[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 62 (Monday, April 12, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1861-S1862]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Budget Proposal

  Madam President, finally--finally--last week, the White House rolled 
out a new budget proposal. I have been a supporter of Secretary Blinken 
and other officials' tough talk with the People's Republic of China. 
With Putin again massing forces on Ukraine's border, administration 
officials have been right--right--to warn against further Russian 
aggression.
  This budget outline was going to be one of the first real tests to 
see if the administration was prepared to walk the walk and put 
sufficient funding toward our military and strategic competition with 
China and Russia, both of which have invested heavily in military 
capabilities that threaten our forces. Unfortunately, for all the 
rhetoric, the President has asked Congress to break from the positive 
trajectory of the last 4 years and instead cut defense spending after 
inflation.
  That is going backward on national defense. This would undermine 
recent bipartisan progress, put the modernization of American forces in 
jeopardy, and help China toward their goal of overtaking the United 
States as the world's preeminent superpower.

[[Page S1862]]

  This budget proposal sent a clear signal to the rest of the world, 
and unfortunately it suggests to our allies, from Eastern Europe to the 
South China Sea, that American resolve is far from guaranteed.
  On all these issues, there is broad and deep bipartisan interest in 
working together--infrastructure legislation that actually focuses on 
infrastructure, voting legislation that actually makes it easier to 
vote and harder to cheat, and funding legislation that provides the 
Pentagon what it needs to keep up with China, Russia, and other 
adversaries. Legislation on all these topics has a track record of 
earning overwhelming bipartisan support.
  All these issues are ripe for regular order, bipartisan work if the 
President and our Democratic colleagues are interested in going about 
them in the right way. But if the administration decides to reprise 
their tactics from February and March, if Democrats just declare ``our 
way or the highway,'' we will know they have chosen to create political 
controversies rather than make progress for American families.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered