Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROUNDS. Madam President, I rise today to discuss H.R. 5895, the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019.

I couldn't help but listen to my colleague Senator Rubio and the very fine way in which he has expressed the same thing that many Americans feel, and that is a compassion for those individuals who find themselves at our border and who simply want a better way of life for their families, while at the same time expressing the frustration that our laws are very, very clear that if you want to come into our country, you have to follow the law. At the same time, there is the compassion that has been shown by people across this entire country with regard to these children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in this serious predicament in many communities along the border.

I also want to express my appreciation to the President for the Executive order he has put in place in an effort to at least in a very short period of time address the situation for these young people and try to unite--as many of us want--those families once again. The compassion of the American people continues to shine through with regard to assisting and recognizing those who simply are not in a position to take care of themselves, regardless of which country they are a citizen of today.

Madam President, I would like to refer to and discuss the appropriations bill that is in front of us today. This appropriations minibus combines three separate appropriations bills, each of which was voted nearly unanimously out of the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year. It expends about $147 billion, or they propose to spend about $147 billion. This is significant because since coming to the Senate 3\1/2\ years ago, this is only the second time we are actually bringing smaller, separate appropriations bills to the floor months before the deadline and also having a healthy, robust debate on amendments to this legislation. It is a long-overdue step that is getting us back to what we call regular order, which is the traditional way of working appropriations bills through the Senate. It lets everybody see what is in the bill. It is truly long overdue.

Let me go over some highlights of this particular appropriations package of three bills, starting with the Energy and Water Development section.

This section authorizes funding for the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, and the Army Corps of Engineers, just to name a few. It appropriates $42.8 billion to these agencies to improve our water infrastructure and invests in critical national security needs concerning nuclear energy.

It also provides additional resources to invest in science and energy, including providing full funding for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, which, at $145 million, is up from $95 million last year. This funding will allow the scientists at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD--a world-renown research facility in my home State--to continue their important research on neutrinos and dark matter.

The report language of this section also encourages the Army Corps of Engineers to finally implement the snowpack monitoring program in the Upper Missouri River Basin. It does this by recommending that the snowpack monitoring equipment be eligible for funding under the operation and maintenance account. This is significant because the implementation of the Upper Missouri River Basin snowpack monitoring system will help mitigate the possibility of a major flood event for those living or working along the Missouri River and the Mississippi River.

It is time for the Army Corps to step up and finally implement this much needed program, which was originally authorized under the 2014 water resources bill 4 years ago. This was in direct response to the flood that occurred on the Missouri River and the Mississippi River in 2011. It is time to implement this monitoring process now.

The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs section of this bill, which was supported unanimously when it was reported out of committee, supports infrastructure investments to help ensure maximum readiness for our troops, providing a total of $10.3 billion in funding for military construction. This includes report language that appropriates $15 million for a new National Guard readiness center in Rapid City, SD.

This section will also provide funding for needed improvements and renovations at the VA, including funding to prevent veteran suicide, increase rural veterans' access to healthcare, and support mental health care programs for our veterans.

In total, this bill provides $78.3 billion for the VA to help them care for the approximately 9.3 million veterans enrolled for fiscal year 2019.

Finally, the Legislative Branch and related agencies portion of this omnibus includes funding and policy provisions to improve operations and address heightened security requirements for those working in Congress and those visiting the U.S. Capitol Complex.

It is important to point out that this is just 3 of basically 12 appropriations bills. This was also approved--this particular portion of this legislation, this three-appropriations-bills package-- unanimously by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year. By tackling our appropriations bills in this fashion and by allowing Members to offer and actually vote on these amendments to make these bills better, we are taking a monumental step toward getting our appropriations process back on track.

Staying committed to a regular appropriations process allows the American people, through their elected representatives, to have a true, meaningful voice in how their tax dollars are spent. It also prevents us from having to rely on a series of continuing resolutions that have a significant, harmful impact on our military readiness. Military leaders have repeatedly warned of the dangers of these short-term, stopgap spending bills and what they do to our ability to adequately train, equip, and maintain a force. In particular, under continuing resolutions, the Defense Department is restricted from starting new programs, which is deeply concerning in today's rapidly changing threat environment.

Since coming to the Senate, I have expressed my frustration with our broken appropriations system, which really hasn't worked in 40 of the last 44 years that the current budget process has been in place. While our appropriations process is still in need of significant reforms to truly get a handle on our budget crisis and begin to tackle our $21 trillion debt, taking accountability and actually managing the 31- percent of the budget that we can vote on is a significant step toward becoming more accountable to American taxpayers. Let me say that again. We are talking about 3 of approximately 12 appropriations bills. We are talking in this particular case about 11 percent of what we are actually going to be talking about spending.

As an example, if you take the total amount of dollars in defense and nondefense discretionary spending, we will propose to spend for this coming year about $1.3 trillion. Of that $1.3 trillion, this group of bills amounts to about $147 billion. It is about 11 percent. But at the same time, if you look at the $1.3 trillion that we are going to be voting on--if we do this all successfully under the existing appropriations plan, the way the laws are set out--we will be voting on $1.3 trillion, but the Federal Government will actually spend about $4.2 trillion. The rest of it is mandatory spending: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and $316 billion in interest on our Federal debt. We don't vote on that. That is simply on autopilot.

But in order to get to that part of the budget, we have to show that we can actually manage and vote on the smaller part of the budget, the $1.3 trillion that is before us in the next series of appropriations bills.

Today we take up three of them, for $147 billion in spending. We are spending this entire week doing it. Hopefully, as all of our colleagues have the opportunity to look at, review, and make modifications by amendments to them, we begin to have the confidence to understand that we really should take responsibility for and, on the longer term, actually start managing and voting on the entire Federal budget, which today is, as I say, about $4.2 trillion.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, Ranking Member Leahy, Leader McConnell, and all the others who worked to get this legislation to the full Senate floor.

Responsible spending starts with a responsible appropriations process. We owe it to every American to be responsible stewards of their hard-earned dollars. I believe this is best achieved through a regular appropriations process that brings about serious, thoughtful debate as to how and where the money is spent.

This bill allows that debate to happen. It is a good bill that invests in energy and infrastructure, provides our troops with additional tools for maximum readiness, and funds the VA so they can do a better job of taking care of our veterans.

I urge my colleagues not only to support these appropriations but future appropriations bills that may come to the floor later this summer, avoiding the last-minute continuing resolution or the usual 2,000-page omnibus bill in September or, unfortunately, even later.

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