[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 8853]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           AMENDMENT NO. 1521

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this afternoon the Senate will vote on an 
important amendment offered by a graduate of the United States Military 
Academy at West Point, the Senator from Rhode Island, Jack Reed, who is 
also the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee.
  I commend Senator Reed for the stellar job he has done in being a 
manager of this bill. He is one of the most thoughtful and responsible 
Members of the Senate and always has been. He has great legislative 
experience, having served in the House before he came here.
  Senator Reed's amendment addresses a major threat to our national 
security and the middle class--sequestration. Sequestration refers to 
deep, mindless, automatic cuts throughout the government. These cuts 
were authorized 4 years ago to force Congress to reduce the deficit in 
a balanced way.
  Unfortunately, they did not work. Republicans are unwilling to close 
even a single tax loophole--not a single tax loophole to reduce the 
deficit. Now we face the prospect of arbitrary and unreasonable cuts 
that were once assumed to be so stupid that Congress would not allow 
them to happen. But something that everyone thought was stupid is now 
official Republican policy. Unless we can reach a bipartisan agreement 
to fix sequestration, these cuts will occur, not smoothly but as if 
done by a meat cleaver.
  That threatens not only our military security but also the economic 
security of America's middle class, which really is our national 
security. The bill aims to avoid sequestration for the Defense 
Department with a widely ridiculed budget loophole, which would put 
actual defense spending on the Nation's credit card, increasing our 
deficit and our debt.
  I am stunned by my friend, the senior Senator from Arizona. When I 
was an appropriator, I was on this Senate floor and I watched him, with 
his staff in the back of the room every time we did an appropriations 
bill. He pored through line by line with his staff of every 
appropriations bill. If there was something he thought was askew he 
would object to it. We got used to that because, frankly, it saved 
money over time.
  He referred to all the pork that was in these bills, and he and I 
disagreed on what was determined to be pork, but I understood where he 
was coming from. I am just flabbergasted now that the senior Senator 
from Arizona, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, is agreeing 
to a one-time gimmick. All the experts have said these gimmicks don't 
work--especially this one. Now, the committee, led by my friend the 
senior Senator from Arizona, is agreeing to this gimmick. Think of 
that. The Republicans, led by the senior Senator from Arizona, are 
advocating deficit spending big time--not a little bit, big time--tens 
of billions of dollars.
  Our troops deserve better than this. Meanwhile, unless we deal with 
the impact of sequestration more broadly, middle-class America will 
suffer drastic cuts in things that matter to them the most--cuts in 
priorities such as education, job creation, and lifesaving research. 
Sequestration of nondefense programs is also an attack on our military 
families. For example, sequestration threatens to cut VA spending, 
health care spending for the military, job training for returning 
veterans, schools that teach children of military families, and heating 
assistance for veterans who are struggling.
  If we are going to be fair to military families, just as to millions 
of other working Americans, we need to fix sequestration for more than 
just the Pentagon. We need to fix it for defense and nondefense 
programs jointly. Defense and nondefense are inextricable. They are 
certainly things we cannot separate.
  That is what the Reed amendment is designed to change through 
bipartisan negotiations. There is no reason to wait to negotiate a 
bipartisan budget. It makes no sense to start spending extra money on 
defense or anything else until we agree on an overall plan. Put simply, 
we ought to budget first and spend later. That is the only responsible 
way for a family or our Nation to conduct its business.
  That is why the Reed amendment makes so much sense. I urge my 
colleagues to support the Reed amendment. A plan that avoids 
unnecessary cuts to priorities such as education, job creation, and 
research is what the Reed amendment is all about. It is a plan that 
funds all agencies that protect our security, including the FBI, the 
Department of Homeland Security, and the Drug Enforcement 
Administration--all of these vital programs. It is a plan that funds 
our troops, protects military families, and makes the long-term 
investment needed to ensure a secure, prosperous future for all 
Americans.
  Less than 2 years ago, Democrat Patty Murray and Republican Paul Ryan 
proved it could be done. Let's put an end to the games and gimmicks and 
start putting together a responsible budget.

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