[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14614-14615]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I come to the floor as the vice chair of 
the Committee on Appropriations. That means I am the Democratic leader 
on appropriations for this session of Congress, and next to me is the 
distinguished Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, who will have that 
responsibility next year.
  I come to the floor to say that, sadly, I am concerned we will not 
finish our job on appropriations the way we should finish it--to do an 
omnibus, to get the job done. Alas, the clock is slipping away.
  Now, one needs to note that the Committee on Appropriations, during 
the past year, under the leadership of Senator Cochran of Mississippi, 
worked constructively, worked in a well-paced, well-sequenced way, and 
we were poised to finish our work, with the Committee on Appropriations 
reporting all 12 bills for floor consideration 5 months ago. So we were 
ready 5 months ago to bring them up either as individual bills or in a 
series of minibuses. But instead of finishing Congress's work to fund 
the government, we are now contemplating putting the government on 
autopilot by something called a continuing resolution--a short-term 
continuing resolution that would only last for maybe 3 months.
  I am very frustrated about this. It did not have to be this way. As I 
said, we have worked very constructively on both sides of the aisle and 
have been cooperating to do our job. We attempted to write bills that 
meet the needs of the American people--bills related to national 
security and economic growth and that meet compelling human needs.
  For those Republicans who are obstructionists, they really have been 
setting us back. For those on both sides of the aisle who want to save 
money, they are actually going to cost us more money by delaying.
  So where are we? There is only one bill--the VA-Military Construction 
bill, which is signed into law. There are 11 other bills left.
  Funding for every mission--let's start with the Department of 
Defense. Our troops are fighting overseas, and we need to support them. 
There is Federal law enforcement, foreign policy and embassy security, 
infrastructure, education--from child care to college affordability. So 
instead of making choices about what to fund, what to cut, we leave 
these missions on autopilot, spending the same amount as last year on 
the same items with the same policies. No business operates this way. 
No family operates this way. It is irresponsible to spend $1 trillion 
this way with no thought, delaying important investments, and thus 
resulting in increasing cost to the taxpayers.
  Let me talk about why this really can give you heartburn. Last week, 
Department of Defense Comptroller Mike McCord warned that a stopgap CR 
delays ships and weapons our troops need. Hello. Did you hear that? It 
actually delays the construction of ships and the purchase of weapons 
our troops need. Without a special provision in the CR, DOD would have 
to delay planned replacement for their Ohio-

[[Page 14615]]

class submarines, disrupting contract awards and ultimately delaying 
production for the length of the CR.
  These new subs are necessary. They are the backbone of our nuclear 
deterrent--our nuclear deterrent. The current ships' nuclear reactors 
reach the end of their useful lives in the mid-2020s. So this isn't 
some new whiz-bang thing that might be untried. So without special 
provisions, other things will be delayed.
  What are we trying to do here? We are concerned that people in this 
country are now facing death from heroin and opioid overdoses. Every 
Governor in the United States of America has cried out to the Federal 
Government for help on heroin and opioid overdoses. We have heard on 
both sides of the aisle advocacy for a comprehensive approach. The 
problem affects every part of the country--urban and rural--and every 
socioeconomic category.
  Now, our appropriations bill is ready with new spending in law 
enforcement, prevention, treatment, and education. But in the 
continuing resolution, we won't get these investments, and more 
families will suffer. Every leading authority on treatment says when 
you need it and you are ready to ask for it, you need to get it on the 
same day. Just as clinicians have to act with urgency, so do we.
  What else won't a CR help? It won't help college affordability with 
full-year Pell grants. It won't bolster security funds for the FBI, for 
the Border Patrol, for embassy security.
  Remember Benghazi? Whoa, when people loved to investigate rather than 
legislate, Benghazi was in the news. That was at the same time the 
Congress had cut--particularly, the House had cut--embassy security 
considerably. But in this bill, working with both sides of the aisle, 
we were able to come up with the appropriate money for embassy 
security, border control, and so on.
  We also won't have the funds for infrastructure funding, particularly 
for roads, to improve our ports, and to make our railroads safer.
  We won't meet the needs of children--children who are on the march, 
children who are in desperate need of help in Central America.
  I know the other thing we have supported on both sides of the aisle 
is an innovation agenda, particularly in the area of the medical 
research of the National Institutes of Health. Hopefully, we are going 
to be debating the Cures Act, yet right now we have the ability to act 
with the funding for the National Institutes of Health research and 
also the great work done at the Department of Defense in research.
  All year long I have come to the floor and talked about how 
appropriations can be used to solve problems, whether it was children 
exposed to lead in drinking water--the compelling story of Flint, MI. 
We need to really modernize our water supply. In my own hometown of 
Baltimore, infrastructure funding could be fantastic. If we replaced 
the Baltimore water system that was built over 100 years ago, we would 
improve public health, we would create jobs in Maryland, in Baltimore, 
and we would leave our communities in a better, safer place by getting 
the lead out. We need to get the lead out of our water supply, and we 
need to get the lead out of Congress.
  We want to solve problems, create jobs, and protect America. A CR is 
not the best way to do it. But if we are going to do a CR, it should be 
for the shortest time possible.
  So let me be clear. Senate Democrats are willing to work across the 
aisle and across the dome. It is our Republican colleagues who need to 
think about this long and hard. I really urge that you not spend 
another half year spinning your wheels and not serving the American 
people, addressing security needs and compelling human needs.
  As I get ready to finish my time in being the ranking member on the 
Committee on Appropriations, I would like to finish it by working 
constructively, collegially, and in the best interests of the United 
States of America to get a real bill across the finish line for the 
longest time possible. That will provide certainty to Federal agencies 
that are protecting America and protecting our border while we try to 
protect American jobs.
  There is much ahead and that will lie ahead in the new term and with 
a new administration. We can act with certainty now for at least the 
funding for next year if we acted, and we acted with a long-term CR.
  I could elaborate on more, but, please, let's do our job. Let's work 
together. There are still a few days where we could get this done the 
right way.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to conclude my 
remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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