[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 202 (Friday, December 21, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8005-S8006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GOVERNMENT FUNDING
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the events of the past week should
concern every American. This may have been the most chaotic week of
what is undoubtedly the most chaotic Presidency ever in the history of
the United States.
The stock market is in a tumult and in decline. The Secretary of
Defense, one of the only pairs of steady hands in our government, is
resigning from the administration in protest. The United States is
pulling out of Syria and likely Afghanistan, abandoning our coalitions,
allies, and the Kurds, and surrendering the field to Putin, Iran,
Hezbollah, ISIS, the Taliban, and Bashar al-Assad.
The positions of Defense Secretary, of Attorney General, of
Ambassador to the United Nations, of Interior Secretary, and even of
Chief of Staff to the President are all in flux.
The institutions of our government lack steady and experienced
leadership. With all of these departures, it is about to get even more
unsteady. The President is making decisions without counsel, without
preparation, and even without communication between relevant
Departments and relevant Agencies. All of this turmoil is causing chaos
in the markets, chaos abroad, and it is making the United States less
prosperous and less secure. To top it all off, President Trump has
thrown a temper tantrum and now has us careening toward a Trump
shutdown over Christmas.
In a short time, the Senate will take part in a pointless exercise to
demonstrate to our House colleagues and the President what everyone
here already knows: There are not the votes in the Senate for an
expensive, taxpayer-funded border wall.
President Trump, you will not get your wall. Abandon your shutdown
strategy. You are not getting the wall today, next week, or on January
3 when Democrats take control of the House.
Just 2 days ago, the Senate came together to support a proposal by
Leader McConnell--unanimously, every Democrat, every Republican--to
extend government funding through February without partisan demands.
What it would accomplish would be that the government would not shut
down, the fights we are having would be postponed to a later day, and
millions of Americans would not be hurt this Christmas week.
[[Page S8006]]
Let me repeat that. The Senate--every Democrat and every Republican--
has already unanimously supported a clean extension of government
funding.
Democrats supported the measure because we do not want to see the
government shut down. We have no demands other than that. We had every
indication that the President would sign the legislation--as did our
friends the Republicans on the other side of the aisle in the Senate--
but yesterday President Trump, hounded by the radical voices of the
hard right, threw another temper tantrum, and here we are once again,
on the brink of what the President has spent months saying he wanted--a
Trump shutdown.
The President will try to do his best to blame Democrats, but it is
flatly absurd. President Trump called for a shutdown no fewer than 25
times. In our meeting with the Oval Office, President Trump said: ``If
we don't get what we want . . . I will shut down the government. . . .
I am proud to shut it down. So I will take the mantle. . . . I'm not
going to blame you.'' Those are President Trump's words, and nothing he
says or does today can undo that.
No Democrat has called for shutting down the government. We are all
working to avoid it. The President seems to relish it. He seems to feel
he will throw a bone to his base--his base probably being less than
one-quarter of America.
President Trump, you cannot erase months of video of your saying that
you wanted a shutdown and that you wanted the responsibility and blame
for a shutdown. President Trump, you own the shutdown. You said so in
your own words.
President Trump may get his wish, unfortunately, but it doesn't have
to be this way. Democrats have offered two alternatives, and
Republicans--Leader McConnell has offered one. Democrats have offered
to pass the six bipartisan appropriations bills, plus a 1-year
continuing resolution for Homeland Security. We have also offered a 1-
year continuing resolution for all the remaining bills. Republicans
have offered to pass a short-term continuing resolution through early
February. Each one of those proposals would pass the House and pass the
Senate. Each one of those proposals contains $1.3 billion of real
border security, not a wall. There is no wall in those proposals.
Democrats support real border security, not a wall.
By the way, that is in addition to the $1.3 billion in border
security Congress allocated last year, the vast majority of which the
Trump administration has not yet spent. They are asking for loads of
more money. They haven't even spent last year's money. It is clearly a
political gambit by President Trump to appease his never-happy base.
On the other hand, a Trump shutdown would result in zero dollars for
the Department of Homeland Security over the Christmas holiday.
There are several ways for President Trump and congressional
Republicans to avoid a shutdown over Christmas--I mentioned three--but
there is only one way we will have a Trump shutdown: If President Trump
clings to his position for an unnecessary, ineffective, taxpayer-funded
border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for.
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. Mr. 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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