[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 18 (Thursday, January 25, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S514-S515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Work of the Senate

  Mr. PETERS. Madam President, I believe every campaign for elective 
office in this great Nation is essentially a months-long job interview 
with the voters or, perhaps more accurately, it is thousands and 
thousands of individual interviews. Like any employer, the voters have 
expectations for us once we have been hired to do this job.
  I will never forget I work for the people of Michigan, and I feel 
very fortunate to have earned the opportunity to serve them. When I ran 
for the U.S. Senate, I told Michiganders I would be a pragmatic 
problem-solver and stand by that promise each and every day. We were 
all sent here to be problem-solvers, especially the hard problems. 
Making the effort to participate in our democracy is fundamentally 
optimistic. Voters want us to make their lives and our Nation better. 
Every Senator elected to this body carries the hopes, the dreams, and 
the expectations of the people who live in their State.
  While we should never lose sight of our Nation's hopes and dreams, 
today I wish to focus on expectations. Americans expect us to work 
together. They expect us to talk to each other. They expect us to 
negotiate and find common ground where we disagree. They expect us to 
help our fellow Americans after disasters. They expect us to respond to 
crises like the opioid epidemic and dangerously underfunded pensions 
that jeopardize their retirement security. They expect us to keep our 
borders secure and enact reasonable human immigration policies that 
keep our Nation competitive and boost economic growth, and they expect 
us to responsibly fund the Federal Government.
  None of us should be proud of the recent government shutdown. There 
is no such thing as a good government shutdown. I am nevertheless 
hopeful that lessons can be learned from last weekend and a better path 
forward can be found. I think the coming weeks and months are of vital 
importance to the future of the U.S. Senate as a meaningful, functional 
institution.
  Let's be honest with ourselves and with the American people. In the 
last few years, we have not been functional. We have blown deadline 
after deadline. It took us almost 4 months past the funding deadline to 
tackle the easiest problem: reauthorizing the Children's Health 
Insurance Program, a program that provides healthcare to millions of 
Americans children, while saving taxpayers money.
  As I stand here, healthcare for over 600,000 Michiganders--including 
over 12,000 Michigan veterans--remains at risk because we have blown 
through deadline after deadline to fund community health centers, a 
program that provides cost-effective care to millions of Americans in 
both rural and urban areas across our country.
  How is it that a nation that put the first man on the Moon still 
can't put lights on for our own American citizens in Puerto Rico? We 
need to help families clean out their flooded homes in the gulf, 
support communities that have faced out-of-control wildfires and 
mudslides during the devastating 2017 disaster season, and ensure 
affordable flood insurance is available to every homeowner who needs 
it.
  Americans stand by each other in the face of tragedy. This is why 
Senator Stabenow and I fought for a year to deliver Federal resources 
to Flint and continue working to make sure families are receiving the 
care they need and get their damaged pipes repaired. In addition to 
addressing all of these urgent issues, we need to keep the lights on in 
the Federal Government, where funding is set to expire again in just 2 
weeks.
  While the government was shut down this past weekend, I worked with a 
bipartisan group of Senators pulled together by my colleagues Senator 
Collins and Senator Manchin. This group is called the Common Sense 
Coalition, and we worked through the weekend to find a bipartisan 
compromise to open the Federal Government and find a path forward to 
tackle the complex, pressing issues before us in Congress.
  While the lights are back on, the real work is just beginning. In the 
coming weeks, we need to find a legislative solution to provide 
certainty to the Dreamers--young men and women brought to the United 
States as small children. They grew up as Americans, went to school 
here, served in our military, only speak English, and are every bit as 
American as you and I. They graduate from our colleges and universities 
and provide critical talent to a growing American economy. They start 
their own small businesses and create jobs in our communities. They are 
young adults who voluntarily came out of the shadows to participate in 
the DACA Program and are fearful they will be ripped from their home 
and be deported to a country they have never visited, a country where 
they don't even speak the language and will find themselves a stranger 
in a foreign land, which is an absolutely terrifying situation.
  Without question, we must also pass a disaster relief package to help 
communities devastated by the hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. We 
must also reauthorize the Community Health Center Program that provides 
essential healthcare to Americans and over 600,000 Michiganders.
  We must do more to fight the far-reaching opioid epidemic that is 
hurting and killing far too many of our friends, family, and neighbors. 
The opioid epidemic is a public health crisis that touches everyone in 
every State and every county.
  We need to deliver certainty to the hard-working Americans who spent

[[Page S515]]

decades earning their pensions and now see them at risk as they prepare 
to enter retirement, and we must follow through on our most basic of 
duties. We need a bipartisan deal to fund the government that takes 
care of the men and women who serve our country in the armed services, 
keeps us safe, and properly funds both our military and domestic 
programs.
  This will not be easy, but solving easy problems is not why we were 
sent to the Senate. I ran for the U.S. Senate to solve the tough 
problems facing our country, and I know my colleagues in the Common 
Sense Coalition ran to solve tough problems as well. We need the entire 
Senate and the House to start acting like one, big Common Sense 
Coalition. No organization or business can run their budget in 2- or 3-
week increments.
  The Defense Department and all of our domestic agencies need 
certainty for budget planning just like any household or business does. 
We cannot let the American people down any longer by kicking the can 
down the road with another series of short-term budget patches. The 
coming weeks will be difficult, but we need to rise to the occasion and 
deliver on all of these responsibilities. Now is the time for us to 
step up our game. The American people expect and deserve nothing less.
  I yield the floor.
  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. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business for up to 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.