Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I rise as the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee to urge my colleagues to vote no on the motion to proceed to the Energy and Water appropriations bill.

I wish to comment about the remarks of the Senator from Tennessee. First of all, I have such admiration for him and for his advocacy for Tennessee, the skilled legislator that he is. He has been an advocate for his State and for the United States of America. He is an outstanding chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. I know he and my colleague, the ranking member, Senator Feinstein, have worked very well together.

I don't dispute many of the things the Senator said in terms of what impact this would have on the economy. Certainly, if one is the Senator from Maryland, the Corps of Engineers is part of our economy, particularly because of the role it plays in helping to keep our waterways open and able for the Port of Baltimore to be viable and accept the new Panama Canal shipments. We could go through item after item.

We need a bipartisan budget agreement. While the Senator says he wants to have his say, which I appreciate, we have been trying to get budget negotiations going since May. In the committee I voted to move this bill forward because I wanted to move the process forward. I was hoping that the leadership of both bodies would move to a new top line 302(b) allocation and lift the caps. We need leadership on both sides of the aisle and on both sides of the dome. We wanted that five months ago, yet here we are for yet another parliamentary maneuver that just pits well intentioned, hard-working people against each other over process. We need a new top line so we can have a better bottom line for our national security and our economic security.

I am deeply worried that the trajectory we are on is hollowing out our America, that we are hollowing out the much-needed infrastructure that we need, part of which comes from the Army Corps of Engineers, which includes our waterways.

Look at the whole issue of dam safety. Our colleagues in South Carolina now are worried about the rivers. The Corps of Engineers is working 36-hour days with Governor Haley to really try to help South Carolina. But we need investments in our infrastructure, not only for crisis response. And by the way, of course we are going to stand with the people of South Carolina to help them. We need to be able to cancel sequester, and we need to be able to do it for defense and for nondefense.

In the Energy and Water bill that is before us, the increases are in the defense side. Some of the national security issues have been outlined by the Senator from Tennessee. But in the area of nondefense, it has just gone up a couple of hundred million dollars--excuse me, $8 million. The bill is short on infrastructure and it is short on research funding.

Now, I believe we should have a sensible approach to spending. I know that we agree with the budget caps, but these budget caps are placing a cap on our national security. They are placing a cap also on our compelling infrastructure needs that every State is crying out for. The Senator from Tennessee knows the requests have come his way, along with Senator Feinstein.

We are also capping innovation. We need to be able to have more breakthroughs, whether it is in life science--we had a wonderful hearing yesterday that we both attended regarding the breakthroughs at NIH, but we need breakthroughs in energy.

We need to maintain our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We need the Corps of Engineers to have the resources it needs for flood control, waterways, and harbors. My port depends upon it.

We also need adequate funding for the cleanup of uranium enrichment plants such as in Portsmouth, OH, where 500 workers will lose their jobs.

We need to stop talking and engaging in parliamentary dueling.

My hope is to encourage our leadership to come up with a new budget deal that lifts the caps so that the Senate appropriations committees can get on with their job.

I have worked now with our colleague, the full committee chairman, Senator Cochran. The Senator from Mississippi, a gentleman of the old school, has done a good, solid job running the committee. As to the chairman that we have worked with, we feel we have good relations. But it is not how well we get along; it is how much we get done. And the way to get it done this year is to be able to lift the budget caps, come up with a sensible agreement with appropriate offices, and then let's let the appropriators do our job.

I wish to say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, we do look forward to working with you, but when all is said and done, we want to get more done than we get said.

I yield the floor.

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