[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 199 (Tuesday, December 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S7738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, with only 4 days remaining until a 
lapse in government funding, Democrats still have not heard back from 
President Trump about whether he is willing to accept either of our 
offers to keep the government funded. For that matter, Republicans in 
Congress--both the House and Senate--have been almost entirely silent 
about what plan they might support to avoid a shutdown. They say that 
they want to avoid a shutdown, but our Republicans in the House and 
Senate have no plan. Senate Republicans were telling reporters they had 
no idea what the White House's plan was or even if it had one.
  Let me remind my Republican colleagues and President Trump that 
Democrats have put two reasonable ways to avoid a shutdown on the 
table: the six appropriations bills plus a 1-year CR for homeland 
security or a CR for all seven bills to fund the government.
  Neither proposal contains a single Democratic demand. No Democrat is 
pounding a fist on the table, saying that we have to shut down the 
government unless we get our way--the way President Trump is. We only 
want to fund the government. If President Trump were to accept either 
proposal, it would sail through the House and Senate, and we could 
conclude the Nation's business before the Christmas holiday.
  The only proposal that cannot pass is the President's demand for an 
unnecessary, ineffective, exorbitantly expensive border wall. So if 
President Trump throws a temper tantrum and clings to his position on 
the wall, he will not get a wall, but he will cause a Trump shutdown 
over Christmas.
  With only a few days to go until appropriations lapse on Friday at 
midnight, President Trump needs to come out of hiding and accept one of 
our proposals to keep the government open. Either will get a majority 
of votes on the floor of the House and the Senate

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