[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 209 (Thursday, December 21, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8236-S8237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I will speak very briefly.
  While I voted to keep the government going, this is not the way to 
govern. We should not be doing stopgap measures. We will be back here 
soon. We will have a relatively short time--a couple of weeks--to 
finally do our work, the work we should have done for the last 6 
months. We will have to address sequestration on both sides of the 
ledger--on defense and nondefense--and raise the caps for both. We have 
to speak on one of the greatest issues in our country today, and that 
is the Dreamers, and we have to address that and have votes up or down 
on the Senate floor. I intend to vote to protect Dreamers. We have to 
vote on the Children's Health Insurance Program. There are so many 
others.

  I want Senators on both sides of the aisle to know--and I have talked 
to both Republicans and Democrats--Senator Cochran and I and others 
have tried to keep the appropriations process going. We will continue 
to do that. We will do that when we come back. There will not be 
another continuing resolution without a bipartisan budget agreement.
  Mr. President, this is not how we should govern in the U.S. Senate. 
We have once again found ourselves on the edge of a manufactured, made-
in-Washington crisis. Once again, we are forced into political games at 
the eleventh hour by the imminent threat of a Republican shutdown. This 
time that threat has fallen right before Christmas and the holidays.
  There is no reason we should find ourselves in this situation. There 
has always been a proven path forward to avoid this crisis, and that 
path is to reach a bipartisan budget deal that is based on parity. 
Sequestration has had devastating consequences on our country that will 
impact a generation, and we must raise the budget caps on both sides of 
the ledger--defense and nondefense.
  This is not an academic exercise. Our decisions are having real and 
devastating consequences. We are letting our infrastructure crumble. We 
are letting down our veterans. We are allowing our education programs 
to fall behind, and we are harming our military's readiness.
  Regrettably, our Republican Colleagues took the path of delay, no 
compromise, government by crisis. Here we are, 3 months into the fiscal 
year without a budget. The continuing resolution that is before us 
provides a 1-month extension to fund the government, but we are no 
closer to a bipartisan budget deal. I intend to vote for this 
continuing resolution because a government shutdown helps no one, but I 
implore my fellow Senators to use the next month wisely. We owe it to 
the American people.
  Those on the other side of the aisle need to come to the table to 
negotiate an agreement that will provide funding for healthcare to our 
veterans, build infrastructure for a growing economy, and make us more 
secure.
  But this is not the only thing we must accomplish in the coming 
month. Our list of unfinished business is long. We also need to pass 
the Dream Act. President Trump's decision to end the DACA program was 
as cruel as it was senseless. Dreamers are American in every way except 
on paper, having been brought here as children through no fault of 
their own. By definition, Dreamers are law-abiding strivers, serving 
our communities as doctors and teachers and defending our homeland as 
brave men and women in uniform.
  Instead of working with Congress to find a permanent legislative 
solution while keeping DACA protections in place, the President yielded 
to xenophobic nativists in his administration and terminated 
protections for our Nation's Dreamers.
  I am greatly disappointed that Republicans would not consider 
including the Dream Act on this continuing resolution. We simply cannot 
fail to pass the Dream Act, and we must do so, and we must do so soon. 
The future of Dreamers--and I believe the fate of the American Dream 
itself--lies in our hands.
  We also need a permanent reauthorization for the Children's Health 
Insurance Program. It has been 3 months since Congress let funds expire 
for the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP, putting at risk the 
9 million children nationwide who depend on the program for health 
insurance coverage.
  Vermont's CHIP program, known as Dr. Dynasaur, covers over 5,000 
children whose families are now worried whether their kids will be 
covered next year. Instead of moving forward with a bipartisan 
reauthorization for 5 years, as has been proposed in the Senate, this 
continuing resolution extends the program only temporarily.
  What is worse, the majority is insisting on offsetting this extension 
by cutting funding for prevention and public health programs. This is 
robbing Peter to pay Paul. If we can pass a tax cut that benefits the 
wealthiest Americans and which will add, at a minimum, $1.5 trillion to 
our deficit, we should be able to reauthorize CHIP--for longer than 3 
months--without undermining public health. We should not have to make 
this choice, but here we are, being forced to choose between a 
misguided short-term patch or a wholesale government shutdown.
  Again, I call on our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to use 
the next month to negotiate solutions to these real problems. That 
includes having a debate about American's privacy rights. Section 702 
of the FISA Amendments Act was intended to be a powerful foreign 
intelligence surveillance tool, and it is, but it also sweeps up 
massive amounts of Americans' communications, which can then be 
accessed without a warrant. That has long been a concern of mine, and I 
have stated that we should reauthorize 702, but we should not do so at 
the expense of our own civil liberties.
  A 1-month extension gives Congress an opportunity--and I believe, an 
obligation--to debate this program on the floor, just like we did in 
2012. All Members deserve an opportunity to weigh in on this critical 
surveillance tool, and this short, clean reauthorization of Section 702 
allows for just that.
  To be clear, the Republicans are in charge of the House, the Senate, 
and the White House. It is clear that they bear the burden of bringing 
us to this crisis point, and they need to answer to the American people 
for the unfinished business before us. We should never have gotten to 
this point.
  We can still reach a bipartisan budget deal. I remain ready to work 
with Chairman Cochran, the Appropriations Committee, and Members from 
both sides of the aisle to secure the funding agreements we need to 
complete our appropriations, keep the lights on, and resolve the other 
pressing matters before us.

[[Page S8237]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.

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