Continuing Appropriations and Other Matters Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1430, I call up the bill (H.R. 9494) making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2025, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 9494, the Continuing Appropriations and Other Matters Act of 2025.

Today's bill arises at a particularly challenging time for our country. For 4 years, President Biden and Vice President Harris' self- inflicted border crisis has caused chaos in communities across our country. Our national debt has risen to over $35 trillion, threatening the future financial stability of our country.

Across the world, America's adversaries continue to march forward, threatening our friends and democratic partners, and now we are facing a looming deadline to fund the government and keep it serving the American people.

Given the state of the world and our approaching election, this is no time to shut the government down. That means Congress needs to act, and we need to do so today.

The appropriations process is one that is never easy. It requires time and hard work to complete. Frankly, I am proud of what this body has accomplished this year. Even after a late start due to the delay of the fiscal year 2024 process and the President's late budget request, the Appropriations Committee succeeded in passing all 12 of our fiscal year 2025 bills out of committee.

The House also passed five of those bills across the floor, representing nearly 71 percent of overall discretionary spending. Unfortunately, time is drawing short, and our colleagues in the Senate, who have yet to pass a single fiscal year 2025 bill across the floor, have not kept pace with the House.

It is clear that we are unable to complete the full appropriations process by September 30. That means that a continuing resolution is needed. The bill before us extends government funding through March 28, 2025, ensuring that the government remains open and providing critical services to our constituents.

This extension will not only give us the time we need to complete our appropriations process for 2025 but also will allow the American people to have a say in the appropriations process.

The bill includes certain key extensions, including essential programs like flood insurance, WIC, and TANF. It also provides needed funding for disaster relief, helping communities across the country that have faced natural disasters this year or that will face them in the coming months.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker, in just 2 short months, Americans will go to the polls to elect a new President of the United States. This is a critical time for American democracy, and it is more important than ever that our elections are secure.

That is why H.R. 9494 includes the text of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which will ensure that only American citizens may vote in Federal elections. This commonsense legislation is necessary to protect the sanctity and security of our elections, making sure that it is American citizens alone who will choose the future direction of our country. This is as the Founding Fathers intended and as it should be.

Mr. Speaker, governance by continuing resolution is not ideal. It is always better to pass full-year appropriations bills through regular order, but we are out of time and we cannot afford a government shutdown, which would be greatly damaging to our national security, to critical government programs, and to the American people.

The stakes could not be higher. That is why I urge all of my colleagues to vote in support of H.R. 9494 today. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I would quickly make a point to my very good friend, who knows quite well I hold her in very high regard.

On the veterans issue, I just point out that we actually appropriated more to the VA than the administration asked for. We are certainly willing to sit down and have a discussion over any additional needs. Nobody wants veterans to be shortchanged.

Approaching Congress at the last minute, when it gave you more money than you asked for, suggests a high level of incompetence in this administration's management of the Veterans Affairs Department.

I just remind my friends, for the VA, which we both support, we offered more money than the administration asked for. It is pretty notorious for not doing a very good job of budgeting. That hasn't changed over the years. That is why we took away their ability to build hospitals.

Finally, I agree with my good friend from Minnesota about the importance of trying to get things done for the military, but I would remind everybody here that there has been a long history of CRs on both sides of the aisle. These aren't that unusual.

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as usual, these debates, particularly at these moments, get a little overheated, and I think we have seen a lot of that. I think the essence of what we are talking about here is pretty simple, and I think some of the charges that have been made against my colleagues in the majority are pretty ridiculous.

We are told we want to shut down the government. Really? What we are proposing actually keeps the government open longer than anything my friends on the other side are proposing.

We are told we didn't get our work done. Really? The United States Senate hasn't passed a single bill. It has not passed all of its bills out of committee. To be fair to my friends, and I have been around here a long time, when Democrats were in the majority, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle never got 71 percent of the bills passed in time, the money spent because Democrats couldn't pass a defense bill. My Democratic colleagues have never been able to do that. Once my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do that, the minority, frankly, will exceed whatever the Democratic target was.

All of this stuff about not getting our work done or whatever, or we are not taking care of veterans, we gave this administration more money than it asked for, for veterans. At the last minute, we come back. I am for the Honoring our PACT Act. I voted for the Honoring our PACT Act. I am anxious to make sure it is appropriately funded, but if my colleagues think I am going to take the word of this administration's Department of Veterans Affairs at face value, no, I am not.

Frankly, that agency has a long history of surprising administrations at the last minute, and this one is particularly bad.

We are more than happy to deal with this. It doesn't have to be dealt with in a CR. It ought to be dealt with in the full bill during the final negotiations, and that is true for most of the things my friends have brought up. My colleagues like to talk about a clean CR and then give us a list as long as our arm of what is not in it.

Mr. Speaker, a clean CR is a clean CR. It is not full of all these other things that you are requesting and demanding. My Democratic colleagues need to decide which one it is.

Mr. Speaker, let's talk about what this bill does. It is pretty simple. It keeps the government open until the end of March, or roughly, March 28, about 6 months. If we can get our business done faster, I am with my friend, the ranking member. I would prefer to do that. Looking at the record of Congress, I wouldn't hold my breath. Having some extra time is not a bad idea.

Second, I am extraordinarily perplexed that the idea of reaffirming, in a time of unmitigated disaster at the southern border, that you have to be an American citizen to vote in an election is somehow controversial. That is mystifying.

Frankly, we have every reason to be worried given the disaster on the immigration front this administration has allowed to unfold. As colleague after colleague of mine have pointed out, they can talk to local supervisors in their district who tell them, yeah, we have some people here who are illegal, and they are registered, and they voted.

What is the big deal about saying we want to make sure, in what we know is going to be a close election, that only American citizens participate. That is incredible that that is a controversial thing.

Mr. Speaker, I conclude by, number one, thanking my friends who participated in the debate and worked so hard to present this. All we are trying to do is what my colleagues are asking us to do: Keep the government open. This bill will do that.

The controversial poison pill, as it is called, is simply saying: If you are going to vote in a Federal American election, you have to be an American citizen, and we are asking for proof to be provided.

I still get carded when I order a drink at a bar in some places. It is pretty flattering, but the requirement is there that I have to pull out my driver's license. I think it is a lot more important when we are talking about somebody voting in a consequential election that they be able to do that, so I think that is a perfectly reasonable thing.

If my friends want to go on record opposing that, that is up to them. I hope my friends on my side of the aisle see the wisdom of keeping the government open, particularly a few weeks before an election, and see the importance of reaffirming that only American citizens can vote in American elections.

We put those two things together. I think that is a very sensible thing to do, and I urge the support of this legislation.

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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