[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 118 (Thursday, July 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S3967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, we Democrats sent a letter to our 
Republican colleagues laying out our principles on appropriations so 
that Republicans would know exactly where we stand and we could avoid 
the possibility of their shutting down the government. We have three 
principles: relief from damaging sequestration cuts, parity between 
defense and jobs and economic growth funding, and no poison pill 
riders, like the ineffective border wall. These are the same principles 
we laid out during the last budget negotiation, which resulted in a 
strong and bipartisan package.
  But on Tuesday--which is why I am on the floor speaking--the House 
Appropriations Committee released a draft of its Homeland Security 
bill, which includes funding for an unnecessary, ineffective, and 
expensive border wall with Mexico, paid for by American taxpayers, 
breaking the President's promise, repeatedly given, that Mexico would 
pay for it. The bill also funds an unacceptable deportation force and 
unnecessary detention beds.
  The President's budget calls for funding a new eminent domain strike 
force--a team of Trump lawyers that the administration wants to send to 
the border to take private land away from the American people to build 
this wall. This proposal has met with stiff resistance from homeowners 
living in border communities. Republicans and Democrats on both sides 
of the aisle have rightfully come out against this proposal. Not a 
single border State Republican supports the idea. The Senate should 
reject it outright.
  If House Republicans keep on this path--the path of these poison pill 
amendments and dramatic cuts in programs that help working Americans--I 
fear they are steering us toward a train wreck.
  Remember, the President said he wanted a shutdown. He tweeted earlier 
this year: ``Our country needs a good `shutdown' in September to fix 
mess!'' He wants one. His budget director, Mick Mulvaney, has always 
been for a shutdown. By including border wall funding in their proposal 
and dramatically cutting domestic spending, House Republicans, 
unfortunately, are playing right into their game.
  I urge my Republican colleagues, please, let cooler heads prevail. To 
my Republican friends in the Senate, I would say persuade your 
colleagues in the House to abandon this dangerous, irresponsible path 
they put us on, which can only lead to a government shutdown. I guess 
they want it.
  We should be working together on a responsible way forward on 
appropriations, in line with the principles we laid out which produced 
a successful bipartisan deal on the last budget.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Michigan.

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