[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 192 (Monday, December 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S7090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  NDAA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the Senate gavels in today with our 
annual defense bill still unpassed, with less than 1 week remaining of 
government funding, and less than 2 weeks left until our hard stop for 
the holidays on December 23. That is the bad news. But the good news is 
that both sides have a clear understanding of what it takes to finish 
our work on a bipartisan basis.
  First, Senators Inhofe and Reed and their House counterparts have 
passed out a strong bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act. The 
Senate should turn to it as soon as possible.
  But, of course, Congress authorizing the tools, training, and 
equipment that our Armed Forces need will accomplish very little if we 
fail to then provide the actual funding.
  Both sides know what it would take for the Senate to pass a full-year 
government funding bill into law. There is no mystery here. A funding 
agreement would need to fully fund our national defense at the level 
written into the NDAA without--without--lavishing extra funding beyond 
what President Biden even requested onto Democrats' partisan domestic 
priorities. In other words, do not go beyond what the President asked 
for earlier this year on the domestic side.
  Our Democratic colleagues have already spent 2 years massively--
massively--increasing domestic spending, using party-line 
reconciliation bills outside the normal appropriations process.
  So, clearly, our colleagues cannot now demand even more--more--
domestic spending than President Biden even requested in exchange for 
funding the U.S. military. Funding our national defense is a basic 
governing duty.
  The Commander in Chief's own party does not get to demand a pile of 
unrelated goodies in exchange for doing their job and funding our Armed 
Forces.
  If House and Senate Democratic colleagues can accept these realities 
in the very near future, we may still have a shot at assembling a full-
year funding bill that will give our military commanders the certainty 
they need to invest, plan, and stay competitive with rivals like China.
  If our Democratic colleagues can't accept those realities, the option 
will be a short-term, bipartisan funding bill into early next year.