Government Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Senate will complete its work on the continuing resolution today.

We remember watching our Democratic colleagues swerve from crisis to crisis when they ran the Senate. Perhaps that is just all Democrats have known, but it is not right for them to again force America into another short-term funding situation such as this.

We are working to change the culture around here. Our determination remains to get the Senate back to normal, with a functional appropriations process. That is why for the first time in 6 years the Senate actually passed a budget. That is why for the first time in 6 years the Senate actually passed through committee the dozen appropriations bills necessary to properly fund the government.

Now that the CR appears to be on track, we can turn back to the last step in the Senate's normal appropriations process; that is, getting the funding bills passed on the floor. Democrats have blocked them all this year as part of some arbitrary strategy to force our Nation to the brink. They certainly succeeded in doing that, but I think the American people are ready for our colleagues to finally get serious and get back to work. Americans are ready to see Democrats start supporting, not blocking, the very bipartisan funding legislation Democrats previously voted for and bragged about in press releases. Our colleagues will have that opportunity this week when we turn back to the regular appropriations process.

It is true that moving forward will require Democrats to definitively turn the page on years of bad habits and dysfunction, but it is the right thing to do for our country. We will see if they are ready to do so later this week.

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