Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am both surprised and disappointed that the Senator from Wisconsin is objecting to this unanimous consent agreement. The Senator from Wisconsin has repeatedly said--and I agree with him--that we should not end up with an omnibus bill--a 4,000-page bill--at the end of the year, with little consideration and having been largely drafted by a small group of people.

So why is the Senator from Wisconsin objecting to proceeding to three appropriations bills that were reported unanimously--unanimously, each one of them--by the Senate Appropriations Committee after a great deal of work? Furthermore, the Senator is objecting to Republican amendments being offered to this package--amendments by Senator Paul, Senator Vance, Senator Ernst, Senator Blackburn, Senator Lee--and that is just the first tranche of amendments.

Negotiations are ongoing, and there will be additional amendments; but if we cannot proceed to consider this bill and the other two appropriations bills unanimously reported by the Senate committee, then those amendments offered by some of our Members cannot be considered.

Is the Senator from Wisconsin opposed to the amendments that are offered by Senators Paul, Vance, Ernst, Blackburn, and Lee? Because, by objecting, he is preventing them from being considered by the full Senate.

We have worked very hard to clear amendments for consideration by this body, but if we can't even get passed the procedural amendments that allow us to bring the Transportation and Housing appropriations bill and the Agriculture appropriations bill to add to the MILCON-VA bill, then the Senate is broken once again.

Senator Murray and I, along with all the members of the Appropriations Committee, have worked so hard to achieve bipartisan consensus. We held nearly 50 hearings and briefings, asking tough questions, reviewing the President's budget request, evaluating the numbers in the budget. And we worked hard to develop, draft, and approve all 12 of the appropriations bills for the first time in 5 years.

How can a Member stand up and object and, at the same time, say: Oh, I don't want an omnibus bill. Well, that is what we are heading for.

We lost last week. I wish that the Democratic leader had brought this to the floor last week. We are now losing this week, and needlessly so.

There has been a great openness by my Democratic colleagues to consider Republican amendments. We just asked unanimous consent for the first five to be considered. Yet that is objected to.

Members cannot have it both ways. They cannot block floor consideration of appropriations bills that were unanimously reported by the committee and yet maintain that they don't want an omnibus bill. It is one or the other, or a government shutdown--even worse.

So I would ask my colleague from Wisconsin to think through this and think about the fact that he is blocking Republican amendments from getting a vote on the Senate floor. He is setting us up for either an omnibus bill or a government shutdown, and none of those outcomes serve the American people well.

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