Senator Cochran, Ranking Republican of the Senate Appropriations Committee, took the Senate floor on Thursday, July 31, to highlight the failure of the Democrat-led Senate to fulfill its annual appropriations responsibilities or act on meaningful energy reform.

Last week the Senate halted action on the Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations process because of hesitation from Democrats to vote on appropriations provisions regarding domestic oil production. 

For weeks, Republican Senators have been advocating for consideration of legislation, both in the Appropriations Committee and on the Senate Floor, that would allow for further domestic oil exploration as well as energy conservation.  However, the Senate adjourned last week without a vote on drilling.  The Democratic leadership in the Senate refused to allow the vote to take place on the pressing issue.  This vote was prevented for several reasons:

• The Democratic leadership opposes increasing domestic oil production, and they do not want to be against the 70 percent of Americans who are in favor of it. 80 percent of Mississippians are in favor of domestic drilling as well.  Who would want to be against those numbers?
• The Democratic leadership recognizes that several Democratic senators would vote alongside every GOP senator in support of the bill.  This would result in allowing the bill to pass.
• Also, they know that Senator Obama would vote against that bill, therefore, they don’t want to risk allowing Obama to cast the unpopular vote.

The full text of Cochran’s remarks on the U.S. Senate floor is provided below. 

“Mr. President, two weeks ago today, the Committee on Appropriations marked up three Fiscal Year 2009 appropriations bills.  Those bills would provide funding for programs ranging from agricultural research to veterans health care, and from foreign aid to the infrastructure that supports our men and women in the Armed Forces.  While some members of the Committee had concerns about the overall spending levels in those bills or individual provisions within them, the Committee reported the measures by broad, bipartisan votes.  Those votes reflect the Committee’s collective belief that it has a fundamental responsibility each year to draft, debate, and report to the Senate its spending recommendations for the day-to-day operations of our government.

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