January 22, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 13 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S318-S319]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST ACT OF 2019--MOTION 
                          TO PROCEED--Resumed

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1, 
which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1) to make improvements to certain defense and 
     security assistance provisions and to authorize the 
     appropriation of funds to Israel, to reauthorize the United 
     States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015, and to halt 
     the wholesale slaughter of the Syrian people, and for other 
     purposes.

  Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. 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for the quorum call be rescinded.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.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democratic leader is 
recognized.


                           Government Funding

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the Trump shutdown is now in its 32nd 
day. Essential government services are straining under the lack of 
resources--airport security, food safety, our Federal courts, our 
national parks. The economy is taking a serious hit. It was even 
revealed today that FBI investigations--law enforcement--are being 
curtailed, and, of course, 800,000 public servants who are dedicated to 
their jobs and their country continue to languish without pay.
  The personal financial crisis President Trump is inflicting on these 
patriotic Americans is worsening by the day. He is hurting the 800,000 
dedicated public servants, the millions who depend on them, and the 
entire country. This must stop. The government shutdown must end. 
President Trump and Leader McConnell need to come to their senses and 
reopen the government. Instead, over the weekend, President Trump made 
a televised address to outline an immigration proposal that is going 
nowhere fast.
  It is clear that the President has realized he has put himself and 
the country in an untenable position. Everyone knows the President said 
he would be proud to shut down the government. Everyone knows that he 
and Leader McConnell are the only obstacles to opening it back up. 
Across the board, the polling shows it. Even a good chunk of 
Republicans is getting disillusioned with the President and the 
Republican Senate because they persist in keeping the government shut 
down because they demand that they get their way or else. The leader's 
attempts--that I just heard on the floor--to blame the Democrats for 
the shutdown are futile. They are so far from reality that no one takes 
the leader seriously when he says it. The American people know 
President Trump is responsible for the shutdown, and now they have 
learned Leader McConnell is a coconspirator in the shutdown.

[[Page S319]]

  In his realizing he is hurting the public and hurting the economy and 
in the underlining of the fact that his Presidency has far too much 
chaos and too little order, direction, and certainty, the President has 
had to make a proposal to try to shake things up. It is not a good-
faith proposal. It is not intended to end the shutdown. The President's 
proposal is one-sided, harshly partisan, and has been made in bad 
faith.
  The President single-handedly canceled DACA and TPS protections. He 
did it himself, on his own, a while back. Now the offering of some 
temporary protections in exchange for the wall is not a compromise--it 
is more hostage-taking. When the President says: ``I will give you DACA 
and TPS partially''--even though he created the problem on his own--
``in exchange for the wall,'' it is like bargaining for stolen goods. 
The President didn't offer the DACA protections in good faith. The 
President's team sold the DACA protections as the BRIDGE Act--a 
temporary fix originally proposed by Senators Durbin and Graham. It 
turns out the actual legislation is even more limited than the BRIDGE 
Act and would barely restore the protections that President Trump 
himself took away.
  The New York Times reported that Stephen Miller, the architect of the 
President's harshest policies on illegal immigration, intervened to 
narrow the DACA proposal as much possible. When Stephen Miller is 
crafting the policy, you can be darned sure it is not a compromise.
  Worst of all, we found out this morning that the legislation includes 
incredibly partisan changes to our asylum system so as to make it 
nearly impossible for migrants to claim asylum at our border. This is a 
dramatic change in what America has been all about--a dramatic turning 
around from what America has always had as its symbol--the Statue of 
Liberty. The asylum changes are a poison pill, if there ever were one, 
and show a lack of good faith that the President and now Leader 
McConnell have in trying to make a proposal
  The President and his team have tried to spin this proposal as a 
reasonable compromise with there being concessions to the Democrats. 
That defies credulity. Nothing could be further from the truth. There 
were no serious negotiations with the Democratic leaders or any 
Democrat to produce this proposal. Let me say that again. There were no 
serious negotiations with the Democratic leaders or any Democrat to 
produce this proposal. The President didn't ask what the Democrats 
needed in a bill to achieve our support. He simply laid his proposal 
down on the table and proclaimed it a compromise.
  You can't have a compromise when one side declares: This is what we 
want, and this is what you want. You can't have a compromise when one 
side is determining not only what it wants in the bill but what we want 
in the bill without even seriously negotiating with us. That is not how 
negotiating works. That is not the ``art of the deal.'' What we have 
here is just another one-sided, partisan proposal from the President.
  Contrary to the President's claims, it hardly represents a softening 
of his position. If anything, it is even more radical. First, President 
Trump said: Give me the wall or I will shut down the government. Then 
President Trump said: Unless you give me the wall, I will keep the 
government shut down. Now President Trump is saying: Give me the wall, 
and make radical changes to legal immigration or I will shut the 
government down.
  No one can call this new effort a compromise. The President's 
proposal is just wrapping paper on the same partisan package and 
hostage-taking tactics. When you take off the wrapping paper, it is the 
same partisan, narrow, unacceptable package that cannot pass the House 
and that cannot pass the Senate.
  So far, there is only one piece of legislation that has a chance of 
arriving at the President's desk, and that is for the Senate to take up 
and pass any of the appropriations bills that have already been passed 
by the House. These bills are noncontroversial, and there are no 
surprises or poison pill riders. In essence, what is in those bills has 
been supported by Republicans already, and each of them would reopen 
the government and allow us to continue our discussions on border 
security. The sooner Leader McConnell allows a vote on those bills, the 
sooner we can end this pointless shutdown and reopen the government.
  President Trump and Leader McConnell, the American people and 800,000 
workers are asking and waiting for you to act.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. 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.

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