Democrat Filibusters on Spending Bills Prompt Need for Short-Term CR
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the Continuing Resolution (CR):
“A new Senate majority came to office this year with a different outlook on government funding from the previous majority.
“First we passed a budget.
“Then we worked across the aisle to pass through committee the dozen bills necessary to fund the government.
“That’s the first time either of those things had happened in six long years.
“Our common-sense approach represented real hope that — with the necessary cooperation from across the aisle — a new and better way of funding the government was possible.
“Democrats initially gave Americans reason to believe they might be ready to offer that bipartisan cooperation.
“Democrats gave bipartisan committee backing to nearly all of the dozen government funding bills, and a majority of these bills attracted support from at least 70% of Democratic committee members.
“Democrats even bragged about supporting these funding bills in press releases to their constituents.
“But this was before Democrats hatched their ‘Filibuster Summer’ plan: in other words, block all government funding in the hopes of provoking a crisis Democrats might exploit to grow the IRS and the DC bureaucracy. As a result, you actually saw Democrat leaders declare that they would use procedural moves to prevent the full Senate from even debating the same funding legislation Democrats had just praised.
“Democrats even voted repeatedly to block the bill that funds our military.
“Think about that.
“It would have been cynical enough for our colleagues to block a bipartisan defense funding bill Democrats had hailed as a ‘win-win-win’ and a ‘victory’ for their states.
“But we are living in a time of unparalleled international crises. Threats seem to mount less by the day than by the hour.
“Yet, last week, Democrats voted again to block the bipartisan bill that funds pay raises and medical care for our troops.
“It was extreme. I wish I could say it was the only extreme position Democrats took last week.
“On Thursday, Senators were given a choice between funding women’s health and funding a scandal-racked political organization called Planned Parenthood.
“Republicans stood up for women’s health.
“Democrats stood up for their political friends.
“I think Democrats will come to regret their continued prioritization of the needs of the Far Left over women, over our military, and over seemingly everything else.
“The question before us now is how to keep the government open in the short term given these current realities.
“Here’s what the President of Right to Life had to say on the matter:
There are two different roads that we can take. One is to insist that no more money go to Planned Parenthood and cause a government shutdown (which won’t result in actually defunding Planned Parenthood). The other is to take a slightly longer-term approach, taking advantage of the fact that we have the attention of the country as probably never before…
“Had Democrats not prevented the Senate from passing the same appropriations bills they voted for and praised, we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now. But they did. They pursued a deliberate strategy to force our country into another of their unnecessary crises.
This leaves the funding legislation before us as the only viable way forward in the short term.
“It does not represent my first, second, third, or twenty-third choice when it comes to funding the government.
“But it will keep the government open through the fall, and funded at the bipartisan level already agreed to by both parties, as we work on the way forward.”
Related Issues: Defending Life, Appropriations, America's Military, Senate Democrats, Restoring the Senate, IRS
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