Government Funding
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last night, 77 Senators voted to advance legislation that would keep the government funded through the fall at the bipartisan level agreed to by both parties. The bill hardly represents my preferred method for funding the government, but it is now the most viable way forward after Democrats' extreme action forced our country into this situation.
Let's remember how we got here. Democrats knew the American people were unlikely to buy their desire for more bureaucracy and more debt, but they figured they might in a crisis. So Democrats pursued a deliberate strategy of blocking government funding all year in order to force our Nation to the brink. Democrats said they would block government funding legislation they had even voted for in committee. Some of these bills came out of committee overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis. Democrats said they would block government funding of legislation they had actually praised in their press releases when these bills emerged from the Appropriations Committee with large majorities. Democrats even voted repeatedly to block the bill that funds our military, to repeatedly block the bill that funds medical care and pay raises for our troops. That is how far Democrats are willing to go--at a time of daunting international threats--in order to tear down the normal government funding process and force our country into this situation that we now face.
Well, I am not prepared to let the Democrats lead us over the cliff. The bill before us would keep the government open; it would allow time for cooler heads to prevail. That is why I joined 76 other Senators and voted to advance it yesterday.
But, look, obviously the best way to fund the government is by first passing a budget and then passing appropriations bills. The Senate also passed a budget. The Senate is prepared to pass appropriations legislation too. All that is needed is for Democrats to drop these endless filibusters.
We know that nearly all these funding bills are bipartisan. We know that Democrats and have supported and praised them. And with the CR behind us, we can turn back to the work of trying to pass these appropriations bills.
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