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




                     GOVERNMENT FUNDING LEGISLATION

  Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, while not perfect, this bill includes 
important provisions that will benefit Florida, strengthen our national 
security, increase resources for our national defense and the fight 
against ISIS, and give our military men and women the largest pay raise 
in 6 years.
  Given the threats our Nation faces from the likes of North Korea and 
radical Islamic terrorists, a government shutdown would send exactly 
the wrong message to the world at a time when it is counting on America 
to lead.
  I am pleased to see this bill funds the Department of Defense to 
levels authorized by Congress and includes increases for ship building, 
operations and maintenance, and military readiness. It also 
incorporates the fiscal year 2017 Intelligence Authorization Act, IAA, 
that provides essential guidance and authorities for our intelligence 
community. This year's IAA requires the President to establish an 
interagency committee to counter Russia's active measures against the 
U.S., maintains resources for our intelligence community's 
counterterrorism capabilities, and requires the Director of National 
Intelligence to complete declassification reviews of terrorist 
activities of each individual who has been transferred or released from 
the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
  This bill will ensure Florida can continue combatting the Zika virus 
and the opioid epidemic that is devastating so many families in our 
communities. I am committed to continuing to fight against Zika and 
have begun working with the Senate Appropriations Committee to 
establish an emergency health fund to provide funds for infectious 
outbreaks, like Zika.
  This appropriations bill will also support Everglades restoration and 
improvements to the Herbert Hoover Dike and our State's ports. 
Florida's citrus growers will get the help they need to counter the 
terrible greening that is hurting their crops.
  The bill also includes my legislation to protect public housing 
residents and reform HUD's broken inspection process. I saw firsthand 
the appalling conditions at Eureka Gardens in Jacksonville, Windsor 
Cove Apartments in Orlando, and Stonybrook Apartments in Riviera Beach, 
so I am glad this bill will help ensure the people at these properties 
finally see real changes for the better.
  These provisions make the bill worthy of my support, but as I have 
said before, we cannot continue to run our country in this way, with 
one temporary bill after another. Republicans and Democrats in Congress 
must work together with the Trump administration to restore fiscal 
sanity, set a long-term budget, and address our Nation's unsustainable 
and growing debt.

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