Tom Cole

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter), who is the distinguished chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Harris), my good friend and the distinguished chairman of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. McClain), my very good friend and the chair of the House Republican Conference.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Michigan.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Moore), my very good friend and distinguished member of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse), my very good friend and distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Alford), my very good friend and member of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), my very good friend and chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Guam (Mr. Moylan), my very good friend.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser), my very good friend.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gooden), my very good friend.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it has been an interesting debate. Frankly, as a couple of my colleagues have suggested, a lot of the rhetoric on the other side hasn't had much to do with the legislation in front of us. My friends chose all on their own to shut the government down 43 days ago. During that time, soldiers have had to worry about getting paid. The only reason they were paid is because the President of the United States managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat twice or we would have military families completely unpaid. We have our air traffic controllers. Most of us flew here today, yesterday, or in recent days. They are keeping the skies as safe as they can, but they haven't gotten paid. We are in this Capitol Building. We are under the protection of the Capitol Police. They do a splendid job. They keep doing their job. They haven't been paid. We have people who are in desperate need of some of the services this government has promised to give them, SNAP and WIC, at risk unless we pass this legislation tonight. We can have all of these debates about all of these other issues. As a matter of fact, my friend, the Speaker, his counterpart in the United States Senate, the majority leader, and the President have said when you open the government, we will be happy to talk to you about some of these issues, but you are not going to shut down the government, punish the American people, put people's lives at risk, and think we are going to sit down and negotiate with you under those circumstances. That is not going to happen. We told you 43 days ago, from bitter experience, government shutdowns don't work. They never achieve the objective that you announce. Guess what. You haven't achieved that objective yet, and you are not going to. We did the same thing twice, so I am not saying that we have clean hands over here. You guys did it on DACA. It didn't work there. It is not going to work here. The only people who have suffered have been the American people, the people whom we are all here to serve. Let's keep the focus on getting the government back open. I would also add--and I appreciate this very much--there have been robust discussions back and forth, and we have three appropriations bills attached to this. They are appropriations bills that do important things. The Agriculture bill will make sure that people who rely on WIC and SNAP don't have to worry about another government shutdown between now and September 30 of next year. The Legislative Branch bill will make sure that the Capitol Police and everybody else who is staff who allows this Chamber to function don't have to worry about getting paid until September 30 of next year. Obviously, military construction and, more importantly, veterans rely on benefit commitments we have made. Passage of this bill makes sure that we fulfill those commitments between now and September 30 of next year, and we buy the time to sit down to rationally and responsibly negotiate other appropriations bills that we can bring, I hope, on a bipartisan basis to this floor to keep the government open. I would just ask my friends to reflect on that. I hope some of you feel the weight of that decision. I know you do. I hope you can vote to keep the government open. There is no excuse to shut it down. The United States Senate operated to keep it open in a bipartisan fashion. Now, it took them a long time to do it, but they got there. Let's not follow that example. When they finally got the job done, they sent us a product. It is not a perfect product. It has some things in it I don't like, but frankly, if we had kept the government open, we would never have been in this situation in the first place. I would just ask my friends to remember their constituents. I know they think about them. I know they are serious about the points they make. Reopen the government and raise your issues. Let's see if we can come to a negotiated settlement, but let's not punish the American people. A ``no'' vote on this, again, means soldiers and military families don't get paid. A ``no'' vote means that people in need of SNAP and WIC might not get it. A ``no'' vote means the people who allow us to come here to debate and work won't get paid either. I can go down the list of horrors. It is pretty simple. This is a vote about two things: opening the Government of the United States, which you willfully tried to shut down. Fortunately, you did not succeed in that in this Chamber, but some of your colleagues, using arcane Senate rules, did manage to do it but finally came to their senses. You ought to pay attention to those people. They said enough is enough. Let's reopen the government. I urge my colleagues to do that today. I hope it is done in a bipartisan way. I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson), the Speaker of the House. He is my very good friend and a person I admire greatly.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 722, I call up the bill (H.R. 5371) making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5371, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026. This Congress has a fundamental responsibility to fund the government and keep it open and serving the American people. It is a duty I take seriously and one that I have worked diligently to lead on. Over the past year, the House Committee on Appropriations has acted to fulfill our fiscal year 2026 responsibilities. Constraints and challenges didn't stop us from doing the hard work, line by line, to uphold fiscal discipline and effective governance. I am proud to say our markup process delivered all 12 regular appropriations bills out of committee. We have also passed three of these bills across the floor, representing more than 60 percent of overall discretionary spending. That momentum has continued with our move to conference on the three- bill package covering Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and the Legislative Branch bills. This marks the first conference on major appropriations legislation in close to a decade, and it is a critical step for this institution and for restoring regular order. We are certainly moving forward productively, and a bipartisan, bicameral agreement is firmly within our grasp. We just need more time to sustain negotiations and complete our work. That is why we are here today, Mr. Speaker. The continuing resolution before us is simple. It extends funding until November 21. It is a clean, short-term stopgap that protects the fiscal year 2026 progress we have made and allows the appropriations process to advance toward full-year bills. It allows us to return the appropriations process to regular order, where it should be. This is the responsible path. I want to remind my friends on the other side of the aisle what this measure is. It is a clean CR that keeps the lights on for the American people while we finish our work. It contains no poison pills or partisan riders. It provides essential security measures for all three branches of government. It is a short extension of just 7 weeks. By keeping our government funded, it protects our military and defense needs, supports our veterans, and sustains critical services for our constituents, from roads, parks, and water projects to infrastructure, research, and job training. This tailored, straightforward approach is exactly what Democrats previously asked for. Now, they are rejecting it to manufacture a partisan fight over provisions totally unrelated to appropriations. Let me be very clear: A shutdown would do nothing to help our work on full-year bills or to support the American people. If Members want stability for the American people, time for negotiations in good faith, and regular order, they will support this CR. Any other vote would be reckless, not just for both parties but for the entire Nation. I have said this previously, but it remains relevant today: Republicans and Democrats are more effective when they negotiate rather than provoke partisan confrontations, and the country is better off when Republicans and Democrats actually work together. Let's do that now. We must act today for our country, for our national security, and for our constituents. I hope that all will join me in keeping the government open and serving the American people. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Alford), my very good friend and a distinguished member of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), my very good friend, the chairman of the Budget Committee.