[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21591]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          OMNIBUS LEGISLATION

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I want to say just a few words this 
afternoon on the vote that was taken on the Senate floor this morning. 
I will certainly admit that this was a difficult vote for me. This 
2,200-page, $1.8 trillion spending and tax reform bill certainly does 
contain provisions that I have advocated for and will continue to press 
for to benefit different Alaskan groups, small businesses, the energy 
sector, and others. However, voting in favor of such a massive and 
consequential piece of legislation without having the opportunity to 
fully understand or fully vet both its positive and negative 
implications for Alaska and our Nation or to offer amendments is 
something I could not do in good conscience.
  Leader McConnell, majority whip Senator Cornyn, and so many other 
leaders in the Senate have worked hard in terms of this process over 
the past year. You heard a number of Senators come to the floor to talk 
about what clearly has been a very productive Senate under their 
leadership, and I want to commend them for their leadership. I 
appreciate their leadership. I know that in terms of the budget they 
tried to get this body to the right place, meaning we actually passed a 
budget for the first time in many years. We passed 12 appropriations 
bills--again, for appropriations, the first time in many years--but as 
the bills came to the Senate floor, they were halted, unfortunately, 
blocked, filibustered. I remember debating not once, not twice, but 
three times when the other side filibustered the Defense appropriations 
bill. This Senator still does not understand what was behind all of 
that, still is not 100 percent sure why the appropriations and funding 
process was halted in this body. Then we saw the smash-up the last week 
when everything came together at the end of the year.
  I am not sure what the motivation was to do this, but I do know this: 
The way in which we fund our Federal Government--in this case, 72 hours 
to read a 2,200-page, $1.8 trillion, ``take it or leave it'' bill, 
negotiated by just a few Members of Congress and the White House--is a 
broken process, and it is not worthy of our great Nation, nor the 
people we represent. I also believe it is a principal reason why we 
have seen an explosion of trillions of dollars in debt that imperils 
our Nation's fiscal stability and certainly imperils our children's 
future.
  Back home in Alaska, we are currently debating through a transparent, 
open, and contentious process how to best address our State's 
significant fiscal challenges. We have big fiscal challenges just like 
this government does. In my view, the Federal Government should be 
doing the same. The bill we voted on today and the process that 
produced it demonstrates that we are not.
  Going forward, I certainly want to continue to work with my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the leadership on both sides 
of the aisle to continue to work to improve this process because the 
people we represent deserve much better than what just transpired.
  Obviously there has been a lot of talk about the omnibus bill in the 
last couple days on the floor, but I just wanted to say a few words. 
Sometimes it takes a reminder from home, a reminder from what is going 
on back home to ground us and to remind us of what is really important 
in our lives, like family and friends and life itself.

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