Government Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, it is the middle of September. The end of the funding year is actually just over 10 days away. The Senate has brought up exactly zero appropriations bills, although the Committee on Appropriations has worked in a bipartisan way to be able to get those through the Committee on Appropriations. But zero of them have come to the floor for a vote, which means we are facing a continuing resolution in the next week and another one of those hanging deadlines out there.

We could have worked on it last week, except last week, there were just judges, and this week, it was some tax judges and other folks on the docket and some political votes that came up. So we didn't work on it last week, and we didn't work on it this week. We didn't work on it 2 months ago or 3 months ago when they had already been out of committee. They just haven't come up at all.

So once again, the Nation is whispering about, will we have another government shutdown based on the fact that Congress has not finished its work. Quite frankly, even during this September, we have not even brought up appropriations bills for a vote on the floor at all.

I have come to this floor multiple times to say that this is not the way it should run. Quite frankly, a hundred of us would all nod our heads and say it is not the way it should run.

I continue to be able to bring to this body a very simple idea that Maggie Hassan and I--my colleague from New Hampshire--have had together for years now that, if it ever came to the floor, would pass. We have plenty of support on both the Republican and Democrat side of the aisle to be able to deal with ending government shutdowns. It is a simple idea that she and I have; that is, if we get to a moment like this that we have not finished our work, the government doesn't have a shutdown; we have, actually, a shut-in where all of us have to stay here and continue our work. Federal employees and the Nation are held harmless, but we have to actually finish the work.

We have multitrillion dollars in debt and little to no conversation here about it, and we won't have any in September. Now, it looks like we will punt this for several months. My question is, Will we have it then? Probably not because it may punt to November or December or it may punt into next year. We haven't decided yet.

When that is decided, there will be another deadline sitting there, and there will be more things to do during that time period, whether it is the end of this year, because there are so many unaddressed things that have not happened this year that have to be addressed, so they will be crammed into the end of the year, so there will be no serious conversation then; or it will be punted into next year, and there are so many things under a new Presidential term that have to be done, there won't be any serious conversation then.

So my simple question is, When do we ever have this conversation on something we all acknowledge is a problem? But instead of working on what we all know is the big issue, we are instead voting on judges and chitchatting and pretending it is not a problem when it is.

We are not voting on the national defense authorization either. That has come out of committee already on wide bipartisan support months ago, but it has yet to come to the floor of the Senate. My understanding now of the latest rumor is that there is no plan to actually bring it to the floor of the Senate, that there seems to be an intent to say: We will just not ever bring it to the Senate and just kind of pretend we did and then move to a conference report at the end of year.

One of the single most important bills that we do during the course of the year is our funding for Americans' tax dollars in our National Defense Act. So far, we have not done any of the 12 bills dealing with our funding, and apparently, we are not going to do the National Defense Act this month, next month; maybe November, December if they can form an agreement with Members of the House behind the scenes. So the first time we may ever see the bill may be after some deal has already been struck, and we will have no amendments, no conversation; just the single biggest thing that we work on during the course of the year--national defense--landing on the floor of the Senate, saying: Vote up or down. Does anyone think that is the way it should operate? Anyone at all?

In this bill, I fought for things like Tinker Air Force Base. It is the largest sustainment base in all of the Air Force, and it happens to be in Oklahoma. There are serious things that are there.

We are in the transition between two different airplanes, the E-3 to the E-7. The E-7 has not come on fast enough, and the E-3 was already fading away, not being sustained. So in this bill, it actually says: Hold on, Air Force. The other platform is delayed. We can't give up this one until that one is on board.

So it is a literal national defense issue to say: We have to be able to resolve this. It is Congress speaking into what we should speak into in a very practical area to say these are things that need to be solved.

We have personnel issues, like pay raises for our military. We have issues for spouses and their work. We have all kinds of things that are built into this bill dealing with our different installations around the world and the fight that is happening in Europe and the Middle East and our preparation all around the world to be able to secure the United States. But we are not talking about that. We are having votes on judges instead. And apparently, from what I am hearing rumor of, we may not have any talk about it at all on the floor of the Senate.

There is a bill that has been moving through committee dealing with energy permitting--it seems to have bipartisan support--saying we have to fix the process of how we are doing energy transmission for transmission lines and also for pipelines and basic energy needs.

It is interesting. Ten years ago, I would have people catch me and say: We really want to be able to get renewable energy. We want renewable energy. We need that for our manufacturing. That is what we want to do.

Do you know what I hear now from manufacturers? We just need energy, period, because our electric grid is being strained across the entire country because we have more data centers, because we have AI coming on board, which uses a tremendous amount of electricity. We have electric vehicles that are coming on board, which use a tremendous amount of electricity. In the process, we have more and more regulations slowing down the production of more and more energy. We are not keeping up, and we all know it. Yet a bill to deal with energy permitting languishes. I have no idea, after it comes out of committee, if we will ever even discuss it on the floor of the Senate, although it has been worked on.

We have healthcare issues. We all talk about the importance of healthcare and trying to be able to bring down the cost for consumers. Well, guess what, the Finance Committee did protracted, multiyear work on a bipartisan basis to be able to move a bill dealing with pharmacy benefit managers to bring down the cost not of 10 drugs but of all drugs and to be able to make it more available--and not just available by mail, available at pharmacies, especially rural pharmacies that are struggling under the oppression of the pharmacy benefit managers.

Just this year, this calendar year--middle of September to January-- just this year, 2,275 pharmacies in America have closed. Do you know why? That pharmacy benefit manager bill that we have that has been out of committee on a wide bipartisan vote is still sitting there not even debated on this floor while 2,275 pharmacies closed because, apparently, we needed to do other things.

So we have ignored more than 2,000 pharmacies closing, many of them in rural areas, because we wouldn't even debate the policy here. If we brought it to this floor, it would pass tomorrow with overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle, but it has not been brought up.

There is a farm bill that is out there that was due last year, so there was an extension into this year. Well, guess what, that farm bill expires now within the month, and there is no debate still about the farm bill that was extended from last year into this year on where it is going to go.

Farmers that are dealing with reference prices right now and inflation and what they are facing for the cost of fuel, the cost of fertilizer, the cost of equipment--as that continues to accelerate, Congress continues to ignore bringing up the farm bill, as if our food is just going to appear at the grocery store.

These are big issues. The reason we all were elected was to work on these big issues, but so far this year, these issues won't even come to the floor of the Senate for debate. It is not that they have been brought up and voted down; they are not even brought up.

My simple challenge is: It is the middle of September. Why aren't we working on the budget? Why aren't we working on the national defense authorization? Why aren't we working on energy and the cost of permitting for energy? Why aren't we working on lower-priced prescription drugs? Why aren't we working on the farm bill? All of those had wide bipartisan support coming out of committee--all of them--but none of them have been brought up here on this floor.

Maybe it is so everything can just get crammed into the end of the year and get past ``the election.'' But maybe we need to reset our priorities. Let's get the things done that the American people expect us to work on, the hard things, the things that are important, whether it is healthcare, energy, ag policy, the budget, the national defense. Let's address the things that should be addressed, and let's get started. I would be OK with starting today, but let's at least address them next week. But from my understanding of next week's schedule, they are not coming up then either.

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