Press Conference with Republican Leaders on Government Shutdown Prevention Act
Press Conference with Republican Leaders on Government Shutdown Prevention Act
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SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, good afternoon, everyone. I'm here today, along with others, to enthusiastically embrace a proposal that Senator DeMint is going to describe in a few moments, related to the situation in which we find ourselves.
Here we are, in the last week of the fiscal year; not a single appropriation bill finished and sent down to the president for signature. I'm sure all of you who have been around here for at least a year remember the comments that were made last year about not getting the appropriations process completed. And here we are with a greater malfunction, if you will, on that issue than we had a year ago. Why is it? I counted up today the number of Iraq votes we've had this year in the House and Senate -- 55 Iraq votes.
I think the public believes all this Congress does is vote on Iraq and have investigations. And here the basic work of government, which is supposed to be completed by the end of the fiscal year, is obviously not going to happen at all.
Instead of bringing legislation to the floor which would fund the day-to-day activities of our government or extend tax relief for working families or to continue to fund defense operations, we've been preoccupied with making political statements about the war.
So the first nine months have been squandered, actually, with an egregious mismanagement of our time. And the basic work of government obviously has not been done. Now, there is some precedent for not getting all the work done by September 30th, but I think this is the worst example I can recall; not a single appropriation bill gone to the president, not one, by the end of the fiscal year.
Senator DeMint has a proposal which we all support, which we think makes sense. And what better week to talk about it than this one. So with that, let me turn it over to Senator DeMint.
SEN. DEMINT: Thank you, Leader. I appreciate everyone coming.
Republicans do not want Congress to threaten the American people with a government shutdown. There are many services, from the national parks to the perceived threat of even losing a Social Security check. But that threat is used almost every year to create a crisis that will force Congress to vote on bills or continuing resolutions that have things in them that we shouldn't be voting on.
We don't want congressmen and senators to have to make a decision whether to vote for a bad bill and too much spending or to vote to close the government down. I've introduced a bill called the Government Shutdown Prevention Act. It was actually an idea that came from Trent Lott back in 1994. It's something that the president supports in every budget he sends over. It's very simple. If we don't get our work done on time, the government continues to operate at last year's budget level.
You'll hear from the other side that we have to have this deadline to get our work done. You'll notice that our deadline constitutionally is October the 1st. You'll also notice that not one of the appropriation bills has been completed.
The deadline does not help us to get our work done. What it does is allow the parties here in Congress to create a crisis that forces us to vote on bills that we shouldn't be voting on.
Americans deserve to have a Congress that functions particularly on spending bills. And we need to work through the process in the next couple of months without the constant threat of a government shutdown.
The Democrats have set a government shutdown date of November the 16th. The continuing resolution that we'll vote on this week will take government through that day. The Democrats have already said they don't expect us to have our work done by November the 16th, and they're setting up a showdown with the president betting that they can blame a government shutdown, or at least that threat, on Republicans.
The point of this bill is to tell all America that we don't want the government to shut down and we don't want there to be that threat. And you see here today a very united leadership team on the Republican side to send that message, and that's something we want to make clear to the American people. We're working out strategies of when we can introduce it on the floor to let people know that it's not the Republicans that want to shut down the government. We want to get our work done.
Trent?
SEN. LOTT: Unfortunately, to put this in football analogies, preseason is over. From here on, the game is real serious. We have spent nine months, as Leader McConnell just pointed out, with the Democratic leadership in the Congress just trying to force through their far left, liberal, partisan agenda. And as a result, we've accomplished almost nothing.
Issues that really affect everyday people's lives are still on hold. What have we done to deal with the energy situation, to deal with energy prices and our dependence on foreign oil? We have a bill that passed both bodies, and then where is it? Nothing has happened.
In instance after instance, including health care, a lot of talk, but we haven't passed the small business health plans. The Democrats want to emphasize the problems with affordability and accessibility. My question is, what have we done about it?
The American people also expect us to be careful with their money. And here at the end of the session, when none of the appropriations bills have passed, this is really all about a game of chicken now. And the people's government should not be a game of chicken. We should control our insatiable appetite for spending.
Right now we've just had a vote on, or a vote is underway now, to have a massive increase in a federal program of $35 billion over the next five years in a distorted way of a program that was intended to help poor low-income children. And yet the Congress has found a way to abuse and violate even that program.
So, you know, we need to make sure that this is not going to be a real contest now. "Okay, well, if you want to fund the nation's parks and the Education Department, you have to accept more money than is necessary to get the job done for the government. Oh, and by the way, we're going to stick a lot of issues into these appropriations bills we couldn't pass in the normal process." That should not happen.
Now, this is not a partisan issue.
Seventeen of the last 30 years, we've had this end-of-the-fiscal- year threats-of-government-shutdown exercise. We shouldn't do it. And so going back to the '90s, when Republicans had control of the Congress and Bill Clinton was in the White House, we advocated this process that would prevent any threat of a shutdown. And the government, frankly, simply would just be funded at the current level until the details were worked out. It would be automatic.
It makes common sense. That's what we're missing in Washington now -- common sense. I was for it in the '90s and I'm for it now, even though the tables are reversed. It is the responsible thing to do. And I commend Senator DeMint and our leadership for trying to do it. And I ask the Democrats, "Look, you want to join in with us on something? You'd like to have some show of bipartisanship? This could be it."
SEN. MCCONNELL: Thanks, Trent. Any questions?
Q How much of this is based on a sort of just fear of reprising what happened in the -- you know, the government shutdown of the mid-'90s, when the Republicans seemed to get most of the blame for it?
SEN. LOTT: Well, frankly, though, of course, the tables are reversed now and it's not a fear of who gets the blame. It's a concern about doing the right thing for the people. To be playing around with whether or not you're going to have the funding or a temporary shutdown and threats and huffing and puffing -- take a look at the polls. The American people want us to find a way to get some things done together for our country and for the working men and women and children of this country. We haven't been doing it. This is a way we can do it.
Q Do you have any Democratic support for it?
SEN. LOTT: I think back in the '90s there was some, but we haven't had any indication of it yet. This is the kind of thing that -- I suspect there will be some Democrats that will say, "Yeah, probably we ought to do this." You know, there are even some Democrats who are beginning to say, "This thing is looking bad. Is there something we can do together?" Yeah, this is it. It's not partisan. This is not going to give anybody an advantage, except maybe if we don't do it, the appropriators of both parties will have certain advantage.
Q Have you heard from the Democratic leadership on this?
SEN. LOTT: I have not.
Have you, chairman -- the chairman of our conference. We're trying to get some momentum going here. I think Senator DeMint had thought we would offer it as an amendment to the automatic continuing resolution -- or to the continuing resolution, if it was not clean and straight or if they tried to add things. We don't think it's been done, so we're going to be looking for an opportunity early to get a vote on this.
Q (Off mike) -- of the DOD authorization, what would save this bill?
SEN. LOTT: I assume that -- well, I assume that the same thing will happen as happened in the past, and that is it'll be dropped in conference. If it is not, it'll probably be vetoed. And as you saw, we have the votes to sustain a veto. It's a terrible exercise. Here again, we're playing games with our men and women in uniform -- their needs for pay, for their wounded, for equipment, for quality of life. We stick a totally unrelated, controversial issue into this bill, which, you know, is going to be a problem if it's not dropped in conference.
Anybody want to add to that?
Q Senator Kyl, are you at all concerned about some of the habeas issues in the DOD authorization? Or -- (off mike) --
SEN. KYL: As a result of the adoption of the hate crimes amendment, ironically, a section of the bill that didn't deal with habeas but it did deal with procedures for detainees has been stricken. That's a good thing. There are no other habeas provisions in the bill, and there shouldn't be. So --
Q You're sure it took it out?
SEN. KYL: Pardon?
Q You're sure it took it out? Senator Kennedy thinks -- (off mike).
SEN. KYL: It did. That's my understanding, and I believe that's correct.
Q Senator Lott?
SEN. LOTT: Yeah.
Q As the Republican leadership does the MRAP funding and the CR and the overall contingency funding for the general DOD --
SEN. LOTT: You know, we probably need to hear from a member of the Armed Services Committee, but I understand there is going to be a pretty substantial increase for MRAP. I don't know the exact amount, but the last time I checked on it --
Q (Off mike.)
SEN. LOTT: Yeah. So that is a significant amount. And my impression is that should cover our needs. We're producing those vehicles in my state as fast as we can, but we need more. And this is a significant increase in that area, which is critical.
Thank you.
SEN. DEMINT: Thanks, everyone.
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