[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15417]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Senate will complete its work on 
the continuing resolution today.
  We remember watching our Democratic colleagues swerve from crisis to 
crisis when they ran the Senate. Perhaps that is just all Democrats 
have known, but it is not right for them to again force America into 
another short-term funding situation such as this.
  We are working to change the culture around here. Our determination 
remains to get the Senate back to normal, with a functional 
appropriations process. That is why for the first time in 6 years the 
Senate actually passed a budget. That is why for the first time in 6 
years the Senate actually passed through committee the dozen 
appropriations bills necessary to properly fund the government.
  Now that the CR appears to be on track, we can turn back to the last 
step in the Senate's normal appropriations process; that is, getting 
the funding bills passed on the floor. Democrats have blocked them all 
this year as part of some arbitrary strategy to force our Nation to the 
brink. They certainly succeeded in doing that, but I think the American 
people are ready for our colleagues to finally get serious and get back 
to work. Americans are ready to see Democrats start supporting, not 
blocking, the very bipartisan funding legislation Democrats previously 
voted for and bragged about in press releases. Our colleagues will have 
that opportunity this week when we turn back to the regular 
appropriations process.
  It is true that moving forward will require Democrats to definitively 
turn the page on years of bad habits and dysfunction, but it is the 
right thing to do for our country. We will see if they are ready to do 
so later this week.

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