Susan Collins: “before I suggest the absence of a quorum, I do want to just briefly respond to some of the comments that were made by my…”

“before I suggest the absence of a quorum, I do want to just briefly respond to some of the comments that were made by my distinguished colleague from Kentucky, Senator Rand Paul, earlier. The first is that he is correct that a lot of the increase in spending is on the mandatory entitlement side of the budget, but that is not what the Appropriations Committee handles. That is not under our jurisdiction. The second point that I want to make is that in this six-bill package, the amount of spending in the nondefense discretionary area is actually below last year. It is 1.7 percent below last year. When you factor in inflation, that means there are real cuts that these Agencies and programs are going to be experiencing. There is a 3.3-percent increase for defense, but that, too, is below the inflation rate. When you look at the global threats our combatant Commanders have identified, we should be spending more for defense than that. The final point I will make is that we have adhered to the Fiscal Responsibility Act caps on spending in this bill, the final six-bill package, and the overall bills we have brought forth. So we have also accommodated and followed the agreement that was negotiated between the Speaker of the House and the Democratic leader of the Senate. So these bills are not big spending bills that are wildly out of scope.…”