Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray Demands Parity In Defense And Non-Defense Increases

3 months ago

During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) demanded increases in non-defense discretionary funds during the appropriations process.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00I rise today to talk about why the funding decisions we make here in this building matter

00:05and how the Fiscal Responsibility Act's spending caps will continue to hold America back, undercutting

00:13our economy, competitiveness and future, unless the Senate can come together and take action.

00:21The Appropriations Committee has now held nearly 40 hearings on the resources that we

00:27will need in FY25.

00:30We have discussed exactly what our nation needs to stay strong, safe and competitive.

00:36And there is a big, obvious takeaway from those hearings.

00:40The FRA caps for FY24 are already causing serious pain and serious challenges, and the

00:48caps for FY25 are grossly inadequate.

00:53In FY24, the FRA froze non-defense funding while increasing defense funding by nearly

01:00$30 billion more, to say nothing of the billions in the supplemental.

01:06In FY25, the caps mean just a 1% increase for non-defense and defense alike.

01:14Needless to say, that does not begin to keep pace with inflation or other rising expenses.

01:20That means net cuts in terms of real resources across the government.

01:25Let's all remember why we have these caps in the first place.

01:30House Republicans took the debt ceiling hostage and demanded funding caps and cuts in exchange

01:37for not destroying our nation's credit.

01:39I warned at the time that we passed the FRA, and I've warned repeatedly since, these

01:45caps undermine our country's future in a really serious way.

01:49That's not speculation.

01:51I'm speaking from experience.

01:54Back in 2011, the last time a large group of Republicans leveraged the full faith and

01:59credit of the United States to extract spending caps under a Democratic president, we got

02:05sequestration, which both parties quickly recognized was a disaster, and we got a decade

02:12of harmful caps.

02:14The effects of that still echo today.

02:18Veterans funding, except veterans medical care, is down 6% from 2010 when you adjust

02:25for inflation, and down 14% when you adjust for inflation and population growth.

02:32That's not just a number on a page, that's less support for families, fewer research

02:39grants to keep us on the cutting edge, fewer officers cracking down on crime in neighborhoods.

02:46It's just so many opportunities lost.

02:49And I can't, for the life of me, understand why we would want to go through something

02:54like that again.

02:56Now I'm glad so many of my Republican colleagues are in strong agreement, at least when it

03:01comes to defense.

03:03But every senator calling to boost defense spending alone is seriously missing the point.

03:11And any senator who thinks I will let us leave non-defense spending behind is seriously

03:17misreading the situation.

03:19There is a simple reason I pushed for the principle of parity when I struck the budget

03:25deal that ended the worst of sequestration with Paul Ryan in 2013.

03:30And it still applies today.

03:34Non-defense investments matter to families.

03:37They matter to our economy, our competitiveness, our future, and yes, it matters to national

03:44security.

03:45I can't emphasize that enough.

03:47Here in Washington, D.C., we call it non-defense discretionary spending, or NDD, very wonky.

03:55Back home, we call it making sure parents have child care, helping families put food

04:00on the table, supporting quality, affordable health care in our communities, fixing our

04:07roads.

04:08Back home, we call it clean water, safe food, fresh air, affordable housing.

04:16When air traffic controllers keep our planes operating safely, that's NDD.

04:21When FDA pulls an unsafe product off the shelf, that is NDD.

04:28When kids go to a public school or get a Pell Grant that makes college possible for

04:33them, that's NDD.

04:35NIH researchers working to cure cancer, weather forecasters warning us of a disaster, agents

04:42cracking down on the flow of fentanyl and going after criminal organizations, fighting

04:48wildfires, enforcing sanctions against Russia, negotiating tough agreements with allies and

04:53adversaries alike, that is NDD.

04:58I hope I've made my point.

05:00What we are talking about here is spending that is by no stretch of the imagination the

05:04largest portion of our budget, just about one-eighth of our total budget.

05:09But that makes a real, tangible difference in families' lives and our country's safety

05:15and success every single day.

05:19We're also talking about things Americans overwhelmingly support.

05:23Seriously, I encourage my colleagues to go ask your constituents in any part of this

05:28country – conservative, liberal, Washington to Kentucky – do you care if you have clean

05:33water?

05:34Do you care if your kids get sick from foodborne illness?

05:38Do you want to wait longer when you call the Social Security office if you can reach anyone

05:43at all?

05:44Do you want someone making sure that the bridges that you drive across are safe?

05:50Do you want to stall our progress on cures and treatments for cancer or Alzheimer's

05:55or other deadly diseases?

05:58And yet, NDD has been consistently underfunded.

06:01And it is a constant target for cuts by House Republicans, as we are now seeing.

06:07I'm here to say enough is enough.

06:10If we keep cutting and stretching and shortchanging those programs, something is going to snap.

06:18Something important.

06:19But more cuts is exactly what a 1 percent cap actually means.

06:25Not treading water.

06:26Not keeping up.

06:28A 1 percent cap means pain.

06:31If we let families down, that means we let our competitors get ahead.

06:36It means we leave our nation vulnerable.

06:39That's not politics, Mr. President.

06:41It is cold, hard math.

06:441 percent is not enough to keep up with rising costs, growing needs, and new challenges.

06:52The issue here isn't whether we can make more tough choices.

06:56It is whether we are going to be honest about the tough realities of a 1 percent cap.

07:02There are so many priorities lawmakers on both sides of the aisle care about that just

07:09can't happen with a 1 percent increase.

07:13Here's what a 1 percent means in practice.

07:161 percent means letting families go hungry.

07:20WIC, a literal lifeline for nearly 7 million mothers and babies, is going to need a nearly

07:2710 percent increase next year.

07:31Anything less will force us to choose which moms, which babies are getting the food they

07:37need and which are getting put on a wait list.

07:41Think about that.

07:431 percent means we are letting rural families lose their homes.

07:47We need a 5 percent increase for rural rental assistance alone.

07:52Falling short means thousands of rural families will lose assistance and may face eviction.

07:59How is that right?

08:011 percent means losing law enforcement.

08:04The FBI already can't fill about a thousand open positions because of what happened in

08:11FY24.

08:12At 1 percent in FY25, it would have to trim another 1,300 positions.

08:19That's far fewer agents going after transnational criminal organizations, fentanyl traffickers,

08:26violent crime, cyber attackers and more.

08:30Meanwhile, DOJ would have to lose or freeze nearly 5,000 positions.

08:36We are talking about attorneys and agents that defend our civil rights, prosecute dangerous

08:42criminals and keep our nation safe.

08:46Do Republicans really want to defund law enforcement?

08:511 percent means slashing pay for our federal firefighters.

08:55Any family whose house has been threatened by one of the many devastating wildfires in

09:00recent years will tell you, firefighters are not an optional expense.

09:07But over a quarter of the Forest Service wildland firefighting jobs are vacant.

09:12And unless we provide funding to save our firefighters from a pay cut, those vacancies

09:18will get worse.

09:20This is the very definition of a must-have, not a nice-to-have kind of investment.

09:271 percent means we are blunting momentum for life-saving biomedical breakthroughs.

09:33NIH is looking at a $280 million shortfall as Cures Act funding tapers off.

09:41That absolutely cannot be filled with a 1 percent bump.

09:45And that is on top of the $678 million in NIH Cures Act funding that already expired

09:52last year that we couldn't make up for because of the caps.

09:57There are countless patients who would be devastated to hear that totally arbitrary

10:03spending caps are stifling research that could save their life.

10:07But Mr. President, that is barely scratching the surface.

10:11One percent means no major new funding for the opioid or mental health crisis.

10:17It means fewer kids in Head Start, which is facing now a severe staffing shortage.

10:23It means long waiting times for seniors and people with disabilities who need help with

10:28their Social Security benefits.

10:31It means laying off meat inspectors and consumer product safety workers.

10:37And let's not forget what 1 percent means we are giving up ground to our competitors

10:42and adversaries in just about every way.

10:45It means delaying NASA missions.

10:47It means letting adversarial governments fill the void in global politics and influence,

10:52failing to counter an aggressive Putin in Russia and allowing partners to succumb to

10:57economic coercion from Beijing.

11:00And withdrawing from the world stage to let competitors set the international norms that

11:06impact our safety and economic strength.

11:10It means falling way behind on innovation, which we should be leading the way.

11:15You know how much the Chinese government is increasing their research and development

11:19spending this year?

11:21Ten percent.

11:22Ten percent.

11:24How do we expect to compete at one?

11:28We authorize some truly transformative programs and funding levels in the bipartisan CHIPS

11:33and SCIENCE Act, but that doesn't matter if we don't provide bipartisan investments that

11:38live up to those ambitions.

11:41The FRA has already forced us to fall short.

11:44And without more non-defense funding, it will force us to fall behind the Chinese government.

11:50Mr. President, I've covered a lot, but here's the rub.

11:53This is not even close to a comprehensive list of what those spending caps mean for

11:58our country.

11:59I cannot emphasize enough that under the caps for non-defense, everything struggles to keep

12:06up with rising costs.

12:08Programs that our kids, the future of our country depend on – public schools, public

12:12health, nutrition assistance, to name a few – cannot get by on a one percent.

12:18Programs that keep our economy strong and growing – child care, training for our workers,

12:23support for small business and for farmers, cutting-edge research – can't get by on

12:28one percent.

12:30Programs that help communities thrive – affordable housing, transportation, broadband, and of

12:36course support for our tribes – cannot get by on one percent.

12:42Programs that keep us safe – diplomacy, border patrol, food inspectors, law enforcement

12:48– cannot get by on one percent.

12:51It is entirely self-defeating to box our future in, leave our families behind, and give our

12:59adversaries an opening to charge ahead.

13:03Congress needs to decide, do we want a stronger America?

13:07Most Republicans are saying no, and writing FY25 bills that ignore the deal that they

13:12negotiated in favor of devastating cuts to non-defense.

13:18The Senate, however, needs to come together and chart a different path – in a bipartisan

13:22way – that says yes to a stronger America.

13:27So to me, the path for the Senate is clear.

13:29We've got to provide additional resources beyond the caps to address major shortfalls

13:35and new challenges.

13:38Mr. President, I appreciate my colleagues who want to do more for defense.

13:43I also think the defense cap is too low.

13:47But I feel strongly that that increase cannot happen in a vacuum.

13:51We have to do more for non-defense as well.

13:54Parity is the order of the day.

13:56Because investments in our families, in our economy, in community safety and success are

14:03no less important than investments at the Pentagon.

14:06They are actually, in fact, connected.

14:10After all, a new submarine isn't just built with money.

14:14It is actually built by people who need schools and child care for their kids, roads and public

14:21transportation to get to work, safe food and water, workforce training programs so they

14:27can take on new roles in advanced manufacturing, and more.

14:32So let me be clear.

14:33I will not let us boost defense alone while leaving families and our country's future

14:38in the dust.

14:39That's a core principle for me.

14:41It is who I am.

14:43Now, I want you to know I'm not asking for the moon here.

14:46Parity for defense and non-defense is not new or radical.

14:50It was the norm.

14:51I should know.

14:52When I sat down across from Paul Ryan, a principled conservative, to reach a deal that undid the

14:59worst of sequestration a decade ago, we didn't agree on everything.

15:03In fact, we didn't agree on a lot of things.

15:06We sort of had family and football and fishing was all we agreed on to start with.

15:11That's where we started.

15:12But we both understood the only way we were going to reach a deal, undo massive cuts,

15:19and help folks back at home was by working together and producing a deal that may not

15:24be what we would have written alone, but addressed concerns that both of us brought

15:30to the table.

15:31A cornerstone of that agreement, and of numerous agreements since, was parity for defense and

15:37non-defense.

15:38Parity is not new.

15:39It's not some antiquated concept either.

15:42It is as relevant today as ever.

15:45Because I think we can all agree that making sure planes fly safely overhead, making sure

15:52we invest in R&D as the Chinese government now spends 10% more, making sure our kids

15:59don't get hungry is not some second-order priority.

16:04So we cannot shortchange either side of the ledger.

16:08We increased defense funding by tens of billions this year while non-defense was held flat.

16:15And I worked extremely hard alongside my colleagues to ensure we delivered on a $95 billion National

16:22Security Supplemental to address the major global threats we're facing.

16:28In FY25, I cannot accept net cuts in real resources to NDD, which is what a 1% increase

16:37means.

16:38Our duty to our constituents is to pass bills that make their lives better.

16:43To provide funds that let us actually meet this moment, support families, protect our

16:50nation, and stay ahead of our competitors.

16:54That will require more resources for non-defense.

16:57And I'm ready to work with my colleagues to provide the same for defense.

17:03Last year, we were able to produce strong bipartisan bills in committee.

17:07I'm very hopeful we're going to be able to do the same again this year.

17:11I plan to hold our first FY25 markup the week we return from the 4th of July recess.

17:18And I look forward to working with all of my colleagues to make sure we meet this moment,

17:22take the concerns that we're hearing back home, and write and pass strong bipartisan

17:28Senate appropriation bills.

17:30Thank you, Mr. President.

17:31I yield the floor.

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray Demands Parity In Defense And Non-Defense Increases

Category

Transcript

Recommended