[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 7 (Monday, January 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S166-S179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST ACT OF 2019--Motion 
                               to Proceed

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to S. 1.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion to proceed to 
S. 1.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to the consideration of S. 1, a bill to 
     make improvements to certain defense and security assistance 
     provisions and to authorize the appropriation of funds to 
     Israel, to reauthorize the United States-Jordan Defense 
     Cooperation Act of 2015, and to halt the wholesale slaughter 
     of the Syrian people, and for other purposes.

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.


                           Government Funding

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, here we are, January 14. Twenty-four days 
ago, the border security funding and 25 percent of our government 
funding lapsed.
  Democrats refuse to come to the negotiating table with a legitimate 
offer that would end this partial government shutdown and provide vital 
funding for border security measures. Their negligence has harmed 
800,000 Federal workers who are not being paid while this standoff 
continues, and it has completely stalled the work here in the Senate 
because the minority leader, the Senator from New York, has gotten his 
colleagues to fall in line to block the legislation that is currently 
on the floor that would offer aid and comfort to our friends and allies 
in the Middle East, countries like Israel and Jordan. So it has 
completely stalled our work here in the Senate, as well, and, sadly, 
their efforts have sought to make border security more of a political 
football than the national security issue that it is.
  What I find so cynical is the fact that Democrats have drawn a line 
in the sand over something they have largely supported in the past. For 
example, in 2006 we passed the Secure Fence Act. This legislation 
called for more than 800 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, 
and it authorized additional layered security that we keep discussing--
things like vehicle barriers, sensor technology, cameras, and lighting. 
That bill passed by 80 to 19--80 to 19--exactly the same kind of border 
security measures we are talking about today and that Democrats have 
shut down 25 percent of the government over--80 to 19.
  Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, and Hillary Clinton all supported the 
Secure Fence Act. Yet their opposition to President Trump and anything 
and everything that he wants has somehow become an article of faith for 
the radical left.
  A few years later, in 2013, the Senate, with Democrats holding the 
majority, voted on the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and 
Immigration Modernization Act, sometimes known as the Gang of 8 
comprehensive immigration bill. That bill, among other things, provided 
funding for infrastructure--that is, barriers along the border--as well 
as personnel--the types of things we continue to advocate for today. In 
total, that bill appropriated $46 billion for border security.
  So the Democrats--Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi--have shut down 
the government over $5 billion that the President has requested for 
border security. Yet 54 Democrats--every single one, in 2013--voted for 
$46 billion for border security.
  Well, today, they turn their nose up at the President's request for 
$5.7 billion, and it makes no sense whatsoever unless you look through 
the lens of partisan political gamesmanship, because rational actors, 
reasonable people trying to find a solution, could easily come up with 
a solution based on this history. It wouldn't take 24 days. It wouldn't 
take 24 hours--maybe 24 minutes--to come up with a bipartisan, 
bicameral solution that the President would sign.
  So what are we talking about?
  Well, we are talking about the same thing we talked about back in 
2006 and in 2013. We are talking about infrastructure. The President 
likes to call it a wall. Other people call it a fence. But it includes 
things like vehicle barriers along the Arizona-Mexico border. This is 
exactly the sort of things we talked about and voted for in 2006 and 
2013. The majority of Democrats supported those measures in the past. 
Yet today they seem proud of what they have wrought, which is that one-
quarter of our Federal Government is being held hostage over the same 
exact measures.
  Their continued intransigence and refusal to get serious about 
negotiating shows one of two things: either their party has completely 
flipped their position on commonsense border security measures or they 
simply refuse to work with the President because they loathe him. 
Either way, they should be ashamed, they should be embarrassed, but 
they are not.

[[Page S167]]

  While Democrats continue to sit on their hands, the President has 
said he will consider declaring a national emergency--left with few 
other options--in order to provide funds for border security. I don't 
believe declaring a national emergency is either necessary or 
productive, although I do support the President's request for $5.7 
billion for border security. One of the most fundamental constitutional 
responsibilities of Congress is to provide funding for our government. 
It is our job. It is our job, not the President's job. This standoff 
should be resolved as all other funding disagreements have been in the 
past, where everybody comes to the table with a serious offer and 
everybody negotiates in good faith. In a democracy, nobody gets 100 
percent of what they want.
  I support the President's effort to secure our borders, period, full 
stop, but I also believe taking a step like declaring a national 
emergency and diverting disaster relief to border security would 
seriously hurt those who are still recovering from the impact of 
natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey. The storm that hit my State 
was the largest rain event in American history. More than 50 inches of 
rain fell on parts of Houston over about 5 days. It destroyed homes, 
businesses, and communities, and though a great deal of progress has 
been made, we are still healing.
  Last year, Congress and the President worked very hard to secure 
nearly $90 billion in disaster relief for the people of Texas and other 
States and territories impacted by the devastating hurricanes and 
wildfires during that time period--an effort, by the way, that the 
administration strongly supported. In Texas, that money was needed to 
both support recovery and rebuilding efforts as well as fund projects 
that would mitigate future flooding from hurricanes. Hurricane Harvey 
isn't the first hurricane we have sustained, and it will not be the 
last. We need to get ready for the next one. Diverting those funds away 
to support border security would be a major step backward and could 
further harm the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
  So what Democrats, by their intransigence, have forced the President 
to do is look at other options like taking money away from disaster 
relief for border security, but the fact is, we need to do both. We 
can't rob Peter to pay Paul. We need to do both.
  I have been grateful for President Trump's continued support of my 
State as well as other States affected by natural disasters, and it is 
critical that every dollar of the money supporting Hurricane Harvey 
recovery is preserved to finish the job. I know that is true, and I 
know we all feel that way about natural disasters that have hit our 
State.
  Sometimes the Senate is referred to as the greatest deliberative body 
in the world. At times like this, when congressional leaders like 
Senator Schumer and Ms. Pelosi refuse to negotiate with the President, 
I wonder whether the Senate is actually blocked by Senate Democrats 
from proceeding to consider important foreign affairs legislation. I 
wonder if we can still look ourselves in the mirror and call ourselves 
the world's greatest deliberative body.
  Historically, we have been able to reach a consensus on very tough 
issues, far more controversial than this, because we all believe 
American interests should come first, that our constituents should come 
first, and we are there to serve their interests, not merely to play 
political games and score political points.
  So it is time for our Democratic friends to come back to the 
negotiating table so we can finally end this unnecessary and harmful 
shutdown, and, hopefully in the process, the 800,000 Federal workers 
who missed their paycheck last Friday can get paid during this next pay 
period, and we can reopen the Federal Government so we can serve the 
interests of the American people, as we should have done 24 days ago.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The Democratic leader is recognized.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, as the government shutdown enters its 
fourth unfortunate week, its effects are widespread and worsening. As 
of Friday, 800,000 public servants were without pay. Tomorrow, roughly 
41,000 Active-Duty Coast Guard members won't get their paychecks. By 
the end of the week, our Federal courts will start running out of 
operating funds. Farmers and small businesses remain unable to access 
loans and assistance. Some working families are unable to access home 
loans. Food safety inspections are curtailed. Airport terminals are 
closing amidst widespread staffing shortages at TSA. The Trump shutdown 
is even affecting the opioid crisis. The DEA is in charge of approving 
a critical daily medication used by doctors in the recovery and 
treatment of opioid addiction. As long as the DEA is shut down, that is 
not happening.
  It is all the more shameful because the Trump shutdown is a 
completely manufactured crisis--manufactured by Donald Trump. The only 
reason the government is shut down right now is that President Trump 
reversed positions the day before the government funding ran out, 
bewildering Senate Democrats and Republicans who were assured he would 
sign a stop-gap bill to fund the government.
  Leader McConnell is trying to blame the current Speaker of the House. 
He is way out to lunch on that one. We are here because the President 
reversed himself, and the last Speaker of the House failed to use his 
responsibility to put the Senate-passed bill on the floor. This House 
has voted to reopen the government. It is the Senate that hasn't done 
it because Leader McConnell won't bring the bill to the floor.
  President Trump has stubbornly refused to negotiate or soften his 
position from the get-go. Democratic leaders and staff have been over 
to the White House over and over again to urge the President to open 
the government while we negotiate over border security. We are all for 
border security. There are different ways to do it. Everyone wants it. 
But why shut down the government while we are negotiating that? Every 
time we have asked that of the President, he has been intransigent and 
uncompromising. He refuses to back down from his position that the 
price to reopen the government is $5.7 billion of taxpayer money for a 
wall he promised Mexico would pay for.
  I want to remind all my Republican colleagues and the American people 
that Democrats only want to reopen the government. We offered a 
proposal that would separate the government shutdown from our 
disagreements over border security.
  The House has passed six bills to reopen the government, each of 
which was drafted and approved by Senate Republicans. Let me emphasize 
that point. The Democratic proposal to reopen the government is to pass 
the Republicans' government funding bills. Democrats are not demanding 
any added policy changes, no Democratic agenda items, no nothing. These 
bills are noncontroversial. Leader McConnell has voted for each of 
them.
  According to a Quinnipiac poll that just came out, the American 
people support our plan by an overwhelming majority--63 percent to 30 
percent. A healthy minority of Republicans are for the plan. Thirty-
nine percent are for the idea, while only 52 percent are opposed. So 
even Republicans are moving to the position: Open the government, and 
then debate border security.
  President Trump started this shutdown. He is the person continuing 
it. It is irresponsible of him to do it. Make no mistake--Democrats are 
happy to negotiate about the best way to secure our border, but we need 
to open the government first.
  The fact that President Trump refuses to consider our proposal means 
that he is holding the government and the American people hostage as a 
political tactic. To President Trump, innocent, hard-working Americans 
are no more than bargaining chips. He will bluster, mislead, and storm 
out of meetings until he gets what he wants. That is not how our system 
of government works. We don't--we can't--govern by temper tantrum. No 
President has done it. If we do not reject government by extortion now, 
what is to prevent the same thing from happening

[[Page S168]]

over and over again under this President? What will he do when the debt 
ceiling needs to be renewed?
  Before the Christmas holiday, we had a solution in sight. We believed 
the President would support a true compromise to end the shutdown. At 
the last minute, he reversed himself and said no. And now he is 
continuing the shutdown.
  It is clear that the President doesn't want to end the shutdown--at 
least not yet. He has flatly refused our proposal to reopen the 
government while we negotiate on border security. He has contradicted 
his own deputies--the Vice President, the Chief of Staff--after they 
made offers to Democrats. Just this morning, he refused to consider one 
of his closest allies, Senator Graham's proposal to open the government 
temporarily while we negotiate border security.
  How many more reasonable offers can the President reject? How much 
more suffering must the President cause before Leader McConnell 
realizes it is time to move ahead without him? It seems clear to nearly 
everybody but Leader McConnell that Congress needs to move forward 
without the President. At every juncture, the President has been the 
obstacle to progress. We need intervention.
  It is time for Congress to fulfill our constitutional duty to govern, 
even without the President. It is time for Leader McConnell to realize 
he has the power to break this impasse and pass the House legislation 
to reopen the government--legislation his party already supports and 
legislation Leader McConnell has voted for and bragged about. The 
President is unwilling to move the ball forward, so Congress must. I 
urge my friend Leader McConnell to allow a vote on the House-passed 
legislation to reopen the government. It seems to be the only way out 
right now.


                            Russia Sanctions

  Madam President, on another matter--Russia sanctions--before the end 
of last year, the Trump administration moved to relax sanctions on 
three companies owned and controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarch 
Oleg Deripaska.
  As a reminder, an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of the last 
Congress supported additional sanctions on Russia as a response to 
President Putin's malign activities, particularly in Ukraine. Oleg 
Deripaska and a number of companies he controlled were placed under 
U.S. sanctions because Mr. Deripaska was effectively acting as an agent 
of Putin's interests abroad, leveraging the wealth he had accrued 
through control of these companies.
  In my view, the Trump administration's plan to provide sanctions 
relief to these companies is deeply flawed and wrong.
  First, it fails to sufficiently limit Mr. Deripaska's control and 
influence of these companies. Even though this plan brings Deripaska's 
ownership interest in these companies down from 70 percent to 45 
percent, the terms allow for other Russian shareholders with family and 
business ties to Deripaska to maintain shareholder interests. His ex-
wife and father-in-law will still own a combined 7 percent in the 
company, and a sanctioned Russian bank is acquiring more shares. Even 
with the 45 percent, he would probably control it--many American 
companies are controlled with far less--but with these additional 
people owning shares, there is no doubt that Deripaska continues to 
control the company.
  Second, it must not be forgotten that Mr. Deripaska is wrapped up in 
Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and has deep ties to former 
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. There should not be sanctions 
relief for President Putin's trusted agent before the conclusion of 
Special Counsel Mueller's investigation. Just days ago, it was revealed 
that former campaign chairman Paul Manafort provided Trump campaign 
polling data to a close associate of Mr. Deripaska's. We don't know 
what Special Counsel Mueller knows. And the timing--at a time when 
these things are coming forward, to undue the sanctions on Rusal is 
very suspect.
  Lastly, removing sanctions on these companies will benefit President 
Putin's government and economy since the export of metals, such as 
aluminum, is a key revenue generator for a country that needs revenues. 
At a time when Russia has failed to curtail its hostile action against 
our Nation and our allies--this is not the moment to give up a source 
of leverage over the Russian Government.
  Tomorrow, the Senate will take up a motion to disapprove the Treasury 
Department's proposal. I strongly believe the Senate should vote to 
disapprove. And in a short time, I will be sending a letter to every 
single one of my Senate colleagues--Democratic, Republican, 
Independent--to urge them to block this misguided effort by the Trump 
administration and keep those much needed sanctions in place.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, it is interesting--we have entered the 
24th day of the Trump shutdown. That means that for 24 days, hundreds 
of thousands of Federal workers have lived with the uncertainty of when 
they will get their next paycheck. Tens of thousands, probably hundreds 
of thousands, of private contractors know they will never be paid. For 
24 days, nine Federal Departments and dozens of Agencies have been 
closed for business. They have withheld vital services from millions of 
Americans. I want to point out that the millions of Americans who are 
not receiving these services pay taxes to have these services. It has 
now become the longest government shutdown in history. Taxpayers have 
lost billions of dollars. The country has lost billions of dollars.
  The United States should be considered the most powerful country in 
the world, but the rest of the world sees our government being held 
hostage to the whims of an undisciplined President who is proud of the 
shutdown and shows no concern for the chaos he is causing to all 
Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike.
  Ask people at home what this means to them, no matter whether they 
are Republicans or Democrats, that the President seems not to care that 
the Food and Drug Administration has stopped inspecting seafood, 
fruits, and vegetables, and Americans are at the risk of eating tainted 
food and feeding their families tainted food. He seems not to care that 
the Environmental Protection Agency has stopped inspections of chemical 
factories, water treatment plants, and other industrial sites, leaving 
our country vulnerable to dangerous pollutants seeping into the air we 
breathe and the water we drink. Ask any parent how they might feel 
about their child going to school and drinking water that is tainted 
with chemicals solely because we closed down the Agency that is 
supposed to inspect those chemicals.
  He seems not to care that over 800,000 dedicated Federal workers have 
gone without a paycheck this month. As a result, across this Nation, 
hundreds of thousands of families are wondering how to pay their bills 
and put food on the table. It doesn't make any difference whether they 
are Republicans or Democrats or Independents; they are hard-working 
Americans.

  Just a few days ago, the President's own chief economic adviser went 
on national television and said furloughed workers were better off from 
this shutdown because they don't have to use up vacation days during 
this time they are being forced to take. Does he actually know what he 
said? Can you even believe such an arrogant, out-of-touch dismissal of 
hard-working Americans? The President's economic adviser is going to 
get paid and doesn't have to worry, but this cavalier way of treating 
hard-working, honest Americans is indefensible.
  I hear from Vermonters every day about the impact the shutdown is 
having on their lives. None of these Vermonters--Republican and 
Democratic alike--are better off. Let me give you an example.
  The other day, I heard from a single mother who works at the 
Department of Homeland Security in Vermont. She has been working 
without pay since December 22, when the Trump shutdown began, and it 
has taken a toll. Remember, this woman works for Homeland Security.
  She writes:

       I love my job and country. I do have a child to feed and 
     bills to pay. I have been working a second job to get some 
     money coming in, but when you are working full time and you 
     have a family to care for, there are only so many extra hours 
     you can work, especially if you are not getting a paycheck 
     for some of the work you are doing.


[[Page S169]]


  I heard from another mother. She is worried about her daughter. Her 
daughter works for the U.S. Institute of Peace. She has been 
furloughed. She just missed her first paycheck, and she is unable to 
pay her bills and her student loans. Her daughter dedicates her life to 
combating terrorism, and now she is not only unable to do her job, but 
she is getting into financial trouble. She is worried, and her mother 
is worried, as any mother would be, but she does not have the financial 
resources to help her daughter.
  Then there is the story of Anthony Morselli, who is a TSA agent at 
the Burlington International Airport. I see him often as I fly back and 
forth. The local paper recently reported he was forced to start a 
GoFundMe page in order to raise money to help his family pay the bills 
during the shutdown. His wife is also a TSA agent. They are both 
working without pay during the shutdown--it is a double hit--and they 
have two children to support. He points out that almost everyone seems 
to understand except the President.
  Mr. Morselli says:

       To see a zero balance in your bank account really hurts. 
     Some of us live paycheck to paycheck. Today would be payday, 
     and no money is coming in.

  Another Vermonter called in who also works for the Department of 
Homeland Security in Vermont. He says he has a month's worth of money 
available in his savings account, and then he runs out of money 
entirely. He has a mortgage to pay, and the bills are piling up. He is 
scared. He works for the Department of Homeland Security. He says he 
wants to keep his job, but the shutdown is beyond reason. He says he 
certainly does not feel valued at all by the President and this White 
House. He points out that while the President says he wants border 
protection, he has been holding the pay from the people who protect our 
borders, including this Vermonter. I couldn't agree with him more.
  Last week, the Senate and House passed a bill to ensure that all 
Federal workers will get backpay as soon as the shutdown is over. I was 
a cosponsor of that bill. I am glad to hear the President will sign it. 
It is the least he can do, considering the fact that he is the one who 
caused the mess. While this bill offers assurance to Federal employees 
that they will eventually get their paychecks, it does absolutely 
nothing to help them now. It does not help the people who call my 
office--the TSA agents, the DHS employees, or the State Department 
employees--because their bills are due now. This is not a case of, 
``Oh, don't worry about it. Someday, you will get a check.'' The bills 
are due now, and the President has threatened that his Trump shutdown 
could last months or years. This is untenable.
  The President says it is about border security. You could have fooled 
me. The examples I just talked about--and I could give so many more--
all involve dedicated Federal employees who are working to keep this 
country safe. They are proud of the work they do to keep America safe 
and are proud of the service they perform for their country, but they 
are all caught in the crosshairs of the Trump shutdown. The Trump 
shutdown is not about border security; it is about fulfilling a cynical 
campaign rally chant the President made to spin up his base. He even 
gave his word that Mexico would pay for the wall, while knowing, even 
as he said it, that it would never happen.
  Congress is a coequal branch of government. We are not in the 
business of throwing taxpayer dollars around to build monuments to the 
Presidential egos of the Presidents of any party. Everyone knows the 
$5.7 billion wall he wants to build is a waste of taxpayer money. 
Everybody knows it will not address the immigration challenges in this 
country.

  The President has manufactured a sense of urgency on the southern 
border solely to generate support for his ridiculous wall. The 
President likes to spin up his base by talking about the invasion of 
illegal immigrants, but that is not the reality. Apprehensions at the 
southwest border have dropped 75 percent since 2000. More people are 
here in this country illegally because they have overstayed their 
visas, not because they have snuck across the border. Every Member of 
the Senate supports border security, but I would argue we need to 
invest in smart border security, not spend billions of taxpayers' 
dollars on a 30-foot wall that determined people will be able to go 
over, or through, or under.
  The President is now asserting that Democrats are for open borders. 
That is nonsense. In fiscal year 2018, the Democrats supported $21.1 
billion in direct appropriations for border security and immigration 
enforcement. That followed a similar amount in fiscal year 2017. This 
funding supports investments at our northern and southern borders to 
help stop the flow of dangerous drugs like opioids, fentanyl, and 
methamphetamines. It targets money where it is needed. It pays for 
19,500 Border Patrol agents nationwide, including, roughly, 16,500 on 
our southern border. It pays for 23,500 Customs Officers at our ports 
of entry, including 6,815 who are assigned to the southwest border's 
ports of entry. In fact, with Democratic support, the number of agents 
and officers we have is at a record high, even though illegal border 
crossings are at the lowest level we have seen since 1971.
  Last year, Democrats and Republicans came together and agreed upon 
$1.7 billion in targeted border security investments. This included 
over $1 billion to be used between the ports of entry for improved 
facilities, tactical communications equipment, additional air assets, 
integrated fixed towers, video surveillance systems, ground detection 
systems, tactical aerostats, and money for countering cross-border 
tunnel threats. This is from Republicans and Democrats working 
together. It included $580 million for security at our ports of entry 
by increasing funds for intelligence capabilities at the National 
Targeting Center, nonintrusive inspection equipment so as to detect 
illicit contraband, and opioid testing equipment. It also included 
another $615 million to help address the root causes of migration from 
Central America.
  These are investments that Republicans and Democrats can all agree 
on. This is how you protect our borders. It is more complex, but it is 
more effective than building a 30-foot wall. A 30-foot wall would not 
begin to do what this does. The shutdown is not about border security. 
Let's just be honest. It is about the President's own ego. It has to 
end.
  In a few minutes, we are going to be voting on another bill that is 
one the Republican leader keeps bringing up. It is S. 1. At a time when 
people are desperate and are out of work here in America, we are to 
bring up this bill which has nothing to do with funding the government 
or border security. Rather than voting on the appropriations bills that 
would put Americans back to work, S. 1 authorizes more than $800 
million, in this year alone, for Israeli defense contractors as part of 
$38 billion for Israel over the next 10 years. It is money that will 
put Israelis to work. It will pay for them to go to work. That is fine, 
but couldn't we take time, first, to put Americans back to work?
  It also includes the boycott, divestment, sanctions legislation. This 
is an open violation of our First Amendment. It would give up Federal 
authority over matters of foreign policy to our State and local 
governments. I might not like a particular boycott, but the right to 
boycott is fundamental. Just pick up any one of our books about the 
U.S. civil rights movement and wonder if Martin Luther King and others 
would have been successful if they had not been allowed to have 
boycotts. It is not up to the government to pick and choose which 
boycotts citizens should support or oppose.
  We have bills that are supported by Republicans and Democrats alike 
that could reopen the government. That should be our focus. We could 
talk about creating jobs in Israel at another time. Let's create jobs 
in America. Let's reopen our government.
  I call on my friends, the Republicans, to stand up to the President 
and put a stop to this madness. Otherwise, the shutdown will not be 
just the President's fault but the fault of the Republicans in the 
Senate.
  I implore Senator McConnell to bring up H.R. 21 and H.J. Res. 1 and 
send them to the President. Let Democrats and Republicans join together 
in voting for them. We could pass them with a veto-proof majority.
  Congress is a coequal branch of government. We should not be 
intimidated

[[Page S170]]

by any President of any party. We should start acting like a coequal 
branch of government. Frankly, we have 800,000 people in this country 
who will be paid for their work immediately if we start acting like we 
are supposed to--as a coequal branch of government. There are hundreds 
of thousands of others who need to work--contractors and all.
  Let's stand up for Americans. We have the money for border security, 
but let's stand up for Americans. Let's put them to work. Let's let 
them get paid for what they are doing. These are our neighbors. These 
are people I see in the grocery store in Vermont when I am home on 
weekends. They are the people I see coming out of church on Sunday. 
These are the people I see when I am walking down the street to pick up 
my newspaper. These are good, hard-working people. Of the ones I have 
talked to, I have no idea whether they are Republicans or Democrats. 
All I know is that they want to do their work for this country. They 
support this country. They want to help this country be secure, but 
they can't understand why a temper tantrum at the White House will 
allow their paychecks to be stopped.

  I yield the floor.
  I don't see anybody seeking recognition.
  So I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask for the time to be 
equally divided.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, this is day 23. For 23 days, we have had 
a partial shutdown of the Federal Government. It is now the longest 
shutdown in our history. That is not a proud record.
  Government workers have now gone a pay period without getting their 
paychecks. Those who have been working have picked up their pay stubs, 
and their pay stubs show zero. Those who have been furloughed have not 
received a paycheck.
  I think the American public would be outraged to think that we are 
asking our dedicated Federal workers--our frontline of public service--
to work and not get paid. That is not what this country stands for.
  It has an effect on their work. It is difficult to show up every day 
and do your work and mission for the public and be worried about how 
you are going to have money to make your monthly mortgage payment or to 
pay for your children's needs or to meet your medical needs or your 
family's food needs. These are real decisions that government workers 
must make. Many are falling in default.
  The largest number of Federal workers live paycheck to paycheck. In 
other words, they can't make it without their income coming in. That is 
a fact of life for American workers. Yet the government is in a partial 
shutdown.
  I ask why? What is the disagreement we have here that keeps us from 
opening the government? Why is the President holding the American 
people hostage to his agenda?
  I say that because the House of Representatives has passed over to us 
a bill that would pass the appropriations for six appropriations bills, 
opening up most of those Agencies, all except for one that comes under 
Homeland Security. Those would be opened up. They are not in any 
disagreement. The appropriations specifics were agreed to by the Senate 
in four of those six bills, and the last two were passed out of the 
Appropriations Committee 31 to 0 and 30 to 1. Under Republican 
leadership, in a bipartisan manner, we have already approved these six 
appropriations bills. So why don't we act?
  I asked the distinguished majority leader for us to consider that 
bill, and he objected. Quite frankly, I don't understand why, because 
if we bring it up for a vote, we will pass it by overwhelming numbers, 
and the government will open for those Agencies that are under those 
appropriations.
  Then, my colleague Senator Van Hollen asked unanimous consent that we 
bring up a continuing resolution for Homeland Security, which passed 
this body in late December by a unanimous vote, so we could have the 
government open and then we could negotiate the border security issue. 
We agree on border security for the country, but we disagree with 
wasting money for a wall that will not keep us safe.
  In fact, those who had been involved in negotiating border security 
in the Senate have been arguing for spending more money for technology 
and personnel but not for a wall. That is what we should be doing.
  Some people ask me: Well, can you negotiate a compromise?
  It is hard to negotiate a compromise with the President while he is 
holding America hostage. It is hard to negotiate with the President 
when he undermines his own negotiators every time we get close to an 
agreement.
  It makes no sense at all for the government to be shuttered while we 
debate these issues. The only ones we are hurting are our government 
workers, our constituents, and our economy.
  Today, I met with government workers at BWI, or Baltimore/Washington 
International Airport. I met with people who represent the workers who 
are working for airline safety and for passenger safety on our flights. 
These are people who do safety inspections. These are people who work 
for TSA and who screen us as we get on the planes. These are air 
traffic controllers, who make sure that the air is safe. These are 
professionals who are showing up and working every day right now 
because that is their professional responsibility--to keep us safe.
  They acknowledge that they are distracted. They are distracted 
because they don't know how they are going to pay their bills. They are 
distracted because they don't know when they are going to get a 
paycheck for working. They are distracted because they don't know 
whether they have to find other employment in order to pay their bills.
  They don't have the full complement in because there are some who are 
out on furlough. Some safety inspectors aren't there. How do they carry 
out their mission unless we have the full team in place?
  Of the 800,000 Federal workers, approximately half are furloughed 
without pay. That means the critical mission on behalf of the American 
public is not being done--whether it is food safety, whether it is 
approving a loan so that a person can buy a home, or whether it is a 
small business owner who needs help from the Small Business 
Administration and can't get that help, can't close on a loan, can't do 
what they need to do, and can't run their business. So it is not only 
800,000 workers who are not working or working without pay. It is also 
those businesses that depend upon it.
  When you look at the small businesses around Federal facilities, with 
so many of the workers not being there and others not having money to 
pay--they are not using those services--these businesses are losing 
customers and are laying off people.
  It is not hypothetical. We know of specific companies that have 
shuttered as a result of the Federal Government shutdown. We know of 
nonprofits that had to lay off workers because their contracts with 
government Agencies expired.
  Today, at BWI, or Baltimore/Washington International Airport, I heard 
directly from these individuals. Each one had a story to tell about how 
they are really fighting to make sure that airline safety issues are 
maintained and about the challenges they are facing, et cetera. They 
told pretty direct stories.
  There was an AFGE worker there who told me of the situation where he 
had to try to explain to his young daughter why he could not pay the 
fee so she could continue in a dance class. He didn't have the money. 
It broke his heart. These are affecting real people.
  Last Friday, along with Senator Van Hollen, we met with a group of 
Federal Government workers. We had a chance to talk to them. They are 
from different Agencies. One was in the Justice Department. He is an 
excepted employee. So he is there doing his work, trying to keep us 
safe, but he said the necessary investigative work that should have 
been done so that he could get his job done to keep us safe was not 
done because the person who would be doing the investigative work was 
on furlough as a result of the government shutdown. Why should the 
Justice Department be shut down? Why? They are not part of the border 
security debate, and yet they are.

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  We had another of our government workers show up and say that they 
could not settle on a home. They have a contract to settle on a new 
home. They are starting a family. The reason they can't settle is that 
they are required to bring in their two most recent pay stubs showing 
that their income is what they say it is. The problem is their most 
recent pay stubs--and they have them--show zero as income. They no 
longer qualify for their mortgage.
  These are real-life people--800,000 of them. Yet this shutdown 
continues. It is dangerous. It is irresponsible. It is wrong.
  We have the votes in this Chamber to change it tonight. I hope that 
Leader McConnell will bring up the two votes that passed the House of 
Representatives. We have already acted on those bills in the previous 
Congress. Let us open the government. It makes no sense whatsoever. The 
Congress is a coequal branch of government.
  We know that what the President is doing is wrong. Each of us knows 
that in our hearts. We know he has shut down government for no 
legitimate reason. We can debate the issues with the government open 
and prevent the loss to individual families and to our economy. We are 
a coequal branch of government, and we should act. Let us vote on 
opening government.

  Quite frankly, I hope we will have the votes that would show the 
President we would override any veto he may impose. That is our 
responsibility as a coequal, independent branch of government. Let us 
exercise our responsibilities, and let us take action tonight. This 
shutdown needs to end. It needs to end now.
  I urge my colleagues to bring up this legislation. Let's pass it, and 
let's show that we can exercise our responsibility. We recognize the 
President is wrong. We have a responsibility to do what is right, and 
this is what we have done in the past.
  I see my colleague from Maryland is on the floor. The two of us have 
been pretty active over the weekend, talking with Federal workers. I 
want to explain to the people of Maryland that we are going to do 
everything in our power to open up government. We are prepared to take 
all steps necessary to get government open. We know that people are 
hurting. We know that people are worried. This is irresponsible. It is 
costly, and it needs to end.
  I hope President Trump will end this. If he doesn't, we, as a coequal 
branch of government, should take the necessary actions to open the 
government.
  I urge the Republican leader to bring these bills to the floor. We 
are for border security. We are not for wasting money on a wall. We are 
for negotiating. Let Congress determine where money should be spent, 
not the President. Let us all work together for the safety of our 
Nation and for the protection of our workforce.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, first, I thank my colleague from 
Maryland, Senator Cardin, for his steadfast efforts to bring this 
shameful shutdown to an end. He and I have met with Federal employees 
all over the State of Maryland to bring their stories here to the floor 
of the Senate.
  While they are under incredible hardship and incredible duress, the 
first thing they tell us at every meeting is that they want to get back 
to work for the American people, to do their job for the American 
people. These are civil servants; these are public servants; and they 
want to get back to helping the country.
  To my friend and partner and colleague, Senator Cardin, I thank him 
for all of his efforts in this shameful episode of our history.
  President Trump often falsely boasts that he has accomplished what no 
other President in American history has been able to do. This time, he 
has succeeded. This time, he has succeeded in closing down the Federal 
Government for a longer period than any other President in United 
States history--24 days and counting.
  President Trump said just a few weeks ago that he would be proud--
proud to shut down the government if he didn't get his way. But 
President Trump should know that reaching this historic milestone is 
nothing to be proud of. It is unnecessary, and it is shameful. Every 
day that goes by, we see mounting harm around the country both in terms 
of members of the public who are denied important services and denied 
important health protections and, of course, Federal employees and 
Federal contractors who are either going without pay--all of the 
Federal employees who are going without pay, and Federal contractors 
have been laid off in many cases.
  Every day that this shameful shutdown goes on, our colleagues on the 
Republican side and the Republican leader have to own up to their share 
of the responsibility. Every day that goes on where we do not have a 
chance to vote on the two House bills that are on the Senate calendar, 
which we could take up this afternoon--every day that we do not vote on 
those bills, which have had bipartisan support here in the U.S. Senate, 
the Senate is an accomplice in the shutdown, and those who prevent us 
from turning the keys to reopen the government are complicit in the 
harm that is increasing every day around the country.
  On Friday, 800,000 Federal employees began to get pay stubs that 
showed zero pay. I have one in my hand from somebody who is an air 
traffic controller. If you look at the area that says net pay, it has a 
big goose egg--zero. Among these 800,000 Federal employees, of course, 
are hundreds of thousands of people--like the folks at TSA, like the 
folks along the border--who are working every day, but in the mail or 
in their electronic pay stub they get zero for their pay.
  Of course, there are hundreds of thousands more who are being 
furloughed, who want to get out and do their work for the American 
people, and they are being locked out of their jobs.
  I have been talking with many of my constituents over the last 
several weeks, and I have shared many of their stories here on the 
floor of the Senate. They talk passionately and personally about how 
they want to get back to work and also about how they worry about their 
ability to provide for their families.
  I met with Edward last week. He works at the Census Bureau. He is the 
only person in his family to have gone to college. He is very proud to 
be a civil servant and wants to do his job. He owns a home, and his 
mortgage payments are coming due every month, like those of millions of 
Americans. While those mortgage payments are coming in, his paycheck is 
not. He told me he is very worried that he will soon miss a payment.
  It is important to understand that the harm from this shutdown is not 
just felt in the Washington metropolitan area. Of course, Americans 
around the country are losing access to services, and it is a fact that 
80 percent of the people who work for the Federal Government live 
outside the Washington metropolitan area. TSA officials at airports 
throughout the country are just one example.
  It is also important to recognize that about 30 percent of the 
Federal workforce are people who previously served our country in 
uniform. They were in the military. That means that as a result of this 
shutdown, 250,000 Americans--in fact, a little more than that--who 
served our country in the military are also suffering and going without 
pay.
  One of those veterans is somebody I spoke to last week, an Air Force 
veteran who works at the Office of Personnel Management. He told me he 
was worried that he wasn't going to be able to pay his electric bill on 
time. He told me he had contacted the electric company and said: Look, 
I am not going to be able to pay you this month because I am not going 
to get a check. Can you just hold off? Can you defer my bill?
  They told him: Sorry, that really isn't our responsibility.
  It really is our responsibility here in the U.S. Senate--and, of 
course, the President of the United States, who said that he was proud 
to shut down the government. I would like the President to visit 
Maryland and look at that Air Force vet who now works as a civil 
servant and tell that Air Force vet that he is proud to be shutting 
down the government.
  There are other veterans around the country. As I said, the harm from 
this is not confined to the Washington metropolitan area. Toby Hauck 
served our country in the Air Force and continues

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to serve as an air traffic controller in Illinois. His son and 
daughter-in-law are about to deploy overseas, and Toby and his wife are 
going to care for their 2\1/2\-year-old daughter--their granddaughter--
during this deployment. Toby says that the continued lack of pay adds 
stress to their already hectic jobs. This is something I have heard 
from other veterans, air traffic controllers, and others going without 
pay throughout the State of Maryland.
  In fact, we know from a lot of the Federal employees who work in law 
enforcement that the impact on their jobs is hurting our national 
security. Just reading from an article in the Washington Post, 
``Shutdown threatens national security, FBI agents group warns,'' it 
goes on to say: ``A group representing FBI agents warned Thursday that 
the partial government shutdown is threatening national security as 
thousands of federal law enforcement professionals, working without 
pay, grow anxious that personal financial hardships may jeopardize 
their security clearances and as furloughs of their support staffs slow 
investigations.''
  I spoke to a Federal law enforcement officer just last week. He made 
exactly the point made by others in this article, which is that his 
entire support team has been furloughed. These are the folks who track 
down DNA analysis; these are the people who do the investigations. When 
they are furloughed and when they are not on the job, it puts their 
colleagues who are on the job--in the FBI or other Federal law 
enforcement missions--at greater risk, and it puts the public at risk 
to the extent that those FBI agents are not able to fully do their job.
  The harm is spreading. We know that a lot of Federal contractors, 
including a lot of small business folks who do work with the Federal 
Government, have had to lay off people. I know that because, in my 
State of Maryland, a small outfit that contracts with the Federal 
Government to help seniors find work just had to lay off 173 employees 
last week. Senior Service America is the name of the organization. They 
do great work, but they just had to send pink slips to 173 people 
saying: At least for now, you are out of work, and you are out of a 
paycheck.
  Again, this is something we are seeing and witnessing around the 
country. A business in Denver, CO--Sky Blue Builders--had to stop work 
on several Federal contractor jobs for Federal construction projects 
they were doing. The GSA--General Services Administration--put their 
projects on hold, and a 50-person company had to lay off 8 carpenters 
and a superintendent because of the shutdown. They will need to lay off 
more in the days ahead if the shutdown continues.
  Every day that goes on, we see a mushrooming effect in terms of the 
damage and harm being done throughout the country. A lot of the folks 
who work for these small business Federal Government contractors are 
already getting low-wage paychecks; now, they are out of income 
altogether.
  One of those workers is Lila Johnson. She is a janitor at the 
Department of Agriculture. She works for a company, and that company 
contracts with the Department of Agriculture to provide janitorial 
services.
  Lila is 71 years old. She has bills coming due for her rent, her 
credit card, and her car. Here is how she has described the impact of 
the shutdown:

       I don't have enough from my retirement and my Social 
     Security to make ends meet. Everything is piling up on me, 
     and I don't know how I'm going to have the money to pay these 
     bills.

  I don't know how many of my colleagues saw President Trump the other 
day. He sort of waved off reporters when they asked him a question 
about the harm being done as a result of the shutdown. The President 
said he can relate to these people who are just one paycheck away from 
not being able to make a mortgage or not being able to make a medical 
copayment. He said:

       I can relate. I'm sure the people that are on the receiving 
     end will make adjustments. They always do.

  Give me a break. The President clearly doesn't realize that 40 
percent of our fellow Americans cannot pull together even $400 for an 
emergency. They do live paycheck to paycheck.
  When you have grown up with a background of privilege, as the 
President has, you really have not experienced that kind of hardship. 
Between Trump Tower, the White House, and Mar-a-Lago, it is pretty 
clear the President doesn't have a clue about what our fellow Americans 
are experiencing in this shutdown.
  Because all of these Federal employees are unable to do their jobs--
in many cases, for the country--and because the small business 
contractors are not able to do theirs, every day you are seeing the 
growing, harmful impact of the shutdown in terms of denial of important 
services and protections for the American people.
  We know now the FDA is no longer conducting their routine food safety 
inspections. We know the EPA has halted inspections of major polluters, 
including chemical factories. We know 1,000 affordable housing 
contracts have expired because of the shutdown, which can delay 
critical repairs and place families at risk of eviction. We have seen 
trash and waste piling up at our national parks.
  Despite the efforts of the administration to hide a lot of these 
impacts, the result has been a disaster. At Joshua Tree National Park, 
we saw motorists cut down several of the iconic Joshua trees so they 
could drive in areas of the park where vehicles are banned, and vandals 
have sprayed graffiti in the park. That is just one example among many.
  Why is this happening? It is because the President says, if he 
doesn't get his way entirely, he is going to be ``proud''--that is his 
word, not mine--to shut down the government.
  I can tell you what it is not about. It is not about the need for 
strong border security. We need secure borders. I think Senators on 
both sides of the aisle know that over the years, we have worked on a 
bipartisan basis to do that. We certainly can continue to work on a 
bipartisan basis to do it going forward.
  I know Senators on both sides of the aisle recognize that wasting 
taxpayer dollars on a 2,000-mile-long wall is not the answer. For 
goodness' sake, the President's own Acting Chief of Staff--a former 
colleague of mine in the House of Representatives--Mick Mulvaney said a 
couple of years ago that it was childlike to believe that building that 
2,000-mile wall was going to actually provide the kind of security we 
need.
  We need a multilayered approach. Yes, there are areas along the 
border where we need barriers, fences, walls. Call them what you want. 
They are already there. They were there before President Trump was ever 
elected President.
  What was the President's budget request this year for this part of 
the Homeland Security budget? What was his request in the official 
document he sent for this fiscal year? He asked for $1.6 billion. That 
is what the Senate Appropriations Committee voted for on a bipartisan 
basis, $1.6 billion.
  It was only in December, when all of a sudden you have the rightwing 
talk show hosts going 24/7, spinning the President up, that all of a 
sudden, oh, boy, I guess I didn't really mean what I asked for; I need 
something else.
  Then, to justify the $5.7 billion, he did this national address the 
other night. What was the very first example he gave for why we needed 
this border wall? The very first example he gave was to interdict and 
stop the flow of drugs across the southern border. That was the first 
item he mentioned in the speech. He focused on it. By focusing on that, 
he demonstrated the argument against spending all this money on a 
2,000-mile border wall.
  As everybody knows, including his Department of Homeland Security, to 
the extent we have drugs coming across the southern border--and this is 
a big issue--they are actually coming through the legal points of 
entry, so building a wall on all sides of the legal points of entry 
will not do a thing. We all know that on a bipartisan basis, we have 
looked for new technologies and new investments to better detect drugs 
that are flowing through those legal ports of entry.
  My goodness, we can certainly talk about further steps that can be 
taken, but the leadoff point in the President's speech showed his 
ignorance about the overall issue on how we need effective border 
security.
  We should not be spending what will ultimately be $30 billion on a 
2,000-mile wall the President said Mexico was

[[Page S173]]

going to pay for. Make no mistake. We are talking about $30 billion 
because the President may ask for one amount this year. It started at 
$1.6 billion. That was his official request. Then, in December, it was 
$5.7 billion. Now he is going to threaten to shut down the government 
every year if he doesn't get his $30 billion, which Mexico was going to 
pay for.
  I know he is doing all sorts of dances, saying that is not quite what 
I meant, but that is what he told the country.
  Since we are talking about border security, let's talk about some of 
the men and women who, right now, today, as we gather here, are 
defending that border, providing border protection. I will tell you 
what, the folks at Customs and Border Protection have had enough. The 
Customs and Border Protection officers are suing the United States. 
They are suing the President because of this shutdown and demanding 
that they get paid for the work they are doing.
  I know the President likes to talk about the good work a lot of those 
men and women do at Customs and Border Protection, and they do, do good 
work. They are now suing the President of the United States and the 
U.S. Government because they are out there providing border security, 
and they are now getting big goose eggs, big zeros for net pay for the 
work they are doing.
  I know Members of this body are not ``proud'' of this shutdown, as 
the President of the United States is. He said he was proud. He hasn't 
said otherwise, although he started pointing fingers now at everybody 
else. He said he was going to take responsibility; that he would be 
proud to if he didn't get his way.
  Every day that goes by in this Senate that we don't take action, 
which is within our power to take, this Senate becomes an accomplice in 
President Trump's government shutdown. That is why, together with my 
colleagues, we are going to continue to press the Senate and the Senate 
Republican leader to take up the two House bills that are on the Senate 
calendar, which are the keys to reopening the government.
  The House of Representatives, on their very first day of the new 
Congress, said their priority is reopening the government, and they 
did. They passed those two bills.
  I have had them on the floor before. I am going to show them again 
because they are still on the calendar. They haven't disappeared. They 
are still right there. One is H.J. Res. 1. It is a very simple bill. It 
is a bill that would reopen the Department of Homeland Security through 
February 8. It is identical, with respect to the Department of Homeland 
Security, as to what this Senate did by a voice vote before Christmas--
identical. It says: Let's reopen the Department of Homeland Security at 
current funding levels while we discuss the best and most effective way 
to provide border security.
  That bill was on the Senate calendar. Last week, standing right here, 
I asked for unanimous consent to take it up and vote on it right away. 
The Senate Republican leader denied that request.
  Just last week, standing right over there, Senator Cardin brought up 
the other bill that is on the Senate calendar that was passed by the 
House to reopen eight of the nine Departments of the U.S. Government 
that are closed and have nothing to do with Homeland Security or the 
wall--nothing to do with it. That bill is right here, H.R. 21. Senator 
Cardin asked for the Senate to vote on it. Again, it was blocked by the 
Republican leader on behalf of the caucus.
  As many of us have discussed, the great irony is, these are pieces of 
legislation that have bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate.
  As I said, the bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security 
through February 8 while we work on the best and most effective way to 
provide border security is something we passed by voice vote. 
Republican colleagues thought it was a good idea about 5 weeks ago. I 
don't know why it is not a good idea to do the same thing today.
  The other bill, which contains the funding levels through the 
remainder of this fiscal year for the other eight of the nine Federal 
Departments that are currently closed, also had broad bipartisan 
support. One of the parts of that bill dealing with the Department of 
Agriculture, the Treasury Department, the Interior Department, the 
Department of Transportation, and the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development passed this Senate by a vote of 92 to 6.
  The House of Representatives said: Do you know what? We like the 
funding levels the House put together, but let's send the Senate a bill 
that was already supported by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in 
the U.S. Senate, 92 to 6.
  This bill, H.R. 21, contains those Senate funding levels voted on 92 
to 6 to reopen all those Departments. This bill also includes measures 
that were overwhelmingly passed in the Senate Appropriations Committee. 
One measure was adopted in the Senate Appropriations Committee by a 
vote of 31 to 0--Republicans and Democrats voting for it. That is in 
the bill the House sent over.
  The other bills relating to the Department of Commerce and the 
Department of Justice passed the Senate Appropriations Committee vote 
30 to 1. In this package the House sent us, you have bills that passed 
the Senate Appropriations Committee by 30 to 0, 30 to 1, and the floor 
of the U.S. Senate by a vote of 92 to 6.
  It is a very simple question: Why is it that the Republican leader 
refuses to allow this body to vote on measures that have already had 
overwhelming support in this body and would reopen the government 
today?
  The answer we get is, well, you know what, the President of the 
United States says he will not support it.
  Do you know what? We are an independent branch of government. We are 
a coequal branch of government, although these days I begin to wonder 
if we relegated ourselves to the very bottom of the totem pole here.
  There is no excuse not to vote. Ninety-two to six? That is a veto-
proof majority. Let the President veto it. It has to come back here? 
Ninety-two to six. I will tell you, the fact the others passed 30 to 0 
and 30 to 1 in the Senate Appropriations Committee--that is a pretty 
good indicator of their strong, bipartisan support. So let's not go 
hide out. Let's not go hide out. Let's do our job in the Senate, and if 
the President wants to veto it, let him do it. That is how the system 
works. But nobody here should be hiding from accountability to their 
constituents because the Republican leader refuses to hold a vote today 
on what the Senate supported overwhelmingly in weeks past.
  I do want to thank my colleagues for a measure that we passed last 
week, passed it on Thursday or Friday. The Senate passed a provision 
that was introduced by Senator Cardin and me and many other Senators 
and that had some bipartisan support and cosponsorship and strong 
bipartisanship here on the floor. We said that Federal employees should 
not, at the end of the day, be the ones who have to bear the entire 
burden of this shutdown they had nothing to do with. So we passed 
legislation to make sure that when this shutdown is over, Federal 
employees will be made whole in terms of their pay. That then passed 
the House, and it is on the way to the President. It was on the way to 
the President before the weekend. The Republican Senate leader said 
that the President said he was going to sign it. Of course, that is 
what the President said about the bill that passed the U.S. Senate 
before Christmas to provide stopgap funding, so we will see. I hope 
that is the case because Federal employees, at the end of the day, 
should not be the ones who are penalized and never made whole.
  But it doesn't address the problem before us right now, which is that 
while those Federal employees--hundreds of thousands of them--are not 
working, they are not there to provide important services for the 
American people, and the harm done from the denial of those services is 
growing every day. And of course it doesn't help those hundreds of 
thousands of Federal employees--in fact, 800,000 Federal employees--who 
are not getting paid now but have their bills coming through the door 
every day. That creates great harm because when they can't pay the 
bills, their creditors come after them. Even though, whenever this 
shutdown ends, whenever it may be, they may get back pay, it is going 
to be very hard for them to get back their credit rating. It is going 
to be very hard to undo the damage that is being done to them by their 
inability to pay their bills because of our inability to vote on two 
House measures that the Senate

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has already supported on a bipartisan basis. So it doesn't solve that 
very, very real problem, which is growing every day.
  I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are hearing more and 
more from their constituents--hearing from their Federal employees who 
are going without pay, hearing from small business contractors who have 
had their contracts cut and are at risk of going belly-up, from those 
small contract employees who live paycheck to paycheck--and from the 
American people who are being denied services on a growing basis.
  So let's open the government. Let's vote on these two bills that 
would accomplish that. We could do it tonight. Do it right now, as soon 
as the Republican leader comes in.
  I can assure you that my colleagues and I will continue to ask 
consent to bring up those bills. We are going to continue to move to 
bring up those bills because they are the one thing before the Senate 
right now that we could vote on that would at least demonstrate that we 
in the Senate are doing our job. It is the President's job to decide 
whether he thinks it is a good idea, and if he thinks it is a bad idea, 
he can veto it, and then it comes back to us.
  Let's do our job here. Let's not contract to the President of the 
United States our constitutional responsibilities. That is not how it 
is supposed to work. And we need to do our job. Let's end the shutdown. 
Let's reopen the government. We can have a conversation on the most 
effective way to provide border security, but for goodness' sake, let's 
release the hostages here. Let's release eight of the nine Federal 
Departments that have nothing to do with homeland security or the wall. 
Let's release the 800,000 Federal employees who are not getting paid. 
Let's release all of the small businesses that do contract work for the 
Federal Government, many of which are at risk of going belly-up. Let's 
release the Federal contract employees who are now being told not to 
come to work because the contract is not in effect during the shutdown. 
Let's release all those hostages who have nothing to do with the 
political dispute here.
  Nobody should be proud of this shutdown, and so I say to the 
President of the United States: Let's not take pride in being the 
President of the United States who is now overseeing the longest 
shutdown in American history. That is not a first that any President 
should be proud of, and it is not something this Senate should be 
complicit in.
  Let's reopen the government. Let's vote on the House bills.
  I yield my time.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 1, a bill to make improvements 
     to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to 
     authorize the appropriation of funds to Israel, to 
     reauthorize the United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act 
     of 2015, and to halt the wholesale slaughter of the Syrian 
     people, and for other purposes.
         Todd Young, Mike Rounds, Richard C. Shelby, James E. 
           Risch, Mike Lee, Josh Hawley, John Boozman, Shelley 
           Moore Capito, Mike Crapo, Tim Scott, Cory Gardner, Roy 
           Blunt, Steve Daines, Marco Rubio, Rob Portman, John 
           Barrasso, Mitch McConnell.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 1, a bill to make improvements 
to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to authorize 
the appropriation of funds to Israel, to reauthorize the United States-
Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015, and to halt the wholesale 
slaughter of the Syrian people, and for other purposes, shall be 
brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo), the 
Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. 
Moran), and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Perdue).
  Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin) 
and the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) are necessarily absent.
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 50, nays 43, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 3 Leg.]

                                YEAS--50

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McSally
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--43

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Markey
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--7

     Burr
     Crapo
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Isakson
     Moran
     Perdue
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 
43.
  Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the 
vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
  The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                           Government Funding

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to urge 
my Republican colleagues to do the right thing and stand with us to 
reopen the government and end this completely unnecessary and, really, 
absurd crisis.
  President Trump's latest government shutdown is now the longest one 
in American history--24 days of workers unsure of when their next 
paychecks will come, 24 days of economic impacts in communities all 
over this country, 24 days of slowdowns at our airports, 24 days of 
small business owners waiting on loans. Twenty-four days of trash 
piling up and irreparable damage being done at our national parks. 
Twenty-four days of dysfunction. Twenty-four days of chaos. Twenty-four 
days of the government simply not working at its most basic duties, not 
being allowed to work by its own leaders.

  There have been 24 days of story after story here in the United 
States of America that would embarrass citizens of far less developed 
nations.
  One woman from Seattle--she is a Federal employee and has been there 
25 years--wrote that the stress of not knowing how she will manage her 
bills is causing her sleepless nights--nights she is worried about her 
credit score taking a hit if she can't pay her bills on time. She is 
trying to balance all of that while helping take care of her father, 
who is a Navy veteran suffering from a progressive neurological 
disease.
  Another man wrote to me. He is not a Federal employee, but he and his 
wife own a small business frequented by people who are. He told me that 
the

[[Page S175]]

shutdown has brought his business to a halt and that he is not sure how 
much longer he can make it work.
  A U.S. Forest Service worker wrote to me saying that he is pretty 
sure he can weather the shutdown financially, but he is very scared for 
his coworkers who cannot, and he is worried about the deeper damage now 
being done to his restoration work that is supposed to be happening in 
the Olympic National Forest.
  I know every one of my colleagues is getting letters like these, 
hundreds of thousands of them. They need to read some of those letters. 
I would challenge them and anyone who doubts the sincerity and fears so 
many Americans are feeling right now to sit down and hear from their 
constituents who are being impacted--face to face.
  This past weekend, when it became clear the Senate would not get a 
chance to vote on reopening the government, I flew home to Washington 
State. I walked through security lines on my way out and thanked the 
men and women of TSA who are working to protect us, not knowing when 
they are going to get paid. When I got to the airport in Seattle, I sat 
down with people who had tears in their eyes, who were describing their 
fear over the uncertainty this Trump shutdown has caused. I talked to 
an air traffic controller who worked overtime during the busy holiday 
season and who worries about the added stress and distractions on top 
of an already very tough job. I heard from a Coast Guard spouse who 
talked about friends in a similar situation returning Christmas 
presents to pay bills. Story after story--workers with their families, 
small business owners, and many more. This is about individuals and 
their stories, but it is also rippling across communities.
  (Mr. SULLIVAN assumed the Chair.)
  This is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling 
across communities.
  Right now in my home State of Washington, paychecks are frozen for 
nearly 13,000 workers. They are workers who are not going out and 
spending money at local businesses the way they usually do. They are at 
risk of missing their rent payment or their mortgage payment or their 
car payment or their phone bill or their credit card bill. They may 
know they will get their pay back eventually when this shutdown finally 
ends, but that is not going to cover late fees or interest fees, and it 
will not compensate them for the emotional anguish and deep 
uncertainty. And that is just those 13,000 workers and their families. 
Millions of people in my home State, like every State, are affected by 
work that is not happening or at risk of being cut off, such as routine 
inspections on Washington State ferries, an accident investigation 
report concerning a deadly train accident, decisionmaking on the 
ongoing Hanford nuclear site cleanup process, applications for Federal 
financial student aid, Federal food safety inspections, emergency food 
supplies for hungry families, and assistance for domestic violence 
survivors and crime victims.
  The government can't even pay its bills. Just this morning, I saw the 
headline ``Layoffs hit two space companies.'' One of those is in my 
home State. Tethers Unlimited said it is going to lay off 20 percent of 
its employees because it hasn't been paid for its government work 
during this shutdown. This is absurd. This is no way for a country like 
ours to run. It is shameful. Once again, this has to end.
  Those whom I just talked about are just a few of the stories. Those 
are just a few of the impacts. There are so many more--big ones, small 
ones, narrow ones, broad ones, from individual workers and their 
families who are being impacted in unique and specific ways, to entire 
industries and regions that are being harmed.
  This is not a theoretical issue. It is not just a debate here in DC. 
This is very real for millions and millions of people, and that number 
grows with every passing day. I and other Democrats are going to keep 
making sure these stories aren't forgotten or pushed aside. We are glad 
to be joined by a growing number of Republicans who are also hearing 
from their constituents and who know this shutdown simply cannot be 
justified and cannot be explained. We are going to keep up this 
pressure. We are not going to stop until President Trump agrees to end 
this crisis or until Republican leaders in the Senate finally decide to 
stand up to him and work with us to end it for him.
  Let me close with this final point: Although no shutdown is good, 
this one is particularly obscene and particularly unnecessary. 
Democrats and Republicans right here in this Senate voted unanimously 
just a few weeks ago to keep the government open without any funding 
for President Trump's wall, and the House voted to do the same. 
Whatever one thinks about using American taxpayer dollars to pay for 
President Trump's wall--a wall, I would remind us, he promised Mexico 
would pay for--there is absolutely no reason to keep this government 
shut down while we have that debate. All that does is hurt people and 
hurt communities and hurt our country for absolutely no reason at all.
  President Trump and some of his Republican allies may see this as a 
political fight they somehow need to win, but I see this as a fight for 
the people we represent, for a government that functions, and for a 
country that we all know can do better than this.
  This is about whether we send the alarming message that President 
Trump can make outlandish demands, throw a tantrum, not care how much 
instability he causes or how many people he hurts, and get away with 
it, or whether instead we make clear here in this Senate that his bad 
behavior will not be rewarded. Tantrums and dysfunctional governing are 
not the path to success.
  I call on Republican leaders to allow a vote on the bill the House 
passed, allow a vote to reopen the government. That bill would pass 
overwhelmingly, just as it did last month.
  Let's send a message to President Trump that the people who sent us 
here want this dysfunction to end. Let's end this Trump shutdown, and 
let's then get back to work to fix the problems it created. Let's get 
our country back on track.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to follow my colleague from 
Washington and talk about the effects of the shutdown. If I am really 
fast on a given day, I kind of have a mind-meld with her. I kind of 
have a little bit of a mind-meld now because I want to talk about the 
effects on America's national security.
  I was on the floor last week talking about the effects on Federal 
employees, so many of whom live in Virginia. I had a roundtable on 
Friday in Alexandria, where they came out and talked about having to 
reschedule medical appointments, worrying about missing their mortgage 
payments, and withdrawing monies from their IRA and having to pay a 
penalty to do it to cover their bills. These Federal employees all 
share how passionate they are about serving the public. That is all 
they want to do. They shared the hardships that are visited upon them 
and their families by not getting a paycheck.
  I heard another, different story today that is not about a Federal 
employee but a dentist in Alexandria who shared with our office how 
many of her patients are canceling their appointments. People don't 
have copays--people are worried about whether they will have copays, so 
they are canceling and postponing. So now it is not just the Federal 
employees, but it is also this small business woman who runs a medical 
practice who is seeing the effect of it.
  I want to talk about something different tonight. I want to talk 
about national security. I want to do that because the President 
tweeted something interesting on Saturday. He said his whole motive for 
the shutdown was because ``I promised safety and security for the 
American people.'' That was the quote--``I promised safety and security 
for the American people.'' I want to take the floor to say that this 
shutdown is actually hurting the safety and security of the American 
people, and I want to go over this in some detail.
  Of the 450,000 Federal employees who are working without pay, more 
than 150,000 of them are in charge of keeping America safe. So, 
arguably, the most punished group of Federal employees in this shutdown 
are those charged with keeping us safe.
  I say to the Presiding Officer, you are a veteran. You served in the 
military.

[[Page S176]]

A third of Federal employees are veterans. So it is not just people 
whose current job is keeping America safe, but one-third of Federal 
employees are veterans. Veterans are very affected by this.
  Just to kind of run through some examples, of the 450,000 Americans 
working without pay--and we had representation from a number of these 
Agencies before us at the roundtable last week--41,000 of those working 
without pay now deep into the third week are Federal law enforcement 
and correctional officers, 2,600 are ATF agents, nearly 17,000 are 
Bureau of Prisons correctional officers, more than 13,000 are FBI 
agents, 3,600 are marshals, and 4,400 are DEA agents.
  I had an experience last year that was very vivid to me. I visited a 
Federal prison in Petersburg, VA, and I had a chance to really eyeball 
the challenges our prison guards deal with. The staffing ratios are 
such that one guard--especially on an evening shift--is responsible for 
a wing of the prison where there may be 100 to 150 inmates. It is a 
very tough situation from a security standpoint because if there were 
to be a problem in one of the rooms and if a guard went into the room 
and there were 25 people in the room--and that was not uncommon--while 
tending to a problem, others could overpower that one guard. And on the 
entire wing, there is just one.
  This is a very, very difficult job, and the notion that these 
correctional officers are now deep into week 3 and that they are not 
being paid is just shocking. I have a letter sitting on my desk from 
Federal prison guards at a Federal prison facility in southwest 
Virginia imploring us to reopen the government because their job is so 
difficult that it just compounds when they are not being paid.
  When the President gave his speech last week, he talked a lot about 
how the challenges at the border are largely challenges with drugs and 
the interdiction of drugs.
  If that is your worry, Mr. President, why would you not be paying 
ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals, and FBI agents? If that is your worry--the 
safety and security of the American people--why are these people the 
ones you want to punish? You make us less safe by doing so.
  All of these people are hard-working public safety professionals, but 
they are human. When they are on the job, they are focused on keeping 
us safe, but they are human. There are going to be issues rattling 
around in their brains, just like all of us have issues rattling around 
in our brains during the day. Do you really want our DEA agents, the 
AFT, and the U.S. Marshals having about 10 percent of their mind mad 
that they are not getting paid and the other 20 percent of their mind 
worried about making the mortgage payment or rescheduling the kids' 
orthodontist appointment? It would be unrealistic to expect these 
people to wall that off completely even when they are at work. Why are 
we subjecting them to this, which makes us less safe?
  Fourteen thousand of those who are working without pay are air 
traffic controllers. Many of them are not just working, but because of 
other job shortages in the profession, they are working tremendous 
amounts of overtime.
  If you were to ask me ``Who would be a public safety professional you 
would most like not to be mad, most like not to be distracted, most 
like not to be diverted and thinking about something else?'' it would 
have to be an air traffic controller.
  The last thing I would want is for somebody who flies a lot--and so 
many Americans do--to think that their air traffic controllers are 
sitting in the tower--last Friday, I came back, and I tendered about 
100 pay stubs from air traffic controllers, most of which had zeroes on 
them. They had just gotten these pay stubs. One was for one penny, and 
one was for $41.75. You get that in the mail as a hard-working 
professional. You are in the tower trying to do your job, and that is 
going to be working on you, thinking about what that means for the 
tuition check that gets written in the middle of January for your kid 
who is going to school for the spring semester, or the Visa bill that 
is the biggest one in the year because Christmas purchases are on it, 
or the heating bill that is the biggest one of the year because this is 
the coldest time of the year. I don't want air traffic controllers' 
minds filled with anxiety and anger because they got a pay stub that 
said ``one penny'' on it.
  Eighty-eight percent of DHS security employees are furloughed. That 
is 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents, 42,000 Coast Guard 
employees who interdict drugs, DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 
Security Agency. If the issue is security at the border, what possibly 
would be the reason why we wouldn't take up the bill that is at the 
Senate desk to fund that function at least through February 8 so we 
could find a legitimate compromise on border security and immigration 
reform? If the President is really worried, as he said, about the 
safety and security of the American people, why would you punish the 
very people who are at the frontlines providing that safety and 
security on our border?
  The FDA is having to recall furloughed employees to ensure public 
health because of the prolonged state of the shutdown in its third 
week. It has forced the FDA to suspend a large portion of food safety 
inspections. Again, with flus and viruses and all kinds of challenges 
and recalls of lettuce or recalls of other unhealthy foods, this is an 
important part of keeping America safe and secure. What possibly can be 
gained first from furloughing and sending them home or then bringing 
them back and not paying them?
  The Transportation Security Administration. There was news about this 
today: Because of the pain of having to work without pay, there has 
been a spike in people calling in ill. That is leading to longer lines 
at Dulles, longer lines at Hartsfield in Atlanta, and longer lines at 
the Miami International Airport, and that is likely to continue. We all 
know the hassle of any line at the TSA. We don't like it, but we also 
want the TSA to do their job and stop people from getting on the planes 
if they have weapons or some other issue.
  There was a story about somebody being able to get through a TSA line 
carrying a weapon that could be attributed to the staffing shortages 
and the challenges we are putting them under. Again, if this President 
wants to care about the safety and security of American personnel, why 
punish TSA agents?
  Today, there was an announcement that TSA will reallocate screening 
officers on a national basis to meet staffing shortages that cannot be 
addressed locally. So now not only will Federal workers be unpaid--not 
only will they be unpaid--but they will be forced to relocate to do 
work to cover staffing shortages elsewhere.
  My colleague from Virginia is here, and I want to cede the time to 
him, but the Presiding Officer understands the point I make. The first 
job of any of us in public life, at whatever level, is to protect the 
safety and security of the American people. There is absolutely no 
reason, if that is our goal, to take so many dedicated public safety 
professionals and mess up their lives so badly by not paying them and 
putting them in a situation where they have to call in sick and they 
have to worry about medical appointments for their kids. That is not 
conducive to American security and safety. We should reopen government 
and get these folks back to work.
  Now that the Senate has passed the backpay bill, I would also point 
out, we will pay these people. Wouldn't we rather pay them to serve 
citizens rather than pay them and lock them out? We do not allow 
Federal workers to strike, but there should be an equivalent. We should 
not lock them out. We are now locking them out, even though we will 
still strike a backpay check to them. Wouldn't we rather they be 
providing safety and security services to their fellow citizens?
  With that, I appreciate the opportunity to address the issue, and I 
yield the floor to my colleague.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, let me pick up where my friend the Senator 
from Virginia left off.
  We are now in the history books: the longest shutdown in American 
history on this President's watch--a President who, a few weeks back, 
said he would be proud to own this government shutdown; a President 
who, in the lead-up, said: Gosh, don't those Democrats know that most 
of the folks who aren't going to get paid are Democrats--

[[Page S177]]

which was, frankly, one of the most insulting comments any elected 
official in my lifetime has ever made.
  I wish the President or somebody from his White House had been with 
Senator Kaine and I when we sat down with Federal workers from Virginia 
last Friday. Senator Kaine may have already mentioned a couple of these 
stories. I am going to briefly recap a couple of them.
  A number of Federal employees who came and sat with us said they were 
in Federal service because they thought it was national service, many 
of them former veterans who felt they had an obligation to continue to 
serve our Nation, to protect it.
  One lady, who worked at a small Agency that investigates chemical 
spills--and there had been a chemical spill in Houston the week 
before--felt her job was to get out and investigate.
  A young man who served in the military now was supposed to be 
approving the safety of helicopters that are supposed to be deployed to 
Iraq. This guy is not able to do his job. Who is going to watch out for 
the safety of those helicopters? What about the needs for those 
helicopters that may be for troops in harm's way?
  There is the story of one worker who said she had a little bit and 
could get through with her savings, but she went into her IRA to draw 
down that money. As Senator Kaine mentioned, she will get repaid, but 
even if she gets repaid, she will not get repaid the tax penalty for an 
early withdrawal from her IRA.
  Another employee was able to get a couple thousand dollar advance on 
a credit card, but even when he is repaid in terms of backpay, that 
will not make up for the fees and interest that is charged on the 
credit card.
  My apologies to the Presiding Officer if the Senator from Virginia 
already recounted this story. A young couple, both Federal employees, 
brought their 7-week-old baby to this meeting and said they wanted to 
bring this small bundle of joy because they had the unthinkable happen. 
When they tried to get their daughter put on their Federal healthcare 
insurance, whoever was supposed to send in the form had been 
furloughed. So when they took their daughter to the doctor and the 
doctor prescribed medicine, at the drug store they couldn't pay the 
bill because the folks didn't have their insurance. They had done 
nothing wrong. In this case, it didn't end up in a tragedy. The 
insurance company, with additional documentation, put the child on the 
insurance plan, and this family was able to get medicine for their 
child, but no parent who has earned the right to have their kid covered 
by health insurance should have this kind of action interfere in their 
life.
  I did hear Senator Kaine mention, we had some of the air traffic 
controllers there, and they brought a series of their checks. It almost 
added insult to injury to get checks that said 1 cent or a zero on it. 
It is better to not even send them a check. As Senator Kaine mentioned, 
do you really want, in the crowded airspace over Dulles, your air 
traffic controller spending 30 percent of his time figuring out how he 
will pay the mortgage or pay his kids' tuition? You want 100 percent of 
that Federal employee's focus on landing that plane safely.
  So 800,000 thousand Federal workers, about half of them furloughed, 
half of them working not just full-time but in some cases overtime.
  Another colleague, earlier today, had some folks working at a Federal 
penitentiary. A lot of the workers weren't showing up to work not 
because they were upset or because they want to rightly protest, they 
couldn't afford the gas because they live 2 hours away from the Federal 
penitentiary.
  We have a President who is willing to go to the border and go on TV 
but who is not willing to sit down with any of this workforce. That is 
embarrassing and, frankly, disgraceful.
  If you were saying this is only about Federal workers, that would be 
bad enough. What about the contractors? Even though there are a group 
of us trying to put legislation in place, even if we reopen government, 
many of these contractors will never be made whole.
  We have in our State a number of small businesses. One veteran-owned 
business with nine employees had to shut down last week because she 
couldn't meet her payroll. Now, will that small business be able to 
reopen? I don't know.
  We in Virginia are blessed with incredible National Parks, the 
Shenandoah National Park and around the area where Senator Kaine lives 
in Richmond, civil war battlefields. This isn't just Federal employees. 
What happens if you are a campground around the Shenandoah National 
Park? What happens if you are a little restaurant right outside of 
Petersburg Battlefield? When those facilities shut down, those small 
businesses will never see that income come back in.
  We have a flourishing craft brewery industry in Virginia, as I know 
they have in New Mexico and I imagine even in Alaska. Port City 
Brewing, based in Virginia, can't bring a couple of new brews to market 
because ATF workers are furloughed.
  There has already been mention of the growing lines at TSA and the 
airports. In fact, ag workers, farmers, are waiting to see whether the 
President's support checks are going to come in. They are not going to 
come in right now. You have bad trade policy reinforced with the bad 
business practices of a government that is shut down.
  As a matter of fact, we can look at this at a more macrolevel. What 
is the cost to the taxpayer? The cost to the taxpayer has already 
exceeded $3.6 billion. Why, in good gracious' name, can't we at least 
just vote on what the House has already voted on, what 96 Senators 
voted on in the middle of December?
  If we want to continue to litigate how we can better protect our 
borders, count me in. I am in favor of additional resources for border 
security. I am sure we can find a way to get to yes, but why hold 
800,000 Federal workers and hundreds of thousands of contractors and, 
for that matter, the whole county hostage?
  I know my friend, the Senator from New Mexico, is here. I am only 
going to take one more moment. In my career, I have spent longer in 
business than I have in government, and most of my career in business 
was about trying to do deals. I was a venture capitalist, which is all 
about doing deals. I was an entrepreneur.
  Subsequent to that, I was Governor of a State that had a 2-to-1 
Republican legislature. If I was going to get anything done as 
Governor, I had to find common ground with a legislature of a different 
party. I am proud to say, we did find common ground, and Virginia got 
independently recognized as best managed State and best State for 
business.
  So I have had a little experience doing deals, and I will wager this; 
that when this shutdown comes to a conclusion, that business schools 
and management consultants will write case studies about how not to 
negotiate based on Donald Trump's activities. Donald Trump, who sold 
himself to the American people as the ultimate dealmaker, has, I think, 
in the last 24--even days before that--violated every cardinal rule of 
how to get a deal done. Let me briefly go through this.
  The first thing you learn in business when you are trying to do a 
deal, even if you have a slight advantage, you try to make it at least 
appear like it is a win-win circumstance for both sides. There has been 
nothing out of this White House that has been any effort toward those 
who don't agree with the President any sense of a win-win. It has been 
all about my way or the highway. That is not the way you practice 
business.
  The second rule of business is, if you have somebody negotiating on 
your behalf, you back up your negotiator. You don't cut their knees 
off. This President has humiliated not only the majority leader of the 
Senate, who had the misfortune of taking and accepting the President's 
word and having the Senate vote 96-to-2 on a plan that he thought the 
President was going to sign and then have his knees cut off, but a few 
days later, he had the Vice President come to Congress and offer a plan 
as at least a starting point. I don't think he even got back downtown 
before the President of the United States had cut off his own Vice 
President's negotiating skills.
  In the last few days, one of the folks whom--I think, at least, based 
on reporting--a friend of all of ours, the President, is supposed to 
listen to, Senator Graham from South Carolina, has been shot down as 
well.
  Rule No. 2, don't kneecap your negotiators.

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  Rule No. 3, realize that no matter how important the deal is, there 
is always going to be another deal. You have to leave something on the 
table. This President has so broken faith with folks in his own party 
and folks on our side of the aisle, how can this individual think he is 
going to have any credibility--regardless of how we resolve this issue 
on any forward-going basis--to be a strong negotiator?
  Rule No. 4, have somebody that is willing to speak truth to power. 
Unfortunately, in this administration, any independent voice has quit, 
been fired, or if they quit, as is the case of the Secretary of 
Defense, the President changes the terms and says he fired them, after 
all.
  Finally, for management 101, if you are asking your workforce to go 
through tough times, show a little empathy. I have never seen a leader 
in our country, in my time in politics, ever be more disrespectful of 
the Federal workforce, and both parties have done this. Whenever, over 
the last decade, we have gone to the well to try to cut programs, the 
part of the programs we always cut are what we call in Washington-speak 
domestic discretionary. In English, that means the folks who work on 
food stamps, the folks who work at our national parks, the folks who 
work at TSA, and the folks who work on the Coast Guard. Yet there has 
been zero empathy from this White House for those workers who all of us 
have spoken about, who are asked to do more, who aren't getting paid, 
or are asked to work overtime. We are a better country than this.
  The President who said he was dealmaker supreme, I think, will go 
down, at least in modern management history, and will be studied but 
not studied on how you get a deal done but, frankly, on how not to get 
a deal done.
  So I think it is incumbent upon us in the Senate to do our job. We do 
not have to ask permission from this President to reopen this 
government, to pass legislation that could override his veto should he 
choose to do that, to make sure the 96 Senators who voted in favor of 
keeping the government open in December would have a chance to reaffirm 
that vote on a going-forward basis.
  I appreciate the time to come to the floor. I am going to hand off to 
my friend, the Senator from New Mexico. It is my hope that we don't 
make further history this week and that we find some way in this next 
day or so to get this government reopened so we can get this Federal 
workforce back to work.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, let me say to Senator Warner, my good 
friend from Virginia, who has an incredible empathy for the Federal 
workforce, we have the same thing in New Mexico, and to our good friend 
Senator Bennet from Colorado, we have Federal employees throughout this 
Nation that really give the extra bit. They go the extra mile. I am 
going to talk a lot about that, the same way Senator Warner is and with 
the same kind of passion he has.
  Today is day 24 of the Trump shutdown. Federal Government employees 
are furloughed, and others are working but did not get paychecks. 
Federal contractors have already received stop work orders. Not only 
are they not getting paid, but they will never receive backpay for work 
lost.
  This Trump shutdown is now the longest shutdown in U.S. history. 
History will show this shutdown to be a political and financial fiasco 
of the President's making.
  You can see in this map, published by the New York Times--and I am 
sure our Presiding Officer will see--that as you get more green on this 
map, you are hurt more by this shutdown.
  You can see Alaska, Maryland, Virginia, New Mexico, Montana, and 
Colorado, and there are a lot of States that are really hurt. We have a 
large workforce in some of the Federal agencies that are currently shut 
down, including the Department of Interior, the Homeland Security 
Department, and the Department of Agriculture.
  My staff estimates, conservatively, that we have at least 10,800 
Federal employees affected, not counting law enforcement. We are a 
small State. This has a big impact. There are no good estimates of the 
impact on many New Mexicans employed by or under contract with Federal 
contractors.
  Federal employees are true public servants who often forego jobs that 
pay more because they believe in public service. These men and women 
have families. Some don't have much in the way of savings. Some live 
paycheck to paycheck. One of those individuals is a Border Patrol agent 
from Las Cruces, in southern New Mexico, who has worked for Customs and 
Border Protection for 18 years. He tells me:

       I live paycheck to paycheck. If I don't get paid the money 
     that I earn, I AM NOT GOING TO MAKE IT! Creditors are not 
     forgiving any debts. I am asking you to please try and help 
     me and all federal workers get paid. I feel stressed and 
     helpless, please help.

  This is from a Border Patrol agent--the folks we rely on to keep our 
Nation safe, which the President claims is his aim. This agent is 
hurting. The President is devastating these agents and their families.
  While Border Patrol agents may or may not support a wall, they do not 
support going unpaid for the difficult and dangerous work they do in 
service to our Nation, in service to keeping our borders safe, which we 
all know is the President's claimed goal.
  The President's unconvincing claim that he can ``relate'' to Federal 
workers not getting paid was belied by his completely out-of-touch 
statement that they can ``make adjustments'' and be just fine.
  This President cannot relate to the professional support employee in 
the Las Cruces FBI office whose mortgage company, gas company, and 
credit card companies are giving her no leeway--making no 
``adjustments''--while she goes without pay. She says she is ``a REAL 
human [being] who is being held hostage.'' She has worked for the FBI 
for 21 years, but she will probably leave Federal service early so that 
she has the financial security she needs to pay her bills.
  She and the other 800,000 other Federal workers are being held 
hostage by a President who is willing to wreck American families for 
his vanity wall.
  An occupational therapist with the Indian Health Service at the 
Gallup Indian Medical Center in northwestern New Mexico tells me, 
emphatically and in all capital letters: ``I AM NOT WITH THE PRESIDENT 
ON THIS ISSUE.''
  She is working hard, providing needed services to Native communities, 
but providing for herself and with no pay, she is beyond stretched. She 
was helping her son pay off college loans. She has had to tell him that 
she can't help right now. She has an elderly mother she visits in Las 
Cruces. She can't plan a trip now.
  In fact, Indian Health Service healthcare providers all over the 
country provide services essential to the health and wellness of nearly 
2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in over 800 hospitals 
and clinics in 37 States. These Federal employees and medical 
professionals--including over 2,000 nurses and nearly as many doctors, 
pharmacists, dentists, and physician assistants--aren't getting paid. 
They are forced to work without pay, and there is no end in sight.
  Federal contractors really feel the brunt of the shutdown. Their 
contract payments are stopped. Contractors have never received back 
payments after a government shutdown.
  We have a Federal contractor in Albuquerque, ADC LTD NM--a minority, 
woman-owned company that has 2,600 employees and contractors 
nationwide--with 330 employees in Albuquerque. The company conducts 
background check investigations for, ironically enough, the Department 
of Homeland Security and other Federal Agencies. This company's work 
has come to a complete stop. This slows down DHS's ability to hire 
qualified employees, inhibiting its mission to keep our borders and 
Nation safe.
  This company is losing tens of thousands of dollars a day. This, you 
can imagine, really hurts my State. Its loss in revenues translates 
directly to a loss in State tax revenue. The multiplier effect of the 
shutdown on New Mexico and the Nation will ripple throughout the 
economy.
  This privately held company, owned by New Mexicans, whose lineage in 
our State goes back more than 300 years, is currently paying its 
employees, even though its revenue has stopped. The owners are 
sacrificing to do so, but they can't continue for the months or even 
years the President says his shutdown could last.

[[Page S179]]

  Federal employees will not stay in their jobs without pay for months 
or years. They have to feed their families and pay their mortgage or 
their rent. Last week, the Senate passed S. 24, sponsored by 43 
Democrats and one Republican, by voice vote. The bill guarantees that 
furloughed Federal workers would be paid from retroactively as soon as 
possible. This is the least Congress can do for these workers. It does 
not resolve, however, the pain Federal workers endure through a 
shutdown or guarantee that their homes will not be at risk during a 
shutdown or guarantee that food will be on their table or ensure that 
the Federal workers will stay in their jobs during a prolonged shutdown 
like the one this President apparently foresees. The solution is to 
shut down the shutdown--to do it now, to do it immediately.
  This Trump shutdown doesn't only affect Federal employees and 
contractors. It affects the tens of thousands of Americans who rely on 
government services or need approval for projects. A local Sante Fe 
small business--a construction company, Sarcon Construction 
Corporation--is ready to begin an $8.4 million project to build two new 
hangars at the Sante Fe Municipal Airport. This 32,000-square-foot 
project will generate $650,000 in local tax revenue, and it will employ 
75 to 100 people. Many of those people are unemployed now, waiting for 
this project to begin. This project is a big deal for my home city of 
Sante Fe.
  Do you know why the project is stalled?
  Sarcon can't get the necessary approval from the Federal Aviation 
Administration because of the Trump shutdown. The FAA personnel 
responsible for approval are furloughed. As we can see, the shutdown 
has real consequences for real people, especially for people like those 
unemployed construction workers in New Mexico, ready and eager to go to 
work but unable because of our President's inability to do his job.
  The President's ridiculous claim that many Federal employees who are 
not getting paid support his shutdown has no basis in reality. The 
Federal workers in New Mexico who are furloughed or are working without 
pay and the Federal workers we have heard from do not support this 
shutdown.
  An employee with the Department of Interior in Albuquerque writes:

       While I am not sure how much good it would do, I emailed 
     the White House to go on record that I am not one of the 
     Federal employees the President is touting as wanting to be 
     out of work without a paycheck until he gets his wall. I just 
     want to go on record . . . that no, Federal employees do not 
     want to stay out of work; we want to go back to work and get 
     paid. This is not our fight, just his.
  A husband and wife from Las Cruces who both work for the 
Environmental Protection Agency are also among the many Federal workers 
who did not support the Trump shutdown. They have three children, and 
they need their paychecks. They don't support Trump's wall either. As 
EPA engineers, they understand and oppose the environmental destruction 
it will cause.
  A scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at 
White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico is one of the hundreds of 
thousands of Federal workers who are essential and working without pay. 
He is working on critical space infrastructure and testing related to 
the Space-X launch scheduled for later this month. There is no good 
reason why this important work is not being paid for right now.
  There is no good reason why any Federal employee is not getting their 
salary today. There is no good reason why Federal contractors' 
contracts are not being honored. This Federal shutdown hurts American 
families across my State and the Nation. It hurts our economy.
  One Federal employee in New Mexico wanted to tell their story but was 
banned by their employer on the ground it would represent illegal 
lobbying of Congress. That is patently false. Federal employees 
contacting their elected representatives about this shutdown and its 
impact on their work and lives is not prohibited lobbying. The Trump 
administration has not only put these people out of work, it is now 
gagging them and denying them their free speech rights.
  I call upon the President to end this terrible shutdown. He should do 
so immediately.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

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