Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, before I address the amendment offered by Senator Braun, let me thank the Senator from Washington State for her very kind comments expressing condolences to the people of Maine.

Our hearts are so heavy today. This heinous attack, which has robbed the lives of at least 18 Mainers and injured so many more, is the worst mass shooting that we could ever imagine in our State. This is a dark day for our State.

I am grateful for the expressions of support and offers of help and condolences that I have received from my colleagues and friends across the Nation as well as from the administration.

I have had conversations both last night throughout the night and early this morning with President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and special advisor to the President Tom Perez, who has been particularly helpful in mobilizing resources for the State of Maine so that this killer can be captured. S.J. Res. 44

It is hard to transition from the terrible attack in Maine to talk about the Braun amendment, but that is what I must do.

First, let me make a very important point. What we are talking about is whether the legislative branch of government should make decisions about government spending or whether that decisionmaking should be given entirely to the executive branch when it comes to specific projects.

We are not talking about adding more money; we are talking about who makes the decision. And, indeed, in our Senate appropriations bills, less than one-half of 1 percent of the funding is allocated to congressionally directed spending projects.

This process has provided opportunities for Members of Congress from both parties who understand the needs of their constituents far better than every Federal Agency to advocate for specific investments in their local communities.

As Chair Murray has said, we have included safeguards to promote transparency and accountability. First, we prohibit for-profit entities from eligibility. Second, we require public disclosure to ensure that spending decisions are made in the light of day. For the appropriation measures before us today, each Member's CDS request has been posted online since April. There is no secrecy here. They also include a certification that neither the Member of Congress nor members of their immediate family have any financial interest in the CDS items that they have requested.

Further, the disclosure tables for each bill list each Member who submitted a request for a particular project that was funded. These tables have been available online since this past summer when the bills were considered and approved in committee.

The directed investments of these three bills that we are considering will make a difference to our constituents. They include funding to support agricultural research, local transportation and community development projects, as well as military construction projects that are on the service's unfunded priorities list.

So I urge my colleagues to protect our constitutional power of the purse and support the Senate's ability to make substantive, tangible investments in our communities. I urge a ``no'' vote on Senator Braun's amendment.

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