Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present amendment No. 1 to the Senate amendment to H.R. 2029, the fiscal year 2016 consolidated Appropriations Act, legislation that will fund the Federal Government for the rest of this fiscal year.

This funding measure provides $1.149 trillion for critical government programs and services. This is the level agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, which was enacted last month.

This funding meets the $548 billion defense and $518 billion nondefense base budget caps. The omnibus contains full-year appropriations legislation for each of the 12 annual appropriations bills, weighing priorities and funding levels carefully to prevent waste and promote an effective Federal Government.

The bill targets funding toward our national security, protecting against cuts that would damage our military readiness, and securing our homeland by strengthening our borders and prioritizing law enforcement.

The legislation also focuses funding on our veterans, providing nearly a 10 percent increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs, while addressing VA's problems with construction mismanagement and disability claims backlogs.

It shores up other critical priorities, such as the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, agricultural research, and infrastructure.

The legislation also includes many policy items that will help rein in bureaucratic overreach, protecting the rights of Americans, and encouraging economic growth.

The legislation blocks administration proposals to impose new fees on ranchers, air passengers, and the oil and gas industries.

The legislation protects free speech by ensuring that the IRS does not suppress the civic participation of 501(c)(4) organizations.

The bill also preserves the sanctity of life by carrying all existing pro-life policy and funding provisions from previous appropriations bills. It adds new provisions prohibiting genetic editing of human embryos and reduces UNFPA funding by 7 percent.

To prevent wasteful or questionable spending, the bill halts improper behavior at Federal agencies, like making sure the IRS doesn't spend any money on frivolous videos or conferences. Within the Labor-Health and Human Services portion of the omnibus alone, the legislation eliminates 17 duplicative and unnecessary programs--zero on 17.

The bill provides no new funding for expanded EPA regulatory programs, instead holding EPA to its lowest funding level since 2008.

Finally, this bill includes a number of legislative provisions: the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act, and the Intelligence Authorization Act, among others.

Importantly, it includes legislation to lift the 40-year ban on crude oil exports, a huge win for our economy and job creation.

The package reflects a hard-fought, fair compromise, and I believe my colleagues on both sides of the aisle should support it.

The road to this final bill has not been without its bumps and obstacles, but I am proud we have finally come to a solution. It has been a long, hard odyssey. Although one big catchall bill like this omnibus is not the ideal way to conduct business in this House, the legislation will do the important work of funding our Federal Government and preventing a shutdown.

Let me add that it would be enormously helpful if, in the other body, they would change their procedures and rules so that, on an appropriations bill funding the basic level of government, the Senate would act in an expeditious way to allow these bills to come up over there without the 60-vote requirement.

Before I close, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my entire committee and, in particular, the hardworking staff for their tireless efforts on this legislation. Most of them, Mr. Speaker, have not had a day off since before Thanksgiving. They have sacrificed their family time, their holiday dinners, countless hours of no sleep in order to bring this bill to the floor. Their hard work has resulted in a good bill, and I am proud to support it today.

I also want to thank my counterpart, the ranking member of this committee, Mrs. Lowey, for her commitment to getting this done. She has been fair. She has been conscientious, a good partner throughout this process, and I look forward to continuing to work together in this vein this coming year.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I want to take a moment to commemorate one of our dear staff, Chuck Turner, and his decades of service to the Appropriations Committee and to this House. Chuck, sadly, passed away on December 8, but he leaves his final mark on this institution in the form of the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill that is a part of this bill. His presence will be deeply missed in the Halls of this Capitol and in our rows of friends.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to putting to bed our fiscal 2016 appropriations work and turning toward next year, which, with any luck, will come in on time and under regular order.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Granger), the very distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Will the gentleman yield?

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Let me associate myself with your comments.

My district, like yours, has been absolutely devastated by the war on coal. This language is a great help in that direction.

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the remaining time.

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we would not be here without the work of this great staff that we have mentioned time and again today. These people have worked tireless hours all night. They have had one day off since before Thanksgiving, and that was Thanksgiving day itself. I want to say a word of thanks again to the great staff, led by the chief clerk, Will Smith.

I thank Will for the great job and Jim Kulikowski, his deputy, and all of the other staff on both sides of the aisle. Thank you so much to David for his great work.

Mr. Speaker, we should not be here under these circumstances. We should not be here dealing with a bill that funds the entire government in one package, this so-called omnibus appropriations bill.

We are supposed to pass 12 separate bills, bring them to the floor separately, and then conference with the Senate separately. We were on track to do that. We got the earliest start in our history this year. Yet, the Senate refused to allow any of the bills we sent over to be brought to the floor, forcing us into this omnibus.

Next year I hope it is different and I hope the Senate will bring these bills to their floor so we can separate them into 12 different packages, conference them, debate them, amend them, and pass them in regular order. In the meantime, this is our only choice to keep the government open, and that is to pass this omnibus appropriations bill.

I want to thank all of the members of my committee, all of the chairmen of the subcommittees, all of the ranking members on the other side, and all of the staff on the subcommittee level, who have worked time and again night after night on putting together this extremely large and complex appropriations bill and added to it several other authorizing pieces of legislation that were tacked onto this bill.

Nevertheless, it is a good bill. There are things I wish I could have gotten in the bill that we were unable to. I am sure my counterpart, Mrs. Lowey, has the same feeling. But this is the best we can do.

I urge Members to vote for the bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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