Government Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on another matter, yesterday, the House passed a bipartisan, bicameral government funding agreement that will enable crucial investments in our national defense. Putin's war on Ukraine is just one manifestation of the major long-term threats to American security and American interests posed by major competing powers like Russia and China.

So, absolutely, we must rapidly fund the urgent assistance that Ukraine and our allies along NATO's eastern flank need right now, but we must also make the investments in military modernization that will equip America to achieve peace through strength for years and decades to come.

Our military commanders have clearly and consistently told us they cannot rebuild and modernize our military to meet the growing threats if Congress lets defense funding sleepwalk from one continuing resolution to another. The world is a dangerous place. It is growing more dangerous every day. The road to peace runs through American power. We all know it is true, so we have to budget accordingly.

Our recent negotiations put us Republicans in the surreal position of having to push a Commander in Chief's party into giving his own commanders the funding they need. But, over many Democrats' objections, Republicans made sure this deal gets the job done for our Armed Forces.

The compromise product provides significantly more money than the Biden administration had requested for defense and significantly less than they requested for nondefense.

Until 24 hours ago, this compromise was also going to reprogram money away from Democrats' wasteful spending spree that neglected COVID needs and reallocate it to vaccines and treatment for the American people, but House Democrats mutinied against Speaker Pelosi. The far left would rather preserve State and local bureaucrats' giant slush funds than fund vaccines and therapeutics for our citizens, so the COVID component has fallen out.

Overall, this agreement checks the three boxes I laid out months ago. The bill maintains parity between defense and nondefense spending growth. It maintains longstanding bipartisan policies, such as protecting taxpayers against funding abortions and being politically targeted by the IRS. And new far-left poison pills were cut out. But more urgently, amidst this war in Europe, this agreement delivers aid the Ukrainians need right now and a downpayment on our commitment to keep defending America and global peace in the years to come.

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