Extending the Undertaking Spam, Spyware, and Fraud Enforcement with Enforcers Beyond Borders Act of 2006

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, in a few moments we are going to vote on the motion to proceed to H.R. 8337, the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2021 and Other Extensions Act of 2020.

I will speak a little bit about what is in there, but I will urge all Members to vote aye.

The bill provides funding for the government through December 11 at fiscal year 2020 funding levels. It will be under the same terms and conditions contained in the fiscal year 2020 appropriations laws. These were the laws that Chairman Shelby and I brought to the floor and have been voted on.

It includes several authorization matters to extend programs that otherwise would expire, including some important health and veteran programs.

So as vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, I support the bill, but I am disappointed that it is needed at all.

As I have said many times, we had ample--ample time in the Senate to complete our work on the 12 appropriations bills, but we didn't mark up a single one. In June, July, we could have passed all 12 of them, but the majority leader wouldn't even bring up a single one of them.

Apparently, he is more interested in confirming extreme rightwing judges than moving legislation to address the needs of the American people, including appropriations bills or critical legislation to combat the COVID virus and its impact on families and the economy.

I chuckle, too, in a way ruefully because, of course, my friends on the other side--especially if there is a Democratic administration--say they must follow the Thurman rule, named after their revered former President pro tempore from the Republican side, that you cannot have any confirmations after the first of July. But, of course, they have forgotten their own Republican rule when they have a Republican President. We all know the facts on that, but I think what the American people have to understand is that because of the time we spent on that, because of the refusal to even allow 1--even 1--of the 12 appropriations bills to come up for a vote and allow everybody to either vote for it or against it--and with Republicans having a majority, if they didn't like anything in it, they could vote it down. But saying that, no, we want to talk about it, but we are kind of afraid to actually have to vote on it--I don't know why we are afraid to vote. That is what we get elected to do.

I have cast over 16,000 votes in this body. Actually, I was told today that is more than all but 1 of the nearly 2,000 Senators who have served here.

But what we have done is we have conceded we can't do our most basic job of completing appropriations bills on time, and in doing that, we have failed to address an unprecedented health and economic crisis for months.

Last week more than 870,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time. It is not 870,000 Americans who have filed in the past; this is 870,000 Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time. That is because of this pandemic.

Kitchen cabinets across the country are bare as families struggle without enough to eat. Schools do not have enough resources to teach our children at home or protect them inside the classroom.

This is infuriating. I think Senator Shelby and I could have gotten those 12 bills. On some parts of them, some would vote for it; some would vote against it. But we were ready to vote back in June and July. In the meantime, we now have 200,000 Americans who have died, and we have yet to vote.

I am afraid that what the President wants to do--and my friends on the Republican side--is cast aside the desperate needs of the American people in favor of government on autopilot.

Apparently, right now, they are more concerned with securing a hyperpartisan Supreme Court than the health and safety of the American people and are doing the most basic job of Congress. It is that simple.

I will have more to say about the continuing resolution in the coming days as we move forward toward final passage. But the last thing our country needs is a government shutdown in the middle of a global pandemic and an unprecedented economic crisis.

I regret that leadership would not allow us to vote on these appropriations bills because I am convinced we would have had enough Republicans and Democrats who would have come together and passed all 12 of them if we had been allowed to vote, even though it means that some would have to cast difficult votes, but that is what we are here for.

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