BY SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER

This week, Senate Democrats blocked legislation that would support our national defense, continue construction of the Chickamauga Lock in Chattanooga, keep us number one in the world in supercomputing and help fund important priorities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The legislation also would have provided the largest pay increase for our military service members, including those at Fort Campbell, in 10 years and the fifth consecutive year of increased funding for the National Institutes of Health, which researches and develops new lifesaving treatments for Tennessee families.

Make no mistake, Democrats, for their own political reasons, are blocking this funding. And in doing so, they are creating uncertainty that almost everyone agrees wastes taxpayer money.

Boy Scouts shouldn’t get a merit badge for telling the truth, and senators shouldn’t get an award for debating and passing appropriations bills on the Senate floor, because that is what we are supposed to do. It is my hope that the Senate will move forward with these spending bills in the bipartisan manner agreed upon by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The priorities in this spending bill should not be controversial.

I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to fulfill one of our most basic tasks — work in a bipartisan way to consider and pass appropriations bills to fund our government. It is my hope that Senate Democrats can put partisan politics aside and allow the Senate to move forward with these important spending bills.