-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, one of the most fundamental constitutional responsibilities afforded Congress is the power of the purse. It grants Congress the authority to raise and spend revenue, to operate the government, and examine spending decisions.

The Federal Government is primarily funded through 12 annual appropriations bills. The Federal fiscal year begins on October 1 of each year. If the appropriations bills are not signed into law by September 30, lawmakers and the President must agree on a temporary spending resolution that is known in this town as a continuing resolution, keeping the government open for business. If that fails, the unfunded parts of government shut down.

History has repeatedly shown that shutting down the government is bad policy and also bad politics. It costs the taxpayers money to shut down the government and even more to reopen it. A government shutdown reduces essential services for the American people, erodes the trust of the American people, and limits the ability of Congress to conduct oversight over Federal Government operations.

Government shutdowns don't make for great bargaining tools. How many times have we heard Members of both political parties--probably not at the same time--but say: If I don't get what I want, I am not going to vote for a continuing resolution. We are going to shut down the government.

What happens after a few days or even, in one case, 3 weeks? Eventually, the heat gets so bad that Congress votes to reopen the government and the Members who crowed that they were going to shut down the government if they didn't get what they wanted--who were eventually pushing for certain policy changes that they wanted--usually, in the end, don't get what they want. That is why it is bad politics, as well as bad financial management.

Instead, Congress is in the same spot, but now is stuck with a last- minute omnibus bill or a long-term continuing resolution. Neither a last-minute omnibus or a long-term continuing resolution allows Congress to carefully analyze spending and make necessary tough decisions. In other words, that is not a good replacement for passing 12 appropriations bills separately. In short, shutdowns have always been a losing proposition for the American people.

On Thursday, I joined Senator Lankford and others in reintroducing a bill entitled the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act. This bill would permanently end government shutdowns by creating an automatic continuing resolution.

This would continue critical services and operations and hold Federal workers harmless while Congress negotiates a final spending agreement. To encourage Members and the President to reach an agreement on funding, the Lankford bill would prohibit Members of Congress, congressional staffs, and Office of Management and Budget officials from traveling outside of Washington, DC, during the automatic continuing resolution. In other words: Do your job. Stay here in town until you get it done and prevent a shutdown.

It would also prevent Congress from recessing or from considering legislation unrelated to appropriations bills with limited exceptions after 30 days of an automatic continuing resolution.

So Congress needs to stop governing from crisis to crisis, respect the appropriations process, and fulfill its constitutional responsibilities to keep the government funded. Moreover, we need to put an end to the recurring political side show of costly government shutdowns.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source