[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 12 (Friday, January 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S315-S316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the deadline to fund the government 
is nearly upon us. The Senate is now just hours away from an entirely 
avoidable government shutdown. At midnight tonight, funding for 
programs that millions of Americans rely on--veterans services, opioid 
treatment centers, death benefits for the families of fallen soldiers, 
and health insurance for 9 million vulnerable children--would be thrown 
into chaos.
  Last night the Senate began consideration of a bill passed by the 
House that would erase all of these threats. The bill keeps the Federal 
Government open. It extends the State Children's Health Insurance 
Program, which provides coverage for 9 million children and low-income 
families for 6 years. This vote should be a no-brainer, and it would 
be, except that the Democratic leader has convinced his Members to 
filibuster any funding bill that doesn't include legislation they are 
demanding for people who came into the United States illegally. What 
has been shoehorned into this discussion is an insistence that we deal 
with an illegal immigration issue.
  He has insisted that he will not support any legislation at all for 
the American people no matter how noncontroversial or how bipartisan 
unless we pass a bill on illegal immigration first. If that means 
shutting down the funding for veterans, military families, opioid 
treatment centers, and even Federal grants to his home State of New 
York, so be it. If it means throwing a wrench into the gears of the 
U.S. economy, just as Americans are starting to feel the benefits of 
historic tax reform, so be it. If it means failing to renew the 
Children's Health Insurance Program, which the House-passed bill funded 
for a full 6 years, apparently that is just fine with those on the 
other side.
  Nearly every Democrat in the House made the same demand. That has 
been their stated position: Nothing for hundreds of millions of 
Americans and no healthcare for 9 million vulnerable children until we 
solve a non-imminent issue related to illegal immigration. To even 
repeat this position out loud is to see how completely ridiculous it 
is.
  Now that we are 13 hours away from a government shutdown that the 
Democrats would initiate and Democrats would own, the craziness of this 
seems to be dawning on my friend the Democratic leader. Perhaps he is 
remembering his own words from 2013. Here is what he said back then 
about threatening a government shutdown.

       No matter how strongly one feels about an issue, you 
     shouldn't hold millions of people hostage . . . that's wrong.

  A few days later, the Democratic leader added:

       It's sort of like this. Someone goes into your house, takes 
     your wife and children hostage, and then says, ``Let's 
     negotiate over the price of your house.''

  He went on to say.

       We're shutting down the government, we're not gonna raise 
     the debt ceiling until you pass immigration reform. It would 
     be governmental chaos.

  Now maybe he is remembering those words today because now he is 
saying: Never mind, I really didn't mean it, and he himself is calling 
for an even shorter short-term funding bill. Of course, his last-ditch 
proposals would do nothing for the Children's Health Insurance Program 
or the 9 million children who are waiting on us to renew it. What is 
more, the incredibly short-term continuing resolutions he is now 
proposing do not meet any of the demands--none of them--that he and his 
own conference and Democrats in the House have been making for weeks. 
None of that would be solved in a short-term CR--the stuff they have 
been calling for.
  So apparently now he wants his Members to default on their own 
demands. He has spent days apparently persuading all of his colleagues 
to insist that we cannot pass another continuing resolution. Now he 
wants them to pass one. He spent weeks getting his Members to proclaim 
that we should not do anything to fund the government unless we address 
the DACA issue, and now apparently he is calling

[[Page S316]]

on them to do just that. These incredibly short-term extensions would 
not even give us enough time to actually write the legislation the 
Democratic leader is demanding. One extremely short-term CR would lead 
to another and another--exactly the outcome Democrats have declared 
they cannot accept.
  Now, I wish for all of our sakes that the Democratic leader would 
figure out what he actually wants. I feel bad for his own Members. He 
has painted them into a corner, but I especially feel bad for the 
American people whose government the Democrats are threatening to shut 
down and the 9 million children whose health insurance could be thrown 
into jeopardy because Senate Democrats cannot get their story straight.
  Now, my friend the Democratic leader now wants his Members to pass a 
bill that allows SCHIP to expire. Apparently, he now wants every 
Democrat in the House of Representatives to break their word and pass a 
separate funding bill of his own that does not address the illegal 
immigration issue they said they must have. So let's think about this 
for a minute. First, he leads his own troops into a box canyon, and 
then tells them it was really all for nothing. Maybe it is time to come 
back to reality.
  We already have a bill that we know can pass the House because it 
already did. We have a bill that we know the President will sign into 
law because he has already committed to do just that. We know that with 
one noncontroversial and bipartisan vote we can keep the government up 
and running. We can fund the children's healthcare program for 6 years, 
and we can give ourselves the time we need to finish ongoing 
negotiations on DACA, border security, and the long-term needs of our 
military. We could do all of that today--all of it--or our Democratic 
friends can continue to take the Democratic leader's advice and vote to 
shut down the government, destabilize funding for our troops, shut down 
the children's healthcare program, and still not get what they are 
demanding on illegal immigration. It is really up to them.
  I look forward to voting soon on cloture on the House bill. The 
American people, the citizens who actually elected us, will be 
watching. They will see which Senators make the patriotic decision to 
stand up for the American people and vote to continue government 
funding and extend children's healthcare while we continue our 
bipartisan talks, and they will see which Senators vote to shove aside 
veterans, military families, and vulnerable children and to hold the 
entire country hostage until we pass an immigration bill they haven't 
even written yet.
  It is completely unfair and uncompassionate for my Democratic 
colleagues to filibuster government funding, harm our troops, and 
jeopardize health coverage for 9 million children because extreme 
elements of their base want illegal immigration to crowd out every 
other priority. Apparently, they believe the issue of illegal 
immigration is more important than everything else--all the government 
services the American people depend on.
  I would recommend to stop the wild-goose chase. Don't go to a 
destination that cannot be explained. Let's fulfill the core 
responsibilities of Congress. Let's fund the government, provide for 
the American people, and then resume serious negotiations on the issues 
that matter most. Let's fund the government for a full month so we can 
actually get something done.

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