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Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, the Senate passed an agreement that preserved America's full faith and credit and began to rein in Democrats' runaway spending. But the Senate's work is far from over. Today, with the threat of economic crisis behind us, it is time for the Senate to focus its full attention on some of the most basic responsibilities we are sent here to fulfill: keeping America safe, keeping America fed, and keeping the lights on.

First, we have a little less than 4 months left in the fiscal year. Our colleagues, Appropriations Chair Murray and Vice Chair Collins, have expressed a shared goal to fund the Federal Government through regular order. That means 12 full-year funding bills processed, passed, conferenced, and signed into law before the end of September. I think all 100 of us agree that we should not be funding the American people's government through one big omnibus at the end of the year, but achieving that is going to require hard work and incredible cooperation.

To produce funding bills that can pass the House and become law, we will have to build on the progress we made last week. After 2 years of taxing, spending, and runaway inflation, the American people chose to elect a divided government. In the coming weeks, that divided government has an opportunity to restore stability to the appropriations process and deliver more of the fiscal sanity they expect, but only if the Democratic majority lets the process actually work.

This year, we also have the responsibility to deliver a farm bill. A full 10 percent of the American workforce depends on agriculture. The Commonwealth of Kentucky is home to nearly 75,000 farms, and, in the past 5 years, since the last farm bill was passed, farming hasn't gotten any easier. Neither has ranching or forestry. Small businesses and farm families across the country will be watching the Agriculture Committee's work especially closely. Chair Stabenow, Ranking Member Boozman, and our colleagues are already hard at work producing legislation that delivers the certainty and support they need to continue innovating, supporting rural jobs, and feeding America.

And Chair Cantwell, Ranking Member Cruz, and the Commerce Committee are working on another measure that will require our attention before the end of the fiscal year--reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. Reliable and affordable air travel for both people and cargo is important to the prosperity of communities and industries across our country.

So on behalf of Kentucky growers and the entire country, I hope each of these measures receives swift consideration here on the floor.

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