00:00Madam President, this is a very important week in the Senate for many reasons.
00:08We will be voting on whether to proceed to the final six-bill package of appropriations bills sent to us by the House of Representatives.
00:21This package includes the following full-year funding bills for the Department of Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, National Security, Department of State, and related programs,
00:46and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
00:53Madam President, as a valued and important member of the Appropriations Committee,
01:01you know well that these are fiscally responsible bills that reflect many months of hard work
01:10and deliberation from members from both parties and from both sides of the Capitol.
01:18They reflect input from nearly every senator.
01:23Our subcommittees received more than 31,000 requests from senators for these six bills alone.
01:37Over the last months, our subcommittees have worked through all of these requests
01:44and done a great deal of important work.
01:49They've also worked hard on a bipartisan basis with their House counterparts
01:56to reconcile House and Senate priorities for these bills, as well as those of the administration.
02:04This was not an easy task.
02:08In developing the final fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills,
02:14the House and Senate committees worked from a top line that is less than what Congress would spend
02:22under a continuing resolution.
02:26Priorities were realigned.
02:28Difficult decisions were made.
02:31This process resulted in successful bipartisan votes in the House of Representatives
02:37to approve these six bills.
02:41Now, Madam President, it is the Senate's turn to show that we can work together
02:48in a bipartisan manner to finish the job.
02:52It is so important that we do so because looming is a government shutdown,
03:01another harmful, unnecessary, and disastrous government shutdown if we do not complete our work.
03:13Now, Madam President, there are so many important provisions in these bills
03:20that need to become law.
03:23I'm not going to go through them at this time, but I will later in this week.
03:30Let me say, Madam President, that the tragic death of Alex Petri has refocused attention
03:41on the Homeland Security bill, and I recognize that and share the concerns.
03:50I do want to point out to my colleagues that there are many safeguards that have been put in this bill
03:58that I would encourage them to review,
04:01and that the vast majority of the funding in this bill, more than 80%,
04:08is for non-immigration and non-border security functions.
04:15It includes, for example, funding for FEMA.
04:19We've just gone through a horrific storm that has caused a lot of damage,
04:26and FEMA is very important.
04:29It includes funding for TSA.
04:33Those of us who travel back and forth through our home states every weekend
04:38are well aware of the work of TSA in keeping us safe.
04:43It includes funding for cybersecurity and physical infrastructure protection.
04:50And, important to the states of the presiding officer and the state of Maine,
04:56it includes funding for the U.S. Coast Guard.
05:00So, Madam President, I know that there will be many more speeches and discussions
05:08of all of the bills that are included in this package,
05:14but let me just say that I hope we can come together in a constructive way to get this done
05:23and to ensure that we do not lurch into a dangerous and detrimental government shutdown.
05:34So, that is my goal, and I look forward to working with our colleagues this week
05:42to accomplish that objective.
05:46Thank you, Madam President.
05:49As I said, I will have more to say on each of the bills as the week progresses.
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