[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2224-2225]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2015--MOTION TO 
                                PROCEED

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to H.R. 240.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 5, H.R. 240, a bill 
     making appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security 
     for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other 
     purposes.


                           Carter Nomination

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, later today the Senate will consider 
the nomination of Ash Carter to be the next Secretary of Defense.
  If I could place one demand on him, it would be to leave our Armed 
Forces in a better position to deal with global threats than they are 
today. As I have noted in the past, the overall consequence of many of 
the President's policies have been to weaken our ability to confront Al 
Qaeda and its affiliates, the Taliban, and associated groups.
  The President's inflexible commitment to campaign promises made in 
2008 has led to artificial deadlines for withdrawal from Afghanistan, a 
rushed withdrawal from Iraq, and Executive orders to close Guantanamo 
and send detainees back home to places such as Yemen and Afghanistan. 
It has also led essentially to end America's ability to capture, 
detain, and interrogate terrorists--whether or not we are still at war 
with Al Qaeda.
  The truth is Al Qaeda was at war with us before we went to war with 
them, and today we face a diffuse and versatile threat from terrorists, 
with ISIL intent on striking America and its allies.
  The next Secretary of Defense needs to explain to the President that 
drawing down in Afghanistan--based on an artificial deadline--risks the 
gains we have made there. He needs to explain that the Haqqani network 
and the Taliban continue to threaten our allies.
  The next Secretary of Defense must do all he can to make a 
declaratory policy of pivoting to Asia a real one. Past drawdowns of 
conventional power and failure to modernize the American force have 
encouraged foes and unsettled friends. So it is time to invest in the 
platforms and the capabilities needed to address effectively China's 
military buildup, and the next Secretary must also support the Chairman 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he provides his best military advice 
to the President, especially when that advice is ignored in the White 
House.
  In the Senate I will do all I can to support the next Secretary. That 
starts today. I intend to support Ash Carter's nomination, but my 
support is conditioned on this request: The incoming Secretary needs to 
have the courage to speak truth to power--to Congress, yes, but also to 
his Commander in Chief.
  I yield the floor.


               Recognition of the Acting Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have been trying to understand what has 
been holding up the funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
  The Department of Homeland Security is the agency we created after 9/
11 that merged 22 different agencies of our government to make sure 
that 9/11 never happened again. We created this new Department, and we 
said to them: Keep America safe. Use our tax resources and your best 
efforts to keep America safe. Thank goodness that we have not had a 
repeat of that terrible tragedy of 9/11 since--under either Republican 
or Democratic Presidents.
  When we started debating about funding the agencies of government in 
December with an omnibus budget bill, the House Republicans said: We 
will fund the entire Government of the United States, but we will not 
give regular budget appropriations to the Department of Homeland 
Security. They singled out the one department responsible for our 
safety and security and said: We will give them temporary funding.
  In fact, the funding for this round ends February 27, in 15 days. So 
we are in an almost impossible-to-explain situation where the agency 
with the premier responsibility of keeping America safe is not being 
adequately funded to do its job. Now, we know we live in a dangerous 
time in the world's history. Evidence continues to be shown of the 
ruthless, barbaric tactics of extremist groups such as ISIS.
  Kayla Mueller, this magnificent young woman--I believe 26 years old--
taken captive by ISIS, was killed by them. They murdered a Jordanian 
pilot by burning him alive. They beheaded the Japanese journalist. So 
we know they are ruthless and barbaric, and we know that they are 
extending their reach.
  Well, we are doing what we must do with the Department of Defense 
when it comes to stopping them, but we are not doing enough when it 
comes to the Department of Homeland Security because we are not funding 
this agency as it should be funded. It has been singled out by the 
House Republicans as the only agency that doesn't receive regular 
appropriations.
  We sat down with Secretary Johnson and asked him: Well, what impact 
does it have on you, on managing your Department when it comes to 
temporary funding, as opposed to a regular budget?
  He said: I can't make grants to fire departments in Illinois, Nevada 
or Arizona. The fire departments come to me and say: Our firefighters 
need better training; can you give us a Federal grant for that purpose?
  Or if they need equipment to keep themselves safe, he said: I can't 
give the grants because I am under a continuing resolution.

[[Page 2225]]

  If we look at the budget for this Department of Homeland Security, 
honestly, there is no real disagreement on how much they should 
receive. When we look at this budget of $47.8 billion, it raises some 
obvious questions.
  I wish to mention for the record some of the items the money is used 
for. There is $8.5 billion, roughly, for the Coast Guard. We know the 
Coast Guard's responsibilities--focusing on preventing terrorist 
attacks; addressing evolving threats to our maritime and transportation 
systems as well as the global supply chain; preventing the unauthorized 
acquisition, importation, and use of chemical, biological, 
radiological, and explosive materials. That is what the Coast Guard is 
supposed to do. I said $8.5 billion, but it looks like it is $10 
billion in total that is supposed to go to the Coast Guard. But it is 
being held up by this continuing resolution.
  We have to ask ourselves: What is stopping us from funding the Coast 
Guard properly so they can protect us?
  How about Customs and Border Protection: There are $12.5 billion for 
Customs and Border Protection to secure U.S. air, land, and sea 
borders; safeguard and streamline lawful trade and travel; and disrupt 
and dismantle transnational, criminal, and terrorist organizations.
  The list goes on and on. What is it that is holding up this 
appropriation? It took some research, but I found what is holding it 
up.
  It is this young woman on the poster. Her name is Herta Llusho. Herta 
Llusho was brought to the United States from Albania at the age of 11.
  She grew up in Grosse Pointe, MI, a suburb of Detroit. She quickly 
learned English and became an academic star. She graduated from Grosse 
Pointe South High School with a 4.05 grade point average. In high 
school, Herta was a member of the varsity track team, won an Advanced 
Placement Scholar Award, and was a member of the National Honor 
Society.
  Herta went on to the University of Detroit Mercy, and she graduated 
with honors with a major in electrical engineering. While Herta was in 
college, she completed internships at engineering companies, was very 
involved in her community, and volunteered at homeless shelters, 
tutoring programs, and in her church.
  Listen to what her friends say about Herta Llusho:

       I am humbled by Herta's willingness and desire to serve. I 
     have had the privilege of going to the same church at which 
     she faithfully serves. She spends hours tutoring kids and 
     volunteering with the junior high Sunday school class. It's a 
     joy to watch so many kids run up to her at church because of 
     the love they receive when they are with her.

  Herta, after she graduated, learned that she could be protected from 
deportation--because she is undocumented--with a Presidential order 
called DACA. It is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and it was 
an Executive order by President Obama which says that Herta Llusho 
could be a DREAMer, allowed to stay in the United States, and will not 
be deported.
  It turns out that Herta Llusho is the reason why we can't fund the 
Department of Homeland Security, in the minds of Republican leaders. 
They believe she needs to be deported first before we fund the 
Department of Homeland Security.
  I hate to put that burden on Herta's shoulders, but she and many like 
her are at the center of this debate--600,000 young people, many of 
them people such as Herta Llusho, who came to this country as children, 
made a great record in high school, have no criminal issues whatsoever, 
and who want to be part of America's future. And what we are hearing 
from Republican leadership is that we will not fund the Department of 
Homeland Security to protect America until they deport Herta Llusho. 
That is what the House bill says. It makes no sense whatsoever.
  We were off to a flying start in the Senate. We had 3 straight weeks 
of debate and 30 to 40 amendments from both sides of the aisle. I 
thought there was--but for one bump in the road on a Thursday night--a 
great spirit of cooperation. Amendments were being offered on the 
Democratic side and on the Republican side. Some were controversial, 
and people didn't want to vote on them. But I happened to welcome what 
happened on the floor. I think that active debate, deliberation, and 
all these amendments were the right thing to do, even though I 
disagreed with the basic bill, the Keystone Canadian pipeline bill that 
came before us. We took it through to its conclusion.
  There were countless times when any Democrat could have stood up, 
objected and stopped the Senate for 30 hours or 60 hours, as we saw 
over the past several years. We did not do that.
  We tried in a spirit of bipartisanship to engage in an active debate, 
even on an issue where we knew the Republicans would prevail. I think 
that was the right thing to do.
  Sadly, in the past 2 weeks, we have fallen back into bad habits. 
There has been this insistence by Speaker Boehner that the Homeland 
Security bill not go forward to fund this critical agency unless they 
can challenge President Obama on immigration issues.
  Why are they doing this? Why are they endangering the safety of the 
United States of America?
  Is it because of Herta Llusho and their determination to make sure 
this spectacular young woman leaves America, is deported back to 
Albania, a country she barely remembers? Is that why we are doing this? 
If it is, it is sad. In fact, it borders on being disgraceful.
  We need to pass a clean Homeland Security bill. We need to do it now. 
We can take up the debate on immigration any time the Speaker and the 
majority leader want to bring it up. It is within their power to call 
the next issue we are going to debate.
  I sincerely hope that before we leave for the President's week break 
that we call up this bill; that we debate it and pass it, so we can 
make sure America is safe in this age of terrorism, and then let's save 
for another day the debate on Herta and the thousands just like her and 
what their fate and future will be in the United States of America.
  Some Republicans have stepped up recently and joined us in our 
effort. I thank the Presiding Officer for the time he joined us on the 
rollcall. Yesterday, my colleague Senator Kirk, from the State of 
Illinois, made a statement on this issue. He said: My hope is that we 
pass the Homeland Security appropriations bill clean now. I would think 
we should just pass a regular appropriations bill under regular order. 
Republican Senator Jeff Flake said: To attempt to use a spending bill 
to try to poke a finger in the President's eye is not a good move, in 
my mind.
  More and more Republican Senators are speaking up. I hope the 
leadership is listening and I hope the Speaker is listening. If we want 
a debate on immigration, let's have it. I am anxious to tell the story 
of Herta and many others and to appeal to my colleagues on a bipartisan 
basis to come up with sensible immigration reform. But let us not 
withhold funding from this critical agency while we are embroiled in 
this political squabble.
  I yield the floor.


                       Reservation Of Leader Time

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time 
is reserved.

                          ____________________