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GOVERNMENT FUNDING
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, finally, an omnibus spending bill. For months, there have been negotiations underway. The process has been drawn out. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, there was a lot of frustration. But soon we are going to vote on an omnibus spending package, and we are going to do much more than keep the lights on in our government.
In many ways, this spending package is a testament to the progress we have made during the past year of the Democratic majority. We have historic funding to reduce the cost of living for working families. We get it; American families are having a tough time making ends meet and are living paycheck to paycheck. We take action in this omnibus spending bill to start to address that challenge, and we create good jobs here in America. Isn't it about time we focus on making things in America, putting people to work with good jobs that supply them? And we need to ensure families and children can access critical supplies, like nutritious food and clean water that they need to survive.
This bill also provides more than $13 billion to the Ukrainians fighting tooth and nail to defend their freedom. The Democratic Senate caucus was fortunate last night to have over an hour and a half with the President where he spoke candidly and informally about the challenge we face in Ukraine. We have sent millions--maybe billions of dollars--in assistance to those who are resisting Vladimir Putin's barbaric attack on that nation, and we know that it is the right thing to do. There are displays of courage by the Ukrainians the likes of which we haven't seen in modern times. President Zelenskyy, particularly, has impressed not only the United States but the world with his singular courage.
The funds we are putting in this bill will help Ukrainians on the frontline to continue to hold back Vladimir Putin, and on the ground, in the air, through cyberspace, as well as helping our NATO allies in the region. NATO has never been stronger--30 different countries standing together, shoulder to shoulder, to stop Vladimir Putin's invasion.
The omnibus spending package, also, makes crucial investments in America at a time when we need it. It will fund research into the technologies and innovations. Innovation is an American phenomenon. Other countries do it, but I think we do it better. And whether we are curing a disease, creating a new industry, or combating the climate crisis, America needs to continue to lead the world in innovation. This spending bill does that.
At a moment of great peril and uncertainty in the world, we are coming together to defend our families, our security, our economy, and our future. But we need to move fast. We need to send this package to President Biden's desk quickly.
For the past 2 weeks, Russian mortars and missiles have been raining down on innocent people and children throughout Ukraine. More than 400 individuals have been killed, with some estimates in the thousands of deaths, believing that the current numbers are really an undercount.
Let me say one word while we are on the subject of Vladimir Putin and war crimes. What more evidence do you need than the bombing of a maternity hospital and the killing of mothers and infants? This man, Putin, and his attack on the Ukrainian people, is not following any standards or rules of decent conduct in any way whatsoever. I think it is obvious.
Yesterday, the Russian airstrike that devastated the hospital complex in Mariupol is an indication that we will never forget. A video released shortly after the bombing showed a pregnant woman being carried away on a stretcher, surrounded by pulverized cars in flames and blackened trees covered in debris. It was a scene from a horror movie--a horror created by Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine needs humanitarian, military, and economic aid today. That is exactly what this omnibus bill will provide--billions of dollars in military equipment and intelligence support and even more billions in emergency supplies, food aid, healthcare, migration, and refugee assistance.
This is how America stands by our fellow defenders of democracy at their darkest hour, and Ukraine needs our help.
Here at home, the spending package includes a number of provisions that will strengthen America and the 330 million Americans who live here. We are bringing vital investments back to our home States. I support the return of congressionally directed funding, because Senators and Representatives know their States and know their districts better than any Federal Agency personnel in Washington.
I am pleased to report that my colleague, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and I worked to include $210 million in funding for Illinois projects in this bill; and I will be ready to stand up and defend every single one of them piece by piece, project by project, as a good investment in the future of my State and our Nation.
This funding is going to help localities in Illinois launch important infrastructure, access to healthcare, environmental conservation, strengthening community violence prevention initiatives, supporting nonprofits doing important work through our State, and much more.
We also do something that I have worked on personally for the last several months and that I am particularly proud of; we are going to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, known as VAWA. For months, I have worked on this proposal with some amazing people in the U.S. States Senate. On my side of the aisle, Senator Dianne Feinstein really was one of the founders of this effort. On the Republican side of the aisle, two women Senators have just been amazing--Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Joni Ernst of Iowa. We wouldn't have passed this bill and included it in this appropriations measure were it not for their good effort; and I thank them very much. They have helped to provide a lifeline to survivors of sexual and domestic violence.
With this year's spending package, Congress will finally reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.
Additionally, the omnibus includes funding for a longstanding priority of mine: research. These investments in research are going to help keep America on the cutting edge of innovation when it comes to lifesaving medical treatment, therapies, and so much more. For example, this bill provides the National Institutes of Health with a significant funding increase--this time, a $2.25 billion increase; that is more than 5 percent. Five percent, I have kind of established--and, I hope, with some of my colleagues--as the Holy Grail of increases each year in research, particularly at the NIH. And with the good help of Republican Senator--retiring Senator, unfortunately--Roy Blunt of Missouri, we have managed to keep our promise. Lamar Alexander, now retired from the Senate, was one of the leaders on this issue. And Patty Murray is always there from the State of Washington. Well, we are going to keep our word again this year.
Basic medical research, which the United States leads the world in, is going to be enhanced with this improvement of more than 5 percent increase in the budget of the National Institutes of Health.
I am particularly pleased that this omnibus bill includes a dedicated
$25 million for the implementation of the ACT for ALS bill, which became law late last year. I want to thank Senator Coons for his leadership on that issue. This funding will ensure that NIH can quickly launch new initiatives to expand access to treatments for those suffering from ALS.
Sadly, I am disappointed to say that the package does not include COVID relief. We are at a turning point in this pandemic. New cases of COVID are at their lowest rates in more than 7 months, praise the Lord; and parents and families are just as anxious as can be to get their kids back in school and life back to normal. These are promising developments--from vaccines to better treatments--but we cannot pretend that this pandemic is over for good, nor that it won't resurface in terms of new variants. We need to prepare for whatever the coronavirus might have in store for us. We need to make sure we have the therapeutics and strengthen our capacity to detect new variants before they become pandemic.
Given the dire urgency of the situation in Ukraine, I understand we simply don't have time to go back to the bargaining table, but many of us still believe that a toolkit to deal with future infections in COVID or the next pandemic is absolutely essential. I can only hope the Senate agrees with that on a bipartisan basis.
Two years into this pandemic, we know this virus is anything but predictable. It operates like free-form jazz. Just when we think we have found our rhythm, the tempo gets turned upside down with a new variant. This current lull in cases is the perfect moment to tune up our instruments, keep our fingers sharp, and prepare for whatever is next.
Let me close by saying that, aside from the omission of additional COVID relief, there is much to celebrate in this spending package. It is an example of what Congress can achieve when it works together.
In the face of Russia's horrible invasion of Ukraine, an invasion that has already created 2 million Ukrainian refugees, we are standing together in defense of democracy. Russia's invasion is a tragic illustration of one man's mania and of a conflict that will define the 21st century if we don't stop it in its tracks. Right now, Putin is waging yesterday's war with yesterday's goal of reestablishing the Soviet Union. He is sending ill-equipped teenagers in Russian Army uniforms into Ukraine to terrorize innocent families and bomb children in hospitals, all in some delusional effort that he is going to create the new Russian Empire, with him being installed as the Czar of that enterprise. He is not willing to face the challenges of the New World. So he is trying to revive the Old World.
Autocrats like Putin live in fear of the future. Democracies like America welcome it because we know that the future represents an opportunity to build a better world for everyone. That is precisely why President Zelenskyy and every Ukrainian is fighting to protect their country. They are protecting, as well, the freedom to shape their own future, not to have their future dictated by a man like Vladimir Putin.
With the spending package before the Senate, we can begin building our own future as well--a future made in America.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). The Senator from Iowa.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 43
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