U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks on Wednesday on the Senate floor regarding government funding:
“The bipartisan government funding bill before this body is imperfect but strong. It will make huge new investments in our Armed Forces while cutting non-defense, non-veterans baseline spending in real dollars.
“Let me say that again: The world’s greatest military will get the funding increase that it needs, outpacing inflation. Meanwhile, non-defense, non-veterans spending will come in below the rate of inflation, for a real-dollar cut.
“This is a debate about American security, American servicemembers, and American interests on the world stage.
“Month after month, year after year, competitors such as China are methodically pouring money and planning into upgrading and modernizing their own militaries. They are constantly probing new ways to expand their military, intelligence, economic, and political reach — indirectly or directly threatening American forces and our allies’ and partners’ forces.
“Under these perilous circumstances, cutting defense spending in real dollars, as Democrats first wanted to do, is not an option.
“And embarking on a potentially endless cycle of continuing resolutions that give our military real-dollar funding cuts because of inflation, and give Defense Department leaders no certainty to plan and invest — that is not an acceptable option either.
“There is no question the bipartisan funding bill is imperfect.
“If Senate Republicans controlled this chamber, we would have handled the appropriations process differently from top to bottom.
“But given the reality of where we stand today, Senators have two options this week: We will either give our Armed Forces the resources and certainty that they need, or we will deny it to them.”
