[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 43 (Thursday, March 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1083-S1084]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, government funding, as we all know, is set 
to expire tomorrow night at midnight, and the Senate has the 
responsibility not just to keep the lights on but also to make critical 
investments in our country.
  I could only wish that we had come to this point through a more 
rational and more deliberative sort of way; but, unfortunately, this 
seems to be more the norm than the exception where four people get into 
a room and they write a piece of legislation, then they bring it to the 
floor, and your only option is to vote yes or no on it. We don't have a 
practice of making sure that on each one of these bills, people get to 
actually offer amendments and shape that legislation. I guess that is a 
quaint and old-fashioned notion, but that is how I thought the 
legislative process was supposed to work. Maybe that is a topic for 
another day, but it is unfortunate that this is where we are.
  Last night at 10 o'clock, the House voted on an almost 3,000-page 
bill, and then we are expected to vote on it the next day or the next 2 
days. This is not a way to run a railroad.
  We all know that democracy is under attack in the world, and that 
means we need to do everything we can to provide for our defense and to 
support our friends and allies around the world.
  We know that there has been a tug-of-war between our Democratic 
colleagues and this side of the aisle when it comes to prioritizing 
national security spending, and that actually is one reason why we find 
ourselves here at this late date, voting on this multithousand-page 
bill, because our colleagues on the other side of the aisle wanted to 
prioritize domestic spending, not national security spending.
  Thank goodness that has been now negotiated where there is virtual 
parity. Thanks to the leadership of Ranking Member Shelby and our 
colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, the bipartisan bill 
includes $42 billion more in defense spending. I can't think of any 
time in our recent history where we need those additional resources 
more for our security and the security of our friends and allies.
  This $42 billion increase in defense spending will provide our 
military commanders with what they need to respond to the threats that 
we are facing today and to prepare for those threats we see on the 
horizon.
  It is ironic I find myself speaking to the Senator from Maine, whom I 
serve with on the Intelligence Committee, because he knows a lot of 
this subject matter as well--certainly well, maybe better than I do. 
But we all know that Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine was what we 
thought was a relic of the past.
  My dad was a B-17 pilot in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He was 
shot down on his 26th bombing mission over Nazi Germany and captured as 
a prisoner of war, where he served for the last 4 months of that war. 
We thought--Europe thought, the world thought--that perhaps we had 
gotten beyond that sort existential threat to our way of life and that 
the autocrats of the world--people like Vladimir Putin, President Xi, 
the Ayatollah in Iran, Kim Jong Un in North Korea--that these 
individuals would be deterred from provoking a war like Vladimir Putin 
has provoked in Ukraine.
  One thing Winston Churchill liked to say: If there is one thing for 
sure, it is that humankind is unteachable. We keep making the same 
mistakes over and over again. We keep thinking, well, we can cash the 
peace dividend because that is in the past, only to find ourselves, as 
Secretary Bob Gates said--he said, of all the military conflicts we 
found ourselves involved in, in the last several generations, we 
haven't planned for a single one of them. But we had to be ready, and 
we had to be able to defend our way of life and our values and our 
allies.
  So Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine is a reminder of the threats

[[Page S1084]]

that remain to our freedom and the freedom of other democracies around 
the world. So there could not be a more appropriate time to plus-up our 
national defense spending, while at the same time providing additional 
resources, humanitarian and otherwise, to our friends in Ukraine who 
are fighting for their very existence.
  We know that Ukraine is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization, so we have no legal obligation to come to Ukraine's 
defense, but I do believe we have a moral obligation to provide that 
assistance, both military and humanitarian.
  Russia has waged an unmistakable war on that democracy, violated the 
sovereignty of the Ukrainian people. It has even targeted civilians and 
brought immeasurable destruction to Ukraine. The only question is, 
After Putin has miscalculated the will of the Ukrainian people to 
defend themselves and the commitment of America and our NATO allies and 
other freedom-loving countries around the world to support Ukraine--now 
that they are bogged down, Russia is bogged down in Ukraine, the 
question is, Well, is Putin going to give up? Is he going to try to 
come up with a face-saving device, or is he going to double down? I am 
afraid Putin is going to double down, which means we are going to see 
more attacks on innocent civilians. We are going to see more Ukrainian 
cities leveled to the ground, indiscriminate killing of men, women, and 
children. This is all that Putin knows. The question is, How does this 
end? That is a chilling question, but the answer is even more chilling.
  As I said, I believe we have a moral duty to support Ukraine, and 
this legislation provides $13 billion in humanitarian, economic, and 
military assistance. We need to get this money out the door as soon as 
possible, while the United States and NATO needs to continue to supply 
the Javelins and other anti-aircraft, anti-tank weapons to help the 
Ukrainians defend themselves against this existential threat.
  The good news is, this is a bipartisan effort. A lot of things we do 
around here we divide up along party lines--the shirts and the skins, I 
like to call them--but the fact is, we all support Ukraine, and we are 
all looking for ways we can help them during their time of need.
  Another thing that this Omnibus appropriations bill does is it 
reauthorizes the Violence Against Women Act. This critical program has 
been defunct and moribund since 2019. For some reason, this was not a 
priority of this Chamber or of this Congress for the last 3 years, but 
thanks to the leadership of Senators Ernst and Murkowski--Senator 
Feinstein was an essential part of the negotiations--we were able to 
reach a bipartisan agreement to strengthen and modernize this law.
  I am a proud cosponsor of the legislation, and I thank our colleagues 
on the Appropriations Committee for prioritizing its inclusion in this 
legislation. This funding will make critical investments for our 
country, including critical investments in our own people.
  One of the good things about this Omnibus appropriations bill is it 
does exclude poison pills that included things like taxpayer funding of 
abortions. Those are not included in this bill.
  While it is far from perfect, there is no question that a bill 
drafted solely by Republicans would look a little different. But the 
world does not operate on the basis of ideals. The perfect cannot be 
the enemy of the good. So despite its flaws, despite the crazy process 
by which we find ourselves here voting on this $1.5 trillion 
appropriations bill, notwithstanding all the reasons I could cite why 
maybe I should vote against it, I think there is enough good in this 
bill to support it.

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