S.Amdt. 6127

SA 6127. Mr. COTTON submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 5499 submitted by Mr. Reed (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) and intended to be proposed to the bill H.R. 7900, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2023 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. _____. EQUAL ENFORCEMENT OF EXPENDING ONLY AUTHORIZED APPROPRIATIONS UNDER CONTINUING RESOLUTIONS.

(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:

(1) The national security of the United States suffers greatly from continuing appropriation Acts due to the inability of the Department of Defense to execute new starts or production increases under the standardized language of continuing resolutions.

(2) No other executive branch agency receives similar treatment under the standardized language of continuing resolutions.

(3) The theory that the prohibitions under a continuing resolution on new starts and production increases at the Department of Defense increase pressure for negotiations has not been supported by the significant and growing length of the period during which funding is provided under a continuing resolution for a fiscal year over the past 15 years.

(4) Experimentation with alternative methods of increasing pressure for negotiations could result in more efficient and effective outcomes for national security and the taxpayers of the United States.

(b) Equal Enforcement.--No amounts made available under an appropriation Act providing continuing funding for a fiscal year shall be made available to any department, agency, corporation, or other organization unit of the Federal Government for production of items, procurement of materials, construction of facilities, research and development, execution of contracts, or any other use of funds not specifically provided for in the annual appropriation Act for the preceding fiscal year.