[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 189 (Tuesday, December 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6976-S6977]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. President, once we pass the Defense authorization bill, which I 
hope we will do, we have one other big item on the ``to do'' list, and 
that is government funding.
  You may ask: How in the world did we get here? Ordinarily, in what we 
sometimes refer to as ``regular order'' around here, the Appropriations 
Committee takes up and passes at the committee level 12 appropriations 
bills. These fund the entire government, from the Defense Department to 
Transportation, to Foreign Affairs, to--well, everything that the 
Federal Government does, which is our border security and the like.
  What has happened is that that system has broken down and empowered 
not rank-and-file members of the Appropriations Committee or even rank-
and-file Members of the Senate or Congress. What is happening is that 
this bill is being negotiated, probably on the order of almost $1.7 
trillion, behind closed doors by the leadership, and we will then be 
presented with a fait accompli. In other words, we will have two 
choices: to vote up or down on the annual appropriations bill. It is a 
ridiculous and embarrassing way to do business around here. It is 
certainly not transparent. It certainly doesn't provide the American 
people with the information they need in order to decide whether they 
think we are on the right track or the wrong track.
  So here we are, more than 2 months into the fiscal year, and last 
year's business is still outstanding. Our Democratic colleagues hold 
the majority in the House and the Senate, as well as the White House. 
Despite their unilateral authority to set the schedule, they have 
failed in some of our most basic responsibilities, and that is to 
advance appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year.
  In September, they punted the funding deadline to December the 16th, 
which is just 10 days away. And it doesn't sound like much progress has 
been made. There is no agreement, even on a top-line number, which is 
the first step for coming up with a funding agreement.
  To make matters worse, Democrats are still pushing for dramatic 
increases in nondefense domestic spending. Typically, these agreements 
include some sort of parity between defense and nondefense spending, 
but the spending habits of the last 2 years by the Democratic majority 
along party lines have been anything but typical.
  First of all, our Democratic colleagues stole the taxpayer credit 
card and went on not one but two spending sprees. The first was called 
the American Rescue Plan, which included a long list of progressive 
social policies. That bill cost taxpayers $1.9 trillion--party-line 
vote, borrowed money that somebody is going to have to pay off someday.
  A few months ago, our colleagues went on a second spending spree with 
something called the Inflation Reduction Act, which I sometimes called 
the ``Inflation Nonreduction Act'' because it won't reduce inflation 
anytime soon. In fact, it includes nearly half a trillion dollars in 
new spending.
  Anybody who has followed what you do when inflation is raging, as it 
is now, knows there are usually two components: one is the Federal 
Reserve that controls monetary policy; in other words, interest rates. 
They can slow down the economy. They can try to take a shot at 
inflation by slowing down the economy and raising interest rates, but 
of course that means the money we have to pay to service the debt that 
we are incurring here just gets bigger and bigger.
  There is a second component, too, when it comes to tackling 
inflation, and that is the fiscal side, the spending. The reason why we 
still see inflation at a 40-year high is because our Democratic 
colleagues, on top of all the spending we had to do on COVID-19 on a 
bipartisan basis, have engaged in a radical spending spree of roughly 
$2\1/2\ trillion. That has exacerbated the fire in inflation. Many 
people who are financially well-off have not experienced much beyond an 
inconvenience, but to working families who live paycheck to paycheck, 
the prices they pay not only at the pump but at the grocery store for 
housing and everything else have gone through the roof. They are the 
ones hurting as a result of this fiscal irresponsibility.
  So after the last 2 years, our Democratic colleagues have spent 
trillions of dollars on their domestic priorities, and they made no 
push for parity with defense spending. They didn't couple $128 billion 
for K-12 schools with new investments in research and development. They 
didn't mirror the $86 billion bailout for labor unions with funding for 
next-generation aircraft or weapons. They didn't pair the $80 billion 
for a supersized IRS with funding to support our troops and their 
families. They didn't match the $40 billion for transportation projects 
with funding for infrastructure updates at our military installations. 
And they certainly didn't couple the extensive unemployment benefits 
that they provided with pay raises for servicemembers. So there has 
been no question of parity between defense and nondefense spending 
these last 2 years.
  They spent trillions of dollars on domestic priorities without even 
entertaining the idea of more support for our national security. Now 
they cannot widen that gap any further. We shouldn't stand for it. And 
we can't shortchange America's military in

[[Page S6977]]

order to maintain this illusion of parity. And it is nothing more than 
an illusion after this spending spree that our Democratic colleagues 
have been on for the last 2 years.
  I hope, finding ourselves where we are, that our colleagues are able 
to make some progress in the coming days and avoid another continuing 
resolution.
  Last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote to congressional 
leaders stressing the importance of a full-year government funding 
bill. He emphasized the negative impact of short-term funding on 
procurement, research and development, troop training, infrastructure 
projects, recruitment, and so much more. He didn't mince words in 
saying how critical it is to pass a regular appropriations bill, 
saying:

       Failure to do so will result in significant harm to our 
     people and our programs and would cause harm to our national 
     security and our competitiveness.

  This is where we find ourselves, and it is not an accident. This is a 
conscious design by the congressional leaders of the Democratic Party 
in the House and the Senate, who have said we are not going to have a 
regular appropriations process that is predictable and done on time and 
in a way that is transparent and allows the American people and rank-
and-file Members of the Congress to participate. Instead, they have 
said we are going to push it all to the end of the year, backstop it 
against Christmas and the new Congress, and we are going to tell 
congressional Members you have those two choices: You can vote up or 
vote down. But they know that we have a responsibility to fund our 
military, we have a responsibility to fund our border security efforts, 
and so much more.
  So it is unlikely, highly unlikely, that Congress will fail to pass 
an appropriations bill and turn the lights out here in Washington, DC, 
and shut down the government. Our congressional leaders know that, but 
they have been reckless in the way they have handled this to the point 
now where we have very few choices.
  This is not what responsible governing looks like. Our Democratic 
colleagues have left the most fundamental tasks of the government to 
the very last moment.
  The Defense authorization bill and the government funding bills are 
not a surprise. These are necessary to complete each and every year, 
and the deadlines arrive like clockwork. But somehow our colleagues, 
the leadership in the House and the Senate, our Democratic colleagues, 
have gotten us here by design.
  They understand how this place works, and they like the fact that 
they maintain bulk control over $1.7 trillion in spending, and they use 
the National Defense Authorization Act to try to jam through other 
special interest goodies because they realize that with so few moving 
vehicles across the floor of the U.S. Congress this late in the year, 
that that is what will happen.
  When you have a must-pass bill, people will look for every 
opportunity to put in their special project because they know that will 
be carried along, along with this must-pass legislation.
  Inflation remains at a 40-year high, communities across the country 
are dealing with increases in violent crime, and the crisis at the 
border is growing more challenging by the day. I can't help but to 
believe that the American people deserve better than this, and I hope 
the next few weeks will bring more productivity than the last few 
months have. And I hope that once we put the business of our national 
security and appropriating for the support of the Federal Government 
behind us, hopefully sooner rather than later, we won't repeat this 
same mistake year after year after year.
  I yield the floor.
  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. WARNER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.