[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 178 (Thursday, November 7, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Defense Appropriations

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, on Tuesday morning, I visited with 
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. We talked about the military's needs 
and national security priorities, and we talked about the fact that 
more than a month into the new fiscal year, Congress still hasn't 
funded the military for fiscal year 2020. We shouldn't have needed to 
talk about that. We should have passed the Defense appropriations bill 
for 2020 weeks ago, but Democrats won't let us.
  Last week, Democrats blocked consideration of the 2020 Defense 
appropriations bill for the second time. Apparently they have every 
intention of continuing to block military funding. This is politics at 
its worst. And make no mistake--this is politics. A couple of months 
ago, Democrats and Republicans got together and agreed on defense and 
nondefense funding levels for 2020 and 2021. The idea was to pave the 
way for the passage of appropriations bills in a timely fashion. It 
seemed for a moment that despite Democrats' fixation on partisan 
politics and impeachment, we could actually go about funding the 
government and the military in a somewhat bipartisan fashion, but 
apparently that was too much to ask of the Senate Democrats. Senate 
Democrats are currently running from the agreement, attempting to 
derail the defense funding bill with poison pills that would prevent 
the bill from ever being enacted into law.
  Funding our military should be the first priority of every Member of 
Congress. The safety of our country depends on the strength of our 
military. If we don't get national security right, the rest is 
conversation. Getting national security right means making sure our 
military is adequately funded, making sure we are funding the needs of 
the current military and preparing for future priorities. It should go 
without saying that an essential part of this responsibility is getting 
that funding passed in a timely fashion.
  Right now, since we haven't passed the 2020 funding bill, the 
military is operating under a continuing resolution that maintains 
funding levels from last year. There are multiple problems with that.
  In the first place, the military is operating without all the funding 
it needs. For example, the Pentagon can't fully support the pay 
increase military members should be getting.
  In addition, the continuing resolution prevents the military from 
starting key projects that will help ensure our men and women in 
uniform are prepared to meet the threats of the future. The Pentagon 
can't start new procurement projects. New research and development 
initiatives that keep us a step ahead of our adversaries are put on 
hold.
  All told, under a continuing resolution, the military's purchasing 
power is reduced by roughly $5 billion each quarter. Five billion 
dollars each quarter that we continue to operate under a continuing 
resolution is the amount of purchasing power that is lost to our 
military to meet their critical priorities. To put that in perspective, 
that is the equivalent of losing out on about 56 F-35 Joint Strike 
Fighter planes, depending on the variant, every 3 months; or nearly 2 
complete Virginia-class attack submarines, like the recently 
commissioned USS South Dakota; or about 5,000 Joint Air-to-Surface 
Standoff Missiles, like those used to clean up the site of the Baghdadi 
raid or strike Syrian chemical weapons facilities in 2018. That $5 
billion isn't spare change; it is funding for critical military 
priorities.
  In November of 2018, the bipartisan National Defense Strategy 
Commission released a report warning that our readiness had eroded to 
the point where we might struggle to win a war against a major power, 
like Russia or China. That is a dangerous situation for our country to 
be in, and we need to keep working to rebuild our military. That starts 
with making sure our military is fully funded in a timely fashion.
  On the floor last week, I noted that Democrats would like us to 
believe that they are serious about legislating and that their years-
long obsession with impeaching the President isn't distracting them 
from doing their job. After the Democrats' defense filibuster last 
week, it is becoming clear that the Democrats are incapable of putting 
anything ahead of partisan politics, including the safety of our 
country and the well-being of our military.
  It is particularly ironic that the Democrats are blocking this 
defense funding bill, which would provide $250 million in assistance to 
Ukraine, at the same time they are trying to impeach the President for 
allegedly delaying Ukraine funding. Think about that.
  It is hard to know what to say to my Democrat colleagues. It should 
not be this hard to convince them that funding our military is more 
important than scoring points against the President.
  I hope the leader will continue to bring up the defense funding bill 
and that enough of my Democratic colleagues will decide to join us in 
getting this funding to our military. It is the very least we can do 
for the men and women who spend every day working to keep us safe.