[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8748]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              BORDER WALL

  Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, Mr. President, a word on the President's latest 
idea for a border wall with Mexico. After the idea of a border wall was 
roundly rejected in the last omnibus by Members of both parties and 
after no Republican from a border State area would support the border 
wall, the President just cannot seem to let it go. Yesterday, it was 
reported that he actually pitched the idea of a 40- or 50-foot-tall 
border wall with solar panels. Never mind that he still has not come up 
with a plan on how to build the wall, where to build it--on our side or 
the Rio Grande side--or how to get the land on the border from the 
private citizens who own it. Never mind that a border wall would be 
incredibly expensive and ineffective in actually preventing illegal 
border crossings. Never mind that Mexico still wouldn't be paying for 
the border wall or its solar panels.
  The President is still pushing this medieval proposal--now with an 
absurd twist. Just like painting stripes on a pony doesn't make a 
zebra, solar panels on a wall no one wants doesn't make it any more 
attractive. If the President thinks his new idea will catch on in 
Congress, well, I have a 50-foot-tall wall made of solar panels I will 
sell to you.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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