ObamaCare

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise to also speak about the continuing resolution, and I speak in opposition to the continuing resolution.

I just want to say to the Senator from West Virginia that I so respect the leadership role she has played in the Senate. What a diligent Senator she is, in her advocacy for West Virginia and the flood victims who really have not only my sympathy but as the vice chair of the Committee on Appropriations, I would like to be of help to her and to the people of Louisiana and West Virginia, but I would also say we can't leave out Flint, MI. We just can't.

Now, we don't want to ``Christmas tree'' the bill--she and I are experienced legislators--but really, when we think about Flint, imagine living off of bottled water. Imagine trying to run a small business. I don't know if my father who had a small grocery store could have kept it open. I do hope we can put our heads together to come up with a solution, get rid of the poison pill riders, and meet the compelling human needs, as the Senator articulated so well, and find a solution to keeping the doors of government open. Right now we need an open mind in talking with each other, and so I look forward to being able to do that.

Mr. President, I do come here to discuss keeping the government open.

That is really important to me. I have 300,000 Federal employees in Maryland, and they do everything from working at NIH to find a cure for cancer or find a cure for Alzheimer's to working at the weather service so we can provide communities large and small throughout America the information about the weather they need to prepare for everything from natural disasters to planning to prevent our oranges and peaches from freezing on the trees.

The Senate has until Friday of this week to avoid a government shutdown. As I said last week--and I have said many times--Democrats are ready to negotiate. We are willing to compromise, but there are certain things we cannot capitulate on, and Flint, MI, is one.

Last week, the majority leader, the distinguished Senator from Kentucky, Mr. McConnell, filed a Republican continuing funding resolution. The leader has ``filled the tree,'' which is Senate speak for meaning we cannot amend the continuing resolution before us. So we are stuck. We are stuck in the same old ways, with the drama of being so close to the deadline, it can threaten a showdown, a slamdown. This is not where we want to go.

What do Democrats want? Well, we want what the American people should want. No. 1, let us keep the government open through December 9. Now, I am not saying shut it down December 9. I am saying that by December 9, we could come to a complete omnibus bill, meaning our total funding for the fiscal year that lies ahead.

Second, as Americans, we need to look at each other across the aisle, across State borders, and meet compelling, urgent needs, such as Zika, such as the floods in Louisiana and West Virginia and other States, and in Flint, MI.

We need to be free of poison pill riders like the rider preventing the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring companies to tell investors where they are putting their political contributions. What is wrong with that? Shouldn't we have an open and transparent process? We are not asking any company to reveal their trade secrets, but trading in political contributions should not be a trade secret. It is about are you trading, are you ashamed--are you ashamed of your political contribution? Wow. Is that what you want to do? You want to hide it? I don't think that is America. We are not saying to whom companies should give, but they should tell us to whom they did give.

Let us also provide a full year of funding for our veterans and our military construction, most of all for our veterans. Talk about compelling human needs. We are just weeks away from once again celebrating Veterans Day. Celebrating veterans shouldn't be just 1 day a year. It has to be every day of every year.

We have men and women--some of whom have served in the Senate, such as the distinguished Senator from Georgia, Mr. Max Cleland, and others--who come back bearing the permanent wounds of war, and we need to pay and bear the permanent responsibility for caring for those who did serve. We need to be able to back our veterans and not just with lip service and wonderful yellow ribbons. We need to do our duty. We have the funding ready for the defense of the Nation and the things to protect America outside of DOD.

We have agreed on helping with Zika and victims in Louisiana, but the Republican continuing resolution doesn't help Flint, MI, and it includes poison pills. So I want to end the partisan gamesmanship--no shutdowns, no slamdowns, no showdowns. That is why I want to be clear about three changes I strongly recommend.

No. 1, we need Flint, MI, funding. I see the Senator from Michigan is now on the floor. She is a sister social worker, and I so admire her unabashed, unrelenting, unflagging support, particularly for the children and particularly for the small businesses for Flint, MI. She has been so steadfast, unflagging and unrelenting, and we need to be the same way.

We had $220 million for water infrastructure that passed in the Water Resources Development Act on a vote of 95 to 3. Guess what. It is fully paid for. So what is the problem? What is the problem with Flint, MI? When I think about Flint, I think about little children with lead in their drinking water. What does that do? It stifles intellectual development. It inhibits you for the rest of your life from fulfilling your God-given full intention. If we respect life, we should do all we can to sustain it.

Then, think about small businesses. Think about trying to run a business when you don't have water. Water, water, everywhere water, water, but none of it fit to drink. How do you run a little diner? How do you run a little diner or a produce stand?

As I said, my father owned a small grocery store. Everything was spotless. Everything was meticulously clean. He made sure his fruits and vegetables were clean. Everything was clean. He didn't have lead in the water. So let's get on with it.

We know there are people in this country who have been hit by floods.

They have too much water. Flint has too much of the wrong water. We can right that wrong by just joining our hands and understanding compelling human need. It doesn't come from a Democrat or a Republican ZIP Code, it comes from the United States of America, and we should be united in dealing with it.

We should strip out the poison pill riders, such as the SEC political contribution transparency rider. We should reduce the Zika offset package to $375 million. These are reasonable changes that if the Republican caucus is willing to agree, we could pass the continuing resolution today.

I remind my colleagues that when I became the first woman to chair the Committee on Appropriations upon the death of the esteemed Senator Inouye, the funding to respond to Hurricane Sandy was on the floor.
Working together, we were able to pass that bill and meet compelling human need. I would like to be able to do that now.

Throughout my tenure as the chair and vice chair of the Committee on Appropriations, I have lived by the principle that we owe the American people help when disaster strikes. We should respond to Zika that is now affecting 23,000 people, 2,000 pregnant women. We need to help the victims of Louisiana and other States that have been hit. We just saw the terrible things going on in Iowa. We must help the 100,000 people in Flint who are still waiting for the water in their pipes to be clean and their children, being exposed to lead, protected. The people of Flint need help.

We passed the WRDA bill, and we need now to pass a CR that gets rid of poison pill riders, meets compelling human needs in every part of our country, and also makes sure our veteran funding is there to ensure there is no backlog in applying for their disability benefits and no backlog when they try to get to see a doctor.

I am so proud of my Committee on Appropriations that is working with the VA on the veterans bill. We have a wonderful bipartisan bill working to meet the needs of rural veterans and veterans who had to wait in line for mental health needs and the other support we need to help with.

So let's do our job, really. Hello? Let's do our job. I believe there is still time to work this out, but until we do, I oppose cloture on the McConnell substitute.

Mr. President, that concludes my remarks, and I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source