[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 190 (Thursday, October 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S7439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, work continues on Democrats' socialist 
spending spree, and the Senate seems to be on track to vote on their 
bill in the near future. Well, maybe. It depends on who you ask at any 
given time around here these days.
  Just to highlight the high level of uncertainty surrounding this 
process, President Biden was on Capitol Hill just this morning--his 
second visit this month--to twist the arms of still-undecided 
Democrats.
  As they continue to see what sticks to the wall, it is good to know 
that priorities like government jobs for climate activists, tax credits 
for environmental justice programs at colleges and universities, and a 
$200 million park in Speaker Pelosi's district may soon come up for a 
vote in the Senate. It is just too bad that Democrats have been so 
focused on expanding government that they haven't actually taken time 
to do some of the essential business of government.
  Fiscal year 2021 ended a month ago. We are into fiscal year 2022. 
Yet, so far, the Senate has not taken up a single appropriations bill 
for the 2022 fiscal year.
  On the other hand, perhaps it is not surprising, since the 2022 
appropriations bills recently introduced by the committee chair are 
rabidly partisan productions packed with poison pills, that one can 
only assume are designed to make the bills fail: the taxpayer funding 
of abortion, a measure that would allow Democrats to use the IRS for 
partisan purposes, policies that would allow certain criminal illegal 
aliens to be released into the United States.
  Well, we may be better off without these bills.
  One bill--of which there is no question we should have taken up 
months ago, however--is the National Defense Authorization Act. The 
NDAA is one of the most important bills we consider each year. It 
authorizes funding for national defense priorities, like critical 
upgrades to our defense capabilities, as well as funding for our 
military men and women--from pay increases to protective equipment, to 
investments in Impact Aid.
  It is not a bill we can afford to ignore, but under Senate Democrats, 
the bill has taken a back seat to Democrats' pet priority, and that is 
this massive, partisan tax-and-spending legislation. So, while 
Democrats focus on expanding the size of government, critical military 
priorities are going unauthorized and unfunded.
  Without the National Defense Authorization Act, and then the Defense 
appropriations bill that falls from it, the military can't sign off on 
contracts for critical new equipment. Shipbuilding projects, military 
infrastructure projects, the development of new combat systems--they 
are all having to wait while Democrats negotiate over their socialist 
spending spree.
  In my home State of South Dakota, Ellsworth Air Force Base is 
currently preparing to be the first home of the B-21 bomber, where we 
will host both the Formal Training Unit and first operational squadron.
  The B-21 bomber will eventually replace the Air Force's aging B-1 
fleet and ensure that we have a long-range strike asset and leg of the 
nuclear triad capable of meeting the threats of the 21st century, 
wherever in the world they are found.
  This year's NDAA authorizes critical funding for developing the B-21 
and starting to transform Ellsworth to prepare for the mission, plus a 
requirement to maintain the remaining B-1 fleet until the bombers can 
be replaced by the B-21.
  This is just one of the many critical national security investments 
we cannot afford to delay, but I guess our military men and women will 
just have to understand that Democrats' socialist spending spree takes 
priority.
  It is not just our military men and women or appropriations bills 
that have had to take a back seat to the Democrats' burning desire to 
expand the size of government and its reach into Americans' lives. With 
their single-minded focus on their tax-and-spending spree and, of 
course, on federalizing election law to give themselves a permanent 
advantage in future elections, real crises facing our Nation seem to 
barely register on Democrats' radar.
  We are in the midst of a serious, increasingly long-term inflation 
problem--a problem Democrats helped to trigger by dumping a lot of 
unnecessary government money into the economy earlier this year; yet 
Democrats are not only ignoring this crisis, they are preparing to make 
things worse by dumping even more government money into our economy.