Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2010--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, as you know, the budget-appropriations process has broken down. Neither the House nor the Senate passed a budget resolution which provides a basic roadmap for our spending decisions for the next fiscal year.

As a result of not having a budget, not a single appropriations bill has been signed into law for the new fiscal year that starts tomorrow at midnight. The House has passed only 2 of its 12 appropriations bills. Unfortunately, this 17-percent batting average, 17-percent success rate surpasses the Senate which has failed to pass any of the 12 appropriations bills.

Because of this, we find ourselves considering a measure to provide stopgap funding through December 3 to provide more time for completion of our annual appropriations bills.

This delay and lack of floor debate on any of the annual appropriations bills has prevented us from having a much needed debate on the size of government and the amount of money we should be spending.

Keep in mind, the overall growth in nondefense spending since 2008 has amounted to roughly 21 percent at a time when inflation has amounted to only 3.5 percent. This excludes any mention of the $814 billion stimulus bill.

The continuing resolution before us today seeks to provide funding at the same rate as fiscal year 2010. I will say that I am somewhat pleased to see that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have not attempted to add other funding measures to this measure. That is commendable that we at least are going to do a continuing resolution that is relatively speaking clean. It would be my preference to dial back the overall spending level to the fiscal year 2008 levels.

I have introduced legislation that will do just that, as have some of my colleagues. Senator Inhofe from Oklahoma has a bill that will do that. Some of my House colleagues have come up with a similar proposal that will do that. I guess I would say to my colleague from Oklahoma who just got up and spoke and mentioned this amendment probably does not go far enough that I do not disagree. Frankly, I would like to see us go back to the 2008 levels.

What I am trying to do today is seek the support of my colleagues to at least take a measured step in reducing discretionary spending. My amendment simply seeks to reduce by 5 percent accounts not related to defense, homeland security, or veterans. This would not affect funding for the START treaty or any of the other new provisions in this continuing resolution.

On an annualized rate, it would, however, save us about $22 billion compared to the $1.25 trillion score that CBO has provided for the proposed continuing resolution before us today.

While this is a modest number and it is not going to solve our debt problems overnight, it is a necessary first step to reduce spending. Since nondefense discretionary spending has grown over 21 percent in the last 2 years--again, at a time when inflation was only 3.5 percent--I think the least we can do is support this reasonable reduction until we return after the election to decide what the remaining funding level should be for the fiscal year 2011 spending bills.

To put things into context as my colleague from Oklahoma, who just finished speaking, has done, we are looking at a $13.4 trillion debt. Our deficit for 2010 is estimated to be $1.3 trillion. About 40 cents out of every dollar that is spent in Washington, DC, by the Federal Government now is borrowed.

If we look at the last 34 years, there have only been four times--4 years--where all the appropriations bills have been passed on schedule.

If we actually did go to a freeze at 2008 spending levels and index it for inflation, it would save $450 billion over 10 years. That makes a lot of sense.

As I said, that is legislation I introduced earlier. At a minimum, what we ought to be able to do is say to the American people, at a time when many of their family budgets are shrinking, at a time when they are trying to make ends meet, that we get it. In Washington, DC, we understand: You want our Federal Government to do with a little bit less.

What I am proposing is a 5-percent haircut; that is all, 5 percent. That is the least we can do for the American people at a time when, as I said, we are running these $1.3 trillion deficits and have future generations of Americans faced with a massive amount of debt that will be on their backs for generations to come.

I hope today we can find the political will in the Senate to take what I think is a very modest, a very measured approach to reduce spending in this continuing resolution by 5 percent. When we come back in December, we can have a full-blown debate about what the size of government should be, which we should be having now and should have been having throughout the course of these last few months when these appropriations bills should have been debated and should have passed a budget.

That being said, we do not have a budget. We have not passed appropriations bills. We are where we are. The least we can do, in fairness to the American people, the taxpayers of this country, is send a clear message to them that we are going to do a modest amount, at least a 5-percent reduction over last year's level in this continuing resolution and try in a very small way to get some of the overspending that is occurring in Washington, DC, under control.

Mr. President, 21 percent over the past 2 years at a time when the inflation rate was 3.5 percent, meaning that we are spending at the Federal level five to six times the rate of inflation, what the rate of price increases are across this country for most Americans. That is not fair to the American taxpayers. I hope my colleagues will support this amendment.

The Senator from Massachusetts is here. I believe he wants to speak as well to this issue and to this amendment. I yield as much time to him as he may consume.

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Mr. THUNE. I ask the Senator from Massachusetts if he is hearing from his constituents back in his State the same message I hear from my constituents in South Dakota; that is, we are experiencing economic difficulties. In this economic downturn, many people lost jobs, many had a loss of income, many family budgets are being squeezed.

Does not the Senator from Massachusetts hear the same thing from his constituents I hear from South Dakotans; that is, we want the Federal Government to lead by example, and rather than growing at four, five, six times the rate of inflation, actually take some steps to get its spending under control in the same fashion, the same way we are having to do it?

That is what I hear from people in South Dakota. They are tired. They think the Federal Government is growing too fast, has gotten too big. They think it is a runaway train, especially when it is running $1.3 trillion annual deficits.

I think 5 percent on this particular continuing resolution, this funding bill is a modest amount that at least most of my constituents would think is reasonable.

I ask the Senator from Massachusetts if he thinks his constituents believe this Federal Government could live with 5 percent less at a time when they are living with a lot less in many circumstances?

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, if I might just say to the Senator from Massachusetts, again, I appreciate his willingness to come down here and express his support for this amendment. The Senator from South Carolina is here. I expect he will speak too. He has an amendment he would like to offer as well.

Most Americans believe government spends too much, especially at a time when their budgets, as I said, have been shrinking.

This is the kind of amendment that ought to attract broad bipartisan support. We are going to fund the government with this continuing resolution until December 3 because, again, we have not passed any appropriations bills or a budget--which, by the way is a discussion, perhaps, for another day but one that I think needs to be joined, a debate that needs to be joined, and that is, what are we going to do to fix this broken-down budget process that year after year puts us in a position where, at the very end of the fiscal year, we have to pass a continuing resolution because we have not gotten our work done? That is an incredibly strange way to run a $3.5 trillion enterprise like the Federal Government.

I think the American people deserve better. They need a budget process that has some teeth in it, that is binding, that makes sense, where there is an appropriate role for oversight, as the Senator from Oklahoma pointed out--all the agencies where there is duplication and redundancy where we can find savings. We don't do a lot of that around here because we have a budget process that has broken down.

I have a bill to reform the budget process which, again, I hope is something we can undertake. It is not going to happen now because we are going to wrap things up here this week, it seems. I would be happy to stay around and talk about budget reform, but I think a lot of my colleagues have other things and other places they want to go.

In the meantime, let's at least do something here that will rein in Federal spending and send a very important message and signal to the American people, who have been hurting: The Federal Government here in Washington doesn't live in a bubble, we actually get it, we are listening to the voices of the American people, and we can find a mere 5 percent in our Federal budget, this massive Federal budget, and demonstrate we are willing to tighten our belt a little bit, consistent with what is happening to the American people and the experience they are having in this economic downturn.

I reserve the remainder of my time. I do not know how much time I have left, but I reserve the remainder of my time on this amendment.

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