Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019--Conference Report

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I want to start by thanking my colleague and chairman, Senator Moran, for his very kind remarks and for his leadership on the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.

As he says, it has been a great partnership this year. It has involved give and take. We both have compromised. Neither of us has gotten everything we wanted for the appropriations, for the committee, for our States, or for the country, but I think we made a commitment that I think has been shared by the Appropriations Committee as a whole that we were going to get back to regular order of passing these appropriations bills, of funding the government on a reasonable timetable that people could count on. That is what this bill represents, and I applaud Senator Moran and all of the staff, the majority and the minority staff, who have worked with us to get this done.

I also want to congratulate, as you did, Senator Moran, Chairman Shelby and Vice Chairman Leahy on moving all 12 appropriation bills out of committee in a bipartisan manner. Nine of those bills have passed the Senate by now. Three are already on the President's desk, and the Senate today will pass a conference report with two more of those bills and a continuing funding resolution. We expect that those bills will become law before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

This is the first time since I have been in the Senate--I started in 2009--when we will actually see the bills that were passed out of the Appropriations Committee. We have seen them taken up on the floor, and we are going to see them pass and get signed into law by the President.

Now, unfortunately, for the work that we have done on CJS, the CR that we are going to be acting on today includes the funding for the departments and agencies in the Commerce-Justice-Science bill, among others, but like Senator Moran, I believe that passing the short-term CR today should not keep us from working to pass full-year funding for CJS. That is why we are here on the floor today urging that the Senate continue to take up and pass the CJS appropriations bill. I am sure that is what Chairman Shelby would support and what Vice Chairman Leahy would also support if they joined us on the floor.

If you have any doubts about why what is in the CJS bill is so important and why we should take it up, all you have to do is turn on the TV or have watched the television coverage over the last 4 days of Hurricane Florence as it has hit the Carolina coast. It has caused devastation. It has caused deadly flooding. I know that we all empathize and support the people of the Carolinas with what they are dealing with with Hurricane Florence, but we have been able to predict the course of that hurricane because of the National Weather Service hurricane forecasters. They got a lot right about Florence's track, and the forecasters didn't do it alone. They need models to track wind intensity, to track storm surge, to track the direction of hurricanes, and we need researchers who are constantly working to improve those models and to make the forecasts more accurate. Those predictions rely on satellite imagery. They rely on direct measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and hurricane hunter aircraft, and all of those programs and initiatives are funded in the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill. That is why we need to make sure the whole bill actually gets passed and signed into law ultimately.

The other thing that is in the CJS bill that I think all of us share in the importance of in a bipartisan way is the support that it provides to address the opioid epidemic. This is an issue that is particularly important to us in New Hampshire, where we have the second highest overdose death rate from opioids in the country, but it is important to the entire country because from 2015 to 2017, the number of deaths from drug overdoses has risen nearly 40 percent, from 52,000 in 2015 to 72,000 in 2017. That rise was driven in large part by continuing increases in deaths from synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, as well as heroin. Of those 72,000 overdose deaths, 30,000 are estimated to be from fentanyl.

Last year, the U.S. Surgeon General reported that 21 million Americans have a substance use disorder. That is far more people than are affected by cancer, but only 1 in 10 is receiving any kind of treatment. That is one of the things that is so important in this CJS bill, because it would provide funding to State and local governments and organizations working on the frontlines, for law enforcement, for treatment and recovery, and for those resources that help our communities deal with the opioid and fentanyl crisis.

The bill also continues the COPS anti-heroin task force grant program, despite efforts by the administration to discontinue that very effective law enforcement program. I want to enact the whole CJS bill into law because I don't want to lose these critical increases in funding that are going to support people in New Hampshire and across the country who are dealing with substance use disorders.

Senator Moran mentioned trade and what is in this bill that is related to trade. Our subcommittee has held two hearings on the administration's trade policies in the last month or so, and I think it is fair to say that at these hearings there has been bipartisan concern about the impact of the administration's tariffs on manufacturers, on farmers, and on small businesses. I am hearing from small businesses in New Hampshire about what they are seeing as the result of these tariffs.

While I don't support those tariffs, I think it is important that we make sure that the Department of Commerce has the resources that are included in our bill to quickly and fairly evaluate and decide on American manufacturers' requests for exemption from those tariffs so that we can continue to promote American exports abroad.

Also, to keep the American economy going strong, the bill supports strong investments in research and development at the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and especially at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Again, my colleague mentioned NASA and the breakthroughs that we are seeing at NASA that are helping to drive innovation. This scientific innovation creates new discoveries that lead to new industries and to new American jobs. That is good for this country, and we need to make sure that the funding that is in this bill actually gets passed out of the Senate and the Congress before we get to the next appropriations process for 2020.

Instead, today, what we are going to do is to vote to put the agencies that are funded by CJS on autopilot until December through a continuing resolution. They will spend the same amount on programs and initiatives on the same items with no adjustment under the CR. We know that businesses don't operate this way, families don't operate this way, and the U.S. Government shouldn't operate this way.

Senator Moran and I are going to continue to argue that we need to pass this bill. I would urge the leaders here in the Senate and our leaders on the Appropriations Committee to bring the full bill to the floor. Let's have a robust debate. Let's pass the fiscal year 2019 Commerce-Justice-Science bill.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source