Jefferson Reporter

U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) delivered a speech on the Senate floor today, advocating for the consideration of the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act and the FY25 Defense Appropriations Act.

Senator Britt joined a group of Senate Republicans, led by Appropriations Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), in urging individual consideration of these bills. Both pieces of legislation were unanimously advanced out of the Appropriations Committee by August 1 but have yet to be brought to the Senate floor, despite government funding set to expire on September 30.

Excerpts from Senator Britt’s remarks are as follows:

“. . .We have members of the Appropriations Committee, both Democrat and Republican, that sit and work together. We have a job to fund the government. We’re supposed to do it by September 30. We have marked up 11 out of 12 of those bills in an extremely bipartisan fashion. But yet, those bills still sit on Chuck Schumer’s desk. He hasn’t brought one of them to the floor.”

“Secretary Austin, obviously appointed by President Biden, confirmed by this body, has said that a CR will hurt our men and women in uniform. So what we should be doing is figuring out a path forward to fund defense and to fund our veterans. So today, you see members of the Republican Party standing up and saying ‘let’s get this chamber back to doing the critical work we were sent here to do.’ It’s long overdue.”

“The American people deserve better. And yet somehow, we can’t get the media to cover this. We can’t get them to cover the fact that Leader Schumer has refused to lead...But do you know what Chuck Schumer took his time doing yesterday? Creating a show vote for commercials for men and women on the other side of the aisle that are in vulnerable seats instead of putting the American people first.”

“As long as I am in this body, I am going to keep pushing this issue. I’m going to keep moving it to the front. We are going to find a solution to actually getting back to doing the work the American people sent us up here to do.”

In support of Alabama priorities within these acts, Senator Britt backed $6.1 billion in defense appropriations and secured $22.5 million in congressionally directed spending for military construction and veterans affairs.

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