Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present H.J. Res. 124, a short-term continuing resolution to keep the doors of the Federal Government open after the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
H.J. Res. 124 is a critical measure that ensures that hardworking Americans continue to have access to the government programs and the services they rely on and helps avoid the unnecessary uncertainty and economic harm caused by the threat of a government shutdown.
The bill continues government operations at the current rate of $1.012 trillion into the next fiscal year and lasts
until December 11, 2014. That level is in line with the Ryan-Murray budget agreement that this House approved last year.
My committee sought to draft a responsible, restrained bill that does not include controversial riders and does not seek to change existing Federal policies; however, it does make several very limited adjustments to prevent catastrophic or irreversible damage to critical government programs to address pressing global crises that have surfaced in recent months or to ensure good government.
These are changes I believe all of my colleagues can and should support. These include provisions, Mr. Speaker, that, one, increase funding at the Department of Veterans Affairs to help deal with the disability claims backlog and further investigations into wait-list allegations; two, to boost funding for Ebola research and response; three, to provide some funding flexibility within CBP and ICE to meet border security needs; and, four, to continue a surge in funding for State Department programs that help counter regional aggression against Ukraine and other former Soviet states. Each of these provisions is funded within the total discretionary funding level of $1.012 trillion.
The CR will also extend authority for certain laws currently in place such as the Internet Tax Freedom Act for the duration of the CR and the Export-Import Bank through June 30 of next year.
Later, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee will offer an amendment to this bill to address the President's request for the authority to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight ISIL. This critical amendment will address an issue of great importance to our national security, and attaching it to this continuing resolution will allow its enactment within a swift timeframe.
It does not involve any new or additional funding for these activities. I hope that my colleagues in the House will support the adoption of that amendment.
Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill, but we cannot address each and every aspect of Federal agency budgets within the scope of a continuing resolution like this one. These line-by-line budget decisions must be made in full-year regular appropriations legislation.
I am very proud, Mr. Speaker, that the House made great strides toward completing this vital work, which is our constitutional duty, by approving 11 out of 12 appropriations bills in committee and seven of them on the floor of the House, all before the August recess, dealing with some 400 amendments to those seven bills on the House floor.
The House made a good faith effort to complete all of these bills, but, unfortunately, the Senate has failed to approve a single appropriations bill which is why we are at this point today in trying to pass a continuing resolution.
It is high time that the Senate leadership allows us to complete critical legislation to fund the entire Federal Government in an up-to-date, line-by-line way in regular order.
This continuing resolution will allow us the time, hopefully, to do just that; however, as we move forward, we cannot and should not continue to fall back on stopgap funding bills like this one.
These lurching short-term bills only postpone the tough budget decisions, heighten our Nation's mistrust of Congress, and cause uncertainty within our Federal agencies and the economy.
At this point, though, the best way to avoid causing serious damage to the country is to pass this continuing resolution. It is our most clear path forward. It allows us the time we need to draft bicameral pieces of legislation that reflect our real and urgent budgetary requirements and utilize our Nation's taxpayer dollars in the most responsible, representative way.
Before I close these remarks, Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the service and hard work of the staff of the committee on both sides of the aisle, but I especially want to acknowledge the service and hard work of the clerk of the Defense Subcommittee, Tom McLemore.
Over his years on this committee he has been an integral member of the staff, no more so than his time as Defense clerk. Sadly, this will be his last bill before he moves on to greener pastures, and we will miss him a great deal. So I want to thank Tom for his service to this committee and to the Nation.
With that said, Mr. Speaker, we have just under 2 weeks left until the end of the fiscal year on September 30, so I ask that the House pass H.J. Res. 124 today without delay. I also urge the Senate to pass this bill and submit it to the President for his signature as soon as possible.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I think, as has been said here numerous times by people on both sides of the aisle, we regret that we are having to bring a continuing resolution to the floor to continue the government over the end of the fiscal year. But that is because we attempted on the House side, on both sides of the aisle, to pass all 12 of these individual appropriations bills. And we were on our way to passing all of them until the Senate decided they weren't going to take any of them up, and they haven't. So it left us no choice but to ask for a continuing resolution to keep the government's lights on until December 11, by which time, hopefully, we will be able to cobble together an omnibus appropriations bill for all of the government for all of next year.
So that is where we are. We really have no choice. I don't think either side wants to shut down the government. Certainly on this side, we do not. So the necessity is that we pass this bill.
Now, the amendment coming up, on giving the President the authority to establish training bases and equip fighters in Syria, is all important, an amendment that I certainly support and welcome into the appropriations bill.
So, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from New York (Mrs. Lowey) for her hard work on these bills all year long, and all of the staff and all of the members of the committee on both sides of the aisle. We are a committee that abhors continuing resolutions, yet we are faced with no choice but to try to pass one.
So I urge my colleagues to support the continuing resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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