[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 191 (Monday, December 2, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6781-S6783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Senate Legislative Agenda

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving break, and 
I trust the Presiding Officer did, too. I hope all enjoyed time with 
their families and friends last week.
  It was my pleasure to be back home in Texas and spend time with some 
incredible people who and some organizations that are doing a lot of 
good in their communities.

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  For example, I volunteered at the Central Texas Food Bank, which has 
a service area that is twice the size of Massachusetts. It has been 
fighting hunger for nearly four decades. I joined those there to help 
distribute to low-income families some of the food they had collected 
as they prepared for Thanksgiving, and I had the chance to speak with 
dozens of constituents there in the Austin area.
  Then I got in my car and went south about 70 miles to San Antonio, 
which is my hometown, where I volunteered with the preparations for the 
40th annual Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner. As I said, this dinner 
has been going on for 40 years, and it serves 25,000 people each year 
in the San Antonio area who might otherwise go hungry. The numbers are 
immense. I spent a little bit of time as a volunteer with a number of 
folks and picked the turkeys apart and broke them up into small, bite-
sized pieces. They told me that they served 9,400 pounds of turkey 
during this 40th anniversary dinner. It is really one of my favorite 
events each year, and it was made even more special since they 
dedicated this year's dinner to Mary, Raul's wife, who, sadly, passed 
away earlier this year.
  Then I traveled up to Wichita Falls, where I was able to spend a 
little bit of time at Sheppard Air Force Base with the families of 
deployed airmen. I think it is very important that we remember, 
particularly during the holidays, that having a loved one in the 
military service who is deployed and separated from the rest of the 
family involves a lot of sacrifice, not only on the part of the 
servicemember but on the ones who are left behind, as that hole in your 
heart feels a little bit bigger during the holidays.
  My dad served 31 years in the U.S. Air Force. Fortunately, by the 
time I came along, his long-term deployments had long been over. Still, 
every time I meet a young family whose loved one is deployed overseas 
while the family waits behind, it tugs at my heartstrings. So we thank 
not only those who wear the uniform of the U.S. military but those 
family members as well, who, I believe, also serve.
  We have an all-volunteer military. No one makes you join the military 
anymore in America. We should thank all of them for their service in 
different ways.
  It was encouraging to me to meet with these patriots and thank them 
for their sacrifices and help to distribute a little bit of 
Thanksgiving love and food ahead of the holiday.
  I came back here to Washington refreshed, having spent that time with 
constituents and family and friends, and I am eager to get back to 
work.
  We know that the countdown to Christmas is on, and we have a long to-
do list before we are through. One of our top priorities, strange as it 
may sound, is to actually pass appropriations bills to fund the 
government for the remainder of the fiscal year. I believe that the 
single most important function of the Federal Government--something 
that none of us can do individually nor the States collectively--is to 
provide for the common defense. The way we do that is by funding our 
military and making sure that they have the training, the leadership, 
and the materials they need in order to fight and win our Nation's wars 
or, ideally, to not have to fight our Nation's wars because nobody will 
dare mess with the U.S. military.
  That is why it is particularly sad to see that we find ourselves 
balled up in this appropriations process this late in the year. Over 
the summer we came to a bipartisan, bicameral agreement to guide the 
appropriations process and, hopefully, to eliminate this uncertainty 
going into the Christmas season. Last August we had an agreement that 
provided a roadmap for negotiations this fall, and we all promised to 
work together in good faith and to stay away from poison pill policy 
riders and other things that might derail this appropriations process.
  Well, obviously things did not work the way we had planned. 
Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues went back on their promise 
because of a disagreement over 0.3 percent of the federal budget. You 
heard that correctly--0.3 percent. A disagreement over domestic 
spending involving 0.3 percent of the Federal budget derailed all of 
the appropriations process and leaves us in our current state of 
dysfunction.
  So rather than passing appropriations bills on time, as we were on 
track to do, we passed two short-term funding bills, and we are working 
day and night to avoid needing another one when the current continuing 
resolution expires on December 20. I know Chairman Shelby and our 
colleagues and the staff on the appropriations committees have been 
trying to build consensus on these funding bills, and I can only hope 
and pray that we can reach an agreement soon.
  There are a lot of other things that we can and should be doing. We 
started this year off with a government shutdown, and we can't afford 
to make that an annual affair, but this roller coaster ride involving 
short-term spending bills puts us in a bad position, particularly for 
our military and other areas of government that need certainty and need 
to be able to make plans.
  As our troops are serving around the globe to keep us safe, as well 
as our friends and allies abroad, we need to do everything in our power 
here at home to give them the stability they need to succeed. Our 
commanders and military leaders have repeatedly told us how difficult 
it is to plan for the future without a predictable budget, and the 
constantly evolving threat landscape only underscores that need. We 
need to get that done.
  In addition to funding the military, we need to finish up the 
National Defense Authorization Act and get it to the President's desk. 
Every year since 1961, Congress has passed the National Defense 
Authorization Act without delay, and now is not the time to get bogged 
down in partisan fights in Congress and fail to do what we have done 
each year since 1961.
  Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues in the House are trying to 
use this must-pass piece of legislation to leverage some of their 
liberal wish list. The version of this legislation passed by the House 
earlier this year is so partisan that it didn't get a single Republican 
vote--not one. Putting our national security on the line in order to 
pander to radical factions in the opposing party is absolutely 
shameful. There are some things that should rise above politics, rise 
above partisanship, and providing for our military is first on that 
list.
  I appreciate our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, led by 
Chairman Inhofe, who have been fighting to get these poison pills out 
of this legislation so we can pass the National Defense Authorization 
Act without any additional delay. It is critical that we get these 
bills moving before everyone heads home for the holidays.
  There is one other piece of legislation I hope we can deliver before 
we leave. Over the last few weeks, I have been hearing rumors--which I 
hope are true--that a deal on the USMCA is very close. The USMCA, of 
course, is the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which is the 
successor to NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
  NAFTA is reported to support, according to the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce, about 13 million jobs in America--8 million with our 
binational trade with Canada and 5 million with Mexico. This comes 
after nearly a year of negotiations between the administration and 
Speaker Pelosi and her House colleagues to resolve some differences, 
and I am cautiously optimistic that we may yet see an agreement soon. 
We have been anxious to get the final agreement so the House can begin 
processing it and then send it over here so we can begin reviewing it 
in the Senate Finance Committee.
  The experts have told us that this agreement would lead to increased 
wealth for the United States and more than 176,000 new jobs. So it is 
time to get it ratified, but with the House continuing its single-
minded obsession to impeach the President, I hope this trade agreement 
doesn't fall victim to impeachment mania.
  Whether I am meeting with farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, small 
businesses or just average Texans, one of the top questions I get at 
home is this: When is the USMCA going to pass?
  I heard last week that it is one of the top Federal priorities for 
the Central Texas Food Bank. I would like to be able to head home for 
Christmas in a few weeks with some great news for my constituents back 
home.
  With impeachment using up most of the oxygen in Washington, I am 
afraid

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our ability to get bipartisan work done is getting smaller and smaller. 
If the impeachment circus makes its way to this side of the Capitol, 
that ability may completely go away. If we stick to the timeline of the 
Clinton impeachment, that would mean the articles of impeachment would 
be voted on in late December, and then, literally, for the first 5 or 6 
weeks of 2020, the Senate would be required to sit as the jury in 
impeachment proceedings, during which time nothing else can be done.
  We need to check these critical items off of Congress's to-do list 
over the next few weeks--the things that we can and should get done 
before the Christmas holidays, and I am eager to get to work and to do 
my part.
  Our hope is that our friends on the other side of the aisle will join 
us in the same commitment.
  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. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.