On the recordJanuary 22, 2018
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information. Today, both Chambers have passed the CR that takes us to February 8. That leaves 17 calendar days. I was going to say it did 6\1/2\ legislative days, but the gentleman has now given up probably half a day, as I understand it, which is Wednesday of the retreat. So, essentially, Mr. Speaker, we have 6 days between now and February 8 in which we will be in session. That makes it incumbent upon us that we come together, cooperate with one another, compromise, and send legislation from here to the Senate that the Senate can agree to. I want to say, I did not know the gentleman was going to mention that, but I want to see the Defense Department fully funded. But I also want to see fully funded departments that take care of the health of our people, the education of our children, domestic law enforcement, and relations between ourselves and the rest of the world in the State Department, and so many other agencies of government that are in the nondefense part of the budget. Mr. Speaker, I would tell my friend that I would hope we would come to an agreement very, very shortly on the overall spending levels so that we can pass both defense and nondefense priority issues. And I would say to my friend, all we are asking for in that context, as the gentleman knows, is what we have done over the last 4 years as a result of agreements between Speaker Ryan and Senator Murray, so I would hope that we can proceed on that.…





