[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7495-7497]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            VOTE EXPLANATION

 Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for the 
vote on the motion to concur in the House message to accompany H.R. 
244.
  On vote No. 121, had I been present, I would have voted yea on the 
motion to concur in the House message to accompany H.R. 244.
  I want to take a few minutes to acknowledge today's bipartisan 
passage of the Omnibus appropriations bill to fund the government 
through the end of the 2017 fiscal year. While I am disappointed that 
the bill's passage comes more than halfway through the fiscal year, the 
bill that was sent to the President today is the product of months of 
bipartisan work by the appropriations committees on both sides of 
Capitol Hill and represents how Congress should and can work together 
to provide the American people with critical investments that will 
create jobs and grow our Nation's economy. It is my hope that the 
bipartisan cooperation that made this bill possible will continue as 
Congress begins its work on appropriations for fiscal year 2018.
  This bill includes critical investments in the middle class, our 
Nation's infrastructure, medical and scientific research, and our 
national security. I am proud to report that much of the funding in 
this bill will benefit my home State of Illinois, funding a wide 
variety of Illinois projects and priorities. Most importantly, it takes 
the threat of a government shutdown, which would have hurt our economy, 
off the table.
  This bill fully rejects President Trump's proposed assault on medical 
research and instead includes a $2 billion increase for the National 
Institutes of Health, or NIH, bringing the agency's funding level to 
$34.1 billion. This 6 percent increase in NIH funding matches the 
steady, predictable growth called for in legislation I have introduced 
over the past several years, the American Cures Act.
  Thanks to the NIH, we have cut the cancer death rate by 11 percent in 
women and 19 percent in men. HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence. 
Polio and smallpox are all but eradicated in this country. We are 
closer than ever to developing a universal influenza vaccine, to 
rebuilding parts of the human heart without needing to rely on 
transplants, and to finding new and effective therapies to delay the 
onset of neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. These 
medical breakthroughs will not happen without sustained, robust Federal 
funding for medical research supported by the NIH.
  President Trump's disastrous budget proposals for fiscal years 2017 
and 2018 would have slashed NIH's budget by nearly 20 percent, bringing 
NIH to its lowest funding level in 15 years. I am pleased that Congress 
came together on a bipartisan basis to protect the NIH, and I want to 
thank my colleague Senator Blunt, chairman of the Labor, Health and 
Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee, for 
his efforts to provide this vital funding. I will be working hard to 
ensure that NIH gets another significant funding increase for fiscal 
year 2018.
  While I am encouraged that this bill includes $7.3 billion for the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, it is my hope that 
Congress will find a way to work together on a bipartisan basis to 
provide the CDC with even greater funding increases in the years to 
come.
  The CDC has so many important responsibilities--from combating 
prescription drug abuse and fighting infectious disease outbreaks 
globally to preventing diabetes and protecting patients from antibiotic 
resistant superbugs. It is imperative that we provide this agency with 
the funding necessary to protect the public health.
  Chairman Cole is a strong champion of CDC funding, and it is my hope 
that we can work together on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to plus-up 
overall CDC funding in the coming years.
  I am pleased that harmful tobacco riders that would have severely 
undermined the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA's, ability to 
protect our Nation's youth from harmful, addictive tobacco products 
were not included in this bill. By omitting these terrible policy 
riders, the FDA can continue to regulate cigars and ecigarettes. I have 
said it before and I will say it again: I remain troubled that Big 
Tobacco continues to market and develop products aimed at getting youth 
addicted to tobacco.
  This bill includes more than $1 billion to help combat our Nation's 
prescription opioid and heroin epidemic. This funding will be available 
to States and local communities to help with prevention, enforcement, 
treatment, and recovery. In 2015, more than 33,000 people in the United 
States died from an opioid overdose. To combat this epidemic, we must 
commit proper funding and resources toward solving the problem. This 
bill begins to do that.

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  I am proud that this bill increases funding to support critical 
transportation infrastructure projects in Illinois, despite President 
Trump's calls to eliminate funding for some of our most important 
transportation programs. The capital investment grant program, which 
President Trump has proposed to eliminate, allows communities to 
compete for funding to build and improve subway, commuter rail, light 
rail, bus rapid transit projects through New Starts, Small Starts, and 
Core Capacity grants. This program was increased by $236 million in 
this bill to $2.4 billion with $100 million in Core Capacity funds 
specifically allocated to help fund the Chicago Transit Authority's 
modernization of the red and purple lines.
  The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, TIGER, 
grant program, which Illinois has relied on repeatedly to help fund 
transit, highway, and bridge projects throughout our State, was also 
protected from elimination in this bill. As a result of bipartisan 
support for this program, Illinois will now be able to compete for the 
$500 million in TIGER funds included in this bill.
  Funding for federal highway and transit formula grants to States was 
increased in this bill to the full funding levels authorized in the 
2015 bipartisan FAST Act. As a result, $43.2 billion in highway 
funding, a $905 million increase, and $9.3 billion in transit funding, 
a $753 million increase, will be provided to States around the country 
to improve and maintain their roads and public transportation. Federal 
funding comprises 80 percent of the funds included in the Illinois 
Department of Transportation's multiyear highway improvement program.
  This bill also includes critical funding to improve freight and 
passenger rail around the country. Nowhere is this more important than 
in Illinois, our Nation's rail hub. And $98 million in newly authorized 
rail safety and state of good repair grants was included in the bill, 
as well as $1.495 billion in nationwide funding for Amtrak, which 
commuters in both Chicago and downstate Illinois rely on every day to 
get to their schools and jobs. By providing adequate funding to Amtrak, 
more than 500 communities in 46 States across the country will continue 
to see improved passenger rail service.
  The bill allocates $150 million in funding to provide rural areas 
with reliable air service through the Essential Air Service program. 
This funding supports critical air service in Quincy, Decatur, and 
Marion, IL.
  This agreement provides $1.3 billion to permanently extend the health 
benefits of more than 22,000 retired coal miners and widows, including 
nearly 2,000 in Illinois. Coal mining is difficult and dangerous work, 
and these men and women who spent decades working in these mines risked 
their lives, health, and personal safety to ensure that our country had 
power. I heard countless heartbreaking stories from Illinois coal 
miners and their families about the fear and uncertainty they were 
facing if they lose their health benefits. While this bill does not 
provide relief for the miners' failing pension fund, they can find 
comfort in knowing they will have health care for life.
  As vice chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I am 
particularly proud of the bipartisan work that was done in the 
subcommittee to provide critical equipment and training for our troops, 
as well as funds to continue the fight against terrorist threats like 
ISIL. I want to thank Chairman Thad Cochran and his staff for working 
with my staff and me on a bipartisan basis to finalize this section of 
the bill.
  The bill provides a pay raise for military and civilian personnel, 
including those in Illinois. It continues the subcommittee's track 
record of providing 5 percent real growth in lifesaving medical 
research and makes critical boosts in broader science and technology 
research.
  It also provides important defense funding with particular impact in 
Illinois. It supports well-paying manufacturing jobs by adding $110 
million to extend the Humvee production line at Rock Island Arsenal and 
$979 million to extend the F-18 production line in St. Louis for 
downstate Illinois. It also provides $140 million to stabilize rates at 
all three Army arsenals. Finally, it adds $9.9 million not requested in 
the budget to ensure National Guard cyber protection teams in Illinois 
and across the country are fully funded.
  The omnibus bill does not include any funding for a wall on our 
southern border. Mexico will not pay for a border wall as the President 
promised during last year's campaign, and it is absurd to suggest that 
the American people should now be stuck with the bill. Texas Republican 
Congressman Will Hurd, whose district covers 800 miles of the southwest 
border, has described the wall as ``the most expensive and least 
effective way to secure the border.'' Senate Democrats on the Homeland 
Security Committee estimate this wall will cost nearly $70 billion to 
build and $150 million a year to maintain. Even the Trump 
administration acknowledges the wall will cost $21.6 billion, not 
including maintenance.
  While the Trump administration demanded $3 billion in additional 
funding for immigration enforcement, congressional Democrats succeeded 
in cutting this amount in half. I am pleased that the omnibus does not 
include any funding for President Trump's plan to triple the number of 
immigration agents. This unnecessary and prohibitively expensive goal 
would help the administration target 8 million undocumented immigrants 
who are now priorities for deportation under Trump administration 
policy. This ignores the reality that the vast majority of undocumented 
immigrants in our country are law-abiding individuals who make 
important economic contributions and have deep roots in our country.
  Democrats also successfully resisted a rider that would have deprived 
communities around the country--including Chicago in my home State of 
Illinois--of billions of dollars in critical Federal funding if they 
refuse to take part in the Trump administration's mass deportation 
scheme.
  The bill also includes important new oversight measures for U.S. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detention operations. 
While some additional detention funding may have been needed to address 
the surge in border crossings at the end of 2016, it appears that a 
reduction in ICE's detention budget will be appropriate in fiscal year 
2018, given the sharp decline in border crossings this year.
  I am disappointed that the bill includes a problematic rider that 
circumvents regular legislative order to permit the Trump 
administration to potentially double the number of foreign guest 
workers who could be admitted to the United States under the H-2B visa 
program without needed safeguards. I have long advocated for reform of 
the H-2B program, which in its current form harms both American and 
foreign workers. We should not increase the size of the H-2B program 
unless and until the program is reformed to protect workers from 
exploitation. I am particularly concerned that this rider gives the 
Trump administration the authority to determine how many additional H-
2B visas will be issued since President Trump owns companies that have 
sought to import more than 900 H-2B guest workers, including 64 in 
fiscal year 2017 alone, while turning away hundreds of American 
workers. I will be closely monitoring the administration's 
implementation of this provision, which only permits additional visas 
to be issued if the Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation 
with the Secretary of Labor, determines that the needs of American 
businesses cannot be met by qualified American workers.
  While not perfect, this bill exemplifies what Congress can do if it 
puts politics aside to work together and come to a bipartisan consensus 
for the good of the American people. I support the passage of this 
Omnibus appropriations bill. While we now face a much shortened 
timeline to complete the appropriations process for the next fiscal 
year, I am hopeful that the bipartisan cooperation exemplified by this 
bill will continue.

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