[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 4, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S741-S744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2015--MOTION TO 
                                PROCEED

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to H.R. 240.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 5, H.R. 240, a bill 
     making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security 
     for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other 
     purposes.

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it was good to see the new Senate come 
together and pass another bipartisan bill yesterday. It was a win for 
our Nation's heroes. It was yet another win for the American people. 
But that was only one of the votes we took because just hours after 
joining Republicans to do something good for our veterans, Democrats 
voted to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security. It was 
enough to give anyone whiplash.
  Now Americans are wondering, what could possibly lead Democrats to 
filibuster Homeland Security funding? The legislation Democrats are 
filibustering would fund the Department of Homeland Security. It would 
also protect American democracy from overreach, described by President 
Obama as ``unwise and unfair.'' That is it. You would think that a bill 
such as this would pass overwhelmingly. You would think that at least 
the Democrats would allow the Senate an opportunity to improve the bill 
if it needs to be improved. But Democrats voted to filibuster the bill 
outright. They prevented the legislation from even being debated.
  Today's Democratic Party seems willing to go to any extreme to 
protect the kind of Executive overreach President Obama once described 
as ``not how our democracy functions.'' It would go so far as to block 
Homeland Security funding and to give the President the opportunity to 
continue to do what he is doing.
  The whole situation is a bit perplexing given what some of our 
colleagues said just a few weeks ago, given what they said about the 
overreach President Obama referred to as ``ignoring the law.'' One 
Democratic Senator said that ``the President shouldn't make such 
significant policy changes on his own.'' Another Senator claimed he was 
``concerned about the constitutional separation of powers.'' He said, 
``The Constitution doesn't say if the Congress fails to act then the 
President can do x, y, and z. It just doesn't.'' A third Democratic 
Senator had this to say of the President's plan for overreach: ``It 
makes me uncomfortable.'' Yet all of these Senators voted to shut down 
debate and block funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Every 
last Democrat voted to filibuster rather than work across the aisle to 
address the very issue they claim to be concerned about.
  Perhaps today's Democratic Party is so devoted to the right of 
politicians to engage in action that would, as the President seemed to 
imply, ``violate the law,'' that it cannot tolerate dissent. But that 
is no reason to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. That is 
no reason to prevent the Senate from even debating whether to fund the 
Department.
  So the Democrats' Homeland Security filibuster needs to end now. 
Democratic Senators who say they are serious about keeping our Nation 
safe and addressing what President Obama acknowledged as ``unwise and 
unfair'' overreach need to prove it.


               Recognition Of The Acting Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, yesterday we were informed of another 
barbaric act by ISIS--literally burning a Jordanian pilot to death in a 
cage. This follows news reports of beheadings of Japanese citizens, 
Americans, and so many others. It is an indication of the threat not 
just to the Middle East but to the world of terrorism in its extreme, 
as ISIS demonstrates on a regular basis.
  It was ironic that the same day we learned this, I visited the 
Department of Homeland Security and met with the Secretary, Jeh 
Johnson, and talked about the political strategy of the Republicans 
when it comes to funding the

[[Page S742]]

Department of Homeland Security--the same Department that is 
responsible for keeping America safe from the threat of terrorism.
  You see, the Presiding Officer knows well that when we were here in 
December passing an omnibus appropriations bill, the House Republicans 
insisted that one agency be singled out and not properly funded, one 
agency of our government: the Department of Homeland Security. They 
funded every other agency of the government to September 30 of this 
year in a regular appropriations process but refused--the Republicans 
refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Why? They wanted 
to reserve the right to fight with the President over the issue of 
immigration. They wanted to reserve the right to object to any 
Executive action taken by the President related to immigration. Their 
forum for this objection? The appropriations for the Department of 
Homeland Security.
  Yesterday Secretary Johnson came to our Democratic caucus lunch to 
explain what it was like to manage a department of our government under 
a continuing resolution. That is the technical name in our Budget Act 
for temporary funding. He said it was like driving a car with a gas 
tank that only held 5 gallons of gasoline and not being sure where the 
next service station was going to turn up. He said: That is how I am 
called on now to run the Department of Homeland Security--the 
Department that we entrust more than any other to keep us safe from 
terrorism.
  Why? Why would the Republicans choose this Department to single out 
and not properly fund? At a time when we are facing threats of ghastly 
terrorism in this world that we have not seen, why would the 
Republicans insist on making the appropriations for the Department of 
Homeland Security the forum for their debate with President Obama?
  Now the Senator from Kentucky, our majority leader, comes to the 
floor and says: Well, yesterday the Democrats refused to vote to fund 
the Department of Homeland Security.
  I will make a point for the record here that when the majority leader 
turns to page 12 of the publication sitting on his desk, the Calendar 
of Business of the Senate, when he turns to page 12, he should look at 
line 7 on page 12 of the Calendar of Business of the Senate, and there 
he will find S. 272, introduced by Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New 
Hampshire and Senator Mikulski of Maryland.
  Let me read what S. 272 is:

       A bill making appropriations for the Department of Homeland 
     Security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and 
     for other purposes.

  Read the second time and placed on the calendar on January 28.
  This bill will fund the Department of Homeland Security. This bill is 
a clean appropriations bill.
  If you look at the bill Senator McConnell and others have brought to 
the floor for funding the Department of Homeland Security--I invite the 
Senator from Kentucky and those who are interested in debate to turn to 
page 55. Start reading on page 55 the general provisions that were sent 
to us by the House of Representatives--page after page of riders and 
restrictions on the appropriations for the Department of Homeland 
Security.
  You see, the House of Representatives said: We will only fund the 
Department of Homeland Security if we can have our way when it comes to 
these restrictions on how they spend money.
  Well, what is it that is so important to the House Republicans and 
Senate Republicans that they are willing to risk funding of the 
Department of Homeland Security? What is it that is holding them up 
from putting the resources in the hands of Secretary Johnson and this 
Department that they need to keep America safe? It must be something 
that is momentous, historic. What is the reason they are taking a stand 
and leaving America vulnerable? Well, the Republicans clearly must have 
something that they think is even more threatening to the United States 
than terrorism. What could it be? Well, it turns out we know, because 
of riders attached by the House of Representatives. The Republicans in 
Congress are more fearful of a group known as the DREAMers than they 
obviously are of the threat of terrorism from these extreme groups.
  Who are these DREAMers? Well, I know this issue better than some. 
Fourteen years ago it came to my attention that there was a serious 
miscarriage of justice taking place in the United States. It turns out 
that children brought to our country by their parents who were 
undocumented literally had no country. They grew up in America. They 
went to school in America. They lived in America. They considered 
themselves Americans. They pledged allegiance to our flag in their 
classrooms. They sang our national anthem. They dreamed of their 
future, only to learn when they were still children that that 
opportunity was not there for them. You see, they were undocumented. 
Their parents brought them to America, never filed any papers, and they 
were undocumented.
  It did not seem right to me at the time that a young person--a 
toddler, an infant--brought to this country would be paying this heavy 
price with their lives because of any wrongdoing by their parents. So I 
introduced a bill, the DREAM Act, at the time cosponsored by Senator 
Hatch of Utah. We said in that bill: If you were brought to America as 
a child and your parents brought you here and did not file the papers 
or left you in an undocumented state, but you lived in America, did 
nothing wrong in America, graduated from high school in America, we 
would give you a chance. We would give you a chance to step forward if 
you were willing to either serve in our military or go to college and 
put you on a path to legalization. That was the DREAM Act. It was 
introduced 14 years ago. It has never become the law of the land.
  In that period of time, of course, thousands of young people have 
found themselves in this predicament. It was 2\1/2\ years ago when I 
joined 20 other Senators and wrote to President Obama and said: Can you 
consider an Executive order that would protect these DREAMers from 
deportation so that they can live in America? And the President, 2\1/2\ 
years ago, did. It was known as DACA, and this program said to these 
young people, this is your chance. Come forward, register, go through a 
criminal background check, prove you graduated from high school, and 
the President, 2\1/2\ years ago, said: We won't deport you.

  We estimate 2 million young people would be eligible. Six hundred 
thousand have stepped forward and have been given this protection from 
deportation.
  This is the program that has led the Republicans in the House and 
Senate to threaten funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The 
very thought that these young people could stay in America, live in 
America without fear of deportation, work in America, go to school in 
America, is so reprehensible to the Republicans in the House and 
Senate, they are prepared to jeopardize the funding for the Department 
of Homeland Security, which protects America.
  I have come to the floor on more than 50 occasions to tell the story 
of these DREAMers, which I will do again this morning.
  I ask my Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate to listen 
to the story of a DREAMer and tell me: Do you believe the person I am 
about to describe should be deported from America?
  His name is Pablo da Silva. He was brought here from Brazil in 2001 
when he was 13 years old. Pablo grew up in New Jersey. This is what he 
said about his childhood:

       The same as every other kid growing up in the U.S., I 
     attended middle school, pledged allegiance to the American 
     flag, and sang the National Anthem. As I grew older, I came 
     to understand that one thing about me differed from my 
     classmates. I was undocumented. However, my parents always 
     taught me to see barriers as a measure of perseverance and an 
     opportunity to thrive.

  Pablo's dream was to become a doctor. During high school and college, 
he volunteered at nursing homes every week. He was a member of a group 
called Doctor Red Nose. That is where he and others would dress up like 
clowns visiting hospitals and nursing homes to cheer up the patients 
and health care providers.
  Pablo was accepted at Rutgers University, one of our Nation's best. 
But because Pablo was undocumented, he didn't qualify for any financial 
assistance. He would have had to pay out-of-State tuition. So he 
couldn't afford Rutgers. Pablo enrolled in a community college. Because 
he had taken

[[Page S743]]

community college courses when he was in high school, Pablo was able to 
complete a 2-year associate's degree in only 1 year.
  With an associate's degree in hand, Pablo was able to transfer to 
Kean University in New Jersey. In 2011, Pablo da Silva graduated at the 
top of his class with a major in biology, summa cum laude. He received 
an award for the highest grade point average in the biology department. 
He was on the dean's list every semester of college and a member of the 
honor society Phi Kappa Phi.
  Remember, this is the person whom the Republicans in the House and 
the Senate want to deport from the United States and refuse to fund the 
Department of Homeland Security until this DREAMer is deported.
  After graduating from college, Pablo da Silva was unable to pursue 
his dream of becoming a doctor. He couldn't go to medical school as an 
undocumented person, so he worked in a variety of manual labor jobs.
  In 2012, President Obama established DACA, and then Pablo heard 
something amazing. Loyola University of Chicago was prepared to accept 
students who had received DACA into its medical school.
  Like many States across the country, Illinois has a shortage of 
physicians in inner city and rural areas. Loyola University's DACA 
Program is an opportunity to address this problem.
  The State of Illinois has created a DACA loan program. Under this 
program, Loyola's DACA medical students can receive loans to help cover 
the cost of medical education. For every year of loans, every year they 
get loans to go to medical school, these students must work for 1 year 
in a medically underserved area in my State of Illinois.
  It is quite a tradeoff--1 year of medical school for 1 year of 
professional life as a doctor helping people who have no access to 
doctors. As a result, an amazing thing happened. Some of the best and 
brightest students in America have come to Loyola to get a medical 
education, and they have signed up to stay in Illinois to serve the 
parts of our State where the people I represent are desperate for a 
doctor.
  Last fall, Pablo da Silva began medical school at Loyola where he is 
pursuing his dream of becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon. He wrote me a 
letter and this is what he said about the DACA Program:

       DACA has allowed me to fulfill my long-lasting aspiration 
     to pursue a career in medicine. It has truly changed my 
     future and for that I'm truly grateful. I'm eager to 
     contribute my share to the country I call my own.

  When you read this letter, you stop and think, how can the 
Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate have made 
this man their enemy? How can they look at this young man, who has 
struggled throughout his life to obtain an education--who has overcome 
the odds, who has volunteered time and again in his community, who is 
willing to work in underserved medical areas--how can they look at this 
man and say he is the enemy?
  The Republicans in the House and Senate fear Pablo da Silva more than 
they fear the extremist terrorist groups. They fear this DREAMer, and 
they are willing to give short-term funding to a Federal agency to make 
their point.
  If the House Republicans and some in the Senate have their way, Pablo 
da Silva won't be able to finish medical school. He won't become a 
doctor. And if they have their way and deport him--which is what the 
House bill calls on us to do--my State is going to be denied a doctor 
in a medically underserved area.
  We are a nation of immigrants. My mother was an immigrant to this 
country. I believe immigrants have brought so much to America, not just 
in hard work--and they take the toughest jobs--but also this risk 
taking that is involved in immigration. They are willing to put it all 
on the line.
  In my case, my grandparents came here with my mom, when she was a 
little girl, to a country where they barely spoke the language and knew 
a handful of people. They made a life, raised a family, and I was lucky 
to be part of it. And I am honored to stand on the floor of the Senate 
today.
  That is my story, that is my family's story, and that is America's 
story. That is the story of Pablo da Silva.
  Why are the Republicans at war with this young man? Why do they think 
that stopping his opportunity to go to medical school and serve America 
is in the best interests of our Nation? It certainly isn't.
  Yesterday the Senate assistant majority leader said on the floor that 
DACA ``kicked the people who played by the rules to the back of the 
line and the people who did not to the front of the line.''
  Here is the reality: The President's immigration action simply puts a 
temporary hold on the deportation of low-priority cases like immigrant 
students such as Pablo da Silva. It doesn't put the DREAMers or any 
other undocumented immigrants in the same line as legal immigrants, and 
it doesn't put any legal immigrants at the back of the line. Only 
Congress can do that.
  Speaking of Congress, it is important to note that in 2013 this 
Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform with a strong vote of 68 
to 32. Republicans and Democrats voted for it.
  For the remainder of that Congress, the year 2013 and 2014--more than 
1\1/2\ years--the Republican House of Representatives refused to allow 
a vote on the Senate's immigration reform bill, refused to call their 
own bill, refused to take any action. It was at that moment when the 
President stepped forward and said: I have to do something with this 
broken immigration system.
  Instead of slowing down the appropriations to the Department of 
Homeland Security, I wish to remind the majority leader and the Speaker 
of the obvious. They are in control. They have the majority. They can 
call immigration issues before the Senate and the House at a moment's 
notice. We are prepared--prepared--to debate those immigration issues, 
but we are not prepared to do that, engage in that important debate, at 
the expense of funding the Department of Homeland Security.
  Now we are going to waste a week of the Senate's time--a week when we 
could pass the Shaheen-Mikulski bill and fund this Department, a week 
when we could initiate the debate on immigration, a week when the 
Republicans can come forward with their own immigration ideas, if they 
have any, other than deporting Pablo da Silva. They can come forward 
now, but they refuse to.
  They want to make this political point with the President, but they 
do it at the expense of the safety and security of America, and they do 
it at the expense of DREAMers such as Pablo da Silva.
  Every time we have tried to pass comprehensive immigration reform, 
the Republicans have said no.
  Every student of American history can tell us that anti-immigration 
parties eventually wither and die. We are a nation of immigrants.
  There are some on the Republican side who understand that, and they 
can't really explain why the Grand Old Party, the Republican Party, is 
turning its back on immigrants in a nation of immigrants. That is their 
policy. They are so determined to pursue it they are willing to 
jeopardize the appropriations for one of the most important agencies of 
our government, the Department of Homeland Security.
  The President has used his legal authority to bring some fairness to 
our broken immigration system. If the Republicans think they can do it 
better, they have every right as the majority party in the House and 
the Senate to offer legislation.
  But with the Homeland Security Department facing a shutdown in just 3 
weeks, we don't have time for these symbolic votes in the House bill on 
the floor. Turn to page 15, I say to the majority leader, of the 
Calendar of Business of the Senate, and you will find the answer to 
your question. You will find the way to fund the Department of Homeland 
Security in a responsible way.
  What the majority leader should do is to swallow his pride, call Mr. 
Boehner and say: Your idea is not going to fly in the Senate. It is 
time for us to fund this agency. It is time to understand that as 
resolute as the terrorists are in harming innocent people and 
threatening America, America should be as resolute in fighting them 
back.
  The first line of defense is the Department of Homeland Security. It 
is time to fund it. We could do it in a

[[Page S744]]

matter of minutes this morning if the majority leader would simply call 
to the floor this clean appropriations bill.
  I yield the floor.


                       Reservation Of Leader Time

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time 
is reserved.

                          ____________________