A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from lie high. Ms. Hirono from hawaii. Ms. Hirono mr. President , the republicans control every level of the federal government. They hold majorities in the house and senate. They have the presidency. And yet the very people, republicans who set the agenda in washington and have majorities in both the house and senate are desperately trying to convince the American People a Government Shutdown should be blamed on anyone else but them. Give me a break. Nobody wants a shutdown except maybe the president who seems to relish a Government Shutdown as a way of, quote, shaking things up, unquote, regardless of who gets hurt. But members of congress should know better and republicans should get down to business and negotiate with democrats in good faith. Republicans in the house and senate have brought us to the brink of a shutdown because they are terrified of the ideological extremextremists in their own py who reject even the most reasonable bipartisan compromises. They are terrified of a her cure yal mercurial president who changes his mind on a whim and who has repeatedly said that maybe we need a good Government Shutdown so he can get his vanity wall. Donald trump and the republicans will be held responsible for any Government Shutdown. Theyve created the situation and the American People will hold them accountable. Democrats have been open and transparent about the things that were fighting for. Were fighting to reauthorize the Childrens Health insurance program, chip, so that nine million kids across the country can continue to access the lifesaving health care that they need. Were fighting to restore funding to Community Health centers that serve millions of underserved americans in Rural Communities, whether they live in kansas, ohio, or any of the other states that trump won. Were fighting to protect the dreamers who could be deported to countries they no little of because the president unnecessarily and cruelly ended the daca program. And were fighting for parity and funding for defense and domestic spending in any budget deal. These are not partisan democratic priorities. If you put each of these priorities up for a vote, they would all pass with bipartisan support in the house and the senate. In fact, we could have passed each of these bills a long time ago, but instead of doing something that would actually help people, republicans spent months working as hard as they could behind closed doors to give the wealthiest 1 of the people in our country and corporations huge tax cuts. And now theyre trying to convince the other 99 of the American Public that this tax bill was a good deal for them. But thats another story and thats another example of misplaced priorities. Getting back to the matter at hand, which is the urgency of preventing a Government Shutdown, the house is trying to pass another shortterm spending bill that only includes al reauthorization for a reauthorization for Childrens Health and not the other important priorities that we need to support. Republicans in congress are trying to pit communities, children, families, and dreamers against one another in an attempt to divide and conquer. They are hoping that we will support yet another government funding bill that kicks the can down the road because they funded Childrens Health, even as in their bill they abandon the dreamers and the Rural Communities who depend on Community Health centers. We cannot allow this cynical republican ploy to succeed. We need to keep fighting for Childrens Health, Community Health centers, for dreamers, and for parity. And i will not vote for any government funding bill that does not include all four of these important and urgent priorities. We cant leave anyone behind because its clear that donald trump wont keep his promise to protect those you call the daca kids. I was at the white house last week when the president looked us in the eye and said on national tv that he would sign a bipartisan compromise on dreamers. He barely waited for us to leave the white house before reneging on that promise. And we all know what happened last week during the meeting with senators durbin and graham at the white house when he was presented with a bipartisan compromise. We cant let the president s irresponsible behavior stop us from fighting for dreamers who deserve our support and protection. Dreamers like getsy from beaver, oregon, who i met last month when they traveled to d. C. To fight for passage for the dream act. Her parents brought her from mexico when she was only four years old. The journey was long and hard and her sister was left behind. Growing up, her parents warned her not to talk about her immigration status because even mentioning it to the wrong person could result in their deportation. She lived in constant fear. Growing up getsys parents always emphasized the importance of obtaining higher education. While her mom and dad only completed fifth and 12th grades respectively, they instilled a level of learning in their daughter and a deep desire for her to go to college. After working hard in high school, getsy enrolled at Western Oregon University where shes studying to become a gerontology nurse. She works incredibly hard. Shes taking 20 credits a semester. I remember whether i was in college, 15 credits was a lot. Shes taking 20 working full time at an assistive living facility and has recently become a certified rock climbing instructor. Shes scheduled to graduate a year early shes taking 20 credits a year early from western oregon in may. After graduation, shes planning to enroll in an accelerated nursing Masters Program so that she can realize her dream of becoming a jarenology gerontology nurse. She talked about wanting to care for people like her grandmother back in mexico and for her parents as they got older. Without the protections daca provides, getsy would lose her Work Authorization and if she isnt able to work, she would not be able to pay for school and would be unable to pursue her dreams. When i asked her why she traveled for days to come to washington to share this message with congress, her response was very moving. She said, quote, i have so many dreams and aspiration and i urge people here to understand how much these dreamers have to give to the u. S. We were brought at such a young age. We dont know anything about our homelands. I want to be able to stay in the u. S. , to stay with my family and friends, my nieces and nephew, everyone who is looking up to me. I want to prove that my parents sacrifice meant something. End quote. This is a Pivotal Moment for congress. Are we going to do more than Pay Lip Service to dreamers like getsy by doing our jobs to protect them and provide health care to millions of children and families across the country . Or are we going to bend to the whims of an unpredictable and unreliable president . Rather than waiting for the president to make up his mind, i call on the majority leader to recognize that as a separate branch of government, congress should be a check on the excesses of the executive bran branch. Its about time the majority leader and republicans in Congress Step up to do their jobs. Mr. President , i yield the floor. Ms. Hirono mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from hawaii. Ms. Hirono i note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from north carolina. Mr. Tillis mr. President , is the senate in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Tillis i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Tillis thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , most people watching tv or watching cspan know were at a very important place here. Were in a position where midnight tomorrow night if congress doesnt act, we shut down the government. And what does shutting down the government mean . It means a lot of things. It means that there are going to be a number of employees that are wondering when they get their next paycheck or whether or not theyll get repaid depending on whether or not we make a decision to pay them for time worked. It means people who have desperately needed services may be wondering where to get those services. For no other reason, if the money is there, is the distraction going to slow down services for a number of people who rely on the federal government for their safety net. The games here that were planning playing in the senate are more important than the work that theyre doing to protect the nation and protect our allies. Its going to mean a lot of very negative things that should be avoided. Im going to talk a little bit about it. What i first want to do is just summarize what were trying to do, people like me who are going to support the continuing resolution. Now, to be honest with you, i hate the whole continuing resolution process. When i was younger, there was a time when our family was struggling and my father was doing construction work. And he literally had to borrow money to pay for the materials he needed to actually do the job so that he could pay the bills for the family. And the way you did that and the way you do take still struggling families, you get these 90day s. You go to a banker. You tell them you have a project to work on. You pay the money back in 90 days. Thats how were running the most important nation thats ever existed, on 90day nets, a onemonth c. R. , 12month c. R. , thats not the way you run the greatest nation on the face of the planet. It has a number of problems with it, not the least of which is you cant give the military any certainty on what they can invest in in the next new generation weapon for the Defense System because they dont know if the money will be there for them to make the investment. It means were getting far less production for our dollar. Were inefficient. And were sending a message to the world that were not serious about longterm investments that we need to make for our safety and security. It also affects a number of other agencies, but i think its every important its very important in these times with all the heightened threats across the world that we send a message were not here for the long term and are not willing to make the longterm investments. Thats a bad message to assume and thats the problem with c. R. s, what we call regular order, sit down, pass appropriations bills, give the men and women in uniform, give the government employee, give the people that rely on our safety net some certainty. Thats the failure of our job. Thats why i support a bill senator heller is proposing. Its called no budget, no pay. I think we should stop the senate members, the members of the house should not get a paycheck when they fail to do their job. Doing their job means you pass appropriations bills, you pass a budget and you do the job that you swore that you would do if you won a race in the United States senate or u. S. Congress. I hope that bill gets a debate on the u. S. Floor. I look forward to supporting it when it does. Lets go back to the c. R. Its pretty simple. Its four weeks long. All it really does is make sure we have funding for our Service Members and make sure we have funding for our veterans. It makes sure we have funding for a child program, the chip program. It actually authorizes it for several years. It gives certainty to states and to people who need support that its going to be there. It also provides funding for Small Business loans and funding for the National Institutes of health. It does a number of other things but those are critically important. Now we have some members that are trying to negotiate a deal for the daca population. Thats deferred action for childhood arrivals. Its a program that president obama put into place in 2012. Its something ive been working on since we filed a bill in august and long before that to try and get reasonable amount of members on both sides of the aisle to come up with a solution that makes sense. But now we have people who actually want to shut down the government because we havent reached a bipartisan agreement that i think is not that far away. The problem that i have with that is i think its going to create a toxic environment in washington, d. C. That its not only going to provide all the uncertainty that i talked about on the prior slide, but its even going to alienate people who are coming to the table trying to negotiate a bipartisan agreement. So now were at a point to where were trying to figure out if we can Fund Government either through a vote sometime tomorrow or a shutdown tomorrow night. What i find interesting, and ive only been here for about three years ive been in politics for about a dozen years. I find it interesting how things change overnight, how things that were untenable and awful a couple of months or couple of years ago are justified today based on the disagreement that we have on the daca deal that im convinced that we will get done before the march 5 deadline. And i hope a lot sooner than that because theres a lot of young men and women, good people, kids that came to this nation through no fault of their own, through a decision made by an adult, who deserve a path to citizenship, who deserve
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.