[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 14962]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last night, 77 Senators voted to 
advance legislation that would keep the government funded through the 
fall at the bipartisan level agreed to by both parties. The bill hardly 
represents my preferred method for funding the government, but it is 
now the most viable way forward after Democrats' extreme action forced 
our country into this situation.
  Let's remember how we got here. Democrats knew the American people 
were unlikely to buy their desire for more bureaucracy and more debt, 
but they figured they might in a crisis. So Democrats pursued a 
deliberate strategy of blocking government funding all year in order to 
force our Nation to the brink. Democrats said they would block 
government funding legislation they had even voted for in committee. 
Some of these bills came out of committee overwhelmingly on a 
bipartisan basis. Democrats said they would block government funding of 
legislation they had actually praised in their press releases when 
these bills emerged from the Appropriations Committee with large 
majorities. Democrats even voted repeatedly to block the bill that 
funds our military, to repeatedly block the bill that funds medical 
care and pay raises for our troops. That is how far Democrats are 
willing to go--at a time of daunting international threats--in order to 
tear down the normal government funding process and force our country 
into this situation that we now face.
  Well, I am not prepared to let the Democrats lead us over the cliff. 
The bill before us would keep the government open; it would allow time 
for cooler heads to prevail. That is why I joined 76 other Senators and 
voted to advance it yesterday.
  But, look, obviously the best way to fund the government is by first 
passing a budget and then passing appropriations bills. The Senate also 
passed a budget. The Senate is prepared to pass appropriations 
legislation too. All that is needed is for Democrats to drop these 
endless filibusters.
  We know that nearly all these funding bills are bipartisan. We know 
that Democrats and have supported and praised them. And with the CR 
behind us, we can turn back to the work of trying to pass these 
appropriations bills.

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