[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 194 (Monday, December 10, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7377-S7379]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, of course, the senior Senator from Florida 
can speak from experience because he has been there--something no other 
Senator currently serving has ever done.
  I believe they are bringing a chair over. If not, I will go get it.
  On Friday, December 21--coming up fairly soon, just 11 days from 
today--the continuing resolution, what we call a CR, under which much 
of the government currently operates, is going to expire. Now, if we 
don't pass the remaining seven appropriations bills--bills that I 
believe the Senate is prepared to pass--the government will shutter the 
doors of nine Federal Departments and dozens of Agencies, and services 
the American people rely on will grind to a halt, coincidentally, just 
3 days before Christmas.
  There is absolutely no reason for the government to shut down. The 
Senate and House Appropriations Committees have been negotiating for 
weeks. I commend those Senators on both sides of the aisle. They have 
worked with us and certainly our staffs in conducting these 
negotiations.
  We have a seven-bill minibus that would fully fund the Federal 
Government through the remainder of the fiscal year. We are very close 
to a deal. Six of the seven bills are nearly complete. Most of the 
funding issues are resolved. Only a few policy issues remain. A few 
hours of debate, and they would be all done.
  Because we are the United States of America and we have to care about 
all

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parts of the country, we are working on a disaster package for the 
victims of Hurricanes Florence and Michael, the California wildfires, 
the Hawaii volcano, the earthquake in Alaska, and other disasters from 
this year that have devastated the homes, communities, and lives of so 
many of our fellow Americans. These bills could be finished in short 
order, they could be put before the Congress for a vote--I suspect they 
would pass virtually unanimously--and then sent to the President for 
his signature into law.
  So Republicans and Democrats have worked together. The appropriators 
have worked together. There is only one thing standing between fully 
funding our government and a shutdown; that is, President Trump. For 
months now, he has repeatedly called for a government shutdown unless 
we provide $5 billion for his boondoggle border wall. Last month alone, 
President Trump publicly threatened to shut down the government over 
his wall at least five times, saying things in his Presidential 
statements, as we are pointing out here, such as: ``This would be a 
very good time to do a shutdown,'' as though any American believes it 
is a good time, with disaster funding and everything else pending, for 
a shutdown.
  Those reckless and damaging threats are not new for President Trump. 
He set a destructive and uncompromising tone for our negotiations 
earlier in the year saying: ``I would shut it down over this issue.'' 
Then, something I never thought I would hear from the President of the 
United States of either party, he said: ``I'd love to see a shutdown,'' 
during a February press conference. This from a man who is supposed to 
have an obligation to all Americans.
  Time and again, though, instead of showing his obligation to 
Americans, President Trump has used the government and the American 
people as a bargaining chip for his fabricated solution to his 
manufactured crisis. Now, just days before the CR is set to expire, the 
President appears ready to make good on his threat. He wants to score a 
made-for-reality-TV moment, and he doesn't care how many thousands of 
hard-working American men and women are going to suffer for it.
  We have been negotiating the Department of Homeland Security 
appropriations bill for weeks, but as we get closer to the December 21 
deadline, the President is digging in. His position is: Fund the wall--
his wall--or he will shut down the government.
  The President likes to stir up drama, but a government shutdown is 
not the backdrop for one of his reality TV shows. A government shutdown 
is a dreadful thing to do to so many loyal Americans. This is the real 
world. It has real-world consequences.
  I will give some examples. If the government shuts down on December 
22, an estimated 380,000 Federal employees will be furloughed without 
pay just days before Christmas, never knowing if they will be paid. 
Nearly 430,000 Federal employees, including FBI agents, U.S. marshals, 
the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and TSA employees will be forced to 
work without pay. The Secret Service, which will protect the President 
if he goes to one of his golf courses over the holidays, will be 
working without pay, but this is even worse: Millions of Americans--
farmers, small businesses, homeowners, veterans, the disabled, and the 
elderly--will go without the government services on which they rely and 
for which they paid their taxes. There is no reason for this. In fact, 
it is unconscionable to put the country through this.
  I oppose the President's plan for a 30-foot-high wall along the 
southern border, especially--aside from the fact that it will do no 
good, this is a wall the President gave his solemn promise to the 
American people that Mexico, not American taxpayers, would pay for. He 
gave his word over and over and over again at rallies throughout the 
country, saying Mexico will pay for it. I haven't seen one cent coming 
from Mexico, but the President is going to punish the American 
taxpayers if they don't pay the money he promised Mexico would pay.
  The United States is a country founded by immigrants. Walling 
ourselves off from our neighbors to the south is not only an expensive 
waste of American taxpayer dollars, it is immoral, it is ineffective, 
and it is an affront to everything this country stands for. We are 
better than this.
  In fact, if we do what the President wants to do, we would have to 
seize land from ranchers and farmers in Texas and other border States--
seize land from them that has been in their families for generations. 
It would require building walls through wildlife refuges and natural 
preserves. Incidentally, we would end up cutting ourselves off from the 
Rio Grande in the process because we can't build a wall down the center 
of it. Basically, we are saying to Mexico: By the way, we are going to 
pay for the wall President Trump promised us you would pay for, and to 
help you out, we are going to give you the Rio Grande. You can have our 
half too. This is a cockamamie idea.

  After all that and billions of wasted taxpayer dollars, what would be 
accomplished? Would it stop people from fleeing violence in their home 
countries and seeking sanctuary? Of course not. Would it stop drug 
smugglers and human traffickers from engaging in illegal activity? 
Definitely not. In fact, as one of my Republican friends said, show me 
a 30-foot wall, and I will show you a 31-foot ladder or a tunnel.
  These are complex issues. We need real solutions, not bumper sticker 
slogans or angry tweets.
  We had such a solution in 2013. The Senate passed bipartisan, 
comprehensive immigration reform. In a 2-to-1 vote, Republicans and 
Democrats joined in on comprehensive immigration reform. The Republican 
leadership in the House would not bring it up because they were afraid 
it might violate the sacred Dennis Hastert rule, as they said to us.
  Everyone agrees we need to keep our border safe and secure. That is 
not a Republican or a Democratic idea. We all believe our borders 
should be safe and secure. President Trump is not the first person to 
say that. We have all said that. In fact, over the last 2 years, we in 
Congress have invested more than $3 billion for that purpose. It is the 
largest infusion of border security funding in recent history.
  I am on the Appropriations Committee that gave that money. We have 
directed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to acquire new technologies 
that are proven to work on the border and at our ports of entry, 
purchase new air and marine assets, and hire additional personnel. This 
approach has resulted in the acquisition of integrated fixed towers on 
the border, remote video surveillance systems, enforcement helicopters 
and other aircraft, and upgrades to existing unmanned aerial systems. I 
have visited the border and seen some of those. For the ports of entry, 
where the large majority of illicit narcotics and other contraband 
enter, we have significantly increased funding for nonintrusive 
inspection equipment, and we have hired over 360 new Customs officers.
  These are successes. These are things that work. These are things 
that do better than we have ever done before, but does the President 
tweet about this? No. He is fixated on building his wall not because it 
is good policy, but he hopes it will fire up his base.
  This is not about border security, it is about politics, pure and 
simple.
  Over the last 2 years, Congress has provided nearly $1.7 billion to 
build or replace fencing on the southern border, but the administration 
has hardly spent any of that money, and the projects it has undertaken 
have ballooned in cost. In fact, of the money we gave them, they have 
only spent 6 percent of the funds--6 percent. This is such an amazing 
need to only spend 6 percent.
  We have recently learned that one project in the Rio Grande Valley 
that was supposed to cost, according to the administration, $445 
million, will now cost the taxpayers nearly $787 million, a 77-percent 
cost overrun, at a pricetag of $31.5 million each mile. This is not for 
roads. This is for barriers. The President doesn't talk about that, nor 
does he talk about the fact that the American taxpayers will have to 
pay it, not Mexico.
  The administration is not responsible with the money we have already 
provided. Why trust him to spend responsibly the additional money they 
demand? The President wants the hard-working American taxpayers, not 
Mexico--even though he promised American taxpayers, gave his word, that

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American taxpayers wouldn't have to pay for this, that Mexico would. 
Now he says: Forget what I said before. Give me a check for $5 billion 
more or I am going to waste hundreds of millions of dollars by shutting 
down the government. That is a cynical, political stunt.
  The President's own budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2019 
was $1.6 billion for his wall, not $5 billion. I opposed this request 
when he made it in the spring, and I still do. I don't want to 
appropriate another dime to advance a nebulous and ineffective agenda 
that I fundamentally oppose, knowing the President will not keep his 
word and have Mexico pay for it. Our system of divided government 
requires compromise, so we came up with a bipartisan compromise to meet 
the President's $1.6 billion request, with restrictions on where the 
money could be used and what type of barriers could be built, such as 
bollard fencing but not a 30-foot concrete wall. Instead of taking 
``yes'' and declaring victory, the President repeatedly moved the 
goalpost and redefined the fine print. So much for the ``Art of the 
Deal,'' more the ``Art of the Steal.''
  By manufacturing a crisis over his wall, President Trump appears 
willing to shutter the doors of the Justice Department, Farm Service 
Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Small Business 
Administration, the National Park Service, the Department of 
Transportation, among others--that is just a few--grinding vital 
services for the American people to a halt, services the American 
people have paid for with their taxes, all to protect his ego and 
satisfy his base.
  Actions have real-world consequences for hundreds of thousands of 
Federal employees and their families and millions of Americans who pay 
taxes and depend on their government to function properly.
  Taxpayers don't send their hard-earned money to Washington so the 
President can shut down their government. Our job is to be good 
stewards of taxpayer money, not bend to the whim of the President's 
tweets. Congress controls the power of the purse, not the President. It 
is our job to make responsible, thoughtful decisions.
  There is a bipartisan path forward. We can pass a seven-bill minibus 
comprised of bipartisan bills that meet the needs of the country or we 
can pass a six-bill minibus with a continuing resolution for Homeland 
Security.
  Republicans do control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, and 
they are in the driver's seat. The only reason the government shuts 
down on December 22, 3 days before Christmas, is if the President wants 
it to and the Republican leadership lets the President close the 
government. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
  I yield the floor.

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