Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Calling for the Release of Austin Tice

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, recently I met with the parents of Austin Tice, a constituent of mine in Texas who unfortunately was abducted in Syria a few years ago. Of course, his parents have been keeping the flame alive, hoping that Austin has survived the situation of his capture.

At their suggestion, last week when I was in Austin, they traveled over from Houston to visit with me about a briefing they had received recently from James C. O'Brien, the Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.
Earlier today, I had a chance to be briefed by Mr. O'Brien. He delivered some positive yet cautious news about Austin Tice, an American journalist who we know was taken hostage in Syria 4 years ago.

Mr. O'Brien and his team informed me that they have high confidence that Austin is alive in Syria, along with other Americans who are being held captive.

While this is certainly positive news, I can't help but think of his parents and what they have had to go through these last 4 years. They are not just counting the months, they are not just counting the days, but they are literally counting the minutes and the seconds since he has been gone and then counting these milestones that we typically observe in our family--birthdays and holidays--that they will never recover.

So today's news should remind us that we cannot give up until we bring Austin Tice home. I renew once again my call for his immediate release by his captors, and I strongly urge the current and future administration to continue to utilize all possible means to secure his safe return. Nothing can bring those years and months back, but we can start the healing process by doing everything possible to find Austin and bring him home and to bring him home now.

Work Before the Senate

Mr. President, we have gotten quite a bit done this week, but we are not finished yet. We passed a major medical innovation bill, which contains not only the Cancer Moonshot project advocated by Vice President Biden and the President but also other dramatic investments in the research and development of lifesaving drugs. It also contains a very important component of mental health reform.

I was glad to contribute some to that effort, particularly the part that has to do with the intersection of our mental health treatment regime and our criminal justice system. As I have learned and as many of us have learned together, our jails have become the treatment center of last resort for people who are mentally ill, whose condition is not diagnosed. And if not diagnosed, these people tend to get sicker and sicker, until they become a danger not only to themselves but potentially to the communities in which they live.

So we have made good progress, and perhaps thanks to the great leadership of Senator Alexander, Senator Murray, Senator Murphy, Senator Cassidy, Tim Murphy over in the House, and the leadership there, we can be proud of that accomplishment.

Yesterday we finished up our work on the Defense authorization bill to help our troops both here at home and abroad, to make sure that they not only got a modest pay raise but that they continue to be supplied with the equipment and training they need in order to keep America safe here at home and abroad.

I am hopeful we will continue our work and finish our work, actually, on the continuing resolution, a bill we need to get done today in order to keep the lights on. I know my colleague from Illinois, the Democratic whip, has been working on this. I am hopeful we can get everybody back to a position of voting yes on this continuing resolution and we can complete our work.

There are folks across the aisle who want to keep the continuing resolution from moving forward and literally to shut down the government. I would have hoped we would have learned our lesson the hard way that that is not a way to solve our problems.

Unfortunately, the senior Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Manchin, has taken a position that even though we have funded the health care benefit program for the miners whom he cares passionately about--we all certainly understand that--we have done it through the end of the continuing resolution into April. He is not satisfied with the length of that continuing resolution. He said he would like to have it up to a year. But, frankly, I think he is unwilling to take us up on my commitment, for example, to continue to work with him now that we have gotten that short-term extension, to work on a longer term extension once we get our work done.

The truth is, this bill, the continuing resolution, passed the House yesterday with overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle. It received support of 87 percent of the House Republicans and 77 percent of House Democrats. The House of Representatives has now left town for the holidays, and it is up to the Senate to finish the job. So at this point, working all night and into the weekend will not change the inevitable outcome. Shutting down the government does not help anyone, especially those holding up the process.

So we are not done yet, but we are close. With a little cooperation, we will be able to wrap up this Congress soon and turn our focus to the Nation's priorities.

Let me just mention a couple of other aspects of the continuing resolution because I have heard, just among conversations with my own colleagues, some misunderstanding about what we are doing in terms of, let's say, defense spending, which is one component of it. This continuing resolution funds the defense sector by a $7.4 billion increase over the continuing resolution we are currently operating under. It is true that it is less than the Defense authorization bill has provided for, but, as we all know, an authorization is not an appropriation. And when you compare an appropriation or spending for defense under the continuing resolution we are currently operating under compared to the one we will pass soon, it represents a $7.4 billion plus-up for defense.

Now, I am one who believes that is the single most important thing the Federal Government does--providing for the common defense--and I would argue that is probably not an adequate number, but it is a plus- up, and it is the number that was passed by the House, and frankly, the House having left town and gone back home for the holidays, we are left with a choice of either accepting that level or not doing our job on a timely basis.
This funding supports troop levels of up to 8,400 in Afghanistan, $4.3 billion to support counterterrorism and forward operating missions. This was supported by Chairman Thornberry of the House Armed Services Committee. It provides a procedure for waiver for the next Secretary of Defense. This continuing resolution also provides $872 million in funding for the 21st Century Cures legislation we passed just a few days ago, $500 million to deal with the scourge of opioid abuse but also to deal with prevention and treatment activities, as well as $372 million for the National Institutes of Health. It provides emergency flood and natural disaster relief for potentially up to 45 States, including my own--$4.1 billion in emergency natural disaster relief. As I mentioned earlier, it does provide a short-term coal miners fix while we work on a longer term solution. So my hope is, again, we can get it done.

Nominations

Let me turn to what will be the business of the Senate when we return in January. One of the first orders of business when we reconvene next month will be to consider and vote on the new President's nominees to fill his leadership team, the Cabinet nominees we have been hearing a lot about in the last couple of weeks.

Last week, I came to the floor to congratulate my friend and our colleague Senator Jeff Sessions on his nomination to be the next Attorney General. He is a man of strong conviction and real character, and I have no doubt whatsoever that he is the right man for the job. I know that many in our conference share my eagerness to start the confirmation process so we can give President Trump the team he needs to hit the ground running.

But I am disappointed, I have to say, in the way some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are already posturing against the President-elect's nominees. Fortunately for us, they telegraph their obstruction in the news media, so we know about some of their nascent plans to obstruct President-elect Trump's Cabinet.

Earlier this week, Politico said that this was the Democratic strategy: ``Delay tactics could sap momentum from the President's 100 days'' was the headline. The articles goes on to cite conversations with several Senate Democrats who have already laid out a plan to slow- walk--because they know they can't block--President-elect Trump's nominees in the new year. It is one thing to obstruct and to slow the Senate down, but it is even a bigger problem when they intentionally try to keep the President-elect from doing his job too. I would ask, for what? Just to delay progress? To drudge up partisan rhetoric and to do all they can to damage the administration of the next President of the United States before it has gotten started? This is absolute nonsense.

I think this is the kind of activity the American people repudiated in the last election on November 8. They are sick and tired of the partisan rhetoric on both sides. They literally want us to get some things done on their behalf for the American people.

Holding up the confirmation process for purely political gain is irresponsible and dangerous, but it is also ironic that some of our Democratic colleagues have changed their tune so much. Here is just one quote from our friend, the Senator from Michigan, part of the Democratic leadership. Senator Stabenow said on April 20, 2015: ``When a President wins an election, they have the right to have their team.'' You know, one thing I have learned is, if you have been around here long enough, there is a great danger of being on both sides of an issue, so you have to try to be consistent, even with the temptations to change your position based on who is up and who is down. But I agree with the Senator from Michigan. No matter what side you are on, Donald Trump won the election to the White House. As President, he has the authority to surround himself with whom he sees fit to advise him for our country. For our Democratic colleagues to suggest that keeping the President understaffed is somehow in the best interests of the American people is absolutely ludicrous.

Let me remind my friends on the other side of the aisle what happened when Barack Obama became President in January of 2009. Senate Republicans respected his nominees and gave them quick consideration.

Seven Cabinet members were confirmed on his first day of office. Other high-level positions followed just days later.

In other words, we came together, understood that the people had elected a new President, and went to the table ready to cooperate in good faith even though we knew there would be disagreements about policy. That is because we didn't want the President to begin his time in office without the support and the staffing he needed to do his job.

But, at least so far, our Democratic colleagues--some of them--don't seem to share this same perspective now that they have lost this last election. I would just ask them to reconsider and to be consistent in the way they asked us to respond when President Obama won and treat the people's choice as the next President of the United States with the respect their vote deserves in terms of making sure he has the Cabinet necessary to get his administration up and running.

The American people really are disgusted by the sideshows of dysfunction and obstruction. They want results, and they deserve results. They made clear, since giving this side of the aisle control of the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, that they really wanted the clear to way to making progress on behalf of the American people. But we all know we cannot do this as one party or the other; we have to find ways to work together for the common good.

I hope those on the other side of the aisle who indicated they are determined to obstruct and block the President-elect's new Cabinet members, his nominees, change their tune and reconsider. Keeping the new President from the men and women he has chosen to serve alongside him only makes us less safe, our economy more fragile, and the government less efficient. In short, it doesn't serve their interests well.

We are ready to work with our colleagues across the aisle to roll up our sleeves and get to work next year. I only hope our Democratic colleagues decide to do the same.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source