Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, at some point during consideration of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies appropriations bill, I expect there may be a motion to recommit the bill to the Appropriations Committee. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity, as we are attempting to work out amendments and proceed to some additional votes, to give my colleagues some basic facts about our bill.

First of all, our appropriations bill took one of the largest percentage cuts to spending of any of the appropriations bills for fiscal year 2011. It is important to understand that our bill is nearly $13 billion below fiscal year 2010 enacted levels. This funding level represents a reduction of nearly one-fifth in just 2 years. When disaster funding is not included, our bill total is $55 billion. That is $117 million below fiscal year 2011.

So I want to point out that this bill is a fiscally responsible bill. It is a bill that required a lot of tough choices. It is a bill that does not fund some programs to the level I would have liked to have seen them funded, but it recognizes the reality of a $14.9 trillion Federal debt that is growing every day. Therefore, we have had to make tough choices. We cannot have the luxury of fully funding every program, even those programs that are very beneficial.

In the other cases, we put tough new restrictions on programs where we felt the taxpayers have not been getting their money's worth, and that includes some programs run by public housing authorities and the HOME Program, about which the Washington Post did an expose'. So we have worked carefully and closely with the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make sure there are new anti-fraud provisions and restrictions.

It is also important to understand that the $117 million difference from fiscal year 2011 does not take into account the $3.9 billion in one-time rescissions taken in fiscal year 2011 that were not available in fiscal year 2012. So when you compare the appropriations for programs spending, not including the offsets, our bill's appropriations are actually $1.1 billion below the fiscal year 2011 enacted levels.

I have just given a great deal of different numbers, but my point is the same; that is, this is a fiscally responsible bill, it is a constrained bill. Our subcommittee's allocation was cut quite severely; thus, it was a real challenge, but it is a challenge we have to meet in these very difficult budget times. We don't have the luxury of fully funding even very worthwhile programs.

It has been a great pleasure to work with my colleague, Senator Murray, to produce a bipartisan bill, and that is what we have done. But, again, our Transportation-HUD bill took one of the largest percentage cuts in spending of any of the appropriations bills that will be brought before this body.

Finally, I am very pleased we are bringing the appropriations bills to the Senate floor. None of us, in my opinion, want to see the problems we have had in the past couple of years where we have ended up at the end of the calendar year with a huge omnibus bill stacked on our desks, no one completely sure of every provision that is in the bill. That is a terrible way to legislate. It is much more responsible to bring the appropriations bills before the full Senate after they have had their careful consideration by the Appropriations Committee. We have extensive hearings and we have markups at both the subcommittee and the full committee level, but then the full Senate should have a chance to work its will on these bills.

I am pleased we have been considering these bills all week. We have had several amendments offered by Members on both side of the aisle, and we have had constructive debate. As my colleague from Maryland has pointed out, it has been a respectful, civil debate, and that is what the people of this country deserve.

I hope this is going to set a precedent where we will bring every single one of the appropriations bills before this body so that Members can work their will. It is the right way to legislate, and it avoids the spectacle of our having a multiple thousands of pages omnibus bill, which does not serve the people of this country well.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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