Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I want to thank the ranking member for her leadership and always trying to be responsible. I thank Mr. Visclosky and the Appropriations Committee for their work.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this agreement between the two parties and between the administration and the Congress. I am hopeful that it will pass overwhelmingly.

I have a little statement here, which I will submit. But because we want to get this business done, briefly I want to say to the Appropriations Committee: Congratulations for doing your work. I know there was controversy and everybody didn't support it, but we passed 10 of the appropriations bills almost 2 months ago, clearly sufficient time to have reached agreement and passed the appropriation bills, not a CR. A CR is a recognition of failure, failure to get our work done in a timely fashion, and I regret that.

I take some credit for passing 10 bills last year in June and 10 bills this year in July. I pushed the Appropriations Committee pretty hard. The staff worked hard; Members worked hard; and we got our bills done.

The Senate has not marked up a single bill in committee. There is no bill out of committee, and there are no bills on the floor, which means the Senate has essentially abandoned the appropriations process. Madam Speaker, that is not the way that the Congress of the United States ought to work.

I am for this. It was tough to get to. We have an agreement, and I am hopeful that everybody here will vote for it so we do not shut down the House of Representatives--excuse me--the Government of the United States, not just the House of Representatives.

That is, in my view, an unacceptable alternative ever, and we reached an agreement today. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. A lot of people wanted this, a lot of people wanted that, a lot of people didn't want this, and a lot of people didn't want that. But we have an agreement that will keep the government functioning for the people from now until December 11.

What, Madam Speaker, I would urge is every one of us would from now until hopefully before December 11--that is a Friday, we are scheduled to break for Christmas and the holidays--I am hopeful that everyone will put their heads together to get the appropriations process done. We will probably do it in an omnibus, not single appropriations bills, which is not a good way to do it either.

When I joined the Appropriations Committee--and Mr. Visclosky's Congressman that he worked for was on the committee with me--we passed one bill at a time.

The Senate passed one bill at the time, and we came to conference and sat down together, the members of the Defense Subcommittee, the members of the Treasury-Postal Subcommittee, and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. We came together individually, and we worked out agreements between the two bodies.

That is the way it ought to work. It is not working that way. In a world of alternatives, this is the best we have, so we need to take it and keep the government funded.

Madam Speaker, I look forward to working with members of the Committee on Appropriations on both sides of the aisle to effect an omnibus that we can all be proud of. We won't all agree with all of it, but at least we can say, ``This is the work product of the people's House and the United States Senate,'' and pass it and feel that we have done our job for the people.

Madam Speaker, this Continuing Resolution is a result of the kind of cooperation that the American people expect from all of us.

It is also an example for how we ought to spend the coming days: Working toward an agreement on the HEROES Act to mitigate the continued economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, a Continuing Resolution is not how Congress should operate.

The House did its job, passing nearly all of the appropriation bills before the end of July.

The Republican-controlled Senate, however, failed to do its job.

It has not only failed to pass a single appropriation bill--it hasn't even introduced one.

Senate Republicans have had months to do their part to prevent a shutdown, yet here we are just eight days before the end of the fiscal year.

So, the House today will continue to do its job and govern responsibly by voting on this clean Continuing Resolution, which would keep the government open through December 11 at current funding levels.

I say this C.R. us ``clean'' not because it is free from anything other a date change, but because is reflects a bipartisan agreement between on the issues it contains.

This C.R. includes funding for highway and transit programs and the National Flood Insurance Program for another year.

It includes funding to protect seniors from rising Medicare premiums and to keep other vital health care priorities funded, such as community health centers.

It also includes funding for children who rely on school lunch programs to continue accessing nutritious meals.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join in passing this Continuing Resolution and showing the American people that we will not let their government go dark in the middle of a deadly pandemic and economic crisis.

I urge the Senate to pass this Continuing Resolution and get to work without delay on full-year appropriation bills.

The House is doing its job.

It's time for the Republican Senate to start doing its job as well.

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