On the recordFebruary 6, 2018
as we continue discussions about another extension of government funding, Senate negotiators are working on a deal to lift the spending caps for both defense and urgent domestic priorities. From the very beginning of the budget debate, Democrats have made our position in these negotiations very clear. We support an increase in funding for our military and our middle class. The two are not mutually exclusive. We don't want to do just one and leave the other behind. The sequester caps have arbitrarily imposed austerity on both sides of the ledger, defense and the nondefense programs that benefit middle-class people, such as education, infrastructure, and medical research. The caps have hamstrung the Pentagon's ability to make reliable investments, no doubt, but they have also cut support harshly and unintelligently from middle-class programs. We ought to get out from sequestration entirely because our men and women in uniform deserve the resources they need to keep our country safe--as do our veterans waiting for better healthcare; as do young men and women, many of them veterans, seeking treatment for opioid addiction; as do rural families waiting for high-speed internet to connect themselves and their kids to the world; as do hard-working pensioners who forewent salary increases and bonuses to secure a pension that is now evaporating before their very eyes.…
