[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 22 (Monday, February 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S599-S600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FUNDING THE GOVERNMENT AND IMMIGRATION

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, here we are again. The clock is ticking. 
The current funding bill expires on Thursday, and we have to act to 
keep the lights on. That strikes me as a very modest goal because there 
is so much more we need to be doing. When our Democratic colleagues 
shut down the government last month, we knew that this was all we could 
get at the time, which is a short-term continuing resolution until 
February 8. Well, this is a miserable way to do business. Continuing 
resolutions are really an abdication of responsibility on behalf of 
this body and are not to the benefit of the American people.
  It doesn't have to be this way. What we are waiting on is an 
agreement between the leaders of both the House and the Senate to come 
up with spending caps for the rest of 2018 and 2019. We could have that 
agreement today, but our colleagues across the aisle are dragging their 
feet, to put it mildly. For what? Well, it is the same reason that they 
shut down the government last month. It is over an unrelated 
immigration issue, which I will get to in a moment. They appear not to 
have learned any lesson from the shutdown, which clearly the American 
people did not want and did not agree with.
  We have two distinct issues that need to be handled separately. 
Funding the government--particularly funding our military--shouldn't be 
held hostage to an immigration issue, especially when we continue to 
work together in good faith on border security and on the young adults 
who are affected by the deferred action on childhood arrivals, or DACA.
  I say, let's drop DACA from the funding debate and submit the caps 
deal right now. As I have said before, short-term continuing 
resolutions are a terrible way to do business. Governing is not a 
merry-go-round. We shouldn't have to come back in March and have these 
same discussions over and over again.
  This past February 2 happened to be my birthday, but it is also 
Groundhog Day, and we seem to wake up every morning and go through the 
same motions over and over and over again and never reach a conclusion. 
This was brought home to me pretty dramatically today when the 
leadership from Texas for the community health centers told me that 
they can't plan. They have employees and healthcare providers who are 
worried about whether they will have a job because government will 
somehow fail in keeping its doors open and keep their programs funded. 
And to boot, patients are worried about whether they are going to have 
continued access to healthcare, the community health centers that serve 
vast swaths of this country.
  Why are people put through all this anxiety--both in terms of 
planning and in terms of the staff and the patients who depend on these 
community health centers--just because we can't seem to get our act 
together here and agree to those spending caps because they are being 
held hostage to another unrelated issue, which the majority leader has 
committed to addressing in due course.
  Well, our colleagues seem to be content to drive around in circles, 
and--not to mix metaphors--they are spinning their wheels in the 
process, and nothing actually gets done. But maybe that is part of the 
plan too. If you look at 2017, we have had a pretty impressive 2017 in 
terms of what this Congress has accomplished when it comes to 
overregulations, when it comes to confirming Federal judges, including 
the Justice on the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch. And then, of course, 
there is the big tax bill, which was really something that happens only 
every 30 years or so. It is very unusual. We are already beginning to 
see the beneficial results of that tax legislation, and people are 
learning more about it and will continue to learn more about it as they 
open their paycheck stubs and see how much more take-home pay they 
have. I am beginning to think that these short-term continuing 
resolutions and never reaching an agreement on spending caps are part 
of the plan to just keep us churning and to keep us not producing on 
behalf of the American people. I hope I am wrong, but it sure feels 
like that to me.
  I hope our colleagues will change their tactics and learn from their 
mistakes. Shutdowns don't help anybody. They certainly don't help the 
party that is responsible for shutting down the government. So let's 
get this caps deal done in short order.
  Here is another thing that has been held hostage to this unrelated 
immigration issue--disaster relief. It was last September when 
Hurricane Harvey hit the State of Texas. We had an unprecedented rain 
event where basically the hurricane parked itself over Houston, TX, and 
rained down 50 inches of rain in about 5 days, disrupting people's 
lives, destroying their homes. Some of the winds down along the coast 
blew businesses and homes away, and people are working hard to recover 
from that.
  The House passed an $81 billion disaster relief bill--not just to 
help the victims of Hurricane Harvey but also the victims of Hurricane 
Maria in the Virgin Islands, in Florida, and in Puerto Rico as well. 
And then there are the wildfires and the mudslides out West. Eighty-one 
billion dollars was appropriated by the House of Representatives, and 
it has been sitting here since December with no action whatsoever. Why? 
Well, count that up as another hostage of this unrelated immigration 
issue or the desire to just force us to spin our wheels and not get 
things done. I don't understand it, and if I do understand it, I don't 
like it one bit.
  The first rule of holes is, when you find yourself in a hole, quit 
digging. That is the only way to get a different outcome. But our 
Democratic colleagues have found themselves in a hole and insist on 
continuing to dig after the disastrous shutdown, leading us to 
basically driving in circles.
  I would like to speak briefly about the ongoing border security and 
DACA negotiations. This is an issue that is very important to me, 
coming from a State with the largest, longest common border with 
Mexico, where we see firsthand the impact of illegal drugs, trafficking 
in human beings, and just the failure of the Federal Government to live 
up to its responsibility when it comes to securing our borders. We 
learned on 9/11/2001 how important it is to know who is coming into our 
country and why they are here, because not everybody who comes to the 
United States wants to do good by us. Some of them want to do us harm. 
And certainly that is true when it comes to trafficking in the poison 
that unfortunately comes across our borders and leaves so many lives in 
tatters as a result of overdoses and drug abuse.
  I have talked to a number of my constituents in Texas, including 
Hispanic leaders, to try to bring them up to date on the discussions 
that occurred here because they care quite a lot about both of these 
issues--border security, as well as what we are going to do for these 
young adults whose only mistake was to come to this country with their 
parents when they were children.
  As I have said before--and I will say it again--we don't hold 
children responsible for the mistakes their parents make. These young 
people deserve a clear path forward and some certainty in their lives. 
I think the vast majority of us would like to try to find some way to 
give it to them, but we are not going to do that unless we can get 
concrete progress on border security and other reasons why this problem 
was created in the first place.
  It was good to get the perspective of a number of my constituents who 
happen to be leaders in the Hispanic community. Many of them live in 
border communities. All of them have families or friends who are 
immigrants. Of course, we are a nation of immigrants,

[[Page S600]]

and we need to listen to what they have to say about what is going on. 
There was general agreement that when it comes to offering a path to 
citizenship, the President's proposal was surprisingly generous. Nobody 
expected the President to offer a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 
million young adults. That was extraordinarily generous.
  Right now, in the program that was created by President Obama, which 
will expire March 5, there are 690,000 DACA recipients. They are the 
people who signed up for this deferred action, not for a path to 
citizenship, not for legal status, but an agreement by the government 
that we are not going to try to deport them. They also get work permits 
during the pendency of their DACA status. This President has offered 
DACA recipients something President Obama never did--a pathway to 
citizenship for three times as many as are covered by the deferred 
action program.
  The Hispanic leaders I spoke with also supported, in addition to that 
pillar of what the President proposed, additional border security 
measures. One spoke about the ``collateral benefits'' to border 
communities of new technology, personnel, and improved infrastructure. 
Jobs increase, restaurants and hotels benefit, communities are safer 
for the families and the children who live there.
  They stress that when it comes to border security, we need to be 
thinking about it three-dimensionally. In other words, they said that 
we need to consider a system. I have heard the Secretary of Homeland 
Security refer to what the President has proposed as a wall system. It 
is not just a physical barrier; it is access roads, cameras, sensors, 
radars, aerostats, and other things to try to make sure our border is 
secure.
  Ultimately, my conversation with these constituents was very 
constructive, but I had to be honest with them. I had to admit that I 
have been disappointed so far. I haven't heard much in the way of ideas 
from our Democratic colleagues, other than old proposals that will not 
become law. Even though they claim to support these young people, the 
DACA recipients, and even though they claim to support a pathway to 
citizenship for them, they have done nothing to respond to President 
Trump's very generous offer and the four pillars of his proposal. So 
far, they have indicated that they have little interest in negotiating.
  The deadline set for those negotiations is February 8, just a couple 
of days from now. After that, we will be here on the Senate floor with 
an open and freewheeling debate and amendment process. But we want to 
achieve a solution that can become law, and so far, we haven't had a 
willing dance partner in our Democratic colleagues.
  The President has made an extraordinary offer. I don't know whether 
it is because they don't want this President to claim any credit for 
any accomplishment or whether they prefer to have a political issue 
that they want to take to the election in November or whether they are 
just willing to toy with the lives of these young people because they 
deem it politically expedient. Well, none of those are acceptable. And 
it is really puzzling. There is no reason why they shouldn't support 
closing loopholes for our illegal immigration problem and increasing 
security on the border.
  I have heard many of our colleagues across the aisle say: Border 
security? No problem--until you start asking them to be specific about 
what that means, not only in terms of an authorization or plan, but 
what does that mean in terms of appropriations or money?
  According to published reports, the Democratic leader, the Senator 
from New York, Mr. Schumer, offered the President $25 billion toward 
border security--$5 billion upfront and $20 billion more in 
appropriations and authorization. Then, after they shut down the 
government, after the President made his proposal, he took that off the 
table. So far, we have heard nothing from our Democratic colleagues to 
respond to the President's generous, good-faith offer.
  One thing we need to do for sure is to regain the public's confidence 
when it comes to immigration. We need to reclaim our legacy not only as 
a nation of immigrants, which we proudly are, but as a nation of laws. 
That is why people are so frustrated and emotional and angry about the 
status quo. That is one reason this President was elected. They thought 
he would bring an end to the lawlessness of our illegal immigration 
system. But in order to get this done, we have to be able to negotiate 
in good faith, and we have to be able to compromise, which leads me to 
wonder, again, whether our friends across the aisle want an issue they 
plan to take to the election in November or they actually want a 
solution.
  Are they going to actually use these young DACA recipients as a means 
to accomplish their goal, which is to regain the majority in the House 
and the Senate after the November 2018 elections? I hope I am wrong, 
but I don't see any indication so far that I am.
  As the President said in last week's State of the Union Message, the 
ultimate proposal should be one ``where nobody gets everything they 
want, but where our country gets the critical reforms it needs.'' That 
is exactly right.
  In my home State of Texas, nearly 124,000 DACA recipients are our 
neighbors. They are an important thread in the fabric of our 
communities. All of us feel sympathy for these young adults who are in 
limbo. I remain committed to finding a solution because, in our 
country, we don't penalize children for the mistakes their parents 
made. But as the President said last week, ``Americans are dreamers, 
too,'' and part of their dream is to live in a country where the law is 
enforced and respected.
  I support the President in his call for upholding the strong rule of 
law in this country, but the question for today is, Why hold everything 
else hostage for this unrelated immigration issue? And why, if our 
Democratic colleagues are willing to shut down the government over that 
unrelated immigration issue, aren't they willing to respond to the 
President's generous, good-faith offer to bring a solution to the 
problem? We need to know what their plans are. What is their proposal 
that can become law?
  The clock is ticking. We know the ending date for this program is 
March 5. Ultimately, what we are dealing with is people's lives. What 
do our colleagues care most about? Do they care about political 
advantage or trying to preserve an issue that will be to their 
advantage in the upcoming election? Or do they actually care about 
these young DACA recipients, 690,000 of them, or the 1.8 million that 
President Trump has offered--an incredibly generous offer--as long as 
we can deal with these other issues like border security, chain 
migration, and the diversity lottery visa?
  We are waiting for our Democratic colleagues to come to us with a 
good-faith proposal, but so far all we hear is crickets.
  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. 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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