February 14, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 29 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S1362-S1364]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




MAKING FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 
            SECURITY FOR FISCAL YEAR 2019--CONFERENCE REPORT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Chair 
lay before the Senate the conference report to accompany H.J. Res. 31.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the joint resolution by 
title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the 
     two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the joint 
     resolution (H.J. Res. 31), having met, have agreed that the 
     House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the 
     Senate and agree to the same with an amendment and the Senate 
     agree to the same, signed by a majority of the conferees on 
     the part of both Houses.

  Thereupon, the Senate proceeded to consider the conference report.
  (The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the 
Record of February 13, 2019.)


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  On page S1362, February 14, 2019, first column, the following 
appears: Thereupon, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
conference report. (The conference report is printed in the House 
proceedings of the RECORD of January 13, 2019.)
  
  The online Record has been corrected to read: Thereupon, the 
Senate proceeded to consider the conference report. (The 
conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the 
RECORD of February 13, 2019.)


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk for 
the conference report.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the conference 
     report to accompany H.J. Res. 31, making further continuing 
     appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for 
     fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes.
         Richard C. Shelby, Shelley Moore Capito, John Cornyn, 
           John Boozman, John Thune, Johnny Isakson, Lindsey 
           Graham, Mike Crapo, Thom Tillis, Kevin Cramer, John 
           Hoeven, Roger F. Wicker, Steve Daines, James E. Risch, 
           Jerry Moran, Mike Rounds, Mitch McConnell.


                      Unanimous Consent Agreement

  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 
XXII, the cloture vote on the conference report to accompany H.J. Res. 
31 occur at 3:30 p.m. today; further, that if cloture is invoked, all 
postcloture time be yielded back and the Senate vote on the adoption of 
the conference report.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as someone who has been here for some 
period of time, I was glad to see Republicans and Democrats, both in 
the House and the Senate, come together in the past few weeks, 
especially this week.
  We ignored the distractions and tweetstorms coming from the White 
House. We reached an agreement to fund our government and make 
responsible investments for the American people.
  Not one of us--none of the final four who did the negotiations, 
sitting in that room, felt that this was an agreement that any one of 
us would have individually written.
  There are things in this bill that I support and things I disagree 
with, but that could be said by all four of us, Republicans and 
Democrats. You try to find as much common ground as you can. Everybody 
had to give something, but we ended up with a bipartisan compromise. We 
had to deal with facts that are based on reality, not rhetoric based on 
political fantasy.
  Democrats have always supported border security, but we support smart 
border security, targeted strategies that address the real problems 
facing us at our southwest border. That is what we tried to accomplish 
here. We stood together. We rejected the toxic and hate-filled 
immigration tweets coming from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
  The agreement does not fund President Trump's wasteful wall. After 
all, he gave his solemn promise to the American public that Mexico 
would pay for it, so let them work on that. It does not fund President 
Trump's requested deportation force, and it rejects the unjustified and 
dramatic increase in the detention bed levels the President would have 
used to enforce his extreme immigration policy.
  But just as important as what this agreement rejects is what we were 
able to accomplish.
  We invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new technology to stop 
the flow of illegal drugs through our ports of entry. All Republicans 
and all Democrats supported that. We provide funds to hire more judges 
to address the immigration backlog in our country. We provide more than 
half a billion dollars to support Central American countries, 
addressing the root causes of undocumented migration. We included $400 
million to improve medical care and address the humanitarian concerns 
at the border. Every one of us has seen enough of what is going on 
there; we are trying to show that America--the greatest Nation on 
Earth, also the wealthiest and the most humanitarian--will address it.
  This is what a compromise looks like. This is how the American people 
expect our government to function--not by tweets but by reasonable, 
reality-based compromise.
  Unfortunately, often lost in this debate over border security were 
the more than 800,000 public servants and their families who were held 
hostage by the Trump shutdown for weeks. They once again lived in fear 
and uncertainty that their next paycheck may not come because the 
President chose to use them as hostages. This agreement ensures that 
these public servants remain on the job doing the important work of the 
American people through the end of the fiscal year, and also all those 
who are not on a government payroll but support all our different 
Agencies that were involved in this. They weren't paid either.
  This agreement funds nine Federal Departments. Keep in mind--it is 
not just the borders; it is nine Federal Departments and their related 
Agencies. I will give a couple of examples. It increases funding for 
the Environmental Protection Agency. It supports our national parks. It 
rejects the anti-science know-nothingism of the administration by 
supporting research and our dedicated scientists.
  This is extremely important to me because Senator Crapo and I wrote 
the last Violence Against Women authorization. We wrote the expansion 
of that law. Our bill today provides the highest funding level ever for 
the Office on Violence Against Women to support programs that prevent 
domestic violence. It also provides more than half a billion dollars to 
combat the opioid crisis. In my earlier career, I saw too many deaths 
because of the violence against women. I saw too many deaths of young 
people from drug overdoses, and the numbers have only dramatically 
increased from the days when I was a prosecutor. Supporting the 
Violence Against Women Act brought Republicans and Democrats together.
  The agreement invests in rural America, secures our interests abroad, 
rebuilds our highways, and supports public housing.
  This week, four of us met--first in Chairman Shelby's Appropriations 
Committee office and then later into the evening several times in my 
office here in the Capitol. Senator Shelby,

[[Page S1363]]

Representative Lowey, Representative Granger, and I proved that we can 
set aside the political struggles in Washington to find a path to 
progress for the American people--two Republicans and two Democrats who 
are four of the most senior Members of the House and the Senate. I 
thank them for their effort.
  If I can go to a personal matter for just a moment, I want to thank 
Senator Shelby for his friendship and his partnership. Senator Shelby 
and I come from different parts of the country. We are much different 
politically, but he is one of the closest friends I have here. He and 
his wonderful wife, Dr. Annette Shelby, my wife Marcelle, and I have 
traveled to so many places together. Some were very grim areas of this 
world. But we understand how grownups have to act in the Congress and 
how they have to work together. We worked together with our House 
counterparts--the senior Democrat and senior Republican in the House--
on this conference. We worked together. We didn't pass just Homeland 
Security; we passed all 12 appropriations bills on a bipartisan basis. 
I hope we do the same thing for fiscal year 2020. I hope that we can 
begin very soon, with Senator Shelby and me working together, to pass 
the fiscal year 2020 bills. We passed the ones last year out of our 
committee virtually unanimously. We were able to get Members of both 
parties to join us. I thank him.
  I also thank the Appropriations Committee staff on both sides of the 
aisle for their hard work. I joke that Senators are merely 
constitutional impediments to their staff. Evening after evening, 
sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, weekend after weekend, I 
saw dedicated men and women in the Appropriations Committee staff 
working line by line to try to get us through this.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a list of their names be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       Charles E. Kieffer, Chanda Betourney, Jess Berry, Jay 
     Tilton, Hannah Chauvin, Dianne Nellor, Adrienne 
     Wojciechowski, Teri Curtin, Jean Toal Eisen, Jennifer Eskra, 
     Blaise Sheridan, Jordan Stone, Ellen Murray, Diana Gourlay 
     Hamilton, Reeves Hart, Scott Nance, Chip Walgren, Drenan E. 
     Dudley, Rachael Taylor, Ryan Hunt, Tim Rieser, Alex Carnes, 
     Kali Farahmand, Dabney Hegg, Christina Monroe, Jordan Stone, 
     Shannon H. Hines, Jonathan Graffeo, David Adkins, Margaret 
     Pritchard, Carlisle Clark, Patrick Carroll, Elizabeth Dent, 
     Hamilton Bloom, Amber Beck, Allen Cutler, Matt Womble, Sydney 
     Crawford, Andrew Newton, Lauren Nunnally, Brian Daner, 
     Courtney Bradford, Adam Telle, Peter Babb, Chris Cook, 
     Thompson Moore, Christian Lee, Leif Fonnesbeck, Lucas Agnew, 
     Emy Lesofski, Nona McCoy, Clare Doherty, Gus Maples, Rajat 
     Mathur, Jason Woolwine, LaShawnda Smith, Robert W. Putnam, 
     Christy Greene, Blair Taylor, Jenny Winkler, Hong Nguyen, 
     Clint Trocchio, George A. Castro, Elmer Barnes, Penny Myles, 
     Karin Thames, Shalanda Young, Chris Bigelow, Anne Marie 
     Chotvacs, Johnnie Kaberle, Gerry Petrella, Meghan Taira.

  Mr. LEAHY. I conclude by saying it takes a lot of long days and it 
takes a lot of long nights to produce a bill of this magnitude. I 
appreciate their hard work.
  I think we may have others who will want to speak.
  Mr. President, how much time do we have before the vote?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Four minutes remains.
  Mr. LEAHY. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the Senate will soon vote on the 
agreement by the conference committee to keep the government open. The 
agreement was a product of a lot of hard work and long nights and 
weekends by members of the conference committee and their staffs. I 
want to salute Senator Leahy and Senator Shelby. I want to salute all 
of the conferees.
  When Leader McConnell and I met--as we moved to open up the 
government for a short period of time--I suggested that we do a 
conference committee because I had a great deal of faith in the members 
of the conference committees on both sides of the aisle, and that faith 
has proved to be vindicated. I thank Senator Leahy, Senator Shelby, 
their staffs, and all the members of the conference committee for the 
great job they have done.
  The agreement will provide smart border security, increasing support 
for technologies at our ports of entry. It will not fund the 
President's expensive, ineffective wall. It will provide desperately 
needed humanitarian assistance--medical support, transportation, food, 
and clothing--for children and families in detention. It will provide 
funding to our neighbors in Central America to fight the actual root 
causes of migration--the violent gangs and drug cartels.
  In short, it represents a fair compromise that includes priorities 
from both sides of the aisle. I expect the legislation will pass this 
Chamber with a significant bipartisan majority, pass the House, and be 
sent to the President with plenty of time to avoid a government 
shutdown tomorrow at midnight.
  There is word that the President will declare a national emergency. I 
hope he won't. That would be a very wrong thing to do. Leader Pelosi 
and I will be responding to that in short order, but before that, I 
just want to say that in order to reach this point, in order to attain 
this bipartisan compromise, 800,000 public servants were forced to 
suffer without pay for over a month as President Trump put the country 
through a completely unnecessary shutdown that snarled airports, 
delayed loans for farmers and small businesses, trashed our national 
parks, and took billions of dollars out of our economy.
  We still need to address the plight of government contractors who 
still have not been made whole. Regrettably, we were unable to include 
that in the agreement, but we are going to keep working and fighting 
for Senator Smith's proposal to ensure our contractors are made whole 
again.
  The Senate was in the very same position just before Christmas, with 
a deal in hand, when the President reversed himself and engineered the 
longest shutdown in American history. After all of the pain of the 
shutdown caused by President Trump, we are basically right back where 
we started, with nearly the same parameters of a bipartisan agreement 
we were ready to pass around Christmas. Leader Pelosi and I, for 
instance, offered the President $1.37 billion for border security with 
the same language that would have prohibited the wall then as is in the 
agreement now.
  Let this be a lesson. Government shutdowns don't work. I hope 
President Trump has learned that lesson once and for all. I hope we 
never go down the road to shutdowns again. The American people suffer 
and very little is accomplished.
  President Trump should sign this bill ASAP.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I will be brief.
  First of all, I thank Senator Leahy, the vice chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee, who worked diligently for the past year to 
get to where we are today in a bipartisan way and also, recently, in 
the conference committee, which we thought last week had broken down. I 
also thank Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, and Chuck Schumer, the 
Democratic leader. I thank everybody else who has contributed to get us 
to this point.
  Nothing is perfect, but we think this is a good bill for the American 
people. It opens up all of the government--the 25 percent that we had 
not addressed.
  The conference report includes a robust and comprehensive investment 
in border security, providing funding for personnel, technology, and 
infrastructure that is critical to keeping our nation secure and our 
people safe. Critically, the bill provides nearly $1,400,000,000 to 
further construction of a barrier along the southwest border. But that 
is only a down payment. More resources are required. Fortunately, the 
President has at his disposal both constitutional and existing 
statutory authorities that allow him to supplement the congressional 
investment in border security that was made today. This bill preserves 
those authorities, and I support action by the President to use them to 
the fullest extent permissible to secure our border. In particular, 
this bill does not restrict the President's ability to declare a 
national emergency or to exercise emergency authorities under such a 
declaration. Nor does this bill further restrict the Administration's 
ability, previously granted by the Congress, to

[[Page S1364]]

transfer funds in support of efforts to gain operational control of our 
southwest border and to cease the trafficking of persons and drugs 
across it.
  I am going to get on with the vote.
  I want to say thank you to everybody, including Shannon Hines on our 
staff and everybody else who contributed to this.
  At this point, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum 
call with respect to the cloture vote on the conference report to 
accompany H.J. Res. 31.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the conference 
     report to accompany H.J. Res. 31, making further continuing 
     appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for 
     fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes.
         Richard C. Shelby, Shelley Moore Capito, John Cornyn, 
           John Boozman, John Thune, Johnny Isakson, Lindsey 
           Graham, Mike Crapo, Thom Tillis, Kevin Cramer, John 
           Hoeven, Roger F. Wicker, Steve Daines, James E. Risch, 
           Jerry Moran, Mike Rounds, Mitch McConnell.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
conference report to accompany H.J. Res. 31, an act making further 
continuing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for 
fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from North Carolina (Mr. Burr).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 84, nays 15, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 25 Leg.]

                                YEAS--84

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blackburn
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Manchin
     McConnell
     McSally
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott (FL)
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--15

     Booker
     Cotton
     Cruz
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hawley
     Inhofe
     Lee
     Markey
     Paul
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (SC)
     Toomey
     Warren

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Burr
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 84, the nays are 
15.
  Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in 
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all postcloture time 
has expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate adopt the Conference Report to 
accompany H.J. Res. 31?
  Mr. BARRASSO. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from North Carolina (Mr. Burr).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 83, nays 16, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 26 Leg.]

                                YEAS--83

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blackburn
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Manchin
     McConnell
     McSally
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott (FL)
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--16

     Booker
     Braun
     Cotton
     Cruz
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hawley
     Inhofe
     Lee
     Markey
     Paul
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (SC)
     Toomey
     Warren

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Burr
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 83 and the nays are 
16. The conference report is adopted. The majority leader.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  On page S1364, February 14, 2019, second column, the following 
appears: The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  
  The online Record has been corrected to read: The PRESIDING 
OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 83 and the nays are 16. The 
conference report is adopted. The majority leader.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 




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