Continuing Appropriations Act, 2027

Floor Speech

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Mr. WOMACK. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Mr. Cole, for giving me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 9770, the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2027, in hopes that it is not necessary. If we were to complete our work as the Framers had intended and outlined for us, we wouldn't be standing here today.

This is an insurance policy. This ensures that, assuming we don't finish our work by the end of September, by the end of this fiscal year, our government will be held harmless. Who could argue an insurance policy that holds a government harmless when we begin a new fiscal year?

Under the leadership of Mr. Cole, the House Appropriations Committee, as you just heard, has advanced all 12 bills out of committee. We have done our job well before the end of the fiscal year. Three of these full-year funding bills have already cleared the floor and are ready for action in the Senate.

That is sizeable progress toward our goal of restoring regular order in this appropriations process. I am exceedingly proud of the work my colleagues and I have done in crafting responsible bills that rightsize the discretionary side of our budget, but I am also pragmatic.

I am aware of the political realities that lie before us right now, and the very fact is that we have a job to do, and time is running out on us. Too often, Mr. Speaker, we wait until the eleventh hour to create some kind of a process by which we can avoid a real catastrophe, gambling with the functions of government that people depend on.

H.R. 9770 is a clean solution to extend government funding until December 4, ensuring zero disruptions to the operations of programs like SNAP, like WIC, the National Flood Insurance Program, disaster relief fund, and scores of other programs.

It is no secret that I am not a fan of CRs. No self-respecting appropriator would ever embrace a CR. My preference has always been to fulfill our Article I responsibility before the deadline, following through on the job that the American people sent us to Washington to do. Passing this CR is a much better alternative than to threaten the government shutdown at the expense of the American people.

This CR does not prevent us from continuing our work on full-year fiscal year 2027 appropriations. Instead, it provides a runway to work with our Senate counterparts and iron out a final agreement, all while preventing the abyss of uncertainty created by a lapse in appropriations.

Mr. Speaker, for 43 days, a stalemate in Congress caused an unnecessary and costly government shutdown as political games took priority over our constitutional responsibility. The shutdown impacted many services and programs that our constituents count on. It crippled biomedical research, upended infrastructure projects, and risked our national security.

As chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, I can speak directly to the impact it had on agencies within our jurisdiction. Prior to the shutdown, the FAA was already falling short of its controller staffing targets. The shutdown exacerbated that problem.

Without the promise of a paycheck, many of these air traffic controllers opted to take other employment opportunities instead of doing the job that the American people needed them to do. The results were canceled or delayed flights and ground stops at airports across the Nation.

By the end of the shutdown, Mr. Speaker, 6 million people had been affected, not to mention the estimated costs incurred by the U.S. travel sector of $150 million a day.

This is just one of many examples of the catastrophic consequences of a government shutdown. What we are doing today is offering this insurance policy to see that that doesn't happen again.

We have a binary choice later today on this bill. You are either going to vote for continuing the appropriations that fund the discretionary side of government till December 4, or you will be in the column voting to shut the government down. I think it is a pretty simple, no-brainer kind of vote.

I encourage my colleagues--including my friend, the ranking member, Ms. DeLauro from Connecticut--to vote ``yes'' on this bill.

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