[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 46 (Thursday, March 14, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1855-S1856]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DECLARATION OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, later today, the Senate will vote on 
a resolution related to the state of emergency the President has 
declared on our southern border. Let me first say, I support the 
President's decision. So I will vote today to uphold it and reject this 
resolution of disapproval.
  I want to begin where this whole discussion should begin--beyond all 
the partisan rhetoric and denials of reality we see from our friends 
across the aisle, just the facts of the matter, and the facts are not 
at all ambiguous. There is a clear border security and humanitarian 
crisis on the southern border of the United States of America.
  It was only last week that the President's top officials in the 
matter--Secretary Nielsen and CBP Commissioner McAleenan--each came 
before Congress to once again lay all this out.
  The man charged with protecting our Nation's borders didn't mince 
words ahead of last week's hearing. This is what he had to say: ``The 
system is well beyond capacity, and remains at the breaking point.''
  The system is well beyond capacity and remains at the breaking point. 
The Commissioner pointed out to our colleagues on the Judiciary 
Committee that the 76,000 attempted illegal crossings documented in 
February marked an 11-year high for that month, and, based on CBP 
projections, by the middle of this month--tomorrow--apprehensions for 
fiscal year 2019 will already be twice what they were in all of fiscal 
year 2017.
  In front of the House Homeland Security Committee, the Secretary of 
Homeland Security elaborated by saying the following: ``Our capacity is 
already severely strained, but these increases will overwhelm the 
system completely.''
  This is one of the President's senior advisers--a Cabinet Secretary--
and she is telling Members of Congress that the current situation is 
very much a crisis, one that requires immediate action.
  Over the past 5 years, CBP has recorded a 620-percent increase in 
apprehensions of family units at the U.S.-Mexico border. Last year's 
figure marked an alltime high.
  Research suggests upward of 30 percent of women apprehended at the 
border report experiencing sexual assault during the journeys. Lately, 
a daily average of 56 individuals taken into CBP custody have required 
emergency medical care.
  The men and women of the Border Patrol are great. They are well 
trained, they are highly skilled, and they volunteered for a very 
challenging job, but today they are facing challenges they are not 
fully equipped to overcome.
  It is no secret I take the Senate as an institution extremely 
seriously. I take the separation of powers extremely seriously. I take 
Congress's prerogative over appropriations extremely seriously, but--as 
I argued yesterday in the context of the Yemen resolution--the Senate 
should not be in the business of misusing specific resolutions to 
express opinions on more general matters.
  President Trump has not invoked some vague article II authority or 
simply swept aside existing law, as President Obama did to establish 
his DACA

[[Page S1856]]

policy. He has simply operated within existing law--the National 
Emergencies Act of 1976--to invoke a narrow set of authorities to 
reprogram a narrow set of funds.
  If Congress has grown uneasy with this new law, as many have, then we 
should amend it. If the 116th Congress regrets the degree of 
flexibility the 94th Congress gave the Executive, the 116th Congress 
has the ability to do something about it. I have suggested to the chair 
of the Homeland Security Committee that they examine how the law can be 
updated to reflect these concerns. I hope they can report bipartisan 
solutions through the regular order that the full Senate can actually 
take up.
  Let's not lose sight of the particular question that is before us 
later today, whether the facts tell us there is truly a humanitarian 
and security crisis on our southern border and whether the Senate, for 
some reason, feels this particular emergency on our own border does not 
rise to the level of the 31 other national emergencies which are 
currently in effect.
  In my own view, these narrow questions are not especially difficult 
ones to answer. The President is operating within existing law, and the 
crisis on our border is all too real. So I will vote to support the 
President's decision later today, and I encourage our colleagues to do 
the same.

                          ____________________