TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, first, I want to begin by congratulating both my chairman and my ranking member for the exceptional job they have done this year in getting all 12 appropriations bills through the full committee for the first time since 2009. So we really have on the Appropriations Committee done our work. Six of those bills have come across the floor.

And, frankly, I think we would have had more across the floor if our friends in the Senate, who are blocked by the Democratic minority, had an opportunity to bring their bills to the floor. I think we are here, in part, because the inaction by the minority in the United States Senate has ground the whole process to a halt.

But I am very pleased to see both my chairman and my ranking member here making the argument to keep the government funded. I think we all know that shutting down the government is always a mistake. It is a political mistake, frankly, for people that want to use it to achieve some political tactic.

But, more importantly, it is simply the wrong thing to do for the American people. They send us here expecting us to get our work done. The fact that some amongst us has kept that from happening is regrettable and I think a disservice to all of our constituents.

I also believe, in this particular case, that we have an opportunity, if we pass this continuing resolution for those that are, as I like to say appropriately, above our pay grade--that is, the President, the Speaker, the majority leader, and the two minority leaders--to have time to negotiate the framework for a larger deal, for a larger understanding, that would allow us to move ahead and actually have an omnibus bill where we actually--not as good as moving it across the floor--but had a large bill where we looked at every line, we made concessions to one another, we made agreements, we moved the ball forward, and it could open up a possibility for a normal appropriations process next year.

In that regard, I was very heartened by Majority Leader McConnell's recent remarks that he is interested in a 2-year deal, somewhat similar to Ryan-Murray in terms of its duration. Again, that would allow this House next year to move appropriations bills across the floor one at a time in a give-and-take bipartisan manner. I think that is extraordinarily important.

If you look at where this committee was at in terms of frozen activity before my good friend, the chairman, became the chairman, he and, again, with my good friend, the gentlewoman from New York, have brought us back a long, long way. If we don't finish that journey in the next 2 1/2 months, we have got several things that are going to happen, the worst of which will be a sequester of $40 billion, roughly, on the American military.

That is an unacceptable outcome. And, frankly, that is something that the Commander in Chief and the respective leaders on both sides of the aisle in this body need to make sure doesn't happen.

I promise you, if the administration, the Senate, and the House can get to a larger agreement, I have no doubt that my chairman and my ranking member and their counterparts in the United States Senate will then introduce a normal negotiating process and we will get to the right place.

So we have a moment, an opening, a little bit of bipartisanship here. I would expect, when this bill is actually voted on, we will have large majorities on both sides of the aisle that actually support it.

So I urge the other Members--again, both Democrat and Republican--to seize this opportunity, to not just focus on where there are differences, but focus here where we have come together, bought the time, and then, frankly, where they can use their influence on both sides of the aisle in both Chambers and with the President to make sure that an adequate deal is arrived at and that we spare the country and certainly the men and women in uniform that defend us each and every day from the agony of dealing with a second sequester.

This is not the time for that to happen. It is a dangerous world. We have not Russia relitigating the borders of Eastern Europe. We have got China building islands in the South China Sea. We have got ISIL having established a caliphate of sorts in the Middle East. We have a dangerous Iran.

The worst thing in the world would be to not do this CR and then not carry it through to a fuller agreement and undercut our military. So I think the stakes of what we are doing are very, very high here.

I want to conclude again by commending my chairman and commending our ranking member for working together, as they have this entire year, so we could get our bills across, as they are doing now in this process, to buy our leaders time, and, frankly, as I know they will do in normal negotiation on an omnibus bill at the end of this process and then, hopefully, on a regular appropriations process next year.

Again, I urge my fellow Members on both sides of the aisle to pass this very important piece of legislation.

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