Appropriations

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week will provide an opportunity for our Democratic colleagues to prove that their longstanding goal of impeaching the President is not--not--getting in the way of their ability to legislate. The Speaker of the House and the Democratic leader have taken pains to insist that their party's impeachment obsession will not block important business for the American people.

Well, we are going to find out. As soon as the Senate completes the domestic funding legislation we are currently considering, we will turn back toward national defense and give Senate Democrats another chance to advance the funding for our Armed Forces, which they chose to filibuster just last month.

In other words, this week will bring a litmus test. Are Washington Democrats so consumed by impeachment that they cannot even fund our men and women in uniform? Do our servicemembers really need to be pawns in the Democrats' fight with the White House?

It is hard to imagine a more basic legislative responsibility than funding the Department of Defense. We need to fund the tools and training that our men and women in uniform need to carry out their missions. We need to give our military commanders the resources to keep pace with major competitors like China, which has nearly doubled its military spending over the past decade.

In recent days, our Democratic colleagues have been publicly railing against the administration's approach to Syria and the Middle East, without, I would note, offering much of a strategy of their own. But if they vote to block defense funding later this week, they will literally be obstructing the very funding to carry out the missions they say are so important.

The last few days have shown us especially clearly that American forces remain in harm's way every day, and their missions do not pause just because some politicians don't find it convenient to fund them. We owe the Pentagon the budgetary certainty it needs to maintain the readiness of our military forces and to invest in the capabilities needed to sustain our military edge into the future.

We also need to be good, reliable partners to our friends and allies.

Get this. This appropriations bill would fund $250 million in military assistance for Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. If that sounds familiar, that would be the exact same program that Democrats are currently trying to impeach the President for allegedly slow-walking.

So welcome to Washington, where Democrats try to impeach President Trump for supposedly slow-walking aid for Ukraine and simultaneously filibuster the funding for the exact same Ukraine program in the Senate. Welcome to Washington.

I think it is safe to say that would elevate irony to a whole new art form. I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope, instead, that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will land on the same side when it comes to support for the men and women who keep us safe and for our vulnerable international partners who look to us for leadership.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source