[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 5 (Thursday, January 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S112-S113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GOVERNMENT FUNDING
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, today is the 20th day of the Trump
shutdown. Tomorrow, it will tie the record for the longest shutdown in
American history, and 800,000 Federal workers will miss a paycheck--TSA
agents and Border Patrol, air traffic controllers and food safety
inspectors, veterans, and FEMA aides, and more. Many Federal
employees--particularly, GS-3s and GS-4s and GS-5s--live paycheck to
paycheck. Who is going to make the next mortgage payment for them? Who
is going to put food on the table? And what on Earth do these employees
and their agencies have to do with disagreements here over security
down on our southern border?
The President is treating these hard-working Americans as nothing
short of leverage--pawns in his political gambit to extract $5 billion
from American taxpayers to fund a border wall that he promised Mexico
would pay for. This is ridiculous and cruel, and it needs to end now--
right now.
The Democratic position is very simple. Let's separate our
disagreements over border security from the government shutdown, reopen
all the government agencies unrelated to border security, and let's
continue to work to resolve our differences. Do not hold all of these
workers as hostages, as pawns, as leverage.
That is why Democrats have passed the House legislation to reopen
government that was drafted and supported by Senate Republicans. We
Democrats are not trying to push down the throats of Republicans
something they don't support or they can't swallow. Four of the bills
in this package passed the Senate 92 to 6. The other two came through
committee. They didn't get to the floor. They passed 31 to 0 and 30 to
1. There is nothing--I repeat, nothing--contained in the legislation
that Senate Republicans oppose.
So why aren't we voting on it? Because Leader McConnell is hiding
behind President Trump, saying he will not bring to the floor a bill to
reopen the government unless the President says OK.
Now, for the past 3 weeks, we have tried to get the President to
``yes.'' We have gone around and around and around with the White House
and made little progress. Congressional leaders have now been to the
White House three separate times for negotiations. Each time, the
President has been intransigent and uncompromising. He refuses to back
down from his position that the price to reopen the government is $5
billion of taxpayer money for a wall that he promised Mexico would pay
for.
On multiple occasions, he has refused our request to reopen unrelated
parts of the government and continue negotiations on border security,
revealing that he is holding the American people hostage as leverage,
and he seems to be--in his words--``proud'' of it. After only a short
time into yesterday's meeting, the President got up, said ``bye-bye,''
and left. Does that sound like someone who is working to solve this
impasse?
Allies of the President pointed out that he passed out candy to start
the meeting. With all due respect, President Trump, we don't need
candy. Federal workers need their paychecks.
[[Page S113]]
The Congress--the Senate in particular--can no longer wait for this
President to see the light of reason. We gave it a good-faith effort.
Staffers worked over the weekend. Speaker Pelosi and I have gone over
to the White House whenever we have been asked, but the President is
simply not budging.
A few weeks back, we all thought that the President, realizing he
doesn't control the House, would come around and support a true
compromise before hundreds of thousands of Federal workers would miss
their paychecks. Clearly, that was wrong.
We need intervention, and Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans
have a responsibility not simply to wait for the President but to
intervene. Leader McConnell has voted for every single one of the six
appropriation bills Democrats passed through the House. He voted for
all six of them in committee, and he voted for four of them again on
the floor, because two didn't get to the floor. There is nothing that
he or his party truly opposes in this legislation.
They are refusing to vote on it because the President has bullied
them into his hostage-taking gambit. I know that is not where most of
my friends on the other side want to be. I don't even believe it is
where my friend Leader McConnell wants to be. Just listen to Leader
McConnell from last year:
Well I'm in favor of border security. There are some places
along the border where [a wall is] probably not the best way
to secure the border.
Here is Leader McConnell in 2014:
Remember me? I am the guy that gets us out of shutdowns . .
. it's a failed policy.
Fast-forward to today, and Leader McConnell--``the guy that gets us
out of shutdowns''--is aiding and abetting the blockade against
reopening the government over a policy he doesn't fully support.
In a moment, my friends Senators Cardin and Van Hollen will give the
Senate a chance to do the right thing by asking this Chamber to vote on
the six appropriations bills already supported by Senate Republicans
and a short-term continuing resolution for Homeland Security.
Frankly, even if President Trump doesn't support this legislation,
his intransigence has forced our hand and hurt America. We need to move
forward, and Leader McConnell should allow the vote to happen.
I yield to the Senator from Maryland.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, as Leader Schumer has pointed out,
starting today, 800,000 Federal workers are going to be missing their
paychecks. In this region, there are 140,000. Senator Van Hollen and I,
representing Maryland, and Senators Warner and Kaine, representing
Virginia, have made the point of what this is going to mean for
families in our communities.
This shutdown is outrageous and dangerous--caused by President Trump.
Workers are not going to be receiving their paychecks and are going to
be at risk. Our whole country is at risk. Let me put this in
perspective, if I might. It is like AT&T, General Motors, Apple,
Lockheed Martin, Google, and ExxonMobil laying off their entire
workforce at one time. That is the impact we have now with 800,000
workers not receiving their paychecks. Kevin Hassett, who is the Chair
of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, points out that this
will cause a $1.2 billion-per-week hit on our economy.
America is being held hostage by President Trump--held hostage over
his desire to have a wall built. It is not about border security. We
have already appropriated funds for border security, and we are
prepared to continue to protect our borders. This is about President
Trump and his wall. We should open government and work together for the
American people.
There are seven appropriations bills that have not yet been acted
upon. With six of those appropriations bills, there is no controversy.
They have nothing to do with the border wall. They have nothing to do
with homeland security. These are six appropriations bills that this
body has already acted on in one way or the other. They include
Financial Services and General Government, Agriculture, Interior and
Environment, and Transportation-HUD. Those four appropriations bills
passed this body by a vote of 92 to 6. Then, there are State-Foreign
Operations, which passed the Appropriations Committee unanimously, and
Commerce-Justice-Science, which passed by a vote of 30 to 1.
These six appropriations bills have already been acted on under
Republican leadership in a bipartisan manner in this body. That is
exactly what H.R. 21, which is pending before this body, incorporates.
It is not a Democratic effort; it is to reaffirm what this body has
already done and allow these six appropriations bills to pass and for
those workers and those Agencies to be fully operable without the
hostage-taking by the President of the United States.
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