ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i rise in support of voting for the continuing resolution. there have been votes over the last several days where i've had to oppose it, but i think we have arrived at a place where both sides of the aisle can support this continuing resolution. is it perfect? no. is it acceptable? yes. is it necessary? absolutely. the first thing we need to do is to make sure we do not have a government shutdown or a government slamdown. those wonderful men and women who work for the federal government, those who are keeping our social security offices open, those who serve our veterans, those who are working at n.i.h. right this minute on a cure for cancer or helping with people with alzheimer's, they need to know that we're not going to play partisan politics with last-minute dramatic efforts to get one party or the other to stair each other down -- to stare each other down. in this continuing resolution that will be before our colleagues shortly, it meets three goals that we democrats h

ms. mikulski: mr. president, i want to -- i rise also to speak about the continuing resolution and i'm speaking in opposition of the continuing resolution. i just want to comment to the gentlelady from west virginia. i so respect her role and leadership she's played in the senate. what a diligent senator she is and her advocacy for west virginia and the flood victims really have not only my sympathy but as the vice chair of the appropriations committee would like to be of help to her, to the people of louisiana and west virginia, but we can't leave out flint, michigan. we just can't and we don't want to christmas tree the bill. you and i are experienced legislators. but really when you think about flint, can you imagine living off of bottled water? can you imagine trying to run a small business? i don't know if my father who had a small grocery store could have kept it open. so i do hope, though, we can put our heads together, come up with a solution, get rid of the poison pill riders, meet compelling

ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i rise as the ranking member on the appropriations committee. i just want to say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle over the past few weeks we democrats have negotiated with the republicans to come up with a responsible continuing funding resolution that keeps government open through december 9, giving congress time to complete an appropriations process. our goal was to respond to compelling urgent needs: zika, flint, floods in louisiana, and also our national security as well as those things that are important to the economy of the united states of america. we wanted to be sure it did not include any poison pill riders but did contain the continuing funding for veterans and military construction. our negotiations have been cordial and productive. i want to compliment the other side of the aisle on their professionalism and on their civility. we are now down to a handful of issues, but they are down to the real issues. now the republican leader, the majority leader

ms. mikulski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i rise as the ranking member on the appropriations committee. i just want to say to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle over the past few weeks we democrats have negotiated with the republicans to come up with a responsible continuing funding resolution that keeps government open through december 9, giving congress time to complete an appropriations process. our goal was to respond to compelling urgent needs: zika, flint, floods in louisiana, and also our national security as well as those things that are important to the economy of the united states of america. we wanted to be sure it did not include any poison pill riders but did contain the continuing funding for veterans and military construction. our negotiations have been cordial and productive. i want to compliment the other side of the aisle on their professionalism and on their civility. we are now down to a handful of issues, but they are down to the real issues. now the republican leader, the majority leader