Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge the adoption of H.J. Res. 48 for the continuing appropriations for this fiscal year. It seems to me that we've got three questions we ought to address in the course of this debate. First, and very elementally, why are we here? Second, what does the bill do? And third, what are the consequences if the bill isn't passed?

We're here for the simple reason that the last Congress, that my good friends on the other side ran, never passed a budget and never passed a single appropriations bill. We're here because the Democratic majority failed to do its work. We're also here because the current Democratic majority in the other body has so far failed to do its work.

I remind my colleagues, we actually passed legislation and sent it over. I also remind my colleagues that the one proposal in the Senate that actually got the most votes was actually the Republican H.R. 1. But nevertheless, they failed to give us something to negotiate against. It's their obligation in the Senate at some point to have a common negotiating position. I don't know how we can sit down and negotiate otherwise.

So we're here, I think, because of a Democratic failure both in the last Congress and this one.

Second, what does this bill do? Well, it's pretty commonsensical. It cuts and reduces 25 programs, saving $3.5 billion. Most of those programs the President and the majority say they don't want to continue. It eliminates $2.6 billion in earmarks and, by itself, is one of the largest cuts any CR has ever administered. As has been pointed out earlier, if you combine it with the previous CR, it is a very substantial cut indeed. It buys time, but it also keeps the government running and it keeps us on course to reduce spending at $2 billion a week, something that my colleagues and I are committed to.

Finally, what happens if we don't pass this bill? I know there's some that want to spend more, some that want to spend less. The first thing that happens is we shut down the government, something all of us know is not a wise thing to do. The second thing that happens is that we probably create financial panic in the country and harm a fragile economy. Finally, the last thing that happens, and I think actually the most important, is we raise fundamental doubts amongst the American people as to whether or not this institution and we, as elected officials, have the capacity to actually address and solve our problems.

So I think we need to pass this bill. We need to give our friends on the other side of the aisle, particularly in the Senate, another 3 weeks to see if they can possibly come up with a negotiating position. And I'm confident once those negotiations begin, our Speaker will keep the government running, will bargain in good faith, but will cut spending, as we're committed to do.

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