Department Of Defense Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, it is hard to think of a time in recent memory when the number of threats facing our country were more diverse or more threatening than they are now--from ISIL to Russia, from China to the Taliban, from Iran to Al Qaeda. These threats are real, these threats are worrying, and these threats make the political games that Democrats continue to play with our men and women in uniform all the more hard to understand.

Democrats have spent months upon months blocking funding for our troops. They have tried to hide behind a whirling kaleidoscope of excuses, moving from one to another as each is debunked, but with the setting of a top-line budget number last week, the final excuse is gone. What is the excuse now?

It is time for the appropriations process to finally be allowed to move forward. That means it is time for the men and women who put everything on the line for us to finally receive the support they need to be safe. It is time for our troops to finally get the certainty they need to plan for training and operations.

The Defense appropriations bill is half of all discretionary spending. The Defense appropriations bill contains no controversial policy riders--none. The Defense appropriations bill was supported in committee 27 to 3. Nearly every Democrat voted for it. Democrats even sent out press releases praising the bill. It is obvious why we should pass it now.

President Obama's own Secretary of Defense just wrote an op-ed titled ``U.S. Military Needs Budget Certainty in Uncertain Times'' in which he implored Congress to authorize long-term funding for the military.

He said:

In this uncertain security environment, the U.S. military needs to be agile and dynamic. What it has now is a straitjacket. At the Defense Department, we are forced to make hasty reductions when choices should be considered carefully and strategically.

He concluded with this:

I appeal to Congress to act on a long-term budget deal that will let American troops and their families know we have the commitment and resources to see them succeed, and send a global message that the United States will continue to plan and build for the finest fighting force the world has ever known.

So look, our colleagues across the aisle are just completely out of excuses. It is time to move the bill forward. Once we do, we have every intention of then moving on to other appropriations bills as well.

Remember, our Members worked very hard on these bills. Nearly all of the appropriations measures passed committee with support from both parties. We obviously want to process all of them.

If Democrats hadn't wasted literally months blocking every last one as part of some political game, we could have passed all 12 appropriations bills a long time ago, but since they did, it has forced Congress up against a December 11 deadline of the Democrats' own creation. We are going to work within that deadline to get as much done as we possibly can. With bipartisan cooperation, we can get a lot more accomplished. With more political games, we can get a lot less done.

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