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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Madam President, today, I would like to discuss one of the many critical topics we face in the country, in the Congress, in the Senate--Federal spending. We are certainly focused upon the issues that we are trying to bring together in regard to an emergency supplemental, in regard to supporting Ukraine and Israel, combatting China in the South Pacific and around the globe, Iran terrorist activities, and, as the gentleman from my neighboring State of Nebraska indicated, issues involving our national security at our own borders.

Today, I want to take just a step back and indicate that we were on a path and I wish we would get back on a path of making certain that the appropriations bills that the Senate Committee on Appropriations has considered, amended, and approved are brought to the Senate floor.

There are 12 appropriations bills annually. The full committee has considered all 12 and passed all 12, but the Senate, this body, which is again using this week to consider nominations, still has all but three of those bills yet to consider. It is important that Federal spending is provided to keep our government open and functioning and functioning and open for the American people.

This topic has dominated a lot of conversations nationally now for months. We are operating under a continuing resolution that funds the Federal Government at its current level until mid-January or early February, when that current continuing resolution then expires.

I certainly support the efforts of Senator Collins and Senator Murray, the vice chairman and the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. I support their work. It is my hope that Leader Schumer will allow those appropriations bills and that process to continue. Three out of twelve is insufficient, and the consequences of our failure to address the remaining bills are consequential.

When considering appropriations bills, it is critical that, in my view, two core principles are established. First is that we must get our Federal spending under control. We borrow way too much money. The consequence will come to haunt us economically. Our ability to respond to national security issues is diminished when our spending is out of line with our revenues. Second, it is our duty to draft appropriations bills that are judicious, responsible, carefully tailored, and that we establish priorities and determine what the Nation's highest priorities are for the coming or current fiscal year.

Congress must start this work immediately and not wait for the final moments, not wait until the middle of January or the beginning of February. Otherwise, we are on a path once again to another continuing resolution or, as we said we would not do again, a significant and huge omnibus in which these bills are all packaged together, reducing transparency, reducing the understanding of not only members of the American public but reducing the capability of U.S. Senators to fully understand the nature of the bill and not giving the opportunity for my colleagues who don't serve on the Appropriations Committee to amend and alter the bills that our committee has approved.

A CR puts spending on auto pilot. It is the antithesis, it is the opposite of what these principles involve. The idea that the Federal Government should be funded next year at the same level as last year is wrong, and it is wrong that the same amount of funding ought to go to each program. Some things maybe ought to be eliminated. There are some things I know that should be eliminated. There are things that maybe are receiving the right amount of money. There may be things that are deserving, as the priorities change, of additional spending.

The best hope to avoid another CR and to avoid a much criticized omnibus spending bill at the end is to continue the process--the process we started on fiscal year 2024 appropriations bills, to consider them on the Senate floor and to move them forward.

Over the past 9 months, the Senator from New Hampshire, Senator Shaheen, and I have worked to craft the appropriations bill for the subcommittee that we lead called Commerce, Justice, Science and to balance those two core principles: fiscal responsibility with thoughtful allocation of scarce resources.

The CJS bill, one of 12--one of those bills that have yet to be considered on the Senate floor, the Commerce-Justice-Science bill-- provides funding for a host of Federal Agencies that play a critical role in the lives of every single American and certainly every single Kansan: the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, NASA, the National Weather Service, the National Science Foundation, and just a host of other activities which enjoy broad bipartisan support both here in Congress and among the American people.

With respect to fiscal responsibility, this bill, Commerce-Justice- Science for fiscal year 2024, cuts budget authority--actual Federal spending--by $1.3 billion compared to the amount of money that was enacted in the previous fiscal year, fiscal year 2023. That is about an amount equal to 1.5--1\1/2\ percent below the current level of spending. So we are cutting spending in our appropriations process.

American families face painful cuts and challenges in their own budgets, and I think they can expect--or ``should expect'' is the way I guess I would say it--should expect government to prove that it can make the same kinds of difficult decisions. The fiscal year 2024 CJS bill crafted by Senator Shaheen and me delivers on that obligation, and I thank my colleagues on our Appropriations subcommittee, both Republicans and Democrats, for working together to accomplish that goal.

In Congress, every once in a while, we have a vote on the penny plan, the seemingly impossible to achieve notion that we should at least be able to cut Federal spending by 1 percent, one penny out of a dollar. Senator Shaheen and I have found a way to make that a penny and a half, a little more than 1 percent--1.5 percent. That is a savings of more than $1.3 billion.

The second core principle that I approach in the appropriations process is that Congress must make careful and deliberate decisions about how we allocate resources. Our opportunity to do that comes from certainly the assistance of our experts in our budget arena but also a significant number of hearings in front of the committee in which people have the opportunity to come highlight each Agency, each Department, their budget priorities, and give us a chance to ask questions and to pursue what the right balance is. We owe that obligation--making the right decisions--to the American taxpayer.

There are also areas that are vitally important where we from time to time include increases where appropriate to address new threats, new challenges, and new areas that are critical to the United States in our maintaining our competitive edge and our national security.

For example, in the fiscal year 2024 CJS bill, we provide resources to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST--home to some of the world's best scientists--to ensure that we understand both the promise and the pitfalls of artificial intelligence.

NASA stands on the verge of returning the first humans--perhaps, in this case, it sounds like the first woman--to the Moon in over 50 years. It was vitally important that we provide NASA with the resources necessary to execute the Artemis mission. There may be those who would say that is not a priority, but the Chinese would like nothing more than to beat us back to the Moon and to become the world's preeminent space power. We will not--should not--allow that to be the case.

The National Weather Service needs to recapitalize its weather satellites. These satellites are vital to people in Kansas as we predict the weather and determine the safety and economic well-being of our State. They are vital to determining new severe weather patterns, and they will save lives.

These examples are just a few of why it is important that we have an annual appropriations process to make the changes to address things that Americans care about and to deal with the things that have changed in our lives across the country.

America's needs and priorities are not static, they are not the same, nor should government's decisions on how to spend taxpayer dollars be, either.

This bill, the fiscal year 2024 CJS bill, even in the context of its savings, still manages to make responsible investments to address the newest and most important challenges facing our country.

I want to spend a moment longer on discussing the funding and oversight of the Department of Justice.

Crime. Crime across the country is increasing. It is a problem for almost every American and certainly every American family, and it is deserving of being prioritized by the U.S. Senate, the Congress, and the administration.

Like many Americans, I have serious concerns with many of the policies coming from the Biden Department of Justice. Many new regulations issued by ATF threaten to trample core constitutional rights and are often a solution in search of a problem. DOJ's investigative priorities are often designed to satisfy the loudest activist rather than the everyday American and their real concern, including skyrocketing violent crime across the country and in the State of Kansas. Crime is affecting even our safest communities, and Kansans and Americans are concerned about what Washington is doing to keep their families safe.

Fentanyl is also a crisis--has been and continues to be and grows. It is a growing crisis in our country. This is not just an assertion; again, the numbers speak for themselves.

After a year in which more than 100,000 Americans lost their lives to fentanyl and with the highest increase in deaths among infants over 1 year old, President Biden's budget for DOJ requires hiring only four new DEA special agents, the Drug Enforcement Agency's agents. Yet the President's budget request indicates that the DOJ needs more than 1,200--one thousand two hundred--new attorneys, primarily at the division that files civil lawsuits.

The DOJ's priorities have been and are misguided. When I became the top Republican--the chairman--on the CJS subcommittee, I made it a priority to meet with countless DEA, FBI, and ATF special agents, deputy U.S. marshals, prison correctional officers, intelligence analysts, and prosecutors in the field. I am immensely impressed by their professionalism, their courage, and their dedication to keeping the American people safe. Indiscriminate, thoughtless budget cuts will result in fewer deputy marshals to apprehend violent fugitives, fewer FBI agents to investigate terrorists and intelligence threats from China, fewer DEA agents to combat the Mexican cartels, fewer Federal prosecutors not just to arrest violent criminals but to send them to prison.

Instead of defunding Federal law enforcement, we should use the appropriations process to prioritize and to make deliberate and judicious decisions about the Department of Justice's priorities. This means providing funding for the core activities critical to public safety while rejecting these proposals that make less sense or no sense from the Biden administration.

To that end, the CJS bill cuts funding for the Department of Justice by $817 million--a more than 2-percent cut. Within that amount, funding for the FBI's construction account is cut by $591 million. These are exactly the types of careful cuts we were able to achieve while maintaining the jobs of thousands of agents and intelligence analysts and others who help us combat violent crimes, child predators, Mexican cartels, and foreign intelligence agents.

Additionally, in working with my Republican colleagues on the committee, we were able to address some of the worst errors and abuses by the DOJ in recent years. During the committee markup, I secured new legislative language to prohibit funding for the investigation of parents who peacefully protest school board meetings--a DOJ initiative epitomized by the outrageous school board memo. Senator Rubio, my colleague from Florida, secured new legislative language prohibiting the Department from targeting Americans for their religious beliefs.

To my colleagues who have deep reservations about the policies of the Department of Justice, know that I share those concerns; yet I believe we have prepared a responsible bill that makes meaningful investments in the Department of Justice and its law enforcement mission. The CJS appropriations bill is a credible demonstration of fiscal responsibility while making judicious and careful investments in programs and services that Americans strongly support.

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