Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies
Floor Speech
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, before I speak, I just want to take a moment to speak to the gut-wrenching shooting that occurred in Maine last night. The situation, I know, is still developing, and I am sure there will be more to say about what the Lewiston community is going through and what steps we, as a nation, must take to prevent gun violence.
But even as we get more information, it is painfully clear this was a horrific blow to a close-knit community, and I want my colleagues from Maine and everyone in Maine to know that my heart goes out to them, everyone who is affected by this tragedy, and I think I speak for all of us when I say the Senate stands with both of our colleagues from Maine. Amendment No. 1182
Mr. President, now to the task at hand. Last Congress, Senate and House Committees on Appropriations leaders reinstated the practice of congressionally directed spending--or CDS--with bipartisan support. CDS is an important way for Senators to advocate for their States and the communities they know best through their investments in projects to improve transportation and drinking water infrastructure, support workforce development programs, childcare centers, so much more.
So at the beginning of this year, the Senator from Maine and I laid out a robust process to accept CDS requests for fiscal year 2024, and that process included extremely important guardrails: requiring each Senator who requested a CDS to certify neither they nor their immediate family members have any financial interest in the project, to ensure that each funded project is clearly identified in the reports with the requesting Senator's name and posted on our committee website, required Senators to publish their CDS requests on their own websites, established an audit process with the GAO, prohibited for-profit entities from receiving CDS funding, and established a total limit on the amount of funding that could be dedicated to CDS in our Senate bills.
Across the three bills in this funding package, the committee received nearly 7,000 CDS requests from 66 Senators on both sides of the aisle. Then our staff worked diligently to review all of those requests to make sure they met Agency eligibility requirements and complied with Senate rules and the additional guidelines we had set--if the project met those requirements, eligible for funding.
We respect the projects that Senators choose to request and their decisions on CDS priorities for their States and their constituents. And through the CDS process, Congress is exercising our constitutional power of the purse. After all, we all know better than anyone about the needs of our States and our constituents.
So I oppose this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to do so as well.
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