[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 11 (Thursday, January 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S289-S292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, Democrats here in the Senate have really
raised obstruction to an art form in this Congress. The Presidential
nominees--they have obstructed and obstructed some more, even when they
ultimately planned to support the nominee. We have had many nominees
who have come to the floor who have been objected to and had to go
through the long postcloture process, only to get to the end of it and
have those nominees be voted out in many cases unanimously. I have seen
that happen in the committee that I chair, the Commerce, Science, and
Transportation Committee. We have nominees over here who are
noncontroversial who are being held up by the Democrats. Many of them
are in important
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positions in our government. The FRA--Federal Railroad Administrator--
is a key safety position in the administration who is being held up by
the Democrats even though he is supremely qualified for the job and I
think will have a huge bipartisan vote here in the Senate, were it to
occur.
We have seen this consistent pattern of obstruction when it comes to
nominees and giving the President an opportunity to fill his
administration with the positions that are key to not only his getting
his agenda done but the American people seeing their government
function in a way that represents their interests.
Tax reform. Well, Democrats absolutely refused to work with
Republicans on a bill. They fought hard against passage despite the
fact that the Democrats have previously called for reform and supported
many of the very proposals that were included in the law.
Now, of course, the Democrats are threatening to shut down the
government and block funding for the Children's Health Insurance
Program--a program they claim to support--because they are not happy
that they are not getting an immigration bill that they want this week.
That is right, Mr. President--Democrats are threatening to shut down
the government and block funding for health insurance for 9 million
low-income children because they are not getting the bill they want
when they want it.
Members on both sides of the aisle are eager to find a legislative
solution to the status of children who were brought to this country
illegally through no fault of their own. There is broad support among
both Democrats and Republicans for getting a solution to that. In fact,
there is a group who has been meeting every day on that very issue in
an attempt to try to put together a solution that would help address
that issue in a way that not only resolves the status of these young
people who came to this country illegally but also addresses the
broader issue of border security and chain migration and visa lotteries
and all those sorts of things. So there are a series of issues that
relate to immigration that are being worked on now by both sides of the
aisle in the hope that they can come to a solution about that, but
there is no agreement just yet.
While we hope to get to a deal as soon as possible, the deadline for
reaching an agreement is not imminent, not to mention that passing a
bill on the status of Dreamers is completely unrelated to the need to
fund the government.
If the Democrats continue with their plan to block government
funding, the government will shut down tomorrow night. That means that
all kinds of government services will be affected in areas ranging from
veterans, to public health, to worker and product safety, and to
national parks and monuments. Funding for our military will also be
threatened, which represents a particular danger as we try to rebuild
our military after years of neglect under the Obama
administration. Also, of course, as I mentioned, the Children's Health
Insurance Program will not get funded, and 9 million low-income
children will be well on the way to losing their healthcare coverage.
The Children's Health Insurance Program extension that we want to
pass as part of this bill is something that has long been supported by
Democrats. In fact, the policy in this bill is virtually identical to
the bipartisan extension legislation that was introduced by Senators
Hatch and Wyden and passed by the Senate Finance Committee last year,
except that we have included an additional year of funding. I serve as
a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and when we passed that bill
last year, it was a 5-year authorization. The legislation that we will
have in front of us this evening that will fund the government includes
a 6-year reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program.
That would mark the longest extension of the Children's Health
Insurance Program since the program was created back in 1997. It would
provide 6 years of guaranteed funding so that care for children and
pregnant women can continue without disruption.
It is extremely difficult to understand how the same Democrats who
have strongly advocated for this program are now opposing legislation
to extend it and seeking to shut down the government. In fact,
Democrats are now actively bragging that they have the votes to shut
down the government.
Nobody thinks the short-term funding bill before us is ideal. We
would much rather have a long-term agreement, and eventually we will.
But this bill will fund the government, it will protect the military,
and it will provide a very significant extension of an essential
healthcare program for low-income children.
Democrats' intention of opposing this bill because they are upset
that they can't get exactly what they want, when they want it, is
irresponsible given the good-faith efforts that are being made by both
sides to come to an agreement when it comes to the issue of immigration
and when it comes to the issue of the broader funding debate we are
having here in the Senate. This attempt by the Democrats is totally
shortsighted. It is a partisan, political maneuver that will harm our
troops and some of the most vulnerable among us.
We still have time before the government shuts down, and I hope the
more moderate elements of the Democratic Party here in the Senate will
rethink their leader's opposition to funding the government and to
extending health insurance for low-income children and for pregnant
women. That is what we are talking about. That is simply what this
does. There is still time to come together to pass this bill and to
move on to the other important priorities that are facing our Nation.
I hope that cooler heads will prevail, that people here in this
Chamber will come to their senses, and that we can pass a funding bill
this evening that would avoid a government shutdown tomorrow and would
fund for 6 years the Children's Health Insurance Program and set up the
conditions that would allow the discussions to continue about how to
resolve some of the outstanding and unrelated issues that still need to
come to a resolution.
That is my hope. I hope our colleagues on both sides will come to the
realization that this idea that is being put forward by the Democrats--
and for which, as I said, they are taking credit right now--of shutting
down the government is really a bad idea and not in the best interests
of the American people, nor those 9 million children who would benefit
from a long-term extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program.
I yield the floor.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Capito). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, to paraphrase a Republican President I
enjoyed knowing, here we go again.
In 1995 Republicans shut down our government. They wanted to
recklessly cut education programs and environmental programs, and they
even wanted to raise Medicare premiums on millions of senior citizens,
and they were willing to shut down the government to do it.
Of course, more recently in 2013, Republicans once again sought to
strip the healthcare of millions of Americans. They wanted to shut down
the government in a failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Actually, that is an effort they continued this summer instead of
negotiating a bipartisan budget deal that could have averted the
situation we find ourselves in today.
In 2015 Republicans continued their attack on healthcare by bringing
us to the brink of yet another government shutdown in an attempt to
defund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is the source of
healthcare to millions of Americans in rural America. Millions of
American women, men, and young people--certainly, tens of thousands of
Vermonters in my little State--trust and depend on Planned Parenthood
for their basic healthcare needs, including annual health exams,
cervical and breast cancer screening, and HIV screenings--terrible that
they might provide that care to Americans.
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They tried to shut down the government because of it. It was also in
2015 that the Republicans began their attack on Dreamers. They
attempted to shut down the entire Department of Homeland Security,
which protects our skies, our borders, and everything else, and they
were risking our national security because they wanted to block DACA,
the Dreamers bill.
If these were just talking points and political ploys, it would be
one thing, but they have real consequences.
The 2013 Republican shutdown dealt a devastating blow to economic
growth amounting to $1.5 billion per day. For a State the size of
Vermont, $1.5 billion is a lot of money. It was an estimated $1.5
billion for each of the days of the shutdown, and there were 16 of
those days. That is economic growth we lost that we never get back.
Hundreds of thousands of Federal workers were furloughed through no
fault of their own for a combined total of 6.6 million days. Lifesaving
research on cancer, on diabetes, on heart conditions ground to a halt.
The doors and fences of our iconic national parks and monuments that
Americans have always relied on to go and see were shuttered.
Now, in 2018, President Trump wants to shut down the government over
a cynical and misbegotten ``big, beautiful wall.'' And he wants that
``big, beautiful wall''--whatever it might be--to be paid for by U.S.
taxpayers, not Mexico. He is using the Dreamers as negotiable
commodities, as though they are some kind of money, instead of people,
to meet his unreasonable demands to spend $18 billion on last century's
technology. President Trump is making these demands after he promised
taxpayers it wouldn't cost us a cent because Mexico would pay for it.
Well, if he really believes that, open a bank account, and let Mexico
send the money. When they send the money, we will build the wall. I
mean, be serious. He said they will build it. Now he wants the American
taxpayers--who are strapped on so many things--to build last century's
technology. Let Mexico send us the money. When they do, we will build
it. If he is telling the truth, they will send it. If he is not telling
the truth, of course, they will not.
But he is also just continuing the Republican tradition of being the
``shutdown party.'' We have some very responsible Republicans and
Democrats in the House and the Senate. I have not heard a single one of
them say we need a good government shutdown. I take it back. One
Republican has: Donald Trump. Donald Trump has said that our country
needs ``a good shutdown.'' That is the only person, Republican or
Democrat, I have heard say that they want a shutdown.
I wonder if that is what he has asked his own party to angle for--a
manufactured crisis to distract from the fact that they are not doing
their job. I can say, as the vice chairman of the Appropriations
Committee, I know the Democrats have been ready and willing to
negotiate a spending agreement since last June. Instead of working
toward that goal, congressional Republican leadership has spent the
last year overturning consumer protections. They stripped healthcare
from millions of Americans. They passed a massive tax cut for big
corporations and wealthy Americans, paid for by middle-class Americans
and future generations because it adds trillions to the deficit. But
during that time, they continued to kick the can down the road.
They have failed to do their jobs to pass sensible spending bills to
keep our government open. They have cast aside Congress's fundamental
responsibilities in pursuit of a hyperpartisan agenda. As a result, we
haven't reached a bipartisan budget deal that would allow us to
strengthen our military--something both Republicans and Democrats want.
We haven't reached a bipartisan budget deal to allow us to invest in
our communities--something I believe both Republicans and Democrats
want.
We all agree that the consequences of sequestration have been
devastating. We have to lift the spending caps set into law by the
Budget Control Act. Every Republican and Democrat I talked with has
said they do, but we have to invest equally in our military and our
communities because our national security is intrinsically linked to
the investments we make in our communities. We are the greatest country
in the world exactly because we make a commitment to invest in
education and infrastructure. If we back off of that commitment, we are
no longer great. We aim to provide the necessary resources to combat
the opioid epidemic, and we strive to ensure that no child goes to
school hungry, but if we don't have defense and nondefense parity in
spending, we can't achieve these goals.
We have not passed a comprehensive disaster relief package that takes
into consideration the unique needs of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands. These are American citizens. They have been living without
power and without access to clean drinking water, and communities,
devastated by natural disasters for months, are without adequate help
from their own country--the U.S. Government--and people are dying.
The Dreamers, who are American citizens in every way but on paper,
have been thrown into crisis, a crisis of President Trump's own making,
a crisis that threatens to tear them from the only lives they have ever
known. Remember, the President is solely responsible--not Members here
on this floor--for creating this untenable situation faced by the
Dreamers. The President, all by himself--actually he is a party of
one--rescinded the DACA policy.
Now we have a path forward, put together by Republicans and
Democrats, which meets the requirements the President laid out himself.
But instead he continues to favor governing by chaos. He continues to
move the goal posts. He continues to push the agreement further out of
reach. He continues to say that our country needs a good shutdown. So
much for the ``Art of the Deal.'' I would never hire someone to make a
deal like that.
The latest effort to kick the can down the road, which Republicans
passed out of the House this evening, does not address any of these
issues. Its attempt to address the needs of the Children's Health
Insurance Program is public relations, but it is inadequate, and based
on the President's own twitter feed--which I get dizzy trying to
follow--goes in and out of favor with the President hourly. Why does
the bill extend CHIP for 6 years when extending this bipartisan program
for 10 years would actually save the taxpayers $6 billion? Why are
community health centers--which millions of Americans and CHIP
recipients depend upon for their primary care--not extended? Why don't
we protect Americans and our taxpayers? Most importantly, why was this
program allowed to expire and to be used as a negotiating part in the
first place?
Republican leadership, led by the President, has brought us to the
brink of a government shutdown. I have been here a long time. I have
looked at a lot of good legislation and bad legislation. I do not want
to say the most terrible thing possible about the House bill because I
know the respect we show back and forth. But the House bill is a joke
and does not have my support. It leaves too much in doubt. What it
attempts to address is woefully inadequate.
The majority now wants bipartisan support. Why not do as we always
used to and work with Democrats, instead of appealing for our support
only after they have written a mishmash, laughable bill crafted behind
closed doors?
I have been here over 40 years. I understand reality. Republicans
control the House; Republicans control the Senate; Republicans control
the Presidency. If Republicans want the government to stay open, it
will stay open. If Republicans want the government to shut down, it
will shut it down. I wish they would stop kicking the can down the road
and start negotiating in good faith, as so many Senators in both
parties have been willing to.
It is time to stop kicking the can down the road and time to start
negotiating in good faith. Keep our government open, and show respect
to those who live here in this country who consider themselves
Americans.
Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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