WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) released the following video statement after he voted with the Senate to pass a package of six appropriations bills and fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year:
“The Senate has just passed the remaining full year appropriations bills: $1.2 trillion that will go to fund our military, our Department of Homeland Security, and other key departments like the Department of State and USAID, whose appropriations I helped lead. Our work for the year is not yet done. There are some positives in this bill: some investments for fentanyl screening at our border, to hire some more border patrol agents; in my subcommittee, $330 million more for humanitarian relief for Gaza, for Ukraine, for other countries where there are emergencies and crises, and 12,000 more Special Immigrant Visas for those Afghans who served alongside American troops and in support of our mission.
“But there remains undone a supplemental funding request that has previously passed the Senate by a big bipartisan margin, which the House still needs to take up. It would provide critical funding for Ukraine, for Israel, for humanitarian relief, and to secure our border. It is my hope, indeed my prayer, that the House turns to that promptly when they return.”
Senator Coons is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS).