Appropriations

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on another matter, later today we are going to vote on something that should not be controversial: funding for our national defense, for supporting servicemembers and their families, for sustaining American global leadership and strategic edge. This vital priority is not something that can take a back seat to partisan dysfunction.

Our men and women in uniform don't get to go on sabbatical while they wait for Congress to get its act together. They have to stay vigilant, remain in harm's way, and stay at their posts.

Our military commanders don't get to put critical overseas operations on pause until Washington does its job. Their objectives loom large whether or not we give them a predictable planning foundation.

Russia, China, and Iran will certainly not take a water break if uncertainty leaves our Nation flat-footed. They will keep growing their defense spending and seeking to expand their influence.

I had hoped our Democratic friends would be able to put impeachment aside long enough to at least fund the Department of Defense. We had heard public pronouncements from Speaker Pelosi and my colleague the Democratic leader that they intended to work with us on substantial legislation. If anything qualifies as substantial legislation, it is this. It meets the Pentagon's request for targeted investments in the U.S. military of the future. There are new resources for expanded missile defense capabilities, trauma training, fleet maintenance, and key partnerships with allies around the world.

But, alas, the Democratic leader announced at a press conference Tuesday that he plans to filibuster the annual funding for our Armed Forces. This would put our colleagues across the aisle in quite an unusual position. The same Democrats who have recently rediscovered hawkish-sounding positions on Syria and the Middle East are really going to filibuster $745 million for the Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund, for Iraq and for Syria, and filibuster all the other broader funding of our Armed Forces? Really? The same Democrats whose latest effort to impeach the President hinges on delayed military assistance to Ukraine are themselves--themselves--going to filibuster funding for the exact same program, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative? Really? It looks like it. The Democratic Party is too busy impeaching President Trump for supposedly slow-walking assistance for Ukraine to fund the exact same program themselves?

These are political gymnastics performed at an Olympic level--at an Olympic level. The core message here is hard to miss: Our Democratic colleagues have a priority list. Picking fights with the White House is priority No. 1. And our men and women in uniform fall somewhat further down.

It does not have to be this way. Even in a time as politically charged as an impeachment inquiry, it doesn't have to be this way. Back in 1998, just days before the Republican House began its impeachment inquiry into President Clinton, the House and the Senate passed a regular appropriations bill.

Then, some weeks later, even after the inquiry was underway, both Chambers were still able to pass more bills to address the fundamental business of funding the government, and President Clinton signed it into law during the impeachment.

So if Democrats follow through on their threat to filibuster the Defense funding later today, they will frankly be making even the 1998 impeachment period look like a clinic--a clinic--in bipartisan cooperation.

A Democratic filibuster of Defense funding is not the vote the military families and military installations in their home States deserve. It is not the vote our commanders deserve, and it is not the vote our national security deserves.

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