[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 17 (Monday, January 26, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S279-S280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             APPROPRIATIONS

  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, this is a very important week in the 
Senate for many reasons. We will be voting on whether to proceed to the 
final six-bill package of appropriations bills sent to us by the House 
of Representatives. This package includes the following full-year 
funding bills for the Department of Defense, Financial Services, and 
General Government; Homeland Security; Labor, Health, and Human

[[Page S280]]

Services, and Education; National Security; Department of State and 
Related Programs; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
  Madam President, as a valued and important member of the 
Appropriations Committee, you know well that these are fiscally 
responsible bills that reflect many months of hard work and 
deliberation from Members from both parties and from both sides of the 
Capitol. They reflect input from nearly every Senator. Our 
subcommittees received more than 31,000--31,000--requests from Senators 
for these six bills alone.
  Over the last months, our subcommittees have worked through all of 
these requests and done a great deal of important work. They have also 
worked hard on a bipartisan basis with their House counterparts to 
reconcile House and Senate priorities for these bills, as well as those 
of the administration. This was not an easy task.
  In developing the final fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills, the 
House and Senate committees worked from a top line that is less than 
what Congress would spend under a continuing resolution. Priorities 
were realigned. Difficult decisions were made. This process resulted in 
successful bipartisan votes in the House of Representatives to approve 
these six bills.
  Now, it is the Senate's turn to show that we can work together in a 
bipartisan manner to finish the job. It is so important that we do so 
because looming is a government shutdown--another harmful, unnecessary, 
and disastrous government shutdown--if we do not complete our work. 
Now, there are so many important provisions in these bills that need to 
become law, I am not going to go through them at this time, but I will 
later in this week.
  Let me say that the tragic death of Alex Pretti has refocused 
attention on the Homeland Security bill, and I recognize that and share 
the concerns. I do want to point out to my colleagues that there are 
many safeguards that have been put in this bill that I would encourage 
them to review and that the vast majority of the funding in this bill--
more than 80 percent--is for nonimmigration and nonborder security 
functions.
  It includes, for example, funding for FEMA. We have just gone through 
a horrific storm that has caused a lot of damage, and FEMA is very 
important. It includes funding for TSA. Those of us who travel back and 
forth to our home States every weekend are well aware of the work of 
TSA in keeping us safe. It includes funding for cyber security and 
physical infrastructure protection. And important to the States of the 
Presiding Officer and the State of Maine, it includes funding for the 
U.S. Coast Guard.
  So I know that there will be many more speeches and discussions of 
all of the bills that are included in this package, but let me just say 
that I hope we can come together in a constructive way to get this done 
and to ensure that we do not lurch into a dangerous and detrimental 
government shutdown. So that is my goal, and I look forward to working 
with our colleagues this week to accomplish that objective.
  As I said, I will have more to say on each of the bills as the week 
progresses.

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