Congressional Record, Volume 161 Issue 34 (Friday, February 27, 2015)

[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 34 (Friday, February 27, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1188-S1192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2015

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of H.R. 240, which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

A bill (H.R. 240) making appropriations for the Department
of Homeland Security for the fiscal year ending September 30,
2015, and for other purposes.

Pending:

McConnell (for Cochran) amendment No. 255, in the nature of
a substitute.
McConnell amendment No. 256 (to amendment No. 255), to
change the enactment date.
McConnell amendment No. 257 (to the language proposed to be
stricken by amendment No. 255), to change the enactment date.
McConnell amendment No. 258 (to amendment No. 257), of a
perfecting nature.
McConnell motion to commit the bill to the Committee on
Appropriations, with instructions, McConnell amendment No.
259, to change the enactment date.
McConnell amendment No. 260 (to (the instructions)
amendment No. 259), of a perfecting nature.
McConnell amendment No. 261 (to amendment No. 260), of a
perfecting nature.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the time until 10
a.m. will be equally divided in the usual form.
The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, as the vice chair of the Committee on
Appropriations, I rise to speak on the Homeland Security funding bill.
This morning the Senate moves to fulfill its responsibility--its
national responsibility--to pass the Homeland Security bill which would
fully fund the Department through the fiscal year 2015. This fulfills a
constitutional oath we Senators took to protect and defend the
Constitution and the people of the United States against all foes,
foreign and domestic. The domestic is here today. The domestic is in
homeland security. The domestic is in what we need to do to fulfill our
responsibility. We take oaths to the Constitution. We say we want a
constitutionally driven government. So do I. We need to get off of our
press releases and pass this bill.
I am really proud of the fact that we on the Committee on
Appropriations did our job, and we did it in December. The subcommittee
chairs of Homeland Security did their due diligence and came up with an
affordable framework for funding the Homeland Security bill. It met the
bottom line, met the budget caps, but also met our compelling national
security needs.
Congressman Hal Rogers in the House, for whom I have nothing but
great respect, and I came to a fiscal agreement, but we did not have
the ability to move it forward because there were those who wanted to
delay putting it in the omnibus because they were having a temper
tantrum with the President of the United States over his Executive
authority. Could he move his Executive authority on the topic of
immigration? So there was a solution to delay the funding so that we
could have cooler heads prevail: Oh golly, do it after the election.
And once again we punted and delayed and parsed, punted and issued
press releases. That is what we got out of the House and somewhat out
of the Senate.
Where are we today? Thanks to the leadership of the two leaders,
Senators McConnell and Reid, we have a path forward. I urge my
colleagues to look at this path. The significant part of it is to pass
a clean funding bill to make sure Homeland Security is funded the
entire year so we can meet the needs of the national programs, such as
the Coast Guard, and make sure that grants go out to our first
responders, who are truly our boots on the ground, such as volunteer
fire departments that right now are out there in some parts of our
communities getting sick people out with snowmobiles. Senator Collins
of Maine and I have talked about her Maine and my Garrett County,
where, when we have had a hurricane, these people go and get elderly
people out on Zodiacs, sometimes wading through water and wondering if
they are going to step on power lines.
We have to get real here. There are those who want to increase
defense funding so we can protect America against ISIL. We protect
America from ISIL right here in this bill. You want to protect America,
vote for the clean funding bill. You want to protect America's border,
fight for the funding bill. You want to make sure we don't have illegal
aliens in this country, make sure you are funding the Border Patrol--
23,000 people all in uniform out there on the border manning the best
technology we can afford. So whatever we say we want to do, this is the
way to do it. This is the way to do it.
We understand the Senate would also like to debate immigration. We
respect that viewpoint. We also respect that the matter that is of
concern about the President's Executive authority is going through the
courts. Don't punish the Border Patrol agent, don't punish the person
working in the Coast Guard out on an ice cutter, don't punish the
volunteer firefighter because you are angry at Obama. I say to my folks
on my side of the aisle, make sure we vote to pass a clean funding bill
here today. And I say also to the other side of the aisle to do it.
I really appreciate the fact that Senator Reid and Senator McConnell
have arrived at this parliamentary Senate vote to get us where we need
to be going. But I say to my friends in the House, to delay this 3 more
weeks is reckless and it is dangerous. What are we going to know? We
are waiting for the courts to decide? Who knows when the courts will
decide. What we do know is not what the courts will decide, but we know
we have a legal process. A judge has made a decision. It will go
through the court of appeals, maybe even to the Supreme Court. Let the
court follow its process. But in the meantime, while the courts are
doing their job, can we at least get around to doing our job so that
the men and women who provide for us and fight every day, whether it is
the local volunteer fire department or our Secret Service, our Coast
Guard, or those working in cyber security--and the Director of National
Intelligence, Director Clapper, says cyber security is a bigger threat
than ISIL--can do theirs?
So let's get on with it, and let's fulfill our constitutional
responsibility when we said we take the oath to protect America against
all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Madam President, I yield the floor.

[[Page S1189]]

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. VITTER. Madam President, I rise in strong opposition to stripping
off all of the House language from the Homeland Security funding bill
and proceeding with a ``clean bill.''
I do so because I took a constitutional oath, and I take that oath
very seriously. The language which we are debating in the Homeland
Security funding bill from the House goes directly to that oath and
goes directly to that responsibility. It does so for two reasons.
First of all, this Executive amnesty, which has about 5 million
illegal aliens getting blanket significant amnesty because of the
President's Executive action, is a big deal. It is a big deal in terms
of policy. It is a big deal regarding his overreaching his legal and
constitutional authority.
First, policy. It is a fundamental rule of economics--it is a
fundamental rule of life--that when you reward behavior, you get more
of it. When you penalize certain behavior, you get less of it.
A blanket overarching amnesty which gives about 5 million illegal
aliens in the country here amnesty is rewarding behavior. It is
rewarding behavior we say we want to curtail, we say we want to stop,
but we are rewarding it, and we are going to get more of it. That is
not just me saying that theoretically. We have lived that over and over
again.
The President a few years ago took a similar but smaller Executive
action commonly referred to as DACA. That focused on younger illegal
aliens. Guess what. Soon after that action, a wave of new young illegal
minors, unaccompanied minors, started coming into this country in
numbers like we had never seen before.
Does anyone think that was unrelated? Does anyone think that timing
was just coincidence? Of course it wasn't. The President rewarded
illegal crossings and--surprise, surprise--he got a whole lot more of
them in exactly the class--younger, illegal, unaccompanied minors--that
he had acted on through DACA.
So this is going to happen again on a much larger scale. We are going
to grow the problem through this policy, not get control of it.
The second concern I have is even far more fundamental, because it
goes to his constitutional power and authority, and the fact that he is
going well beyond that constitutional power and authority, I think,
clearly.
Presidents have significant authority. They are the Executive. They
need to execute the law. In executing the law, they often have to fill
in the blanks, fill in the details that Congress has not fully
provided. But that is very different from acting contrary to the law--
180 degrees contrary to statutory law--and that is what the President
is doing in this instance. No President has that authority. If they
want to do that, they need to change the law. As every schoolkid knows,
that goes through Congress, and then the President obviously has a role
in terms of a veto. But the President doesn't want to do that. He can't
do that. Congress disagrees with him. So he is just changing the law
with the stroke of a pen. That is what is clearly illegal and
unconstitutional, because he is acting contrary to statutory law.
Some of his apologists--including Loretta Lynch, for example--say:
Well, every President can set prosecution priorities. We are simply
setting priorities. We are simply saying this class of folks is not a
priority for legal action, deportation prosecution.
I asked Ms. Lynch directly after she said that: Isn't it true the
President is going beyond that? Isn't it true he is giving this entire
class of illegal aliens a new legal status? She had no substantive
response.
I said: Isn't it true the President is going beyond that? He is
creating a new document out of thin air, with ``work permit'' at the
top, and handing it to these illegal aliens and suggesting they now
have a right to work legally in this country, even though statutory law
makes it crystal clear they do not. She had no substantive answer to
that.
I urge my colleagues not to strip out this important House language.
The President's action is bad policy that will grow the illegal
immigration problem, and it is acting clearly beyond his legal
constitutional authority.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, this morning we have the opportunity to
accomplish two important goals.
First, we can pass legislation which will fully fund the Department
of Homeland Security so it can perform its vital mission.
Second, we have the opportunity to stand up for our constitutional
system of separation of powers.
I support and voted for comprehensive immigration reform. But the
President's overreach usurps the role of Congress and undermines our
constitutional system of checks and balances.
The failure of Congress to pass a law to the President's liking
cannot become an excuse for the President to usurp the powers of the
legislative branch.
The President knows he lacks the authority to write the law. He has
said so 22 times, on 22 different occasions.
Allow me to describe my bill very briefly. Specifically, it does four
things.
First, it bars the administration from using funds to implement the
immigration orders issued by the President in November of last year.
Second, it has absolutely no effect on the much more constrained and
limited Executive orders the President issued in 2012, the so-called
DACA Program that protects the DREAMers, to whom I am very sympathetic.
Third, it directs the Department to give the highest enforcement
priority to the deportation of foreign nationals in our country
illegally who have been convicted of domestic violence, child abuse,
exploitation, or a sex crime. Why would we want to keep in this country
someone who is deportable who is a sex offender, who has been convicted
of child molestation or domestic violence? It makes no sense.
Ironically, just this week the Senate Judiciary Committee held an
excellent hearing on sex trafficking. We heard heartbreaking stories of
very young girls who had been abused by men. If there are foreign
nationals in this country who have been convicted of these crimes, they
should be deported.
And, fourth, it includes a sense-of-the-Senate resolution that the
executive branch should not act to give foreign nationals who are here
illegally an edge in competing for jobs against American citizens or
legal residents with green cards.
The Founders gave us a system of separation of powers and checks and
balances not to tear us apart but to pull us together. They gave us no
shortcuts on purpose.
The President's November 2014 Executive actions are ill-advised
precisely because they attempt to shortcut the process by usurping
Congress's authority to pass legislation.
My legislation would block that effort without in any way altering or
diminishing the more constrained and important 2012 DACA Program.
I want to see the Department of Homeland Security fully funded. It
has an absolutely vital mission at a time when our country faces
numerous threats.
I urge my colleagues this morning both to vote for the clean DHS bill
and for my legislation to stand up for the role of Congress in our
constitutional system.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, how much time is remaining on the
Democratic side?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 4 minutes remaining on the Democratic
side.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, let me say at the outset Senator Collins
is my friend and colleague, and we have worked on many things together.
I respect her especially because the Department of Homeland Security
was literally her creation, along with Senator Lieberman and others.
The fact that we have now agreed on a bipartisan basis to set aside
this immigration debate and to fully fund this critical Department is
the right thing to do. A 98-to-2 vote is unusual on the Senate floor.
It reflects the fact that we finally reached that consensus on funding
the Department of Homeland Security. I hope our vote later today also
reflects that. But I do take exception to some of the statements she
has made about her own measure which she is offering.

[[Page S1190]]

First I would like to invite her--and I am sure she has been there a
thousand times--to walk down this corridor and look up the staircase to
the painting, a painting that shows Abraham Lincoln with his Cabinet.
It is the moment when he signed an Executive order. President Lincoln
signed an Executive order, and with that Executive order 152 years ago,
the Emancipation Proclamation freed 3 million slaves in the United
States of America.
Barack Obama is not the first President to issue an Executive order
nor is he the first President to issue one which affects millions of
people. Which President held the record for an Executive order giving
rights to 1.5 million immigrants in this country before Barack Obama?
George Herbert Walker Bush. In fact, virtually every President since
Eisenhower has issued an Executive order relative to immigration. Now
we didn't see Republican hair on fire when it was being done by
President George W. Bush or George Herbert Walker Bush. It is only when
Barack Obama does it that they scream and rage it is unconstitutional.
Yet let's look at the argument they are making.
Senator Collins is making the argument that the Executive order
signed by President Obama, known as DACA, that affected children who
might qualify under the DREAM Act and could protect up to 2 million
young people in America, was legal. I agree. She says her bill that she
is offering today reflects that.
Then she says that 2 years later, when the President issued an
Executive order that could protect on a temporary basis up to 5
million, that was clearly unconstitutional. What is the difference?
Well, it is a difference the courts will have to try to resolve. I
think we ought to think twice before we try to defund or repeal the
President's Executive orders of November 2014.
President Obama makes it clear that if you are the parent of an
American citizen child or a legal resident alien child, you have to
come forward, pay a filing fee, submit your name for a criminal
background check, and if you have a bad criminal record, you are gone.
If your record clears and you have no criminal history to be concerned
about, then you can work in the United States on a temporary basis for
2 years. That is it. It doesn't give you permanent citizenship or legal
status beyond that.

Isn't it better that our country be safe enough to know that these
millions of people are no threat to us, where they live, who they work
for? I think that makes sense.
It is a shame Congress hasn't done it. We can still do it, and I hope
we will. But the Collins approach, sadly, is going to deny that, and it
is going to say, frankly, that the priorities currently set for
deportation of dangerous people will be swept away but for the
specified crimes which she includes in her bill.
I will state that the President's Executive order already covers
every one of those offenses--every one of those felonies. So Ms.
Collins is not adding anything to the debate. I know that the Senator
offered this in good faith, and I believe she can be an important part
in finding a bipartisan solution to the immigration question. But I
urge my colleagues to reject the Collins bill that comes before us
today. It was a bill crafted in the House of Representatives in anger
over the President's Executive order. It does not protect DACA and the
DREAMers, and that is why the immigration groups to a person have come
out against the Collins amendment.
I hope my colleagues will join me in voting against the measure.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that all votes
after the first vote be 10 minutes in length.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Cloture Motion

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

Cloture Motion

We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on H.R. 240, making
appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for
the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015.
Mitch McConnell, Orrin G. Hatch, Susan M. Collins,
Lindsey Graham, Daniel Coats, Thad Cochran, Roger F.
Wicker, John Barrasso, Jeff Flake, John McCain, Mark
Kirk, Kelly Ayotte, Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski,
Bob Corker, John Cornyn.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on 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, shall be brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer)
is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 68, nays 31, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 59 Leg.]

YEAS--68

Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Gillibrand
Graham
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Leahy
Manchin
Markey
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Peters
Reed
Reid
Rounds
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Toomey
Udall
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden

NAYS--31

Blunt
Boozman
Burr
Cassidy
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Grassley
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Lankford
Lee
Moran
Paul
Perdue
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Rubio
Sasse
Scott
Sessions
Shelby
Sullivan
Tillis
Vitter
Wicker

NOT VOTING-- 1

Boxer

The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 68, the nays are
31.
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
Cloture having been invoked, the motion to commit falls as
inconsistent with cloture.
Under the previous order, all postcloture time is yielded back with
the exception of 10 minutes for the Senator from Utah, Mr. Lee, or his
designee.
The Senator from Utah.
Mr. LEE. Madam President, in November 2014, the President of the
United States issued a series of Executive orders effectively granting
amnesty to millions of people who were in the United States unlawfully,
outside of what our laws allow--laws passed by Congress and signed into
law by the President of the United States.
In other words, under article I, section 8, we, as a Congress, are
given power to establish a uniform system of laws governing immigration
and naturalization. If our laws allow someone to come in, they may come
in, but if they do not, then those people need to make sure they go
about getting into the country legally and lawfully.
If and when the President of the United States, or anyone else for
that matter, thinks these laws are inadequate, there is a way to change
them. The way to change them is to go back to the Congress of the
United States, go back to the lawmaking body, go back to that entity
recognized in article I, section 1 of the Constitution, to the very
first substantive line which says, ``All legislative Powers herein
granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall
consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.''

Unfortunately, the President of the United States chose not to change
the

[[Page S1191]]

law that way. Unfortunately, the President of the United States,
contradicting his own prior statements, chose to take Executive action
to legalize millions of people currently in the United States
illegally.
Ultimately, this is an issue that ought to be of concern to every one
of us. It is an issue that is neither Republican nor Democratic. It is
neither liberal nor conservative. It is simply an American issue. It is
simply an issue that flows from the rule of law, flows from the notion
that ours is a system that runs under the rule of law and not under the
rule of individuals.
There is a means by which we as a Congress can resist the
encroachments of an overreaching Chief Executive. It is the same means
identified by James Madison in the Federalist papers, and that means
involves the use of the power of the purse.
Congress, of course, funds the operations of the Federal Government.
The President of the United States cannot do that all on his own. So
should we choose to do so, as Congress has chosen to do on so many
other occasions--when we see something within the government, whether
implemented legally at the outset or not, when we see something we
don't like, we can choose not to fund that.
We have, over the last few weeks, tried to do precisely that in
response to this Executive action. One month ago the House of
Representatives passed a bill to keep the Department of Homeland
Security funded, with the understanding that at midnight tonight that
funding stream would expire. At the time the House of Representatives
passed that legislation, the House of Representatives--a body most
accountable to the people at the most frequent intervals--made a
decision. They said, We are going to keep everything else within the
Department of Homeland Security funded, and the House of
Representatives said, We will, however, direct the Department of
Homeland Security not to spend any money implementing certain Executive
orders issued by the President, in November 2014 and previously,
dealing with Executive amnesty.
The Senate has been trying to proceed to that bill for nearly 4
weeks. Unfortunately, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have
refused to allow us to proceed to that bill. They have blocked our
attempts. They have engaged in obstruction and they have not allowed us
to proceed to it. Why? Because they didn't like that appropriations
rider. They didn't like that spending restriction. Apparently, they do
not think we should be exercising that power described by James Madison
and foreseen by our Founding Fathers as that last great protection
against an overreaching Executive. So they refused to allow us to get
onto the bill.
As we are on the verge of getting on the bill--as we are just getting
onto the bill--all of a sudden, they say, OK, we are OK with doing this
as long as we are the only ones who get to offer amendments, as long as
we get our amendment--the amendment that strips out all of the spending
limitation language in the House-passed bill. We are OK with it as long
as we, the Democrats, get our amendment, but no Republican gets his or
her amendment. That isn't fair.
I wish to make clear that those of us who are supporting this have
not objected to the running of the time. Those of us who are supporting
this have not objected to anyone else getting amendments. Those of us
who are supporting this simply want a vote. We want a vote on a product
that is even narrower than what was sent over from the House of
Representatives.
In a moment I will be calling up my amendment No. 265 and I will be
asking this body to consider it and vote on it. What it says is that we
will not allow the Department of Homeland Security to spend any money
on implementing the November 2014 Executive amnesty Executive order.
That is what we are trying to do. In the event it is objected to, then
I will be moving to table the procedural mechanism by which other
amendments are being blocked.
I implore all of my colleagues to remember themselves as operating
within the constitutional framework, in which, far more than our status
as Democrat or Republican, as liberal or conservative, we are here to
defend our own power, our own authority that we have been given by our
own people.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this amendment.
I ask unanimous consent to call up my amendment No. 265.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. REID. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Utah.

Vote on Amendment No. 258

Mr. LEE. Madam President, I move to table the McConnell amendment No.
258 for the purposes of offering my amendment No. 265, and I ask for
the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer)
is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 34, nays 65, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 60 Leg.]

YEAS--34

Blunt
Boozman
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Grassley
Hatch
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Lankford
Lee
Moran
Paul
Perdue
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Rubio
Sasse
Scott
Sessions
Shelby
Sullivan
Thune
Toomey
Vitter
Wicker

NAYS--65

Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Gillibrand
Graham
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Leahy
Manchin
Markey
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Peters
Reed
Reid
Rounds
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Tillis
Udall
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden

NOT VOTING--1

Boxer

The motion was rejected.

Amendment Nos. 258, 257, and 256 Withdrawn

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, amendment Nos. 258,
257, and 256 are withdrawn.

Amendment No. 255

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 2
minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote on amendment No. 255,
offered by the Senator from Kentucky, Mr. McConnell.
Who yields time?
Ms. COLLINS. We yield back our time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, all time is yielded back.
The question is on agreeing to the amendment.
The yeas and nays have been previously ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer)
is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 66, nays 33, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 61 Leg.]

YEAS--66

Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Gillibrand
Graham
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Johnson
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Leahy
Manchin
Markey
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Peters
Reed
Reid
Rounds

[[Page S1192]]

Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Udall
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden

NAYS--33

Blunt
Boozman
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Grassley
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Lankford
Lee
Moran
Paul
Perdue
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Rubio
Sasse
Scott
Sessions
Shelby
Sullivan
Tillis
Toomey
Vitter
Wicker

NOT VOTING--1

Boxer

The amendment (No. 255) was agreed to.
The amendment was ordered to be engrossed, and the bill to be read a
third time.
The bill was read the third time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 2
minutes of debate, equally divided, prior to a vote on passage of H.R.
240, as amended.
The Senator from New Hampshire.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, the Senate is about to vote on a full-
year funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. All of us in
this Chamber understand that we need to support the Department because
they are critical to defending the homeland. If we want to fight ISIL,
then we can fight them here at home by passing the bill to fully fund
DHS.
We can keep Homeland Security on the job. We can keep breaking the
ice to keep the economy moving on our lakes and our oceans. We can
secure our borders. We can prevent attacks from terrorists. Our enemies
are watching. Now it is time to defend America. I urge all of my
colleagues to vote yes on this full funding bill.
Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent to yield back all time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, all time is yielded back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the bill having been
read the third time, the question is, Shall the bill pass?
Mr. McCONNELL. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer)
is necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 68, nays 31, as follows:

[Rollcall Vote No. 62 Leg.]

YEAS--68

NAYS--31

NOT VOTING--1

Boxer

The bill (H.R. 240), as amended, was passed.

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