Getting Our Work Done
Floor Speech
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Mr. President, while the President-elect is considering additional nominees to fill his Cabinet, we in the Senate--working together with our House colleagues--have our own responsibilities to fulfill before the end of this year.
Most pressing is legislation to fund the government, something that unfortunately has been hindered by our Democratic colleagues slow- walking the appropriations process. Actually, calling it slow-walking is a little too generous. What they did is block the normal appropriations process, where the 12 separate appropriations bills would be voted out of committee--which they were, on a bipartisan basis--but then they would come across the floor of the Senate where amendments would be offered, and we would actually vote on them before sending them to the President to be signed into law.
Instead of this normal process--which is transparent, it is bipartisan, in the best traditions of the Senate--we were denied the opportunity to do that, resulting now in our need to pass a year-end continuing resolution, kicking the funding of the government over to perhaps sometime in the spring. This was strictly as a result of the gamesmanship of our colleagues, many of them blocking the same appropriations bills they voted for, on a bipartisan basis, before the Appropriations Committee itself.
Despite those obstructions, we have actually tried to do some good work. We passed our first bicameral budget since 2009. As I said, the Appropriations Committee voted out all 12 appropriations bills.
Despite the obstructionism we have seen and despite where we find ourselves, I ask all of us to take stock of where we are, given what we saw happen in the historic election of November 8. I think the American people have made very clear they want the government to function and they don't have a lot of tolerance for gamesmanship or partisanship or obstruction, but we cannot move forward with other substantial legislative goals until we address funding for the remainder of this fiscal year. While I am disappointed we find ourselves where we are today--having to pass another short-term continuing resolution until next March or so--this waiting until the last minute is not a good way to do business. I hope next year, with the new administration and with the leadership of Senator McConnell, Speaker Ryan in the House, and with more cooperation from our Democratic colleagues, we can have a regular and open appropriations process, one that will serve the American people much better. It will certainly serve the interests of the Defense Department and other people who need to be able to plan beyond 2 months or 3 months in terms of what they can do with the money Congress is going to appropriate.
Until then, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to set aside the disputes we have had over the last year and the election itself----which I know some are finding it easier to see the results of the election in the rearview mirror than others, as evidenced by the comments I heard from the Senator from Massachusetts when I came to the floor--but we need to pass a bill that will fund the government and allow us to move forward. I hope we can do that. Then, once we have completed the work for this year, we can come back in the new year with a new administration, a new Congress, and recommit ourselves to doing the people's work and doing it in a consensus-building, bipartisan way that listens to what our constituents are telling us they want, not the siren call of the people who think they know better than they do what is good for them but to listen to the American people and then get about the work of passing legislation which promotes their interests.
This is first to assure for the common defense but, secondly, to make sure our economy starts to grow again so people who want to find work or want better paying jobs can find work available so they can provide for their families and pursue their American dream.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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