[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15210-15211]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
                          THE 2018 FISCAL YEAR

  (Mr. ROTHFUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROTHFUS. Mr. Speaker, this coming Sunday is new year's day, the 
start of the Federal Government's 2018 fiscal year.
  Several weeks ago, Congress passed and the President signed a 
temporary spending bill to carry the government through December 8. 
This temporary bill was necessary because, although the House passed 
its spending bills, the Senate did not.
  One of the more glaring problems with the CR is that it continues the 
years' long practice of shortchanging our defenses and the men and 
women in our military. Defense spending and defense policy are frozen, 
and the changes this House has insisted on in both the Defense 
Authorization Act and the Defense Appropriations bill are stalled, to 
the detriment of our defenses and our men and women in uniform.
  Secretary Mattis has written, ``Long-term CRs impact the readiness of 
our forces and their equipment at a time when security threats are 
extraordinarily high. The longer the CR, the greater the consequences 
for our force.''
  The risks are real, Mr. Speaker. We see threats growing daily from 
North Korea and Iran. The fight continues against ISIS and against 
terror in Afghanistan, and now we need to deploy urgently needed 
resources to Puerto Rico. There is no need to wait until December 8 to 
get a full-year Defense Appropriations bill. I call on the Senate to 
act promptly next week even and get our troops funded.

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