[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 99 (Thursday, June 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3452-S3453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BORDER SECURITY
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, all this week, I have been calling
attention to the fact that the Democrats over in the House spent 6
weeks ignoring the urgent need for more funding on the crisis on our
southern border. I have recited one quotation after another from the
administration leaders who are responsible for securing our Nation and
caring for individuals while they are detained. They are pleading with
us to act.
``We are at a full-blown emergency. . . . The system is broken.''
That is the Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. It
couldn't be more clear.
``We are running out of money. We are functionally out of space.''
That one is from the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
I have also run down the underlying statistics. The flood of people
attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border has continued at historic
levels. Our border agents are overwhelmed. Our facilities are filled
beyond capacity--in some cases, with more than seven times more men,
women, and children than their intended capacity.
This is a full-fledged crisis, and everybody knows it. The status quo
cannot hold. Already, the Department of Homeland Security is having to
move people and money away from other important efforts to triage more
help toward the border.
The administration has been saying this is a crisis. The officials on
the ground have been saying this is a crisis. My Republican colleagues
and I have been saying repeatedly this is a crisis. And lest anyone
think this is some partisan exercise, the New York Times editorial
board has been saying it is a crisis. There were two editorials over
the last several weeks. The first headline says: ``Congress, Give Trump
His Border Money,'' and ``When Will Congress Get Serious About the
Suffering at the Border?''
Those are headlines in the New York Times, not frequently allied with
this administration. Everybody seems to understand that, except
Democrats over in the House.
It is not as if our House colleagues are too busy working on
pragmatic, bipartisan legislation with any shot at becoming law. No,
here is what they are up to. One House committee spent yesterday
holding a hearing on pathways to single-payer health insurance--in
other words, barking up the tree of Medicare for None, their big
proposal to take away every American's private health insurance, to
take away Medicare as we know it, and force everyone into a new,
untested, one-size-fits-all government system. That is what they are up
to over there. That is the score. They have no time for the border
crisis but plenty of time for socialist daydreams.
Even my colleague the Democratic leader has admitted the Democratic-
controlled House is the problem here. We have even heard it from House
Democrats themselves. One told reporters that his progressive
colleagues weren't convinced the emergency funding was necessary. One
Democratic Congressman says progressive colleagues were not convinced
that emergency funding was necessary.
So it seems ``the resistance'' has convinced Washington Democrats
that they need to come down to the left of the New York Times editorial
page. There is not much space over there to the left of the New York
Times editorial page.
But Senate Republicans are not going to be deterred. The crisis at
the border hasn't gone anywhere, and neither has our resolve to address
it. Next
[[Page S3453]]
week, the Senate is going to move forward. The Appropriations Committee
will vote again. I hope Democrats in the House of Representatives will
finally realize ``the resistance'' doesn't pay the bills. No more
political posturing, no more automatic knee-jerk opposition to
absolutely everything the administration asks for--it is way past time
for action.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, let me express my appreciation to the
majority leader for highlighting this crisis at the border. There is no
State more directly impacted in our United States than the State of
Texas.
We, obviously, share 1,200 miles of common border with Mexico, and
this is a humanitarian crisis. As the majority leader said, not only
the New York Times editorial page, but Barack Obama in 2014 called far
fewer numbers than are coming across today a humanitarian and security
crisis then, and it has gotten nothing but worse.
I appreciate the leader's bringing this to a head and holding Members
accountable. We know that people talk a good game sometimes, but there
is nowhere to hide when it comes to an up-or-down vote on this
emergency appropriations bill.
I would add that there are other measures taking place. The chairman
of the Judiciary Committee, as the Presiding Officer knows, is working
on a bill that would address the underlying asylum laws, which are
being exploited by the human smugglers who are getting rich moving
people across Mexico from Central America into the United States and
charging them between $5,000 and $10,000 a head--sometimes more. It has
been the unwillingness of the Democrats to engage on that underlying
asylum law and a fix there that has precipitated or contributed to this
humanitarian crisis.
Mr. McCONNELL. Will the Senator from Texas yield for a question?
Mr. CORNYN. I will.
Mr. McCONNELL. As a member of the Judiciary Committee involved in
this, is there any indication there might be bipartisan support for
authorizing this legislation that you all are working on in committee?
Mr. CORNYN. We hope to see. And we will see one way or the other when
we vote on this legislation next week.
I am happy to say that my Democratic colleague Henry Cuellar from
Laredo, TX, which is more directly impacted probably than any place on
the border, joined me in one proposal we call the HUMANE Act, which
would deal with this underlying asylum issue.
We have been working with the chairman, Senator Graham, to come up
with a consensus piece of legislation that will really plug the dike
that has been breached now, which has caused this humanitarian crisis.
There are a number of ways we can deal with this.
Mr. McCONNELL. I would say to my friend that the answer here is not
just the money but an actual adjustment of U.S. law to more directly
affect the crisis that we have. We need to do both, correct?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I agree with the majority leader. We do
need to do both.
I would also add, for those who were disturbed by the President's
invocation of his tariff authority to try to bring the Mexican
Government to the table to negotiate some changes in the way the
Mexican Government deals with this flow of Central Americans coming
across its country, none of that would have been necessary if our
Democratic colleagues had simply worked with us both on the underlying
legislation and on this appropriations bill.
Frankly, the President was put in a corner, and there was not much
else he could do. I am grateful he was able to get a result. Only time
will tell whether those numbers actually go down from the 144,000 last
month.
But while the Democrats are sitting on their hands and maybe talking
a good game, I am glad to know we at least have leadership in the White
House and here in the Senate.
Mr. McCONNELL. Would it be safe to characterize this as a situation
in which we are actually getting more cooperation from the Mexicans
than we are from the Democrats in Congress?
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, that is a sad but true statement. It is
unbelievable to me that the Mexican Government, under President Lopez
Obrador, is doing more than congressional Democrats to try to solve
this humanitarian and security crisis, but that is where we are.
Mr. McCONNELL. I would just add that I hope there is success in the
Judiciary Committee to achieve some kind of bipartisan consensus so
that we can solve the entire problem, not just the humanitarian crisis.
I thank the Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader again for his
leadership and for his comments today.
I yield the floor.
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. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hyde-Smith). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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