Congressman David E. Price (NC-04), Ranking Member of the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, released the following statement on the Fiscal Year 2017 Continuing Resolution (CR).
I am pleased that the CR includes significant funding for disaster relief, which will help ensure that North Carolina has the resources it needs to recover and rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. As our state's only member of the House Appropriations Committee, securing this funding has been my top priority since the storm, and I am grateful for the bipartisan cooperation of Governor McCrory, Governor-elect Cooper, Senator Tillis, and other colleagues in the congressional delegation throughout this process.
Unfortunately, the CR also contains an assortment of partisan provisions that would block workforce and safety protections for commercial truck drivers, continue the ideological attack on women's health, and maintain the senseless ban on gun violence research. It also includes an unprecedented waiver for President-elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense. Whatever the merits of this nomination, setting aside the seven-year waiting period designed to protect civilian control of the military deserves more deliberation and debate than this CR provides.
Overall, this CR represents an unfortunate decision by House Republican leadership to abandon the appropriations bills we negotiated on a bipartisan basis in favor of yet another stopgap measure. As we enter a period of political uncertainty, I hope that we can commit in future fiscal years to an appropriations process that allows us to exercise responsible judgment about the budget and make the long-term investments that a great country must make.