John Cornyn: “here it is November 18. It seems like the election was a few years ago. Time is flying by, but there is still a lot of…”

“here it is November 18. It seems like the election was a few years ago. Time is flying by, but there is still a lot of work to be done here in the 116th Congress. I hope that our friends across the aisle will reconsider their objections to working with us on another COVID-19 relief bill. I know back home in Texas, many small businesses that received PPE loans are uncertain, for example, what the tax consequences are going to be associated with that. Many of them, for whom that was a lifeline, are running out of that lifeline due to the passage of time. We also know we need to pass an appropriations bill before the December 11 deadline to both avoid a government shutdown and give our government agencies the ability to plan and operate with certainty. Of course, perhaps most significantly, we need to pass a final version of the National Defense Authorization Act. The foremost obligation of the Federal Government is the peace and security for the American people. We do that by passing the defense authorization act and funding our military each year on an annual basis. This bill determines how we maintain our military bases, modernize our aircraft, and invest in the next generation of aircraft and weaponry. Of course, we know that our adversaries--most notably, countries like China and Russia--are moving very quickly to modernize their military and their weaponry in a way that could jeopardize the balance or the deterrence of our current systems.…”