[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2424-2425]
[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 senior 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.


                             Keystone Bill

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Congress is sending the President 
of the United States another piece of bipartisan legislation today. 
Americans of both parties are calling on him to sign it. There is no 
good reason not to. The Keystone jobs bill is just common sense. 
Construction of this important infrastructure project would support 
thousands of American jobs. It would pump billions into our economy and 
the President's own State Department told us this could be achieved 
with minimal--minimal--environmental impact. That is why this jobs and 
infrastructure bill passed both Houses of Congress with bipartisan 
support.
  I know powerful special interests and political extremists are 
pressuring the President to veto American jobs. I hope President Obama 
will join with us in standing for the middle class instead. It is hard 
to even imagine what a serious justification for a veto might be. 
Excuses related to the review process obviously won't work, since this 
bipartisan bill is a solution for fixing a review the Obama 
administration broke as it ignored deadlines and interfered for 
political reasons. Plus, the President has called on Congress to send 
him infrastructure projects, and Keystone is an important 
infrastructure project that is shovel ready.
  Americans are urging President Obama to finally heed scientific 
conclusions his own State Department already reached. There is no 
reason for the President to ignore that science any longer. Republicans 
and Democrats, labor unions and businesses--we are all calling on him 
to finally allow American workers to build an infrastructure project 
that just makes good sense.
  Mr. President, last night I took action to allow the Senate to 
consider commonsense legislation that every Democrat should want to 
support. This targeted measure would address the President's most 
recent overreach from November.
  The bill isn't tied to DHS funding. There is no excuse for our 
friends on the other side to oppose it. That is especially true of the 
Democrats who led their constituents to believe they would stand up for 
democratic principles in this debate. These colleagues

[[Page 2425]]

have hidden behind all manner of excuses to avoid upsetting the far 
left. Well, this bill removes the excuses and it sets up a simple 
political equation: Either stand in defense of extreme overreach or 
stand with constituents in support of shared democratic values.
  As I have said already, my preference remains with the legislation 
that has already passed the House. It is still the simplest way 
forward. But as long as Democrats continue to prevent us from even 
debating that bill, I am ready to try another way. I hope our friends 
across the aisle will demonstrate similar flexibility.
  I am calling on Senators of good faith to work with us and move the 
bill forward as quickly as possible. So let's get to work.


                   Recognition Of The Minority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I do appreciate--and that is an 
understatement--what the majority leader has to go through to try to 
please the extreme voices on his side. The fact remains we are 4 very 
short days away from a Homeland Security shutdown--a shutdown, Mr. 
President. We have a couple of bills on the floor that, unless there is 
unanimous consent, we can't get to in 4 days. Funding expires on 
Friday, yet last night the majority leader moved to bring a bill to the 
floor that does absolutely nothing to fund Homeland Security--nothing.
  If the majority leader wanted a vote on this bill, he shouldn't have 
wasted a month repeating the same failed procedural vote four times 
with the same result. Albert Einstein said that is the definition of 
insanity, when you keep doing the same thing over and over again, 
getting the same result.
  We have said all along that we are more than happy to have an 
immigration debate once Homeland Security is funded. Nevada so badly 
needs full funding of Homeland Security. State and local governments 
demand full funding of Homeland Security. It is not only for Nevada, it 
is all across the country, because the homeland cannot be protected the 
way the law is now set up unless the Secretary of the Department of 
Homeland Security has the ability to grant. If there is full funding, 
it would be almost $2 billion worth of programs to allow the homeland 
to be protected by State and local governments.
  So we are happy to have a debate on immigration, but we have to fully 
fund Homeland Security. We have said that all along. We have said it 
not once, not twice, but we have said it many different times.
  In fact, there was a proposal brought to the Senate floor 3 weeks 
ago, sponsored by Senators Mikulski and Shaheen, only to have the 
Republicans object to that.
  We want a debate on immigration. We are happy to have a debate on 
immigration. We are eager to debate immigration now or any other time, 
but we can't do that until we fully fund the Department of Homeland 
Security. We have been saying that for 4 weeks and nothing has changed 
in the last 24 hours.
  The majority leader should allow a vote on the Mikulski-Shaheen 
funding, which is sitting on the floor right now. It is on the 
calendar. That is the only way to resolve this mess which the 
Republicans created. The only thing that can pass the Senate is a clean 
bill to fund Homeland Security. And then, once that is done, there is a 
consent pending here on the Senate floor that says once that is done 
and the President signs that, we will be happy to debate immigration 
for whatever time the Republicans deem necessary.
  Would the Chair announce the business of the day.


                       Reservation Of Leader Time

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

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