Conference Report on Appropriations

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on one final matter, currently before the Senate is a crucial appropriations measure for the upcoming fiscal year: the conference report that will fund the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Defense. It is the second minibus conference report we have taken up in what has already been an important year for regular appropriations.

Thanks to the leadership of Senators Shelby and Leahy, all 12 spending bills were favorably reported from the Appropriations Committee by the end of June, the fastest pace in 30 years. For the first time in 15 years, the Senate passed our Labor-HHS-Education bill before the beginning of the fiscal year.

These milestones may sound like inside baseball, but what they signify is a Senate that is getting its appropriations process back on track, a Senate that is attending to vital priorities for our country. The package we are voting on today will account for over half of the Federal discretionary spending for next year. Critically, after subjecting America's All-Volunteer Armed Forces to years of belt- tightening, this legislation will build on our recent progress in rebuilding the readiness of our military and investing more in the men and women who wear the uniform. This conference report increases appropriations in the Department of Defense by $19.8 billion over fiscal year 2018 levels. Once enacted, our warfighters will have certainty in their funding--on time, on October 1, for the first time in 10 years.

First and foremost, this reflects a major investment in personnel-- more resources for recruiting the forces that our military commanders have called for and the largest servicemember pay increase in nearly a decade. It fully funds the Pentagon's stated requests for operational support, including hundreds of billions in base support and maintenance funding, ensuring that critical ongoing missions continue at Fort Knox, Fort Campbell, and the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky and at installations all around the world.

It also supports our National Guard and Reserve components, including many of the important missions executed by the Kentucky National Guard. The bill further ensures that combat units are equipped with overwhelming, cutting-edge capabilities: critical funding for aircraft and aviation programs, for new battle force ships, and hundreds of millions for our missile defense capabilities.

In addition to our Armed Forces, this bill will also provide for communities wounded by drug addiction, for families working hard to save for college tuition, and for workers who are trying to catch up in ever-evolving industries.

Under the Labor-HHS-Education title, this package would fund critical medical research at the National Institutes of Health, ongoing support for State opioid response grants, and apprenticeship and job training programs. It sets aside special funds for priorities like combatting infectious diseases that ride on the coattails of the opioid epidemic and retaining dislocated rural workers--both key priorities in States like Kentucky and around the country.

So to sum up, there is more support for the best trained, best equipped, and strongest military force in the world and more support for the health and prosperity of American communities and workers--all the more reasons why I will be proud to vote for this legislation and why I urge every one of my colleagues to join me.

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