Madam President, today, this week, we’ve come together to consider an omnibus appropriations bill. That’s a big mouthful, an omnibus appropriations bill, but I hope to lay out in plain language for our folks back at home and for those in this chamber why that matters, why I’m excited about it and why I support it.
This is the first time since I joined this body three years ago that we have considered one, and it’s a real step forward. The agreement we came to on the budget and the agreement I hope we will pass on this appropriations bill means no more shutdowns, no more crises, no more autopilot, at least not for this fiscal year.
This bill helps us return to regular order, to the proposition that once election day is over, it’s our job as the representatives the people elected to come together, find common ground, solve bigger problems together and move the nation forward.
Now, this appropriations bill is the result of a lot of hard work by members and staff, and I must begin first and foremost by thanking the Senate Appropriations Committee chair, Senator Mikulski and vice-chair Senator Shelby, as well as the House chair, Congressman Rogers and ranking member, Congresswoman Lowey, who showed great leadership, working together on a very tight deadline to craft such a vast and comprehensive bill.
Their work follows the leadership of the chair, Senator Murray, and the leader of the House Budget Committee, Congressman Ryan, after they came together to pave the way for the Appropriations Committee to reach this deal this week. I applaud their leadership and thank them for the example they have set.
As a member of both the Budget and Appropriations committees, it’s been a privilege to work with them to craft these bills and ensure we meet our nation’s needs. The bill before us is, of course, a compromise. And it is the essence of a compromise that it’s not perfect by any means, that there are many who can find fault within it or disappointments aplenty amongst the choices made.
It doesn’t include, for example, just to pick one thing of great importance to my state, it doesn’t include enough funding to make real headway on Amtrak’s critical infrastructure improvements that I think are essential just to deal with the $6 billion backlog of investments needed in aging tunnels and bridges and tracks.
So while this bill does provide adequate funding for Amtrak today, which I’m very glad about, it puts off those critically needed investments in repairing these essential elements of its infrastructure, which we will inevitably need to make.
That’s just one example. And in a bill this big, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of the tough tradeoffs that had to be made between House and Senate, between the appropriators of the majority and the minority. But as we consider our vote on this bill and how it does or doesn’t meet our own priorities, our state’s priorities, we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
We need to remember that at least in this case, the alternative to this bill isn’t our own individual or perfect vision of government – whatever view we might hold – the alternative is crisis after crisis, government that doesn’t move forward with the country, but treads water as the world passes us by in an increasingly competitive global environment.
What this bill does in a very real way is bring back some stability for our government and our economy and allow us to make important investments in our country’s growth.
For instance, it takes a number of valuable steps for my home state of Delaware. It funds meat and poultry inspectors critical to Delaware’s chicken industry and its 13,000 jobs. It funds the next stage of an Army Corps of Engineers project to deepen the Delaware river from 40 to 45 feet, so that we’re ready and can be competitive when the expansion of the Panama Canal nears completion.
It dedicates funding through the Victims of Child Abuse Act, and I am an original cosponsor of a bill reauthorizing the Victims of Child Abuse Act. For the three Children’s Advocacy Centers throughout my state, these centers are critical to delivering justice for the victims of child abuse without harming their healing process.
And the bill maintains funding for a Bulletproof Vest Partnership, an initiative that has supplied Delaware police officers with over a thousand bulletproof vests in the past two years. Two of those vests, I should add, saved the lives of two officers during a shooting at the New Castle Courthouse just last spring.
These are just a few of the things for which I am grateful in this broad omnibus bill. Nationally, it also allows us to meet our key priorities of training our work force for this century, making our communities safer, and building a circle of protection around the most vulnerable in our society – so in combination, making us safer, stronger and more just.
The investments it makes in America’s workforce by funding education programs can last a lifetime. Head Start helps kids ensure they don’t fall behind before they have had a chance. This bill increases that funding by a billion dollars to serve 90,000 more kids this year. There is a competitive grant program to help states and communities find innovative ways to provide high-quality preschool options for low and middle-income families that I’m particularly excited about. In Delaware, we saw the power of this program and we competed for and won federal funding on a competitive basis for high-quality early education just last year. The Department of Education’s First in the World initiative will help colleges to measure, and thus improve, outcomes and bring down costs for students and families.
And this bill increases our investment in job training programs like Job Corps and the Veterans Employment and Training Service which helps everyone from low-income Americans who have failed to get on their feet in the job market to veterans who stood up for us around the world and have earned our support upon their return.
Next, this bill includes crucial funding that makes our communities safer. We’re upping our investment in the COPS program first championed on this floor by my predecessor, Senator Joe Biden. It will put 1,500 more officers on our streets and in our neighborhoods, keeping us safe. The Violence Against Women Act, which we came together in a bipartisan way to pass last year, is fully funded, and we’re taking important steps to stop the scourge of gun violence that affects each and every community with a new comprehensive school safety program, which I’m excited about; new investments to improve background checks; and new training to help local law enforcement react and protect the public from active shooters.
Of course the second part of making our community safer is ensuring that justice is delivered in our courts when crime does happen. Unfortunately, the sequester’s cuts to our federal courts cut the judiciary to the bone, imposing furloughs, hurting our nation’s justice system by leading to layoffs of hundreds of experienced, seasoned senior court staff. Thankfully, the bill before us reverses these and many other cuts and minimizes the delays of justice that are unacceptable to our nation.
Finally, this bill allows us to sustain what I like to call a “circle of protection” around the most vulnerable in our society that reflects our shared commitment to each other, our most basic values. Investments in the WIC program for women, infants and children will make sure 87,000 children have food they need at a vital stage of development.
LIHEAP ensures that low-income families don’t freeze during the coldest months of the year and this bill’s funding increase will ensure 400,000 more households have this critical assistance. Last, when we passed this bill when which I pray we will by week’s end, we’ll reverse the sequester’s devastating cuts to housing programs and as a result prevent more than 100,000 American families from becoming homeless.
Madam President, each of these investments in our workforce, in our public safety, in protection for our most vulnerable, together they make up the foundation of a safer, more just, more inclusive society. But when we also combine it with investments in research and innovation and infrastructure, we lay the groundwork for growth and shared prosperity today and tomorrow.
After the last three years, which in my experience have been mostly defined by partisan gridlock, stopgap budgets, and crisis governance, this bipartisan appropriations bill allows us to create some stability for our nation and our economy. And I think it reminds us that we are a nation that is at our best when we are determined to be open to each other’s ideas, to hear each other’s concerns and criticisms, and find ways to work together.
Although there are plenty of areas where I disagree with my Republican colleagues, as I’ve gotten to know them over the past three years we have found many more areas of common good and common work. So let me briefly mention a few of them as I celebrate what I think is the most important aspect of this big bill, which is that it’s truly bipartisan.
Senator Marco Rubio and I were both elected in 2010 and came to this chamber roughly the same time and we found ways to work together to invest in STEM education and to open pathways to college for young Americans.
Senator Hatch and I wrote a bill together called I-Squared – and we’re joined by Senator Klobuchar and Senator Rubio – and this bill brings high-skilled workers to our shores and invests in STEM education for American citizens.
Senator Kirk and I have worked together to create a national manufacturing strategy that focuses resources on creating manufacturing jobs in America. And just this Monday, Senator Roberts of Kansas and I announced our partnership on a new bill to make the research and development tax credit and it’s funding available to startups and to young, innovative companies.
There are so many issues where we can work together to invest in our workforce, to protect the public, to sustain this storied circle of protection around the most vulnerable, to invest in long-term economic growth, and to lift up every community and every American.
I am incredibly thankful for the leadership of Senators Mikulski and Shelby and the way that they displayed that leadership through action, through this process by putting aside their differences and finding common ground. I’d like to also close with a note of personal thanks to the countless committee staff on both sides who worked tirelessly throughout the holidays to make this bill a reality.
With this omnibus appropriations bill, it is my sincere hope that we’re putting an end to a cycle of manufactured crises and sending to the American people and to our communities the message that we can and will work together to confront the many challenges that remain here and in the future.