[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 197 (Monday, December 19, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S7272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The Republican leader is recognized.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, when the Biden administration put out 
their budget proposal, the Republicans knew it was literally wrong for 
the country. The administration wanted to cut funding for our Armed 
Forces, after inflation, while massively increasing spending on 
nondefense.
  Republicans have taken the President's bizarre position and flipped 
it on its head. The bipartisan government funding bill that Senators 
Leahy and Shelby have finished negotiating does exactly the opposite of 
what the Biden administration first proposed. This bill provides a 
substantial real-dollar increase to the defense baseline and a 
substantial real-dollar cut to the nondefense, nonveterans baseline.
  Let me say that again. President Biden wanted to cut defense spending 
and grow liberal domestic spending in real dollars, but Congress is 
rejecting the Biden administration's vision and doing the exact 
opposite. This bill will grow defense spending and cut nondefense, 
nonveterans spending after inflation.

  Just last week, the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization 
Act on an overwhelming bipartisan basis. Senators on both sides 
acknowledged that President Biden and his administration had failed--
failed--to request the level of resources that our servicemembers and 
their commanders actually needed. So on a bipartisan basis, we ignored 
the administration's request and authorized what our Armed Forces 
actually need.
  But the landmark investments in upgrading and modernizing our Armed 
Forces that we just laid out in the NDAA will not happen unless 
Congress follows through and appropriates the money to pay the bills. 
That is what Senators Shelby and Leahy have given us the opportunity to 
achieve: make good on our commitments in the NDAA by following through 
with actual funding.
  Americans want our Nation to remain the preeminent global superpower. 
We want our country to remain the mightiest civilization the world has 
ever seen. We want to keep helping Ukraine, keep outcompeting Russia, 
and keep pace with the huge investments that China is making in their 
own military and new technologies.
  So it is a strange position, to say the least, when Republicans in 
Congress have to poke and prod a Democratic Commander in Chief into 
sufficiently funding the men and women that he actually commands. But 
as I said all along, funding our Armed Forces is a basic governing 
duty. Republicans were not going to let our Democratic colleagues 
demand extra leftwing goodies in exchange for doing their job and 
funding our troops. The President's own party does not get to take our 
national defense hostage and demand rewards.
  So I am grateful that our Democratic colleagues backed down and 
accepted our position. The bipartisan bill that our colleagues have 
negotiated equips our Armed Forces with the resources they need while 
cutting nondefense, nonveterans spending in real dollars.
  This is a strong outcome for Republicans and, much more importantly, 
it is the outcome that our Nation's security actually needs. So I want 
to thank our distinguished colleague, Senator Shelby, for his hard 
work, and I look forward to reviewing the full text soon.