[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 5 (Thursday, January 10, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          OPEN THE GOVERNMENT

  (Mr. HIGGINS of New York asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS of New York. Madam Speaker, we are entering the longest 
government shutdown in the Nation's history and, ironically, most of 
the Federal employees who are affected by the shutdown are the very 
Federal agents who we depend on to protect our borders.
  To a national audience 2 days ago, the President repeatedly warned 
that terrorists are pouring into the United States from Mexico. This is 
the President's central argument for a 25 to $40 billion border wall. 
He is now threatening to declare a national emergency to go around 
Congress to get that wall.
  The President's own counterterrorism officials and experts said there 
has never been a case of a known terrorist sneaking into the country 
through open areas of the southern border. The Department of Homeland 
Security's threat assessment rates the situation at the southern border 
as a minimal threat. Who are we to believe?
  Mr. President, open the government and prove that you can manage the 
situation at the border as Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton did 
before you.

                          ____________________