[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 28 (Wednesday, February 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1285-S1286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday Chairman Shelby, Ranking 
Member Leahy, and their House counterparts continued finalizing their 
legislative proposal to fund the government. Their negotiated solution 
would wrap up this year's appropriations and avoid another partial 
government shutdown.
  As our colleagues hammer out the final details, I would like to thank 
them again for their cooperative, bipartisan efforts that have brought 
us to this point. The agreement reached on Monday was achieved because 
the conference committee set aside far-left poison pills and utterly 
absurd demands. None of these radical nonstarters was allowed to 
torpedo the process.
  Notwithstanding weeks of over-the-top rhetoric from Speaker Pelosi, 
the agreement did not cave to the far-left demand that no more than a 
single dollar go toward new barriers on the southern border--no, 
indeed, it provides well over a billion such dollars. The negotiators 
also prevented last-minute efforts to hamstring the U.S. Immigrations 
and Customs Enforcement with an unprecedented statutory limit on their 
ability to detain criminal aliens in the interior of our country.
  Instead, here is what their agreement does provide. It provides 
another significant downpayment on the President's plan to secure our 
Nation's borders with new physical barriers and keep American 
communities safe. It provides nearly $1.4 billion for new barriers in 
the Border Patrol's highest priority areas--enough to build nearly 
twice as many miles as were funded last year. It gives ICE the capacity 
and the flexibility to continue responding to surges in illegal 
immigration. It continues to provide the President with appropriate 
reprogramming authority, so he can direct additional funding toward 
urgent homeland security priorities should circumstances require. Of 
course, in addition to all this, the legislation will wrap up all our 
outstanding regular appropriations bills and get the entire Federal 
Government funded the right way.
  It goes without saying that neither side is getting everything it 
wants. That is the way it goes in divided government. If the text of 
the bill reflects the principles agreed to on Monday, it won't be a 
perfect deal, but it will be a good deal.
  I hope that our colleagues will complete the process of turning these 
principles into legislation soon and final text that can become law 
before this Friday's deadline.
  We can't let any unrelated, cynical, partisan plays get in the way of 
finishing this important process. I understand, for example, that 
Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats are apparently objecting, believe it 
or not, to a modest extension of the Violence Against Women Act. They 
want this authority to expire on Friday.
  Republicans believe that we should follow standard procedure and 
extend

[[Page S1286]]

this important legislation through the end of the fiscal year, which is 
about 7 months. There are new chairmen in this Congress of both the 
Senate and House Judiciary Committees, and a modest extension of this 
authority would allow them to work on a longer term reauthorization of 
this important law. In addition, a modest extension of this law is 
consistent with how this matter has been handled in the past. Every 
time a continuing resolution was necessary in the past Congress, 
Republicans made sure it included an extension of VAWA.
  I don't know what cynical ploy my Democratic colleagues may be trying 
to pull here, but surely no political maneuvering should be worth 
letting the Violence Against Women Act lapse this Friday, 2 days from 
now. It is time to get this done.

                          ____________________