An agreement on spending caps, including those for our military, the health care issues, Disaster Relief and immigration issues. President trump reached out to me today, this morning, to invite me to the white house to talk all of these issues over, and i accepted. We had a lengthy and substantive discussion. During the meeting, in exchange for strong daca protections, i reluctantly put the border wall on the table for discussion. Even that was not enough to entice the president to finish the deal. Many democrats dont want to go that far on the border. Many republicans dont either. But we were willing to compromise with the president to get an agreement. In the room, it sounded like the president was open to accept it. This afternoon, in my heart, i thought we might have a deal tonight. That was how far we had come. Thats how positive our discussion felt. We had a good meeting. But what has transpired since that meeting in the oval office is indicative of the entire tumultuous and chaotic process republicans have engaged in in the negotiations thus far. Even though President Trump seemed to like an outline of the deal in the room, he did not press his party in congress to accept it. Speaker ryan and leader mcconnell, without the commitment of the president , would not agree to accept anything either. What happened to the President Trump who asked us to come up with a deal and promised that he would take heat for it . What happened to that president . He backed off at the first sign of pressure. We have the outline of a deal on caps. We had the outline of a deal on health care. We had the out line of a deal on immigration, the toughest issue. It was real. It was an hondastogoodness breakthrough. We could have passed a shortterm extension of funding so that we could cross the ts, dot the is, and be done with it all. But the dynamic of the past few weeks during which the Congressional Republicans looked to the president for guidance and the president provided none prevailed again today, unfortunately. The same chaos, the same disarray, the same division and discord on the republican side thats been in the background of these negotiations for months unfortunately appears endemic. It is standing in the way of Bipartisan Solutions to all of the issues now before us. Every american knows the Republican Party controls the white house, the senate, the house. Its their job to keep the government open. Its their job to work with us on a way to move things forward, but they didnt reach out to us once on this c. R. No discussion, no debate, nothing at all. It was produced without an ounce of democratic input and dropped on our laps. And meanwhile, they cant even get on the same page as a party. They control every branch of the legislative process, and its their responsibility to govern, and here they have failed. Several republicans voted against the c. R. , as well as democrats, for the same reason we voted against it. One of the most serious consequences of having continuing resolution after continuing resolution is the damage it does to our military. As the pentagon spokesman said last night, another c. R. Would be wasteful and destructive to our military. The Navy Secretary said that because of c. R. s, the navy has put 4 billion in the trash can, poured lighter fluid on it, and burnt it. Thats the Navy Secretary because of what you have done. This is no way to conduct the nations business. Republicans know it, democrats know it, the American People know that this party is not capable of governing. So where do we go from here . I believe many of my republican colleagues sincerely want to get a deal. I know their hearts are in the right place. I know they lament the fact that we now accept brinkmanship where bipartisanship used to be. In the past, there was always discussions on these issues. Everyone knew in the senate you needed both parties to work together. None of that happened here today. Now, all this problem is because Republican Leadership cant get to yes because President Trump refuses to. Mr. President , President Trump, if you are listening, i am urging you, please take yes for an answer. The way things went today, the way you turned from a bipartisan deal, its almost as if you were rooting for a shutdown, and now well have one, and the blame should crash entirely on President Trumps shoulders. This this will be called the trump shut down. In will be called the trump shu down because there is no one no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than President Trump. He walked away from two bipartisan deals, including one today in which i even put the border wall on the table. What will it take for President Trump to say yes and learn how to execute the rudements of government . Tomorrow marks a year to the day President Trump took the oath of office on the capitol steps. Unfortunately a trump shut down would be a perfect encaps layings of the encapsulation of the chaos he has unleashed. Instead of governing from the middle, he has outsourced his presidency to the extremes. Instead of living up to the great deal maker he marketed himself to be, he has been the single force of scuttling deals in congress. Now his behavior is on the verge of grinding our government to a halt, a trump shut down. Democrats will continue to strive for a bipartisan agreement on all of the outstanding issues. I know there are men and women of goodwill on the other side of the aisle who are just as upset as i am with the direction were headed in. I plead with them to see reason and prevail upon their leaders, and most of all the president , to give us in space to work together, to let us do the job the American People sent us here to do. When President Trump decides he is finally ready to lead his party to a deal, democrats will be ready, willing, and eager to clinch it. There is a path forward. We can reach it quickly, tomorrow. The president and the four leaders should immediately sit down and finish this deal so the entire government can get back to work on monday. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell i commend the five democrats who voted not to shut the government down. The new senator from alabama, during his campaign, said it was important to fund the chip program before it ran out of money. He listened to the democratic governors who said, this is an emergency. We need help. So there were five courageous democrats on the other side who stood up to this ridiculous argument, and it made sense somehow to shut down the government over an illegal immigration issue that the vast majority of this body would like to do something about anyway. So i want to particularly commend the five democrats who had the courage to stand up to this ridiculous strategy. They put their party in an incredible predicament. As was just indicated, the president is not going to talk about it while the government is shut down. He said when democrats start paying our First Responders we will reopen the immigration reform. So this particular strategy has eliminated the possibility of getting a signature on the thing that shut down the shut the government down over. Can anybody explain to me this strategy . Im perplexed. I wasnt first in my class but i wasnt last either. How does this get them what they are looking for . Well, well continue to talk because when all the games stop, the issues are still there. Every single one of them are still there. The American People expect us to act like adults, to get together and solve the problems. Now, ill be offering an amendment to change the date to february 8. We will, unfortunately, not be able to get that vote tonight but i will subsequently ask for a consent, but we will be voting on february 8, and thats the date that the senior senator from South Carolina and i have been talking about, the democratic leader and i have been talking about, which begins to move a little bit closer to where our friends on the other side said they wanted to be, but a reasonable period of time it takes into account, a state account the state of the union, party conferences, and the amount of time it takes to write a bill once you have an agreement. You cant reach an agreement and snap your fingers and everything always in into place and youre ready to go. So a reasonable period to first agree and then write and get ready to pass this negotiated settlement that weve been working on for months, february 8 is a very reasonable time. So im going to give i hear the sentiment for that theres sentiment for that on both sides of the aisle. I hope so. Well vote on that option. We cant get that vote tonight, but ill going to ask consent to have that vote tonight. I move, mr. President , to table the motion to the way the government interacts the way they speak to each other or free speech that is madisons money so that was the case in saint paul where they said look around you and you will see it everywhere spee17