Department Of State, Foreign Operations, And Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2010--Motion To Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the chairman for that time.

One of the first amendments we will consider is a 5-percent across-the-board cut. There is some surface appeal to this because it is almost like taking money and not leaving any fingerprints because you do not have to pick the different agencies that are going to be reduced in spending. You just say generically cut 5 percent and call us back when it is all over. It sounds like an easy assignment, but it overlooks the obvious.

Senator Inouye, as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, is already preparing for next year's spending by reducing the spending level suggested by the President of the United States--if I am not mistaken, some $16 billion below President Obama's budget request.

So the Senator, as chairman of this important committee, is acting in good faith to bring down spending. It is my understanding this continuing resolution, at least for the next few months, cuts even more deeply in terms of the money that will be allowed.

So if there is some argument being made on the Senate floor that we are not sensitive to the deficit needs of America and we have not already accepted responsibility to cut spending, they are ignoring Senator Inouye's leadership on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the fact that this bipartisan compromise cuts even more deeply.

Now comes the Senator from South Dakota who says: Well, let's cut some more. Let's cut 5 percent across the board. Then you take a look at the various programs, and you say to the Senator from South Dakota: Well, let's get down to specifics. Do you think we should cut 5 percent of the spending at the National Institutes of Health where they are engaged in medical research to find cures for the diseases which are afflicting and threatening people across America? Well, I bet he would say: No, we don't want to cut there. Yet when you do an across-the-board cut and you are not specific, unfortunately, you run the risk of cutting a critical program like that.

Would you go to northern California and say to the people living there: Now is the time to cut the inspections of natural gas pipelines in the United States of America, after the terrible tragedy which occurred there just a few weeks ago, claiming innocent lives? No. Would you argue that now is the time to take away inspections for oil rigs across America? I think we are trying to move to the point where we resume drilling but with some confidence that we have inspected all these rigs and they are safe and we can move forward. Senator Thune is saying, Well, let's cut across the board. That is going to take money away from that timely inspection which we want to get completed so we can put people back to work in that region of the country and around the United States.

How about the Centers for Disease Control? Do we take money out of the Centers for Disease Control at this moment in history? I think not. They are doing important work to try to protect us against the next influenza epidemic and whatever else might challenge us. Do we want to take money away from food safety and inspection? How many of us read newspaper stories on a daily basis about innocent people who ate spinach or peppers or peanut butter and ended up with salmonella or E. coli, in the hospital, and their health compromised for months, if not years? So do we want to reduce the inspections on food? How about the inspections on imported food? Does the Senator from South Dakota believe we should cut back on inspecting the food coming into our markets, being served on the tables of families across America? I think not.

Does he want to cut back on the COPS Program at a time when States and local cities are running out of money and laying off policemen? Do we want to cut back on the Federal funds we are sending so that there are cops on the beat to keep our neighborhoods safe?

Does he want to cut back on education? Does he believe that now is the time, when we are seeing layoffs of teachers, even though we have made some efforts here to try to reduce that? Does he want to cut more money from education when school districts across America are suffering? That is what he is proposing.

If he were standing here with the only proposals or cuts that the Congress is considering, we might say, Well, we have to face up to it, but he comes late to the party. The chairman of this committee has already taken this through the exercise of bringing down the spending for next year that starts on October 1, and this continuing resolution cuts even more deeply.

I am going to urge my colleagues to vote against this 5-percent across-the-board cut. The Senator from South Dakota has exempted a few agencies, but there are a lot that he hasn't. As a consequence, we are in a position where many of these agencies and the critical programs that are important for the health and safety of Americans are literally at risk because of this amendment.

Let's do this in a sensible, honest way. Let's not send a general letter. Let's use the appropriations process to bring down spending. The Congress cannot and should not abdicate its responsibility to review individual programs and make individual spending recommendations based on that review. The desire to hold spending in check should be based on congressional oversight of specific programs. We shouldn't take a meat ax, across-the-board, call-me-when-you-are-done approach. We should not yield our power to the President. We have our own special responsibility here on Capitol Hill.

Senator Coburn has been a strong proponent of oversight of spending. I support that oversight. He has come to this floor and advocated for the committees to look closely at spending and authorizations for scores of Federal programs. I think they should; I agree with him. This is exactly what the Appropriations Committee did last year in crafting bipartisan bills that garnered vast majorities of congressional support. The continuing resolution before us continues those levels for a short time at last year's spending levels while we work at crafting a responsible spending bill for the remainder of this fiscal year. I am committed as a member of that committee, working with Chairman Inouye, to meeting that challenge to reduce our deficit, but I am just as committed to doing it in an appropriate, responsible, and effective way. This amendment that is being offered for a 5-percent, across-the-board cut is not such an amendment.

I urge my colleagues to oppose that amendment. I urge them to support the passage of this continuing resolution so that the important business of our Federal Government and keeping American families safe and healthy can continue and not be interrupted.

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