Appropriations

Floor Speech

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Mr. COONS. Mr. President, when we began this year's appropriations process, the task before us seemed almost impossible. It has been many, many years since we have completed the full appropriations process, and there were lots of challenges in a divided nation and a divided Congress.

I just wanted to briefly, this evening, as we conclude this process in the Senate, take a moment and thank the chair and vice chair of the full Appropriations Committee, Senator Collins and Senator Murray. They and their staff made the impossible real.

The bills that just passed through this body and headed now to the House will save lives and change them--will fund hundreds of billions of dollars of positive and valuable activity on behalf of the people of the United States.

The subcommittee for which I am responsible in this Congress as the ranking member is the appropriations for the Department of Defense and for Intelligence Communities. The chair is Senator McConnell. I have truly enjoyed working with Senator McConnell on the very complex, challenging, and urgent issues related to our national defense, to our intelligence community, and to the future of our Nation.

Senators, as we all know, don't do anything on their own, even on our best days. So I wanted to take a moment and thank all of the staff and the clerks who worked tirelessly, who stayed up for weeks on end, who dealt with ridiculous crises deadlines, who negotiated and renegotiated in good faith across the aisle to achieve this result.

I want to thank in particular the folks who make the SAC-D subcommittee work--of course, principally, Rob Leonard, my clerk, and Rob Karem, who is the clerk for Senator McConnell; but in addition: Gabriella Armonda, Dylan Byrd, Rachel DaPieve, Laura Forrest, Abigail Grace, Megan Handal, Cole Hodge, Brigid Kolish, Alexa Lorick, Ryan Pettit, Todd Phillips, Kathryn Plunkett, Kim Segura, Tom Shaffer, and Elise Stebick.

If I missed anyone, count it as my fault, not the staff who helped me assemble that list and the following.

I just wanted to also thank a number of the clerks of the subcommittees with whom I worked: Evan Schatz, of course, who is Senator Murray's chief clerk; John Righter; Jo Eckert; Jen Becker; Alex Carnes, whom I am particularly thankful to for his Johnny-on-the-spot assistance all times, including on this evening's vote; and Mike Gentile.

There is more work to do. The next 2 weeks will require us to listen to each other, to work hard, and to hammer out more accountability and transparency for the Department of Homeland Security to help make sure that we meet this moment.

But at the end of the day, as someone who is proud to be an appropriator and to have the opportunity to deliver more than $150 million for my little State of Delaware, across dozens and dozens of targeted appropriations, and then, more broadly, through all of these different subcommittees, to help fund critically needed investments in medical research, in university research, in the volunteer fire service, in law enforcement, in education, in infrastructure, it is important that this body do its principal job.

The power of the purse is something that--going back to old England-- we fought for hundreds of years to wrest away from Kings. When we began this process, it was not at all clear to me that this article I body would succeed in exercising the power of the purse, but today, we have. And for that, I am grateful.

More than anything else, I am grateful to the incredible and talented staff who have made this easy by their hard work.

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