Roy Blunt: “The legislation we have debated here tonight was at one point supposed to be an emergency supplemental spending bill for…”

“The legislation we have debated here tonight was at one point supposed to be an emergency supplemental spending bill for our troops, dispatched to them with urgency, resolution, and purpose. It was supposed to provide money and resources for our fighting men and women on the frontlines so that they had the tools and equipment they needed to finish the task at hand. Instead the majority turned this important funding package into an exercise in political theater, along the way, disregarding the testimony of our military commanders, the wishes of many in their own caucus, and basic and numerous dictates of our Constitution and our history. The result has been a final conference report, though we know it really won't be a final conference report. It has been a conference report that imposes artificial deadlines, ties the hands of our commanders in the field, and demotes those tasked with managing an active military engagement to the rank of administrative assistant, forced to check new boxes before exercising the authority they have today to execute their mission. And it would spend billions of dollars on things that should have been debated at another time.”