During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) spoke about the Republican-led continuing resolution.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, I rise to discuss the House continuing resolution that will be before
00:06this body over the next couple of days.
00:10And I want to begin by talking about a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting that we had
00:16yesterday morning at 9.30 a.m.
00:18So for all paying attention, the House acted on a continuing resolution.
00:26On Tuesday night, the budget deadline is at the end of the day Friday, and it takes two
00:33houses to do a budget, but what happened is when the House acted on their portion of it,
00:39they decided to leave town.
00:42They thought it would just be great if they just left town before the budget was even
00:48done.
00:49And they sent us a quote continuing resolution that would be unprecedented because it would
00:55mean that the government of the United States would have operated not under a traditional
01:00appropriations bill, but instead under a CR for the entire year.
01:07To those who don't do the Washington speak, what's the difference between a CR and a real
01:13appropriations budget?
01:15The way I describe it is this.
01:17If you're driving a vehicle, you want to drive by looking through the windshield where you
01:23are going.
01:24That's what the budget does.
01:25You budget for the year ahead of you based upon the facts on the ground, the realities
01:29in the world, the priorities that you've embraced, the challenges that you'll face.
01:35That's what a budget is supposed to do.
01:38When you operate under a continuing resolution, you're driving by looking in the rearview
01:43mirror.
01:44You're instead embracing decisions that were made a while ago and just saying, well, we
01:49can't even reach an accord about going forward, so let's instead just, let's do what we did
01:56last month.
01:57Let's do what we did last year because we are unable to reach an agreement.
02:02A continuing resolution has been somewhat normal for a couple of months.
02:07If we don't reach a budget deal by September 30, it's pretty normal that we do a CR through
02:11the end of the calendar year.
02:13But in every year that I've been here, Congress has been able to, at some point, find not
02:21the backward-looking CR but the forward-looking appropriations bill, put it in place so that
02:26we are spending money based on the priorities that are important right now.
02:31What's pending before the Senate now is not that forward-looking budget.
02:36Instead, it's this vehicle that has come over from the House that would, for the first time,
02:43have us not budgeting based on the windshield but instead driving by what's in the rear-view mirror.
02:51We had an Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, and it was a hearing that was called
02:57by the readiness subcommittee on which I sit.
03:00Readiness looks at this very important metric, how ready are the different branches of the
03:06American military to fight tomorrow if we need to?
03:11We have this hearing every year, and we usually invite to the hearing the vice service chiefs
03:18of each of the service branches.
03:20So instead of the service chief of the Navy, the deputy, Vice Admiral Kilby, we'll invite
03:27the deputy of all the branches, and they come and they talk to us about how they measure
03:31readiness and where we stand.
03:34And they were all before us yesterday in a hearing that was chaired by Alaska Senator
03:39Sullivan, with the ranking member, Hawaii Senator Hirono, and a number of others there
03:47at the hearing.
03:49Now remember, it had just been 12 hours before that the House had passed the continuing resolution.
03:55And so folks were aware of what was on the table in this hearing yesterday morning.
04:02And what did our military leadership say to us about the continuing resolution that we
04:08are going to be asked to vote on in the next day or so?
04:13Well, let me just read a couple of quotes from the military leaders.
04:19Admiral Kilby, consistent and predictable funding is foundational to our improvement
04:30efforts.
04:31The Navy will need to make hard choices this year if we are operating under a full year
04:35continuing resolution.
04:37And so I asked him this question.
04:39I'm just going to read the exchange that I had to him.
04:42Admiral Kilby, I think you testified in your open testimony that under a CR, one-fifth
04:49of our ships will miss their maintenance schedule.
04:53Did I hear that right?
04:55Admiral Kilby said specifically 11 ships, those maintenance availabilities are at risk.
05:01I followed up.
05:03Okay, so we want to get to 80% ready on ships and subs.
05:08Where are we now?
05:10Admiral Kilby said depending on the day around 67%.
05:14I then said what will one-fifth of ships missing their maintenance schedule under the CR, what
05:20will that do to our quest to get to 80% readiness for ships and subs?
05:26Admiral Kilby, it'll certainly be a setback.
05:30We'll take a penalty there.
05:33And all of the other vice service chiefs said the same thing on behalf of the Marines and
05:37the Air Force and the Space Force and the Army.
05:42Operating under a full year CR will hurt readiness, will hurt our national security.
05:50This is what the Pentagon is telling us about the bill we're going to be voting on in the
05:55next day or so.
05:58But it wasn't just the military leaders who said that.
06:02The chairman of the readiness subcommittee, Senator Sullivan, the CR from a readiness
06:07standpoint I think that none of this is helpful, is helpful.
06:13He described the frequent use of CRs as, quote, a failure on the part of Congress.
06:20And then my friend and colleague who was the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
06:27Senator Wicker, here is what he said about the bill that we're going to vote on in the
06:33next couple of days.
06:34I will say this about the fact that this is the first year-long CR for the Department
06:40of Defense.
06:42This is a shame on our process and it is not in keeping with what the founders intended.
06:51This is the chairman, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee's
06:56opinion about what a year-long CR will do to our national security.
07:04So why are we going to vote for it?
07:07Why are we taking it up and rushing to pass it?
07:12When our military leadership says it's a bad idea and when the chairman of the Armed Services
07:16Committee says it's a bad idea, why would we contemplate it?
07:22Well, Senator Sullivan sort of hinted at it when he said it's better than a shutdown,
07:28but those are not the options.
07:31This was a hearing Wednesday morning at 9.30 in the morning.
07:36The budget deadline is not until the end of the day Friday.
07:39We don't have to accept that it's either a security-damaging continuing resolution
07:47or a shutdown because we're the Senate of the United States.
07:52There is an attitude among senators here that because the House came up with a partisan
07:58bill and sent it to us and then decided to skip town Tuesday night, that we just have
08:06to go along.
08:08I thought the Senate was an independent branch of Congress.
08:14I thought the Senate was the greatest deliberative body in the world.
08:20I don't think the Speaker of the House is the czar of the Senate, and when he sends
08:27us a continuing resolution three days before a budget deadline and then leaves town, I
08:34don't think the Senate of the United States is bound to follow his wishes.
08:40Instead, we should do our own jobs and do the right thing for the country.
08:45If the Armed Services Chair says this hurts defense, then let's get it right.
08:51If the Chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee says the CR hurts defense, then let's get
08:58it right.
09:00And the good news, Mr. President, is we have an opportunity to get it right.
09:05It is not completely clear, as I stand on the floor, but it looks likely that there
09:10could be a vote today or tomorrow on an alternative that I'll call the getting-it-right alternative.
09:19What is the getting-it-right alternative?
09:23We would extend the current spending level for 30 days and then finish the budget.
09:29We would decide we don't want to drive looking in the rearview mirror.
09:33We want to drive looking in the windshield.
09:35And we would get an appropriations deal that wouldn't hurt our readiness.
09:41And I'm just talking about one priority.
09:43I could have other colleagues stand here and talk about how this CR hurts education priorities,
09:49health priorities, mental health priorities, transportation priorities, emergency response.
09:56We don't have to accept that.
09:58And frankly, to earn the label U.S. Senator, we shouldn't accept it.
10:04We should do the get-it-right alternative.
10:06And the get-it-right alternative, which has been proposed by Senator Murray and others,
10:11is to do a simple 30-day extension of existing spending — no amendments, no adjustments,
10:19no anomalies, no quirks — for 30 days, and then get an appropriations deal done that
10:27can pass this body and pass the House.
10:29And we can do it.
10:30We're very, very close.
10:31I'm not on the Appropriations Committee.
10:33But in my discussions with appropriators, they say we're extremely close.
10:38We can do this.
10:40And we should.
10:42And so, Mr. President, I'll just urge my colleagues, as you contemplate a vote on this
10:49House CR that, in my view, does great damage to many priorities, you don't just have to
10:56go along with the House work product, especially when they show disrespect to the Senate by
11:03skipping town Tuesday night, thinking that they could jam us by doing so.
11:07You don't have to go along with a work product that even the chairman of the Armed Services
11:13Committee says hurts our national readiness.
11:15You don't have to go along with a work product when Pentagon officials who have made this
11:21their lives look at us and tell us this will hurt national security.
11:27There's a better strategy, and we should embrace it.
11:30And with that, Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.