[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 162 (Tuesday, October 3, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4906-S4907]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as the world now knows, over the weekend, 
Congress passed a short-term funding bill to prevent a government 
shutdown.
  I want to commend Speaker McCarthy and the Members of the House on 
both sides of the aisle for finding a path forward to keep the 
government open for the next 45 days while the two Chambers advance 
full-year appropriations bills. The failure to advance those bills was, 
in fact, the reason why we came up against the end of the fiscal year 
deadline and had to resort to a short-term continuing resolution.
  Now, I have made my feelings about government shutdowns crystal 
clear. They don't save any money. They don't solve any problems, and 
the same problems that caused you to shut down the government are still 
there staring you in the face when you reopen. They are not in anyone's 
best interest, unless you are concerned primarily with politics and the 
blame game.
  When the government shuts down, millions of federal workers are left 
without being paid. Now, that doesn't mean they don't have to continue 
doing their jobs. It just means they won't get paid. That includes 
members of the military, our frontline border security personnel, and 
so many others. I am glad their families don't have to confront the 
reality of a shutdown today.

  Beyond the impact on individual workers, shutdowns impact critical 
functions of the Federal Government. Immigration court hearings are 
canceled, resulting in an even greater backlog of pending cases. The E-
Verify system, which is designed to allow employers to determine 
whether somebody can lawfully work in the United States, is taken 
offline, meaning employers have no way to verify job applicants' 
employment eligibility. In many cases, Federal investigators aren't 
able to pursue leads of potential criminal activity, develop evidence, 
or even bring enforcement actions against bad actors. Programs that 
support our veterans, low-income families, and other vulnerable 
Americans are temporarily paralyzed.
  So there are no winners during a government shutdown. The 
overwhelming majority of us--and, I believe, of the country--understand 
that. So I am glad we were able to avert a crisis at the last minute. 
But the fact that we even landed in that situation represents a failure 
of Congress to govern, and it starts right here in the U.S. Senate.
  At the start of the summer, it looked like the Senate would embrace 
the regular appropriations process, something it hadn't done in a long 
time. The day this Chamber passed the legislation raising the debt 
limit, Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell issued a joint statement 
about the process going forward. This is back when the debt ceiling 
legislation was signed. They said they asked the chair and vice chair 
of the Appropriations Committee to get regular order process started to 
move all 12 appropriations bills through the Appropriations Committee. 
The leadership also pledged to work in a bipartisanship fashion to 
advance funding bills and noted that ``expeditious floor 
consideration'' would be key to preventing automatic funding cuts.
  Well, there is no question that our colleagues on the Appropriations 
Committee did their job. As a matter of fact, they exceeded their 
expectations. Under the leadership of Chairman Murray and Ranking 
Member Collins, the Appropriations Committee passed all 12 
appropriations bills before the end of July. Each bill received, as I 
said, broad bipartisan support. More than half of them passed 
unanimously.
  So our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, on a bipartisan 
basis, handed the majority leader 12 bipartisan funding bills on a 
silver platter. They put the Senate in the strongest possible position 
to return to a transparent, orderly, and full-participation process, 
where every Member of the Senate would get a chance to participate in 
shaping those bills--hopefully, maybe even improving them.
  But, as we know now, that is not what happened. The majority leader, 
which, as we know--maybe not everybody knows--is the only person in the 
Senate--of all 100 Senators, the majority leader is the only one who 
can schedule legislation for votes on the floor. And he allowed the 
months of June, July, August, and half of September to pass before he 
even attempted to put a bill on the floor.
  The minibus, or the package of three appropriations bills that the 
Senate majority leader, the Senator from New York, put on the floor for 
vote, wasn't until 18 days before the funding deadline. Now, that is a 
far cry from the ``expeditious floor consideration'' that he promised 
earlier this year. He had ample time and countless opportunities to 
move those bills across the Senate floor and to pave the way for a 
thoughtful and on-time appropriations process.
  Instead, as we all know, we were here on Saturday, September 30, 
scrambling to pass a short-term funding bill to avoid a shutdown. And I 
remember, speech after speech after speech, the

[[Page S4907]]

majority leader said: Oh, it is those Republicans in the House who are 
causing this problem. And he accepted no responsibility for his failure 
to move a single appropriations bill through the Senate before the end 
of the fiscal year.
  Well, we were staring down the barrel of a government shutdown, and 
it was in large part because of his lack of leadership of the Senate. I 
am sure that Senator Schumer will not hesitate to claim credit for 
keeping the government open and blame the House for the problems, but I 
think it is important to remind everyone of the facts.
  Mr. President, here we are, October 3, the Democrat-led Senate has 
still not passed a single one of the 12 regular appropriations bills. 
We haven't passed funding for the Defense Department, for Homeland 
Security, for Veterans Affairs--nothing. And what is even more 
astonishing is the majority leader, apparently, has no plans to move 
any appropriations bills across the floor this week or in coming weeks. 
The Senate is not even expected to address any appropriations bills 
before gaveling out tomorrow evening and returning about 2 weeks later.
  Now, as we know, Congress passed, thanks to the House, a bipartisan 
stopgap appropriations bill. We had 45 days from Saturday to fund the 
government on an ongoing basis, and the majority leader has chosen to 
send the Members of the Senate home for the next 2 weeks and to burn 2 
weeks out of the 45 days, doing nothing. I fear that, 45 days from 
Saturday, we will have passed--since we passed the current continuing 
resolution, we will find ourselves exactly in the same place we found 
ourselves just a couple of days ago.

  It is outrageous. It is irresponsible. The American people deserve 
better.
  The House, by contrast, which the majority leader likes to point to 
as the problem, even though they saved our bacon by passing a short-
term CR there--when the Senate had done nothing, all we could do was 
take up their short-term continuing resolution and pass it, which we 
did on Saturday night.
  Meanwhile, the House has passed 5 of its 12 funding bills, with plans 
to advance even more during the coming days. Speaker McCarthy canceled 
the scheduled recess so the House can continue to process those bills.
  The Senate majority leader should take a few lessons from Speaker 
McCarthy. He should start putting funding bills on the floor and take 
our responsibilities seriously. There is no excuse for burning 2 weeks 
out of the 45 days we just got last Saturday when there is so much work 
to be done.
  But I guarantee one thing, I will bet you Senator Schumer will try to 
cast blame on House Republicans. But the facts speak for themselves. 
The only reason we are not in a shutdown today is because of Speaker 
McCarthy, because of his leadership. He managed to get a clean short-
term funding bill through the House with bipartisan support. All 
Senator Schumer had to do was schedule a vote in the Senate. McCarthy's 
clean continuing resolution passed with the vote of 88 Senators.
  Well, I hope the majority leader will use the next couple of weeks--
or the remaining weeks in that 45-day reprieve--far more wisely than he 
has used it during the last 3 months. He promised regular order, and 
now is his chance, once again, to deliver it.
  In the next several weeks, I hope the Senate will have the chance to 
visit all 12 of those appropriations bills--maybe bundled as so-called 
minibuses, but to address them, nonetheless. But I expect the Senate 
will also, at the same time, have a thorough debate about our Nation's 
border security or lack thereof.
  The Biden administration claims it is taking action to control 
illegal immigration, but the evidence plainly shows that their policies 
are making things worse, not better. According to news reports, 
September broke the record for the most border crossings in a single 
month. An estimated 260,000 migrants crossed the southern border last 
month.
  CBS News has reported that the Department of Homeland Security has 
released most migrants into the interior--just released them--some even 
without a notice to appear in immigration court. The Department of 
Homeland Security has instructed them to undergo immigration court 
proceedings, which, potentially, are as much as 10 years away.
  Law enforcement, nonprofits, and border communities have been under 
tremendous strain throughout the Biden administration, and it is time 
for Congress to take action to address the crisis, even if President 
Biden will not.
  I was in New York yesterday and learned about the strain being placed 
on that great city, just trying to house all of the migrants who end up 
there.
  I read that the Governor of Illinois is asking for more money to help 
pay for the housing and the feeding of these families.
  So, clearly, we have got a problem, but, so far, the Biden 
administration hasn't cared to lift a finger to do anything about it.
  One thing I can promise you is I, for one, am not going to vote for a 
penny of more money to fund the current broken system. So we are going 
to have a debate and a discussion, and we are going to have some votes 
on what the Federal Government needs to do to step up and fill the gap 
being filled right now by States like Texas and Arizona.
  We need more agents. We need more detention space, more physical 
barriers, more immigration judges, and more flexibility to remove 
individuals who have zero legitimate claim to remain in the United 
States.
  President Biden has proven his unwillingness to address this crisis. 
So it is time for Congress to do so.
  As funding discussions continue, this is a top priority for Senate 
Republicans, and I know, from talking to my Democratic colleagues, they 
understand this is a problem. They understand that the problem that 
many thought was one that border States had to bear is now affecting 
the entire country. And we haven't even talked about the drugs that 
come across the border, smuggled by the same criminal organizations 
that smuggle people.
  So I am glad Congress averted a government shutdown, but the real 
work has just begun. We have less than 7 weeks to advance a full-year 
appropriations bill and address urgent priorities like securing the 
border. I would urge the majority leader just to quit wasting time. You 
know, for many weeks now, Congress has not been in session--or the 
Senate has not been in session--on Mondays. So we come into session on 
Tuesday at about 3 in the afternoon, have a vote at 5:30, and then we 
leave after lunch on Thursday. The American people are not getting what 
they pay for when it comes to the Senate doing its job. But, again, the 
person who controls that schedule is the majority leader, and it is 
time to get serious and to get to work and to do our job.
  I hope the majority leader will quit wasting time and allow the 
Senators to do the work we were sent here to do.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.