[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 17 (Wednesday, January 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S481-S482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                  DACA

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the government funding bill that passed 
on Monday left us--all of us--with 3 weeks to come to a resolution on 
legislation to protect the Dreamers. At the same time, we must work on 
legislation to improve American healthcare--I see the Senator from 
Washington State, who has been so vigilant in that area--and a budget 
agreement that supports our military and our middle class, delivering 
long-awaited funds--we Democrats will insist on these--for the opioid 
epidemic, veterans' healthcare, and pensions. We should feel an urgency 
about all of these issues and many more that we can make happen.
  Leader McConnell's promise to take up immigration on February 8 
should light a fire under everyone. The Republican leader and moderate 
Republicans bear a special responsibility to make sure these votes 
happen. All of those in the country who want to make sure the Dreamers 
get treated fairly should be focusing their attention on getting 60 
votes on a resolution that is fair to the Dreamers.
  The clock is ticking. If we don't solve this problem in 14 days, the 
Republicans are going to have to explain to Dreamers what their plan is 
to prevent them from being deported. When those horrible pictures of 
deportation occur--God forbid that they do, but if they do, it will 
clearly be on the delay, the obfuscation, and the lack of humanity that 
too many of our Republican colleagues are showing in this regard.
  Every Democrat--all 49 of us--supports DACA. Many of my Republican 
colleagues do as well. We certainly can find a bill that gets 60 votes 
in the Senate, and that is where our focus is. I had a very good 
meeting with the Hispanic groups yesterday. Some of us had 
disagreements about what happened a few days before, but it was an 
amiable and fine meeting, and we all agreed that we were going to focus 
on getting the 60 votes. I hope people throughout the country of both 
parties, of all political persuasions--business, labor--will join us 
like a laser in appealing to and imploring more Republican Senators to 
join us so that we get 60 votes on a fair DACA bill.
  We cannot let those who are anti-immigrant, who call giving the 
Dreamers hope ``amnesty,'' block us because then we will fail, and it 
will be on the other side of the aisle that made that happen.
  Over the weekend--and I am very glad about this--a bipartisan group 
of moderate Senators from both parties came together in a very 
inspiring way. Their efforts led to the agreement between the majority 
leader and me that an immigration bill will receive fair

[[Page S482]]

consideration in a few weeks. That is the first time we have ever heard 
that guarantee.
  The same energy and spirit that the bipartisan group put into forging 
a compromise this weekend ought to be committed to finding a bill on 
DACA that will pass this body with 60 votes.
  I support the bipartisan group. In fact, as some of our Members on 
the Democratic side had plans for it, I encourage them to join it and 
form it. I have had very good conversations with both leaders--Senator 
Manchin, a Democrat; Senator Collins, a Republican--and what they are 
doing is very good for the body. Speaking as Democratic leader, I 
encourage these kinds of groups to come forward.
  I remember the old Senate. I remember that individual Senators were 
involved in negotiating very important and very difficult issues. It 
made the Senate a better place, it made the Members feel more 
fulfilled, and it made our ability to get things done much, much more 
likely.
  Our task is different from the task last week. The Senate must find 
consensus. For that reason, we need to start from a new place. My 
negotiations with the President shouldn't dictate talks here on the 
Hill. That was then; this is now. It was a hope that last Friday the 
President would have reached out and supported something, that he 
wanted to get something that we wanted and he proclaimed to want too. 
It didn't happen. Now the group has to start in a new way, with no 
preconceptions, and come together and find a bill that can garner 60 
votes. That is a job for these Senators who came together so well in 
the last few days.
  Protecting the Dreamers is our moral obligation. The Senate is now in 
the spotlight. The eyes of the American people, who overwhelmingly 
sympathize with the Dreamers--90 percent, a majority of Republicans--
believe in these Dreamers. They don't go for these calls of amnesty. 
These people have worked hard. They have been trying so hard to be 
Americans. They came across the border when they were little, and now 
they are in our Armed Forces, they are in our factories, they are in 
our schools, and they are in our offices. To say that allowing them to 
become Americans is amnesty is nasty--nasty.
  Protecting the Dreamers is our moral obligation. The Senate is in the 
spotlight. The eyes of the American people, who sympathize with the 
Dreamers--the vast majority of Republicans, as well as Democrats, 
sympathize with Dreamers, and all of their eyes are on us. We need to 
get the job done.