On the recordJuly 25, 2019
This agreement is a good step forward; not a great step, but a good step. As vice chairman of the Budget Committee, and a veteran who serves on the Armed Services Committee, I want to speak for a moment about its impact on our national security. This bill turns our attention to confronting and out-competing our adversaries. And partly, it does so by ending the threat of sequestration. Now, we all know that the Budget Control Act was established with the tool of sequestration in an effort to improve our budgeting process to, in fact, address our debt, which itself is a threat to our national security. But we also know that that hasn't worked. And in the meantime, our national security, our defense budgeting is at risk. This bill not only ends that; it also creates parity in increased defense investments with domestic investments. That is a big deal, because it means we will spend as much on the dignity of Americans as we will on their defense. But it is also important to note that a lot of defense functions, a lot of things that ensure our national security fall under nondefense discretionary spending; things like investing in veterans' healthcare, investing in embassy security. In fact, the entire investment we make in the Department of Homeland Security falls under nondefense discretionary spending, and we increase that significantly with this deal. But let's not kid ourselves. This deal is not perfect.…
