Government Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, first, I want to thank and congratulate our colleagues who have been working hard to secure a bipartisan, bicameral solution to complete the appropriations process and fund the government. It had been clear to everyone that in order to reach an agreement, our Democratic colleagues would have to walk away from two extreme positions that had been dictated to them presumably by the far left--the notion that Congress shouldn't spend more than ``one dollar'' on new border barriers and the idea that we should impose a hard, statutory cap on ICE detainees in the interior of our country, which would require the release of criminals into the United States.

Fortunately, our Democratic colleagues did abandon those unreasonable positions, and the negotiations were able to move forward productively. Last night, Chairman Shelby, Senator Leahy, and their counterparts in the House announced they have reached an agreement in principle, which is certainly good news. It provides new funds for miles of new border barriers, and it completes all seven outstanding appropriations bills, so Congress can complete a funding process for all the outstanding parts of the Federal Government with predictability and with certainty.

I know I speak for Members on both sides of the aisle when I say that we are grateful to our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee for their leadership. We are eager to see them complete this work. As we speak, our colleagues are working hard to produce legislative text. I look forward to reviewing the full text as soon as possible and hope the Senate can act on this legislation in short order.

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