[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 5, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S1097]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, Congress avoided a harmful 
and unnecessary government shutdown, and, this week, we will take a 
major step forward on one of our most basic responsibilities of 
government.
  Our colleagues, Senator Collins and Senator Murray, have been working 
hard on the fiscal year 2024 appropriations for the better part of a 
year. The Appropriations Committee advanced the bills we will consider 
this week back in June and July of last year, working in good faith 
through the regular order. And in all but one case, they received 
unanimous support.
  This first tranche of annual appropriations accounts for a serious 
portion of our overall discretionary funding responsibilities, and 
thanks to Senator Collins' leadership, the bills the Appropriations 
Committee cleared last summer secured important Republican priorities 
up front.
  By all reasonable measures, the conference with our House colleagues 
has made the legislation we will take up this week even stronger.
  The Senate has an opportunity to strengthen protections for America's 
farmland by tightening oversight over foreign agricultural transactions 
and expand support for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. We 
have a chance to strengthen protections for U.S. intellectual property 
and surge resources to State and local law enforcement agencies on the 
frontlines of the fight to curb violent crime and to bring the fentanyl 
crisis under control.

  We can increase support for VA rural health and opioid treatment, 
protect the Second Amendment rights of America's veterans, and improve 
housing and facilities for Active-Duty servicemembers and their 
families, including thousands of Kentuckians stationed in harm's way.
  We can fund urgent transportation and water infrastructure projects, 
support domestic enrichment of critical minerals, and invest in the 
long-term safety, security, and superiority of our nuclear arsenal.
  We can do it all this week.
  I am grateful to our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee for 
pushing sensible annual funding legislation one step closer to the 
President's desk, and I would certainly urge all of our colleagues to 
support it.