[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 2 (Friday, January 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S32-S33]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as we near the third week of the Trump 
shutdown, the impacts on the American people are getting worse with 
each passing day. Nearly 400,000 Federal workers have now been 
furloughed. Food safety inspectors, vital to our health and safety, are 
working without pay and with limited resources. American farmers can't 
get loans from the USDA. Working families trying to buy a home are 
finding out their FHA loans are on hold.
  I just heard from a constituent of mine in the capital region, near 
Albany--a fire police dispatcher, whose wife is pregnant. They closed 
on their first house, joyously, last week. But now their loan is 
delayed until the government reopens. That story can be repeated over 
and over again.
  Our Federal courts are running out of money. Our national parks are 
suffering; we have seen the piles of debris and garbage in these 
beautiful places. Maybe most ironically of all, as the President is 
talking about making the border more secure, his shutdown is making it 
less secure. Border Patrol agents are going without pay. E-Verify is 
offline. Immigration cases are on hold. New immigration judges are not 
being hired. So with all the talk that the President has about making 
the border more secure, the Trump shutdown is making it less secure.
  We have provided a way for him to continue to debate this wall issue 
but keep the government open. All of this means that we should be doing 
everything we can to bring this Trump shutdown to a swift end.
  My friend, the Republican leader, quoted me this morning. So let me 
now quote my friend, the leader. He has said repeatedly: ``Nobody likes 
a shutdown.''
  Leader McConnell has shown himself to be an adept negotiator during 
previous shutdowns. Why is he abdicating his responsibility now? Why is 
Leader McConnell shuffling off to the sidelines, pointing his fingers 
at everybody else, and saying that he will not be involved? Probably 
because he realizes this President--President Trump--is erratic, 
unreliable, and sometimes even irrational. In sum, President Trump is a 
terrible negotiator.
  Given the unfortunate traits that reside in our President, I 
understand Leader McConnell's reluctance to get involved. But in truth, 
they are all the more reason for him to get involved. America needs 
Leader McConnell to get involved to stop this shutdown. He can't keep 
ducking this issue.
  Left to his own devices, President Trump can keep the government shut 
down for a long time. The President needs intervention, and Leader 
McConnell and Senate Republicans are just the right ones to intervene.
  Fortunately, we have a way to end this shutdown with the help of our 
Republican friends in the Senate. Last night, as expected, the House of 
Representatives passed two pieces of legislation to end the Trump 
shutdown--a six-bill package to provide appropriations for eight 
shuttered Cabinet Departments and a 30-day continuing resolution for 
the Department of Homeland Security. Both bills received bipartisan 
support in the House.
  The logic behind those two pieces of legislation is very simple. We 
have disagreements on how to best secure the border. President Trump 
wants an expensive and ineffective border wall. He promised that Mexico 
would pay for it but now demands that American taxpayers should foot 
the bill.
  Democrats believe that a border wall is an obtuse public policy and 
that we have much better, more effective, less wasteful ways of 
securing the border.
  We don't have to have eight unrelated Cabinet Departments closed 
while we sort out our differences. We can reopen the 25 percent of the 
government now closed and continue to debate our border security. That 
is why we split the bills in two--one to reopen the government and 
another to keep DHS running short term while discussions continue about 
the border.
  Neither piece of legislation should be controversial, and the House 
majority--I give them credit and Leader Pelosi credit--went out of its 
way to avoid controversy. They didn't send over a bill with lots of 
poison pill riders, lots of things our colleagues here wouldn't like. 
They sent the very bills that Republicans crafted and voted for. The 
majority went out of its way to avoid controversy by choosing the 
legislation crafted and supported by Republicans.
  Let me emphasize that. The six appropriations bills passed by the 
House last night are the same bills--the very same bills; they have not 
changed a bit--that Republicans here in the Senate drafted--they were 
in charge--and approved. Four of them passed this Chamber by more than 
90 votes, and the other two passed nearly unanimously in committee. 
Leader McConnell voted for every one of them and spoke glowingly about 
their passage last year.
  So there is nothing--I repeat, nothing--in the six appropriations 
bills that Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans oppose. There is 
nothing--absolutely nothing, I repeat--about a continuing resolution 
for Homeland Security that now Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans 
refuse to put on the floor--because that was Leader McConnell's idea. 
He put it on the floor, and it passed the Chamber unanimously last 
Christmas.
  Now we are seeing some real cracks in the Republican wall. Some of my 
friends in the Senate on the other side of the aisle in this body, to 
their credit, are already saying that we should take up and pass these 
two bills. Seven House Republicans, newly elected, under huge pressure 
not to, voted with these bills. Every Democrat voted for the bill; 
there is no dissension there. But a handful of Republicans did too.
  It is time for Leader McConnell and President Trump, who is the 
ultimate reason we have this shutdown--it is time for Leader McConnell 
and President Trump to support this package of bipartisan legislation 
and reopen the government.
  In a short time, Speaker Pelosi and I will head to the White House to 
meet with President Trump and congressional leaders about the 
government shutdown. I will be joined by my very

[[Page S33]]

able colleague, Senator Durbin. Senator McConnell will be joined by 
Senator Thune. Speaker Pelosi will be joined by Leader Hoyer and, of 
course, Leaders McCarthy and Scalise will be there as well.
  At the meeting, we Democrats hope to convince the President and 
Leader McConnell to take up and pass the two House-passed bills, both 
of which have already been approved by Senate Republicans. That is the 
quickest, least controversial way out of the Trump shutdown. It 
separates the fight on the wall from the government shutdown.
  President Trump is holding hostage, using as leverage, hundreds of 
thousands of Federal workers and millions and millions of other 
Americans, like the gentleman and his spouse in Albany, who can't get 
their FHA mortgage approved. That story, in many ways, can be repeated 
over and over again.
  So I say to my Republican friends: Don't let President Trump hold 
hostage all of these fine people who have done nothing wrong 
themselves. Don't let him use the government shutdown to try and get 
his way. That is not how it should work, and that is not what is going 
to happen.
  Instead, let's reopen the government, start paying our food safety 
inspectors, park Rangers, air traffic controllers, Federal courts, and 
our Border Patrol agents, so they can do the work they are supposed to 
do for the American people. All we have to do is take up legislation 
that Senate Republicans already support.
  I yield the floor.

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