[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1591-1595]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I come to the floor to call for a vote 
against the motion to proceed to H.R. 240, the House Homeland Security 
funding bill.
  Now, this is a shock--for Senator Barbara Mikulski to call for a vote 
against a motion to proceed on an appropriations bill. For the past 2 
years, I have been on the floor speaking out, pounding the table, 
saying: Let's bring up bills; let's bring them up one at a time.
  So now why am I on the floor asking for a vote against the motion to 
proceed on the Department of Homeland Security funding bill?
  Well, I can tell us it is because the Homeland Security bill has two 
parts. One is an essential bill, the funding for the Department of 
Homeland Security--which I hope we get to and we get to as 
expeditiously as possible. But they have another component to it--
poison pill riders--five riders from the House of Representatives 
designed to attack the President on immigration.
  These riders, if passed, will guarantee the President will veto the 
bill, and we are going to be back to parliamentary ping-pong. We 
posture and pomp and vote. Send it to the President; he will veto it. 
We will get into more posturing, pomp, and partisan points. For what? 
We need to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
  Yes, we do need to deal with immigration, but the Senate passed an 
immigration bill. Rather than attacking the President, let's attack the 
problems from immigration. Let's deal with the DREAMers. Let's deal 
with getting people into the sunshine.
  This institution, both the House and the Senate under Republican 
control, criticized the President for not acting.
  Where is leadership? Where is leadership? When the President acts, as 
he did on immigration, they want to punish him by adding poison pill 
riders to an essential--essential--national security bill.
  Colleagues on the other side say: Why are you seeking to delay the 
funding bill?
  I am not seeking to delay the funding bill. I am asking that we put 
in a clean bill and just vote on the money part.
  All of my Democratic colleagues and I wrote a letter to Senator 
McConnell asking him to schedule a vote on a clean Homeland Security 
bill. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member on the Appropriations 
Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and I put in a clean bill the other 
day.
  We could do it now. We could pass that funding today and reserve the 
debate on immigration for another day, calling upon the House to do 
their job. But right now I want all of the wonderful men and women who 
work at the Department of Homeland Security to be paid for the work 
they do.
  We need them. We need them in cyber security. We need them searching 
out the lone-wolf attacks. Weren't we proud of the brilliant job our 
Homeland Security leadership provided to

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protect all the people who so enjoyed the Super Bowl?
  We have a lot of work to do. In my own home State we are dependent on 
the Coast Guard, but so is every other State with a coastal area, 
protecting us in terms of search and rescue, against drug dealers.
  What about our Border Patrol, which is there every single day in 
dangerous circumstances; don't they deserve our respect, the resources 
they need, and the pay they have earned?
  Let's get with the program. The program is to protect America, not to 
protect a political party and its partisan points on immigration. Our 
job is to protect the homeland security of the United States of 
America.
  I am adamant about this. We are now 4 months into the fiscal year. We 
could be heading for--I hope not--another continuing resolution. We 
need to stand for America.
  Americans are in danger at home and abroad. I know my other 
colleagues are waiting to speak. But we do face terrorist threats. We 
do face cyber criminals. The Secret Service is reforming itself. We 
have fence jumpers at the White House, we have drones over the White 
House, and yet we are going to dicker, dicker, dicker, and dicker 
against five poison pill amendments.
  Let's clean this up and vote against the motion to proceed today. 
Let's come back with the clean bill that Senator Shaheen and I 
introduced.
  The money has been agreed upon on both sides of the aisle and both 
sides of the dome in the closing hours of the fiscal year 2015 debate. 
Working hand-in-hand with Senator Dan Coats we fashioned a bill in the 
Senate, and we have it agreed to over in the House. So we could do our 
job so that Homeland Security can do their job.
  Defeat this ill-conceived motion to proceed. Let's proceed to a clean 
bill. Let's protect America and then get on with other important 
debates.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to follow my leader on the 
Appropriations Committee, Senator Mikulski. She and I know what it was 
like on 9/11/2001 in this building. We were looking out the window down 
the Mall and saw black smoke billowing from the Pentagon. We didn't 
know what happened, but we were told immediately to evacuate this U.S. 
Capitol Building.
  I had never heard those words before. We raced out of the building, 
standing on the lawn outside, unaware of exactly what happened.
  We knew about the tragedy in New York. We didn't know what was next. 
We stood there in our bewilderment, thinking what could we do. Well, 
what we did was protect ourselves and our Nation and come together. I 
remember our choral director, when we came together, Senator Mikulski 
of Maryland, led us in singing ``God Bless America'' that evening on 
the steps of the Capitol.
  There was a feeling of bipartisanship brought about by the tragedy of 
that moment and the belief that we had to rise above party to do 
something and keep America safe.
  We did. I am proud of that, and I am proud of the role the Senator 
from Maryland played in that.
  One of the aspects that went way beyond singing was to roll up our 
sleeves and decide how to make government work more effectively. We had 
two outstanding leaders in that effort: Senator Lieberman of 
Connecticut and Senator Collins of Maine. The ranking Republican and 
Democratic chair of that committee came together and crafted a bill 
literally to create a new department in our government, the Department 
of Homeland Security, that brought together, I believe, 22 different 
agencies under one roof so that we could effectively coordinate keeping 
America safe.
  We agreed on a bipartisan basis and created that Department, and that 
Department has really served us well. The current Secretary, Jeh 
Johnson, is an outstanding individual. They have so many areas of 
responsibility. Other agencies play an important role--defense, 
intelligence, transportation--but the Department of Homeland Security 
is the coordinating department for America's safety against terrorism.
  That is why it is incredible to me that we have refused to provide 
the funds the Department of Homeland Security needs to keep America 
safe.
  The Republicans insisted in December, in the House of 
Representatives, they would not pass the appropriations bill for one 
department, the Department of Homeland Security, because they wanted to 
enter into a debate with the President over immigration policy. There 
is nothing wrong with a debate over immigration policy. In fact, the 
Republicans, now in the majority control of the House and Senate, could 
have started that debate weeks ago. They didn't.
  Instead, they attached five riders to the Department of Homeland 
Security appropriations bill, and they said: We will not allow that 
Department to be properly funded unless the President accepts these 
five immigration riders.
  I wish to speak to one of those riders because it really tells the 
story of the feelings of many on the Republican side when it comes to 
immigration.
  Fourteen years ago I introduced the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is very 
basic. If you were brought to America as an infant, a toddler, a child 
by your parents, and you were undocumented in America, we believe you 
still deserve a chance.
  As children, they didn't vote on the family decision to come to 
America, but their lives have been changed because of that decision. 
They have lived in America--many of these young people--undocumented, 
growing up, going to school, doing everything every child around them 
did, and then finally knowing they didn't have the necessary legal 
documentation to stay in this country.
  Well, I introduced the DREAM Act and said for those kids--who should 
not be held responsible for any wrongdoing by their parents--give them 
a chance. Give them a chance if they have led a good life, if they have 
graduated from high school, if they aspire to serve in our military or 
go on to college. Give them a chance to be legal in America.
  The DREAM Act we have never enacted into law despite 14 years of 
effort. But the President stepped in 2\1/2\ years ago and said by 
Executive order: We will not deport the DREAMers if there is no 
evidence of criminal wrongdoing, if they have completed high school, if 
they came here as infants, toddlers, and children. We will give them a 
chance to stay in America, to work in America, and to go to school in 
America.
  We estimate 2 million young people would qualify, and 600,000 have 
gone through the process. They have paid the filing fee, gone through 
the process, have the protection of what we call DACA, and now don't 
have to fear deportation. Who are these young people? They, frankly, 
are some of the most inspiring stories I have met as a Member of the 
Senate.
  The Republicans in the House of Representatives have said they want 
to deport the DREAMers. That is right. They will not allow the 
Department of Homeland Security to renew their protection from 
deportation, and they won't allow any others to apply for DACA 
protection.
  That means 600,000 young people currently protected by DACA would be 
facing deportation and another 1.5 million will be facing it as well.
  Now, that is the answer of the Republican Party when it comes to 
immigration. Take these children--who came here as children to America, 
who have shown they want to be part of America's future--and deport 
them. Get rid of them.
  From the Republican point of view in the House of Representatives, we 
have no use for these young people.
  I wish to introduce one of these young people. This is Aaima Sayed. 
Aaima Sayed was brought to the United States from Pakistan. When she 
was 3 years old her parents brought her to this country. She grew up in 
Chicago like every other typical American kid. Aaima says:

       I have no memories but those of living in the United 
     States; I am an American in every way, except on paper.

  Aaima was an outstanding student. She graduated in the top 10 percent 
of

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her high school class, where she was secretary of the Spanish club, the 
math team, and a member of the National Society of High School 
Scholars. Her dream in life is to be a doctor. This is how she explains 
it:

       It completely breaks my heart to see thousands of children 
     die of treatable diseases due to inadequate basic health care 
     facilities, and I want to have the skills and ability to 
     change that.

  In January 2012, Aaima graduated from Rutgers University magna cum 
laude with a major in psychology. She was on the dean's list six times 
and had a grade point average of 3.75 out of 4.0. She was a research 
assistant at the Rutgers Department of Psychology and interned with a 
local cardiologist. Aaima took the Medical College Admission Test, the 
MCAT, after graduating magna cum laude from Rutgers.
  She scored in the 90th percentile. Her score was better than 90 
percent of those who took the test. Shortly after she graduated from 
Rutgers, she was told that President Obama had an Executive order that 
gave her a chance to stay in America. It was called DACA. She applied 
for it, and she was accepted.
  For Aaima, it meant that now, for the first time, she could honestly 
think about going to go medical school. She has never received any 
government assistance, incidentally. As an undocumented person in 
America, she doesn't qualify. So when she goes to college, it is at 
considerable challenge and hardship beyond those who had help from the 
government. She never did.
  Aaima sent a letter to me about DACA and its impact on her. She said:

       I went from feeling hopeless and full of uncertainty 
     regarding my future to feeling confident and optimistic that 
     I will one day get the opportunity to help my community and 
     people in other poverty-stricken areas.

  Then something amazing happened. Loyola University in Chicago, after 
the President's Executive order on DACA, decided they would create 10 
spots in their medical school for DACA students around America such as 
Aaima. She applied.
  I went to Loyola the day they started classes and met 10 of them. 
Aaima is an amazing young woman. This was an extraordinary academic 
achievement in her life, and she was surrounded by those just like her 
who were ``undocumented,'' protected by President Obama's Executive 
order.
  The 10 were accepted to Loyola in this special program in their 
medical school on one condition; that is that when they finished and 
became doctors, they had to agree to serve in underserved areas where 
the poor people live in America and don't have doctors. They gladly 
agreed to do it.
  They are not going to medical school to get rich. They are going to 
medical school for the enrichment of a profession where they can help 
so many deserving people. That is where Aaima is today, at Loyola's 
medical school. I thank Loyola University for giving her a chance and 
giving nine others a chance. I thank them as well for giving Aaima the 
opportunity to serve those in America--in cities and rural areas--who 
have no doctors.
  The House Republicans want to deport this young woman. That is what 
they have said: We want to deport her. We don't believe she should stay 
in America. After all she has accomplished in her life, after all she 
promises to bring to our great country, the Republicans have said: No, 
we don't need you. We don't want you. Leave.
  That is what the rider says on the Department of Homeland Security. I 
come to this floor virtually every day and tell another story, such as 
the story of Aaima, the story of what she has been through and the 
promise she holds for the future of this country. I cannot understand 
the mentality of some on the other side of the aisle who are so hateful 
when it comes to these young, idealistic, amazing young people. Some of 
the things they have said about these DREAMers are very sad. I have had 
a chance to meet them, and I am going to continue to work for them.
  So let us do this. Let us pass a clean Department of Homeland 
Security bill. What does that mean? Take off the riders, take off the 
politically extraneous things. Let us pass the bill to fund the 
Department that keeps America safe and then turn to the majority 
party--the Republican majority party--and say: Now accept your 
responsibility. If you want to debate immigration, bring it to the 
floor of the Senate, bring it to the floor of the House. It is within 
your power to do it. Don't hold the Department of Homeland Security 
hostage. Please, when you consider the future of immigration in 
America, don't forget we are a nation of immigrants, and that immigrant 
stock has made this the greatest country on Earth, if I can say. Let us 
continue that tradition.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, later today, the Senate will vote on 
whether it should proceed to a bill that attempts to link two critical 
yet independent debates: the day-to-day operations of one of the 
Nation's key national security agencies, and addressing our broken 
immigration system. Now, in doing that, it appears that leadership 
wants to hold hostage the operations of the Department of Homeland 
Security, an office charged with protecting our national security. And 
frankly, that is simply irresponsible.
  Sometimes the sense of history around here is whatever was the last 
sound bite heard on television, but let's take an honest look at the 
real history and how we got here: It has been well over a year and a 
half since a strong, bipartisan majority, Democrats and Republicans, 
came together in the Senate and approved a package of comprehensive 
immigration reforms. We did this after the Senate Judiciary Committee 
had held hundreds of hours of hearings and debate in markup. We passed 
it here overwhelmingly. The Republican House leadership refused to 
allow a vote on that measure even though most of it would have passed 
the House of Representatives. Now, because they wouldn't act at all, 
and left a void, the President acted. The President acted when he had 
waited for a couple of years to see if Congress would act--waited for 
the House of Representatives to take up the bill we passed. He had to 
act. This is almost like ``Alice in Wonderland.'' The Republican 
leadership refuses to act on the immigration bill and then they get mad 
because the President, who has to take responsibility for this country, 
acts. They now want to put at risk the very operations of the agency 
charged with enforcing the immigration laws in question and blame it on 
the President because they failed to act. This is ``Alice in 
Wonderland.''
  I know Republicans object to the President's Executive action. We 
spent hours hearing their complaints last week as the Senate Judiciary 
Committee was supposed to be considering the qualifications of Loretta 
Lynch to be Attorney General. It had nothing to do with her but they 
wanted to vent for the cameras. It went on until the cameras were 
turned off. I would say that instead of complaining about what they 
failed to do and complaining about what the President does to protect 
this country, why don't they offer some meaningful solutions for fixing 
our broken immigration system. A good place to start would be the 
comprehensive immigration bill we passed last Congress by a vote of 68-
32. There was plenty in that bill I did not like but it included 
meaningful reforms to all aspects of our immigration system that was 
negotiated and improved through the full committee process and that is 
what made it a real compromise.
  Now, instead of voting on that bipartisan compromise or other 
alternative solutions, all we see are attempts to undermine any efforts 
at comprehensive reform. By blocking all alternatives, the Republicans 
are keeping us locked in a status quo that hurts our economy, makes us 
less safe and pulls families apart.
  The President's Executive action is a positive step toward keeping 
our communities safe because it requires DHS to prioritize the 
deportation of dangerous criminals. And it encourages those immigrants 
with longstanding ties to our communities who do not pose a danger to 
register with the government and come out of the shadows.
  Law enforcement officers and victims' advocates tell us the 
President's

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Executive action will make our communities and families safer because 
people will not hesitate to call the police for fear of being deported 
themselves.
  Business leaders, economists and labor leaders tell us it will grow 
our economy and increase wages for all workers. It will level the 
playing field for American workers and raise revenues by more than 
$22.6 billion over 5 years.
  Immigration and constitutional law experts have concluded that it is 
constitutional and the President acted within his authority.
  Mayors from 33 major cities across the country who work every day to 
make our communities safe and our businesses flourish, have said the 
Executive action will fuel growth in local economies, increase public 
safety, and facilitate the integration of immigrants. These are not 
political partisans. They are frontline leaders who understand the 
daily problems posed by our broken immigration system. They are telling 
us that we must act. And until we do, they are supportive of the 
temporary steps the President has taken.
  House Republicans have said their proposal will bolster border 
security in a way the President's Executive actions did not but those 
claims ignore reality. Border security has become a game of who can 
develop the most outlandish, unrealistic proposals. Round-the-clock 
drone surveillance. Doubling the border patrol. Waiving all 
environmental laws. Requiring DHS to prevent every last undocumented 
person from crossing the southern border. These proposals are not 
serious. They never worked in the past. They are not going to work now. 
We are not at war with Mexico and Canada. We cannot seal our borders. 
Nor should we.
  We already have devoted an enormous amount of resources to border 
security. The overall budget for CBP and ICE has nearly doubled in the 
past 10 years. Hundreds of miles of border fencing has been 
constructed. We have more than 21,000 border patrol agents. And, the 
Department has deployed advanced technologies and airborne assets. The 
most effective border security measure would be approving the 
comprehensive immigration reforms passed by the Senate last Congress 
that reduce the number of people trying to come here in the first 
place.
  The Senate has a choice. We can set aside politics and act like 
grownups or we can waste days debating the legislation sent to us by 
the House, which the President has made clear he will veto.
  What I suggest is that we respond to the American people and act like 
grownups--consider legislation introduced last week by Senator Shaheen 
and Senator Mikulski. That bill, negotiated last year by Senate and 
House members, Democrats and Republicans alike, would ensure that the 
Department of Homeland Security has the critical resources it needs to 
protect our national interests. That bill will raise DHS funding by 
$400 million, and fund the largest operation force of border patrol 
agents and CBP officers in history. It will provide resources to 
respond quickly when natural disasters devastate our states and 
communities. It will provide funding for the essential services 
provided by the Coast Guard and Secret Service. It will invest in 
FEMA's State and Local Grants Program, which also helps all of our 
states--including rural, border ones like Vermont. And it will support 
our state and local law enforcement, fire departments and first 
responder emergency services. It replaces rhetoric with reality. I 
think the American people are tired of rhetoric. They'd like some 
reality.
  We all know our current immigration system needs comprehensive 
reform. That's why I held hundreds of hours of hearings and markups in 
the Judiciary Committee and why this Senate, Republicans and Democrats, 
came together last Congress and passed a comprehensive immigration 
bill. And I'm so sorry that the House Republican leadership refused to 
bring it up even though there were the votes to pass it. So the 
President took the first step. Now, Congress must act. But this 
appropriations bill is not the place for that debate. Have a real 
debate on immigration. We cannot send the message that we are more 
willing to play politics than promote and protect national security. 
That posturing is beneath the Senate. We should pass a clean funding 
bill for the Department of Homeland Security, and renew our efforts to 
enact meaningful, comprehensive immigration reforms such as those 
passed by the Senate in 2013.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I stand to discuss what has been discussed 
by the previous two Senators, the urgent need for a clean bill to fund 
our Department of Homeland Security.
  I wasn't part of this body during the 9/11 attacks. I was living in 
Newark, NJ, and watched, as many in my city did, with a view clearly to 
the World Trade Center and saw that attack. What moved me afterward was 
the incredible unity of our country. There was no partisan politics. 
People pulled together. First responders from New Jersey, all over New 
York, and all over the country came together.
  What we did after that as a nation was we began to prepare to ensure 
we could prevent those attacks and have better systems in place should 
emergencies, crises, disasters or attacks happen again. What happened 
from that unity is evidenced by this body joining together not just to 
sing patriotic songs on the Capitol steps but to work in unison to 
create the Department of Homeland Security.
  That agency is tasked with the urgent need to prepare our country to 
meet crises if they come. This is not a partisan issue and should not 
fall prey to political fights between congressional Republicans and the 
President of the United States over immigration. There is way too much 
at stake.
  Let me cite a few examples. Something we have learned from past 
attacks is the urgency of coordinating between different layers of law 
enforcement and first responders. If we do not pass a clean DHS bill, 
resources for that coordination, getting everyone working together, 
will be put at risk.
  Let me cite another example. It is critical in this day and age that 
we stay on the cutting edge of technology, one step ahead of those 
people who seek to do us harm. We see clearly if we do not get a clean 
bill passed, we will not be able to stay on that technological edge. We 
see that in many areas. One great example is at our ports. New Jersey 
has one of the third busiest ports in America, and we need that 
critical technological equipment for upgrades that can help us to 
detect nuclear devices or harmful materials coming into our country. 
Without a clean bill, we will not have those resources.
  We also see the headlines from just the past few months about cyber 
attack after cyber attack. A critical agency that must be funded 
appropriately to protect our businesses and our infrastructure and our 
first-responding capabilities against cyber attack is coordinated and 
led from the DHS. Not to fund this agency adequately so they can 
prepare for those attacks is unacceptable.
  We are Americans and this idea of unifying together is our strength. 
We stand united against attacks. If we do it right, as we have learned 
not just throughout our country's history but in every aspect of our 
society--my college--high school coach used to talk about the five Ps: 
Proper preparation prevents poor performance. This, unfortunately, will 
so undermine our ability to secure ourselves, it is almost an insult 
that it will not even give proper funding to meet the weaknesses to the 
Secret Service, as we have seen their weaknesses exposed. As we go into 
a Presidential election, we must provide adequate security and 
protection for the next potential President.
  This also harms our businesses as well. Take for example the E-Verify 
system. This makes sure people who are hired by our companies do not 
have things in their background that would undermine our security. 
Those systems are harmed as well.
  This is an example where petty politics and recklessness is being 
placed above people, policy, and reason. We as

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a nation have stood in unity after the most horrifying of attacks. We 
live in a world where we have seen diseases such as Ebola, where we 
have experienced cyber attacks, and where we have had to recover from 
vicious weather events such as Sandy. We live in a world where people 
seek to do us harm, and we should do nothing to weaken our ability to 
respond, to prepare, to make ourselves more resilient for any such 
occurrences. The urgency is upon us. We cannot be a reactive nation 
unified after the fact. We must be a proactive nation, working 
together, above politics, to do what is right for the strength and the 
security of our country.
  I call for a clean bill in the critical, most important part, of our 
government to provide for the common defense. This is a time that 
should bring us together, not have us fall prey to every bit of 
Washington that people have grown tired and sick of. Let us pass a 
clean bill, as a bipartisan group of former Secretaries of Homeland 
Security has called for. This is not a time for recklessness; it is a 
time for reason. It is not a time for petty politics; it is time to put 
people first.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.

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