Cornyn: Democrat, White House Budget Deal Advances Conservative Priorities

Yesterday on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the White House’s spending and budget caps deal and the conservative priorities it would advance. Excerpts of my floor remarks are below, and video can be found here.

It provides increased defense spending to recover from the depressed military readiness rates of the previous Administration, and provides our men and women in uniform with the resources, equipment, and training they need in order to defend our freedoms.

It also keeps other important elements of the congressional consensus intact, things like the Hyde Amendment.

This agreement prevents our Democratic colleagues from trying to block President Trump from using funds to strengthen border security.

The Administration – Secretary Mnuchin in particular – negotiated a tough deal, one that excludes radical left-wing poison pills, a difficult task in these times to be sure. We know they wanted to use policy riders, nearly 30 of them and counting, to try to implement elements of the Green New Deal to undo the President's regulatory reforms or to rewrite our immigration laws through the back door.

No bipartisan agreement is ever perfect. That's the definition of a negotiation.

I wish we had done something to reform our entitlement programs, which will continue to outpace inflation and increase our national deficit.

Thankfully the President was able to secure half of the spending cuts he asked for.

I look forward to supporting it.