Durbin Statement On Failed Vote To Proceed To Senate Appropriations Funding Bills
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, today released the following statement after voting against the motion to proceed to four Senate Appropriations Committee funding bills, including the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee funding bill:
“We all remember then-candidate Donald Trump’s idea that we need a 2,000 mile wall from sea-to-shining-sea, and his claim that Mexico would pay for it. But as we have seen, Mexico said no, and now President Trump has decided that our military and their families should pay for it.
“The resulting damage to our military – and to the authority of the Appropriations Committee – continues to pile up. It has to stop. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join Democrats in reasserting our obligations under the Constitution and providing our military families with certainty that they haven’t been forgotten amidst foolish campaign promises.”
Today, a report from The Washington Post stated that there will be “dire outcomes” for military families if Republicans refuse to terminate the President’s emergency declaration and stop the Trump Administration’s plan to steal funds for military construction projects in order to pay for the border wall.
Last week, Durbin did not support reporting to the floor the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee funding bill because of President Trump’s continued infringement of Congress’s power of the purse. To date, President Trump has diverted $6.1 billion worth of investments in our service members and their families for his border wall.
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