[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5970-S5971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Government Funding
Madam President, on the CR, a few hours ago, Speaker Johnson
announced he delayed a vote scheduled for today on his partisan,
insufficient, and deeply flawed CR proposal. Frankly, no one should be
surprised that Speaker Johnson is having trouble with his bill. It is
not a serious effort at keeping the government open. It is a political
document, not a substantive one.
The Speaker's proposal suffers from many fatal flaws. Above all, it
emits and shortchanges so many critical programs that Americans rely on
every day. For one, the Speaker's proposal underfunds the Department of
Veterans Affairs by $12 billion. That means veterans exposed to burn
pits and who develop cancers and other diseases would struggle to get
the care they need.
The Speaker's proposal would also be a disaster for our Armed Forces.
You can't run a military with a 6-month funding patch. The Secretary of
Defense warned it would hurt defense readiness, hamstring recruitment,
risk crucial investments in our defense industrial base, and delay
repairs and weapon modernization.
Again, you can't run a military at a 6-month patch at a time. They
have to have contracts. They have to do research. They have to do
planning.
The Speaker's proposal is also a nonstarter for border security and
immigration and law enforcement. His bill would effectively end a
crucial law enforcement effort to stop drug smuggling, cartels, and
money laundering. It fails to extend funding for E-Verify, H-2B visas,
and programs that have stopped drugs like fentanyl. All this from a
Republican proposal, the party that supposedly loves to talk about
border security. But talk is all it is if you take this stuff out of
the bill.
And, of course, if you are one of the tens of millions of Americans
who rely on Social Security or disability benefits, watch out. The
Speaker's proposal contains no additional funding for the Social
Security Administration's operating budget, which would lead to delayed
benefits, understaffed or closed field offices, and longer wait times
for applications.
The Speaker's CR fails on healthcare. It would endanger Federal
funding for telehealth services, which is one of the most important
ways rural Americans get access to the care they need.
The CR also fails to extend funding for community health centers,
which is often the only resource for millions of Americans who live in
poverty or near poverty but fall in that gray zone right above the
Medicaid line. And with the community health centers, they get good
healthcare. Those will be gone.
And the Speaker's plan fails to do anything on the farm bill, which
if it expires would send farmers over the dairy cliff in December,
risking closure of farms and sending costs of products like milk and
cheese through the roof. So it would cost the average consumer.
Now, we all know the endgame here for the hard right, a 6-month
stopgap measure means we have a funding fight all over again in March,
at the beginning of a new administration. It is pretty transparent that
the hard right wants to delay this fight until then in hopes of being
able to pass the bulk of Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda.
And we all know what 2025 is about, the hard right wants to turn our
country inside out and institute the most conservative agenda America
has seen in modern history. Project 2025 would mean the end of the
Department of Education. It would eliminate Head Start Programs, which
help millions of kids in poverty get a good start on their education.
It would wipe out funding that helps kids get free and reduced lunch
at school. It would send the cost of childcare shooting up, leaving
parents exasperated and making it harder for them to make a living.
Project 2025 would also betray our veterans. It would lead to cuts to
disability benefits by shrinking medical conditions that qualify. It
would revive a Trump-era commission that would defund VA hospitals,
including the only VA hospital on Long Island, the Northport VA. How
cruel can you get?
[[Page S5971]]
How in the world can you think this is an OK thing to do to the brave
Americans who wore the uniform?
Project 2025 would lay the groundwork for the nightmare scenario of a
national abortion ban. It would effectively clear the way for States to
monitor women's pregnancies and threaten Federal health funding if they
don't comply.
This is all outlandishly sinister. Yet it is precisely what the hard
right is promising the American people if Donald Trump returns to
office. And make no mistake, there is no better opportunity for
Republicans to ram these cruel policies down Americans' throats than in
a government funding fight early next March.
A 6-month CR, particularly one that fails to fund important programs,
some of which I have outlined a few minutes ago, is therefore not the
answer for avoiding a shutdown later this month.
Speaker Johnson ought not bother with merely delaying his vote; he
should scrap it, scrap his plan and start over. Speaker Johnson, scrap
your plan. Don't just delay the vote, find a better one that can pass
in a bipartisan way.
Leader Jeffries, the President, and I will gladly and readily work
with the Speaker to keep the government open, just as we worked with
him earlier this year on funding levels that honored our agreement from
the debt ceiling debate.
I hope, I pray, Speaker Johnson will soon acknowledge the inevitable:
We need a bipartisan plan to keep the government open.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. WELCH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Vermont.