[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17284]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday the Republican leader once again 
filed a motion to invoke cloture on the Department of Defense 
appropriations bill. This is another example of the Republican leader 
wasting the Senate's time on repeated cloture votes that he knows will 
fail. Republicans have tried this piecemeal approach already, and it 
didn't work. We came within hours of defaulting and not extending the 
full faith and credit of the United States and came within days of 
shutting down the government.
  Even though two-thirds of Republicans in the House and Senate voted 
to close the government and default on our debt, we were able to craft 
a budget agreement that funds both the middle class and the Pentagon. 
Now it is time to move on and pass an omnibus appropriations bill that 
addresses both defense and the needs of the middle class in keeping 
with the budget agreement that passed last week.
  There is no reason we can't get an omnibus bill to fund all the 
government by December 11, which is the deadline. If the Republicans 
balk, the government will close. Again, remember, two-thirds of the 
Republicans in Congress already voted no. They voted to default on the 
debt of this country and to close the government. That should give 
everyone pause.

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