[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 155 (Wednesday, September 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier this year, President Trump led 
the Federal Government to recognize our insecure southern border for 
what it is: a national emergency, a humanitarian and security crisis. 
Congress had heard plea after plea for more border security funding. We 
heard from senior leaders and career Border Patrol officers. We heard 
about all the surging illegal crossings, the unprecedented numbers of 
family units, and the strain on our facilities.
  Yet Washington Democrats decided that giving this very real crisis 
the resources it required might anger the far left, which wants them to 
oppose President Trump at any cost. So the President tapped into a 
longstanding, 40-plus-year-old Presidential authority and reprogrammed 
a narrow set of funds to address the urgent crisis.
  I have never been shy about my commitment to the institution of 
Congress and its unique authorities, not the least being the 
appropriation of taxpayer dollars. But we are talking about 40-plus-
year-old Presidential authorities in current law. Unlike President 
Obama, who vaguely shrugged off the Federal Code when he established 
his DACA policy, President Trump's decision was squarely within 
existing law. Nevertheless, our Democratic colleagues made the Senate 
vote to undo the President's declaration back in March. Their 
resolution fell far short of earning a veto-proof majority.
  Now, still unwilling to work with the President and Republicans on a 
long-term bipartisan solution for border security, Senate Democrats are 
making us repeat the same show vote again.
  I would urge all colleagues to once again vote for border security 
and vote against the Democrats' resolution when it comes up later 
today.
  I understand the Democratic leadership would like to invent a false 
choice between border security and other important military 
construction projects. They want to tell the American people that we 
can either have border security or these other important projects, but 
for some reason, we can't have both.
  There are two problems to that argument:
  Problem No. 1 is that it is a false choice of Democrats' own 
invention. The only reason there could be any tradeoff between border 
security and these other priorities is their refusal to support 
commonsense border security. The only reason there is any tradeoff is 
that Democrats have refused to work with the President.
  Problem No. 2 of their argument is that Congress has the full power 
to ensure that all of the military construction projects are fully 
funded. Work is ongoing on appropriations and the NDAA. It would be 
easy to ensure that these projects get all of the money they need.
  Later today, the Senate will vote on exactly that. We will vote on 
several motions to instruct our NDAA conferees. One of those motions 
will be a Republican proposal that we insist on fully funding these 
projects for our own servicemembers.
  With the Kentuckians I represent, this is pretty simple. Kentuckians 
want our Nation to have a secure southern border. Kentuckians want full 
funding for the middle school at Fort Campbell--funding they have been 
waiting on for years, which is funding I proudly secured in the first 
place. Kentuckians know perfectly well that with everything the United 
States of America spends money on, there is no earthly reason the 
Democrats should force us to have one or the other. They don't want to 
be used as pawns in the Democrats' political games.
  Even my Democratic colleagues who don't support the administration's 
border security agenda should not take out their frustrations on our 
Armed Forces. Every single Member of this body should be able to 
support the measure to fully fund military construction. I would urge 
all of my colleagues to vote yes on that motion later today.

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