Small Business Program Extension and Reform Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I am going to very briefly walk us through where we have been and where we are.

After tonight's vote, I think the best path forward is clear. The quickest and surest way to get FEMA all the disaster funds it needs and to put an end to any talk of government shutdown would have been for the Senate to take up and pass the House-passed CR right away.

As we know, our friends on the other side will not agree to that. However, earlier today, as we all know, FEMA indicated it already has the funds it needs for the duration of the current CR--which is, basically, this week--without the billions more in funding Democrats have been calling for.

Quite frankly, I think this is a vindication of what Republicans have been saying all along: Before we spend the taxpayers' money, we should have a real accounting--a real accounting--of what is actually needed.

We also believe that, in these days of huge deficits, we need to prioritize our spending around here.

That said, with this next vote, I think the majority leader has found a path forward, one that will continue to fund the government and which gives FEMA the funds it needs without any added emergency spending for the rest of this current fiscal year--in other words, this week--emergency funds that FEMA now says it doesn't need.

So tonight we will have had, after the next vote, two votes: One to reject deficit finance disaster spending without necessary spending cuts elsewhere and one to keep the government operational and to provide responsible disaster funding into November.

The CR, should it pass, will be within the top line we agreed to last summer. We have already basically voted on this top line. It will provide FEMA $2.65 billion in funding next fiscal year to continue the recovery efforts. It will not contain any emergency spending for this current fiscal year--the rest of this week. So it will drop both the emergency spending and the provisions paying for that spending from the House-passed bill.

Again, my preferred path forward would have been to pass the House bill. But since our friends on the other side have rejected that approach, I believe this is a compromise that is a reasonable way to keep the government operational.

So now that we have demonstrated that there aren't enough votes to support more on offset spending, I am going to vote, and would encourage my colleagues to vote, in favor of the clean CR, which is the next vote we are going to have.

In my view, this entire fire drill was completely and totally unnecessary, but I am glad a resolution appears to be at hand.

I yield the floor.

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