McConnell: Servicemembers Deserve Open Gov’t, Full-Year Defense Funding

You know, government shutdowns have real consequences. I've said that countless times during my time here. Incredibly, it seems to have taken Democrats a month to remember that the proverbial soul is in fact already hot and yet they're not ready to turn it off. Just turn it down a notch. Just low enough that they can take the political heat. My friend from Delaware is right. Our military deserves a lot better than a government shutdown that jeopardizes their paychecks and the services military families count on. During a Democrat shutdown, the President has had to scrape together unobligated balances within the defense budget in order to uphold the nation's promise to service members through another pay period. I certainly hope he won't have to divert resources from urgent modernization again to make payroll in another two weeks. But that ball, of course, is in the Democrats' court. I hope they'll realize soon that the surest way, the surest way to help service members and civilian DOD employees is to simply turn government funding back on and pass full-year appropriations. I know my counterpart on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of all people understands this. He knows what would really help our armed forces because he and I worked closely together on a full-year bill for defense that would pay service members and invest more in the capabilities they need to keep America safe. I'm grateful for Senator Coon's collaboration on the bipartisan bill that earned overwhelming support in the committee and would add $22 billion above the president's defense request. This, by the way, is the bill that almost every Democrat voted against considering two weeks ago. I know the ranking member cares about the promises we make to the all-volunteer force and the challenges we expect them to face. I know he's concerned about the erosion of Congress' authority to set and fund national security priorities. So am I. And if we cannot appropriate, we will render ourselves completely irrelevant. The way to provide real certainty and deliver serious full-year appropriations is just open the government back up and pass our bill. It's really that simple.