Space Launch Liability Indemnification Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I never would have imagined that today the Senate would be meeting without one of our true heroes, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Senator Danny Inouye of Hawaii. He and Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska guided the Subcommittee on Defense of the Senate Appropriations Committee for decades with a steady hand and a commitment to working on a bipartisan basis.

I have been fortunate in working on this appropriations bill to have as my ranking member Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi. He has carried on that legacy of bipartisanship. He is my friend. We trust one another. That has made this job so much more complete and satisfying. We have conferenced a massive Defense appropriations bill on an expedited schedule and we encourage our colleagues to vote for it on final passage.

Virtually 60 percent of all of the domestic discretionary spending of the United States of America is included in this one appropriations bill. Now for nearly 2 years the Department of Defense has been in a state of paralysis because of budget uncertainty caused by the Budget Control Act, sequestration, the threat that was never supposed to become a reality, and, sadly, the 16-day totally unnecessary government shutdown.

This bill is the first step in regaining stability and providing a solid foundation for our Department of Defense to plan for its future. It represents a return to regular order for both the Budget and Appropriations Committees and for Congress. Finally, we are going to exert our constitutional responsibilities over the power of the purse, to make certain that every Federal tax dollar is spent responsibly.

We are really indebted in particular to two of our colleagues. Chairwoman Patty Murray of Washington, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, sat down with Paul Ryan, the House Republican chair, and hammered out a budget agreement, the first in I believe 5 or 6 years. Then the assignment was sent to the Appropriations Committee chair, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. She was able to sit down with Chairman Rogers from the House of Representatives. The two of them worked out an agreement on the actual spending that would follow this budget resolution. That was no small feat.

It is also a fiscally responsible bill. It provides $572 billion for the current fiscal year in this appropriation, meeting the spending caps that were established in the budget. It meets the spending target $25 billion before the President's request, by making 1,065 more strategic and thoughtful reductions--1,065 reductions in spending from the President's budget request.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned us and the Nation several years ago: If we do not get the people right, the rest will not matter when it comes to our national defense. This agreement implements the wisdom of General Dempsey. It provides necessary resources to the 3 million men and women who proudly serve America in the Department of Defense. Passage of this bill means that nearly 800,000 civilian employees at the Department of Defense finally will get the pay raise, at least some pay raise, which they certainly deserve, rather than face the threat of furloughs which they faced over and over.

Unfortunately, this is the first pay raise since fiscal year 2010, but it will make it a little bit easier for middle-class families who work for our government in defense of our Nation to make ends meet. The agreement also contains a pay raise for our military. We all heartily support it.

It funds operations of readiness at $11 billion higher than it would be under a full-year continuing resolution. It means our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines can get the training they need before deploying into harm's way. Training and readiness means survivability.

It provides a $1 billion increase in the National Guard and Reserve equipment account, includes $218 million for TRICARE to ensure servicemembers and their families will not pay higher out-of-pocket costs for medical care, $25 million to fully implement the implementation of Senator Murray's Special Victims Counsels, so that the victims of sexual assault in the military through this appropriation will have the advocates, have the counselors, and have the champions they need.

We have increased an already robust budget for suicide prevention by $20 million, to encourage the Department to expand community-based initiatives, offering greater support as well for the Guard and Reserve. We made sure that the medical care our servicemembers receive will still be the most advanced in the world. It adds $200 million to peer-reviewed medical research programs. No apologies.

Some Members may come to the floor and criticize the Department of Defense for being engaged in medical research. I can stand and defend every single line item. I will tell you, it will not only benefit our military and their families, it will benefit America and the world for this medical research to take place.

It has $125 million for traumatic brain injury and psychological health, $10 million for prosthetic research. I want to thank Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She has joined me in this effort. She, more than any other Member of Congress, understands the critical importance to have the modern prosthetics and orthotics for those members of the military who suffer a loss of limb during their course of serving our country.

For embassy security, which is a topic we hear from the other side on almost a daily basis, we have added marine security guard detachments at 35 more State Department posts overseas, as well as Marine Corps response forces around the globe.

Finally, we add a technical correction. I want to make it clear, because this has been the subject of great debate on the floor of the Senate and the House, we added a technical correction to the COLA offset regarding military pensions to make it clear that Congress never, ever intended this to impact medically retired personnel or their survivors. I appreciate the leadership of three of my colleagues on this issue: Senator Murray, Senator Pryor, and Senator Shaheen.

We protect the Defense industrial base. We increase science and technology funding for all the branches by $400 million. We add $175 million for the Rapid Innovation Program and $75 million for the Industrial Base Innovation Fund.

I had the good fortune of visiting Rhode Island during the course of this week. Make no mistake. The men and women who work in these facilities to build the most advanced, innovative, and technical defense equipment in the world constitute a precious national resource. We want to make sure we are committed to them so they will be ready to help us in the future to defend America.

There are two provisions in this bill I want to mention quickly that relate to Illinois. The first is related to the James Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. It is a multiyear pilot program to try to do something which seems so obvious, to blend the medical facilities and hospital at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station with the North Chicago Veterans Hospital. It is one of the most challenging things I have ever seen in government. We are getting it done. This bill continues to invest in that concept. I want to thank Senator Kirk. He has been my partner in making sure that this happens from the start.

Second, the bill takes a major step forward in preserving and sustaining the skilled workforce at manufacturing arsenals in support of the Department of Defense. Coming out of two wars, we know the value of these workers. When we had to put shields on humvees to save the lives of our servicemembers, we turned to the Rock Island Arsenal. In dramatic fashion they responded with the very best equipment to save our men and women in uniform. We want to make sure they are ready for the next challenge, whatever it may be. So we have included $150 million in industrial mobilization capacity to stabilize their rates, to make sure they will continue to serve our military so well.

I see my colleague Senator Reed has come to the floor. I know we have a limited amount of time. I want to make a point which I think he will appreciate. When it comes to major Defense programs, this bill contains $1.2 billion to fully fund two Virginia-class submarines under a multiyear contract.

I visited with the engineers, welders, electricians, and machinists. They have been worried about their jobs through the sequester, and further sequestration would have meant a major disruption.

The agreement also supports the strong view of Congress that we should not retire 9 ships with a century of useful life left in them.

We fully funded Navy Growlers, P-8s, and other aircraft, as well as added advanced procurement for additional Super Hornets.

In the Army, we protected procurement of Army Chinook, Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, as well as provided an additional 14 helicopters to the Army National Guard.

We also remain a steadfast partner with Israel. The bill fully funds U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense programs. It adds an additional $173 million for the Arrow programs and David's Sling, and also fully funds Iron Dome procurement.

We also had to make a lot of tough decisions to reach our spending cap.

Some programs have significant cuts, and that is going to have an impact somewhere.

But what is the alternative to this bill? The only answer is a full-year continuing resolution. The Department of Defense has never operated under a full-year CR, and I hope it never does.

A full-year CR would mean untold billions of dollars would have to be realigned from literally thousands of programs. It would be a financial management nightmare. Programs might be forced to stop in their tracks because funds were not provided in the right lines, and the effects would ripple throughout the defense industry and American jobs.

This bill takes care of our highest priorities, but not everything can be a priority. I ask that Senators recognize that we had to make some hard choices, that we managed to do more with less, and that the alternatives are much worse.

I inherited an awesome responsibility from Senator Inouye. I also inherited his tremendous staff.

They have worked especially hard this year over the holidays with no fanfare and at great personal sacrifice to ensure that we could get to this day. So I would like to take a moment to thank them.

On the Democratic staff: Betsy Schmid, Colleen Gaydos, David Gillies, Katy Hagan, Kate Ka 4ufer, Erik Raven, Jennifer Santos, Teri Spoutz, Andy Vanlandingham, and Maria Veklich.

On the Republican staff, I would like to thank: Stewart Holmes, Alycia Farrell, Brian Potts and Jacqui Russell.

This defense bill provides for the national defense in a responsible, thoughtful way.

It reverses the harshest impacts of sequestration, and provides additional funds to ensure that our troops get the training and equipment they need.

It also looks toward the future, boosting research in medical care, science and technology, and manufacturing innovation.

I hope all of my colleagues who support a strong military and a strong national defense will support this good bill.

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