[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 207 (Tuesday, December 19, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8081-S8082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the clock is ticking ever closer to the 
end of the year. We still need to fund the government by Friday. We 
still need to lift the spending caps equally for defense and urgent 
domestic priorities,

[[Page S8082]]

such as combatting the opioid crisis, improving healthcare for 
veterans, and building rural infrastructure. We must extend the FISA 
program and shore up pensions for over 1 million Americans. We still 
need to reauthorize CHIP and end the sabotage of our healthcare 
markets. We have had a bipartisan deal on a stabilization package for 
months now. It is a product that should have been easy to include in 
the end-year deal. After all, it is the product of bipartisan 
negotiations between Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray, two 
of our most effective Senators. But now, because the Republicans are 
repealing the individual mandate in their tax bill, the Alexander-
Murray deal will not have its intended effect. Even worse, Speaker Ryan 
has just said the agreement will not pass the House unless the Hyde 
language is attached to it--another eleventh hour partisan demand on a 
bill that has already been negotiated in the Senate. What should have 
been an easy addition to the year-end package is getting more difficult 
by the hour because of Republican demands.
  We still need to pass disaster supplemental funding to aid storm-
stricken parts of our country--California, Puerto Rico, the Virgin 
Islands, as well as Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. The disaster 
supplemental bill coming out of the House, while it has much better 
funding levels than the administration's proposal, still does not treat 
Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands fairly. It does not provide for cost-
sharing waivers, and it doesn't include enough funding for resiliency, 
mitigation, Medicaid, or drinking water infrastructure. It is a step in 
the right direction but not good enough.

  I would reiterate my plea. Texas and the Texas delegation have 
constantly criticized government funding. All of a sudden, now that 
there is a disaster, they want money. Fine. Yet what about that $10 
billion rainy day fund? Let Texas spend that. I guarantee you that if 
it were in a blue State, some of our friends from Texas would be 
calling for it--the very same people who opposed aid to Sandy, the very 
same people who have relished putting State and local deductibility in 
the bill. Well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. Let 
Texas dip into its $10 billion fund before it gets FEMA money. That is 
what seems fair and right, particularly for those who don't want to see 
Federal Government spending increase.
  Of course, last, but certainly not least, we still need to protect 
the Dreamers--young people brought into this country through no fault 
of their own, many of them who know no other country but ours. These 
are people who are in our Armed Forces--over 800--who are going to our 
schools, who are working in our factories and offices and stores. They, 
like everybody else--like our ancestors--want to be Americans. They 
contribute to America. They help America.
  Yet there are people on the other side of the aisle who have this 
nasty immigration attitude that affects the Dreamers and everybody 
else. It is so un-American. It is so against the statue with the torch 
in the harbor in the city in which I live. It is so against what the 
American people believe. Eighty percent want to help the Dreamers. Yet 
we are stymied so far, and 1,000 Dreamers are losing their status each 
week.
  On all of these things, the time to act is now. Bipartisan 
negotiations continue to seek a compromise to ensure DACA protections 
as well as to provide additional border security. We Democrats are all 
for that--real border security that makes a difference. We should 
strive to reach a deal as soon as is humanly possible.
  If we are not able to reach a global deal by this Friday on these 
many issues, there will be a temptation to do a short-term funding bill 
with some of these items but not others. That won't work. We should be 
doing all of these things together instead of in a piecemeal, week-by-
week fashion. Our Republican friends cannot pick and choose what they 
want and do what they did on the tax bill and do what they did on the 
healthcare bill in saying that Democrats are not welcome to be part of 
the deal--because this one ain't under reconciliation.
  We want to work in a bipartisan way, but a bipartisan way means just 
that, not Republicans deciding on their own and telling us that we 
should just be for it. The best way to get a good, bipartisan result, 
which by the Senate rules is necessary for spending bills, is for us to 
work together.

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