February 26, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 35 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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Declaration of National Emergency (Executive Calendar); Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 35
(Senate - February 26, 2019)
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[Pages S1462-S1463] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Declaration of National Emergency Mr. TILLIS. Well, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I took a position that I think some people consider to be unpopular--particularly some of my friends back in my State--that I thought I would come back and explain. It has to do with the President's Executive action. It also has to do with communicating an important and somber subject. There is a crisis at the border. I have been there. I didn't read about it. I didn't watch it on TV. I didn't read a tweet about it. I invested time down [[Page S1463]] there, hours and hours with border security. I was on shallow draft boats. I was on horseback. I have been on ATVs. I spent a lot of time down at the border, and the one thing I will tell you is that the President is absolutely right. There is a crisis on the border--and not only on the southern border, but I will state that ranchers on the northern border also believe they have challenges that this President is right to address. I also happen to agree with a good portion of how the President is going to do it after Congress failed to do its job. Keep in mind that over the last year, we have had on this floor Democrats and Republicans voting for as much as $25 billion for border security--Democrats and Republicans--and now we are fighting over a fraction of that. The President needs to act. He got an appropriation of about $1.5 billion through the negotiated settlement a couple of weeks ago, and now he is taking the only action he can until Congress acts, and that is to figure out other sources of funding that he believes he can use within current statutory limits. The way he has done that is he has first taken the $1.3 billion that Congress did appropriate. He has another $2.5 billion and another $600 million that I believe he is right to reprogram, send to the southern border, and probably make some investment in the northern border. Here is where I have a respectful difference of opinion with the President and the administration: It is the emergency order, that under the emergency powers act, he is using his authority to appropriate the remaining funds. First off, those funds will come what we call the MILCON budget. That is military construction. Right now, we are trying to find out what that means--which projects we think are critical to help the readiness of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines; which investments that we were going to make, that we have already determined we should make in military construction, are going to be put on hold while we reprogram those dollars to go to the southern border. The real problem I have is that this is only a fraction of what we all know we need to secure the border. I want to go back to the humanitarian crisis, though. My wife and I had an interesting discussion the other night. She wasn't too happy when I took this position originally. I am still not sure if she is happy. But to understand why I respectfully disagree with the President, you have to understand, again, as I started this discussion, that there is a crisis. There are people dying. There are millions of doses of poison coming across the border every single year that are killing tens of thousands of people. That is a crisis. There are thousands of people crossing the border and dying. They have what they call coyotes, human traffickers who will get them across the border, get people who will pay thousands of dollars to cross the border, and then they will say: Civilization is just an hour away. It is an hour plane ride away. Most people don't understand the sheer size and scale of Texas, particularly those crossing the border in the dead of night, working with basically organized crime. You have to pay a toll to get through the so-called plazas that run the northern border of Mexico. My problem right now has to do with an Executive order, the emergency declaration that the President intends to send to Congress. My wife and I were having a discussion. She said: You just said you agree with the President that there is a crisis on the border; you agree with the President that we need to send resources down to the southern border and work on the northern border; you agree that Congress has failed to act; and you agree that if you were President, you would do exactly what he is doing. I said yes. She said: Why don't you support it? I said: Because I am not the President. I am a Member of the U.S. Senate. I am a Member of a coequal branch who actually believes that this action falls within our purview. Now we are going to find out because I am sure we are going to be challenged in the courts. But I also worry not so much about this one--frankly, even the way this money is going to be programmed, I agree with. What I worry about are future Presidents and what they may do if we set this precedent going into the future. We actually have a Democratic candidate running for President--this is one hypothetical. There have been some far-flung ones that I am not sure I completely agree with, but let me give this one. It relates to border security. We have someone who is a Member of this body who has publicly said that their priority, if they were elected to be President, would be to tear down borders, tear down walls, build bridges, and open the borders. Well, if you argue that there is a humanitarian crisis--and I have said there is already is one--what would prevent that President from issuing an Executive order that would divert military construction funding to tear down the walls that are going to be built now? If we give this President--a President I support and a President whose policies and priorities I agree with--that authority, that could be aiding and abetting a future President and empowering them beyond what I believe their authorities are, vested in the Constitution in article II. So I have come here today in part to maybe take another stab at explaining to my wife why I have taken this position but also to explain to the American people and folks in North Carolina and across this country. I agree with the President. I know we have a crisis we have to take care of. We have a national security crisis, a homeland security crisis, and a humanitarian crisis. It is not the end; it is a portion of the means. I applaud the President for taking the action up here and getting things going. I hope that over time, we can find a way to fully fund the border strategy on a bipartisan basis and also address other immigration issues that I believe are pressing for this Nation. Madam President, thank you for allowing me to come to the floor and explain my position. If anybody in North Carolina has any questions, I know they know how to get ahold of me because my phones are blowing up right now. But I do want to explain it to them in a way that makes sense. I am a steward of the U.S. Senate. I am a steward of the article I branch. That matters to me. Thank you, Madam President. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
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