Blog
Policy Update: Continuing Resolutions and the DoD
Washington,
July 29, 2016
Congress is currently in a District Work Period, which gives us time to stay close to home and have in-depth interactions with our constituents across our district. However, once Congress resumes session in Washington, we will have some necessary work to complete. A new fiscal year begins on October 1st, and before then, we must pass an Appropriations package that keeps the necessary functions of our government running. As an Appropriator, I am proud of the progress we made this year – all twelve of the Appropriations bills passed the full Appropriations Committee. Starting with Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill and ending with the Interior and Environment bill, the whole House passed five of these bills and sent them to the Senate for consideration. This is important works. It demonstrates the House’s agreement on what the final spending package should look like, on what cuts need to be made, and on what priorities need to be funded. Without Since I began my work in Congress in 2011, the gridlock that plagues Washington has resulted in a series of stops and starts to the federal government in a hodgepodge of Continuing Resolutions and Omnibus spending bills. While it may appear that the two are interchangeable, a CR is damaging to our essential government functions and our nation as a whole. CRs prevent new projects from starting on time – from roads to bridge repairs to community centers and Corps of Engineers projects – and ultimately make these projects more costly. And important cuts or funding limitations, like reductions in the Environmental Protection Agency budget or bans on new and harmful regulations, simply don’t go into effect. As a Defense Appropriator and a National Guard veteran, I believe it is unacceptable that congressional gridlock and politics should stop us from providing for our military, and I will be working hard with my colleagues to complete our work on these bills before the end of the fiscal year. |