, China, and Iran will certainly not take a water break if 
uncertainty leaves our Nation flat-footed. They will keep growing their 
defense spending and seeking to expand their influence.
  I had hoped our Democratic friends would be able to put impeachment 
aside long enough to at least fund the Department of Defense. We had 
heard public pronouncements from Speaker Pelosi and my colleague the 
Democratic leader that they intended to work with us on substantial 
legislation. If anything qualifies as substantial legislation, it is 
this. It meets the Pentagon's request for targeted investments in the 
U.S. military of the future. There are new resources for expanded 
missile defense capabilities, trauma training, fleet maintenance, and 
key partnerships with allies around the world.
  But, alas, the Democratic leader announced at a press conference 
Tuesday that he plans to filibuster the annual funding for our Armed 
Forces. This would put our colleagues across the aisle in quite an 
unusual position. The same Democrats who have recently rediscovered 
hawkish-sounding positions on Syria and the Middle East are really 
going to filibuster $745 million for the Counter-ISIS Train and Equip 
Fund, for Iraq and for Syria, and filibuster all the other broader 
funding of our Armed Forces? Really? The same Democrats whose latest 
effort to impeach the President hinges on delayed military assistance 
to Ukraine are themselves--themselves--going to filibuster funding for 
the exact same program, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative? 
Really? It looks like it. The Democratic Party is too busy impeaching 
President Trump for supposedly slow-walking assistance for Ukraine to 
fund the exact same program themselves?
  These are political gymnastics performed at an Olympic level--at an 
Olympic level. The core message here is hard to miss: Our Democratic 
colleagues have a priority list. Picking fights with the White House is 
priority No. 1. And our men and women in uniform fall somewhat further 
down.
  It does not have to be this way. Even in a time as politically 
charged as an impeachment inquiry, it doesn't have to be this way. Back 
in 1998, just days before the Republican House began its impeachment 
inquiry into President Clinton, the House and the Senate passed a 
regular appropriations bill.
  Then, some weeks later, even after the inquiry was underway, both 
Chambers were still able to pass more bills to address the fundamental 
business of funding the government, and President Clinton signed it 
into law during the impeachment.
  So if Democrats follow through on their threat to filibuster the 
Defense funding later today, they will frankly be making even the 1998 
impeachment period look like a clinic--a clinic--in bipartisan 
cooperation.
  A Democratic filibuster of Defense funding is not the vote the 
military families and military installations in their home States 
deserve. It is not the vote our commanders deserve, and it is not the 
vote our national security deserves.

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