[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.