Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, on November 18, exactly a month from now, the current law that permits funding of the government will expire. Something will have to be enacted in its place since it is clear to all of us, I believe, that we will not have passed and sent to the President all of the appropriations bills by that time.

The normal procedure for enacting funding bills is for them to originate in the House of Representatives and be passed there, and then they come to the Senate for consideration and get passed here.

I come to the floor today to urge that before the expiration of the current continuing resolution; that is, before November 18, the House enact and send to the Senate a funding bill which extends funding to the end of the current fiscal year, which is September 30, 2012. My simple point is that, in my view, it is irresponsible for us to continue funding the government just a few weeks at a time.

Already this year, we experienced a near shutdown of the Federal Government in April, a near default on the country's debt in August, a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration in August, and another near shutdown of the Federal Government 3 weeks ago because of a dispute over disaster funding. These repeated ``Perils of Pauline'' scenarios have understandably shaken the confidence of Americans about their government and, more particularly, about this Congress.

This government-generated uncertainty also has real economic consequences. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said:

The negotiations that took place over the summer disrupted financial markets and probably the economy as well, and similar events in the future could, over time, seriously jeopardize the willingness of investors around the world to hold U.S. financial assets or to make direct investments in job-creating U.S. businesses.

So these are self-inflicted wounds that the economy can ill afford, and reducing the risk of them occurring in the future would provide a modicum of certainty to businesses in this country and throughout the world.

Congress can readily eliminate the risk of a government shutdown during this fiscal year simply by enacting a full-year continuing resolution. The sad reality is that in recent years the Congress has more and more relied on short-term funding bills or so-called continuing resolutions to keep the government functioning while we try to reach agreement on appropriations levels.

So some would ask, why are the circumstances different this year? They are different for the simple reason that we have already settled on the level of funding for the government. The Budget Control Act of 2011 that was enacted in August set the spending levels for the Federal Government for this year and for each of the next 9 years. These spending levels were passed with large bipartisan majorities in both Chambers. Here in the Senate, the vote was 74 to 26. Therefore, enacting a full-year continuing resolution that sets Federal spending at that level should not be controversial.

We should not have to rehash the debate on spending levels every few months. Adopting a full-year continuing resolution would free up valuable time in Congress to work on other legislation intended to create jobs and to help the economy.

A full-year continuing resolution also allows the government to operate more efficiently than it can under a series of short-term continuing resolutions. Short-term continuing resolutions make it difficult for Federal agencies to enter into construction contracts, such as to build or repair roads, or to enter into long-term supply contracts that are often less expensive than short-term supply contracts. In other words, short-term continuing resolutions delay critical projects and increase the overall cost to taxpayers. Adopting a full-year continuing resolution would address both of these problems.

It is clear that passing a long-term continuing resolution does nothing to preclude Congress from going ahead and passing individual appropriations bills as they are agreed upon. Stan Collender, a respected budget expert, has written about this issue. I will quote from an article he wrote. He said:

If the tried and true procedure is used, the CR will simply stop applying to the departments and agencies when the separate appropriation is signed. In appropriations-speak, those covered by the individual spending bill will ``disengage'' from the CR.

The only argument I have heard against passing a continuing resolution for the rest of the year is the argument that doing so will take away the pressure on the appropriations committees and the Congress to pass the remaining appropriations bills. That is essentially an argument to force those of us in Congress to do what we ought to do; that is, to pass appropriations bills. In order to do our basic job, do we need to subject the rest of the government and the country to a series of threatened shutdowns? And especially, do we need to do that at a time when we have already agreed on spending levels?

I question this argument. It seems to me that both parties--Democrats and Republicans--and particularly the appropriators both in the House and the Senate have substantial incentive to reach agreement and pass appropriations bills whether a yearlong continuing resolution has been adopted or not. And if it were true that passing a yearlong continuing resolution would lessen the incentive to complete action on appropriations bills, then so be it. To my mind, the benefit from eliminating the threat of a series of government shutdowns far outweighs any disadvantage that might result from failure to pass full appropriations bills.

So, to me, the conclusions are clear. First, we have already as a Congress agreed on spending levels for the current fiscal year. Second, we should make every effort to pass all the appropriations bills reflecting those spending levels as soon as possible. Third, while we are making that effort to pass the appropriations bills, the responsible course is to pass a continuing resolution that extends to the end of the fiscal year. Here is a chance for us to provide at least a modest degree of predictability for the remaining 11 months of this current fiscal year. I believe we owe it to the American people to do just that.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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