On the recordSeptember 18, 2018
today we are about to mark a milestone. Maybe it wouldn't be a milestone for any other group except for the U.S. Congress; that milestone is getting a significant part of our work done on time. This will be the first time in 22 years that we have passed the Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill before the start of the fiscal year. Just a few days ago was the first time in 11 years this bill has even been debated on the Senate floor. So we are heading in a good direction. This is a bipartisan agreement. It isn't exactly the bill that I would prefer; it isn't exactly what my ranking member Senator Murray would like to have done here. But working with our House colleagues and with Senator Shelby and Senator Leahy, we have actually done the job this year that the appropriating committee is supposed to do, which is to appropriate the money--to decide how to spend the people's money that we have been entrusted with. For instance, this bill funds things like the opioid bill that 99 Senators voted for yesterday. It is one thing to vote on a bill that says: Here is what we ought to do. It is another thing to then actually do it. Most of the things we voted on yesterday will not happen unless we decide to fund the things we said we wanted to do. This is one of the most difficult bills to negotiate. It is 30 percent of all nondefense spending. It is, interestingly, combined this year with the defense bill. So you have the No.…
