Granger Remarks During Floor Consideration of H.R. 5860, The Continuing Appropriations Act

Statement

"Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5860, a bill that keeps the government open until November 17th.

While I would rather be here speaking on the floor about final appropriations bills, I want members to understand why passing this short-term funding bill today is so important.

First, I want to explain how we find ourselves in this situation.

Just nine months ago, when Republicans took back the Majority in the House, our commitment was to Regular Order for appropriations.

No more omnibus measures released in the dead of night. No more Christmas Eve votes on thousands of pages of text that Members of Congress had not read.

Unfortunately, there were a few stumbling blocks as we sought to change the process.

For example, the Administration's budget request was more than a month late. It then took months for the President to come to the table on the debt ceiling negotiations.

But, even before the debt ceiling agreement's spending framework was in place, the Appropriations Committee got to work.

In fact, this year we held more than 70 hearings. We reviewed roughly 80,000 requests from Members. We listened, and then we acted.

We began markups in May -- five months ago -- and then made adjustments to reflect changes in the law that set spending caps for the year.

The appropriations bills moved through subcommittee, committee, and the floor.

Even though a few bills have more steps to take in the process, I am proud of the work we have done.

As of today, we have sent 4 appropriations bills to the Senate, totaling roughly 70 percent of funding needed for the year.

The Senate has not sent us any bills yet.

The House has now laid down a marker on what I believe are our highest priorities.

It should be crystal clear to the American people that House Republicans support what is in our national security interests.

Most importantly, we are focused on our troops and our veterans, as well as defending our homeland and our interests abroad. At the same time, the bills we have drafted demonstrate that we must stop government overreach and the out-of-control spending of the last few years.

These are the most conservative appropriations bills in history, and we simply need more time to get our important work done.

While a continuing resolution is not ideal:

It prevents a harmful government shutdown,
It gives us more time to pass the appropriations bills on the floor of the House, and
It allows us to start negotiating final, full-year bills with the Senate.
Yesterday, I voted for a different version of a short-term funding bill that included key border security measures. I strongly support those efforts and will continue to fight for them as this process moves along.

But, today the most important priority is keeping government open while we work on full-year appropriations bills that reflect conservative priorities. Passing this bill is the best way for us to move the process forward.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield the balance of my time."

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