Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20180120

Republicans plan to reopen the government when the chamber gavels back in at noon saturday, this time with an amendment to shorten the duration of the stopgap bill to three weeks but at least publicly democrats didnt show any more enthusiasm before continuing resolution than one with the federal end date. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Lord god, you are the god of our salvation. Guide our lawmakers to trust in your mercy and not in themselv themselves. Fix their hope in your love and power, not primarily in human resources. Lead them around the detours that bring confusion, chaos, and destruction. Placing their trust in you, help them to do nothing without desiring your purpose to be accomplished. We pray in your strong name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the house message to accompany h. R. 195 which the clerk will report. The clerk house message to accompany h. R. 195, an act to amend title 44, United States code, to restrict the distribution of free printed copies of the federal register to members of congress and officers and employees of the United States and for other purposes. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer a senator mr. President , i subject the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent that fourth proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell well, here we are. Here we are. Day one of the Senate Democrats Government Shutdown. We did everything we could to stop them, put forward a noncontroversial bill that contains nothing. Nothing. They even claim to object to it. If we continue funding for the federal government and secure the future of the state Childrens Health Insurance Program for the vulnerable families that rely on it. The bill passed the house. The president said he would sign it. A bipartisan majority of democrats and republicans voted for it. The votes were there. The president was ready. The solution to this manufactured crisis was inches away. But then the democratic leader took the extraordinary step of filibustering this legislation, preventing it from passing, and plunging the country into this totally avoidable mess. House of representatives, the president , and a bipartisan majority of republican and Democratic Senators all agreed on a compromised bill that would have prevented a shutdown. It would enable congress to do the commonsense thing, keep negotiating other issues while also providing for our troops, our veterans, and literally millions of vulnerable americans. Democratic leader instead chose to filibuster the bipartisan bill. So here we are, mr. President , day one, and already funding is in jeopardy for our veterans. Because the democratic leader filibustered a bipartisan compromise that a majority of senators supported and chose instead to shut down the government. Because the democratic leader filibustered a bipartisan compromise that a majority of senators supported and chose a Government Shutdown. And of course lowincome families across america woke up today without the knowledge that their Childrens Health care is safe all because the democratic leader filibustered a bipartisan compromise that a majority of senators supported and chose instead a Government Shutdown. Yesterday my friend, the senior senator from new york, tried to insist a shutdown was anybodys fault but his own, anybody else but me, he said. He blamed President Trump because the president wouldnt resolve months of ongoing negotiations over massive issues in one brief meeting and give the senator everything he want wanted. He blamed republicans of congress as though everybody didnt know that the senate rules allow the Minority Party if they choose to obstruct the American Peoples business and filibuster for their own political purposes. Its possible but in this instance foolishly done. These rhetorical gymnastics are simply not persuasive. The American People see right through all this bluster, see right through all this bluster. Like the president , like the house, and like a bipartisan majority of senators, the American People want longterm solutions on immigration policy, on government spending, and on all the major issues weve been discussing literally for months and will continue to discuss. But like the president , like the house, and like a bipartisan majority of senators, the American People cannot begin to understand why the Senate Democratic leader thinks the entire government should be shut down until he gets his way on illegal immigration. The American People cannot comprehend why the senior senator from new york is advising his party to keep the government shuttered for american troops, american veterans, American Military families, and vulnerable American Children until he gets exactly what he wants on the issue of illegal immigration. A situation which not even does not even become urgent until march. All these other matters are indeed urgent. They need to be dealt with right now. This particular issue has not become urgent until march. I hope Senate Democrats are starting to realize all this. I hope theyre starting to realize that their constituents, the president , the house, and a majority of the senate are on one side of this. On the other side, all alone, the democratic leader who invented this unfortunate hostage situation and led his party into this untenable position. The solution is to end the foolishness. Its hurting millions of americans who have done absolutely nothing to deserve this. So i would invite all of my colleagues across the aisle to join together and do what is obviously responsible and right for the people we represent. Its pretty clear here. Lets reopen the government, lets resume the bipartisan discussion on funding our troops, daca, on government spending, and on all the other priorities that all of us can Work Together to resolve. The presiding officer the minority leader. Mr. Schumer mr. President , are we in a quorum . The presiding officer no, were not. Mr. Schumer thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i address you and this body in the shadow of a Government Shutdown, something that nobody wanted and almost everybody strived to avoid. And yet, we are here. The c. R. Last night barely received 50 votes, let alone the necessary 60. Several republicans joined democrats in rejecting the house resolution, which hurts our military, does nothing for urgent domestic priorities like opioids, veterans and pensions, nothing on Disaster Relief, and of course nothing on the immigration issues we have a real urgency to solve. It just kicked the can down the road one more shameful time. I believe it was the fourth time that we have done that. My republican friends speak often of the damage done to our military by lurching from continuing resolution to continuing resolution. We democrats agree. Thats why we offered secretary mattis his full budget request, something i offered yesterday in the white house to President Trump as well. My republican friends know that of we have to stop these c. R. s and its time to actually do a budget and fully fund our military. We cant forget about urgent domestic priorities in the budget, but military has to be given the certainty it needs. This is one of the main reasons the Bipartisan Coalition last night rejected the house c. R. , because of the damage that secretary mattis has said it has done to the military. Another reason we rejected it was because it was constructed without an ounce of democratic input, and i suspect very little input from Many Republicans in the senate. In our democracy, you have to compromise if you wish to govern. Thats how our Founding Fathers designed our government to operate, and yet time and time again the republican leader believes he can drop legislation on the floor, say take it or leave it, and then gear up the machines of partisan war if we decide to leave it. The leader crafts a partisan approach without consulting us, and then tries to blame us for not going along. That kind of behavior would not pass in any part of civil society. It would be called bullying. We are happy and eager to compromise, but we will not be bullied. The most important point is this, the republicans control the white house, the senate, the house. Thats why america and the world are calling this shutdown the trump shutdown. Its the president and Congressional Republicans responsibility to govern. Its their responsibility to keep the doors open and the lights on around here. But the Republican Leadership cant get a tumultuous president on board with anything, and they dont offer us any compromises on their own. The breakdown of koeupls compromise is poisoning this congress and it comes from President Trump. Hes turned blowing up bipartisan agreements into an art form. The president cant take yes for an answer. Twice in this long debate President Trump walked away from partisan deals to solve all of the issues before us. A week ago last tuesday President Trump appealed to congress on National Television to come up with a deal, and he said hed sign it. Hed sign whatever congress sent him. He said hed take the heat for it. But when a Bipartisan Group of senators, led by senators graham and durbin, brought him that compromise, he blew it up in a volcanic meeting at the white house. The same script played out with myself and the president yesterday. The president called me in the morning and asked that i come to the white house, and of course i accepted. We had an extensive and serious negotiation about every single outstanding issue. We came close to a tentative agreement on the budget after i offered the pentagons full budget request on the thorniest issue of immigration. The president said many times he would take a deal that included daca in exchange for the wall. I put that deal on the table in the oval office in a sincere effort at compromise. I put the wall on the table in exchange for strong daca protections in the grahamdurbin compromise. It was a generous offer, and i believe President Trump was inclined to accept it and was willing to do a very shortterm c. R. He suggested tuesday night in order to get the deal finalized. Hours later i got a phone call telling me this is not good enough, first from the president saying i hear its three weeks. I said no one told me about that. Thats not what we discussed. And then a few hours later, well, we want what you offered and four or five more things which they knew were unpalatable to democrats but appeased the hardright antiimmigration wing of the Republican Party. The bottom line is simple, President Trump just cant take yes for an answer. Hes rejected not one, but two viable bipartisan deals, including one in which i put his most prominent Campaign Pledge on the table. Whats even more frustrating than President Trumps intransigence is the way he seems amenable to these compromises before completely switching positions and backing off. Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with jello. Thats why this compromise will be called the trump shutdown. The president s behavior is inimitable to compromise which is required to getting things done in government. Its impossible to negotiate with a constantly moving target. Leader mcconnell has found that out. Speaker ryan has found that out. And i have found that out. Now Republican Leaders refuse to move ahead without President Trump, and President Trump is so mercurial its been impossible to get him to agree to anything. Again, to sum it up, the president cant make a deal and Congressional Republicans wont. As a result, a paralysis has descended on capitol hill. As donald trump said in 2011, if theres a shutdown, i think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. Hes the one that has to get people together. Thats President Trumps quote then in 2011. Getting people together, thats just about the opposite of what hes done in these negotiations. So on the oneyear anniversary of President Trumps inauguration today, his government has closed its door to the American People, and he hardly seems to care. Early on he said our country could, quote, use a good shutdown. Today he tweeted this is the oneyear anniversary of my presidency, and the democrats wanted to give me a nice present. He called the shutdown an anniversary present. A present. It shows just how out of touch and how callous he can be. A Government Shutdown is no present for the country, for his party, and for him. And its entirely the president s doing. The only way out of this is for the president to take yes for an answer, to accept a bipartisan compromise we bring him so we on our side will keep trying. Last night i suggested the four leaders and President Trump meet immediately to sort all this out. I still hope we can do that. Otherwise, this trump shutdown could go on longer than any wants it to. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from tennessee. Mr. Alexander mr. President , the democratic leader and the democratic, the assistant lead know my Great Respect for them. In fact, i spent a good deal of time with the democratic leader in 2013 reopening the government after republicans shut it down. And id like to say three things about where we are today. First, in my view, shutting down the government of the United States of america should never ever be a bargaining chip for any issue. Period. Shutting down the government of the United States of america should never ever be used as a bargaining chip for any issue. Period. It should be to governing as Chemical Warfare is to real warfare. It should be banned. It should be unthinkable. We should not even allow anybody on either side of the aisle to seriously consider it, yet were in the middle of it. Mr. President , i was sent here from tennessee not to shut the government down but to make it work for taxpayers. Ive worked hard to do that. I continue to do that, and i think my friends on the other side of the aisle know that i know how to work in the senate. If you want a result, that means 60 votes. I respect the fact that the minority has prerogatives. I dont think the senate is a place where a bulldozer runs over the minority. So we Work Together and we get important results that are lasting on issues like fixing no child left behind, on 21st century cures. Senator murray and i, of washington state, are working on the first modifications to the Affordable Care act. I havent had any of those in seven years, to lower insurance premiums. We can do that. When we do it, it works. But we should never ever say if you dont do what i want, were going to shut the government down because we can. We did that on the republican side in 2013. We shouldnt have done it, but we did it. Barack obama was the president of the United States. What did he say . He said i will not negotiate with the republicans who have shut the government down over the Affordable Care act while the government is shut down. So we went on day after day after day, and the government shut down. And in my part of east tennessee, where the presiding officer has visited, it happened to be right in the middle of the fall tourist season, so all the little businesses who make their living off tourists coming to the Great Smoky Mountains to see the colors, they lost a lot of their livelihood. Military people werent paid. The taxpayers lost hundreds of millions of dollars because we republicans shut the government down in 2013. President obama said i wont negotiate with anybody over any issue when they use as a bargaining chip shutting the government down. He stuck to his guns and we capitulated in two weeks, and we got the blame for it, and we deserved it. We deserved it. We were not sent here to shut the government down. We were sent here to make the government work for taxpayers. Now whos shutting the government down . Its obvious whos shutting the government down. The Republican House passed a continuing resolution to keep the government open. More than 50 senators last night, including almost all republicans and 5 democrats, voted to keep the government open. The president has said he would sign the continuing resolution to keep the government open. The democrats are closing down the government because they want a result on an important issue, and they want it now. Their way. Mr. President , i respect the issue. Its an issue im trying to solve too. But we should not be shutting the government down to resolve the issue of these children who were brought here years ago. I want to talk more p about that. But we know whos shutting the government down. The republicans are voting to keep it open. The democrats are voting to shut it. Nobody should be shutting the government. Now second, theres a lot of talk about what the president does and what the house does. One of the things ive learned about washington is that we have three branches of government for a reason, and that we have two independent houses for a reason. The assistant democratic leader, the presiding officer both served in the house of representatives. I didnt have that privilege. Sometimes we have senators who want to run over to the house and get them to do things our way. I found that doesnt work very well. We have a lot to say over here. Usually the best thing for us to do is to do what the senate can do and say here, here it is and say that to the president and say that to the house, and often when they do that, then they agree with us or modify and we get a result. So its a pretty poor excuse to sit here and say we cant deal with President Trump. We dont have to deal with President Trump. Were the United States senate. We can make our own decisions about daca. We can make our own decisions about Health Insurance. We need his signature to make it a law, but maybe its a lot easier if we pass what we can pass and say here, mr. President , heres a solution to an important issue. You can be nixon to china on the immigration issue. You said you want to do that. Do it. But first heres a specific solution we can do. And as far as the house of representatives, we cant say that speaker ryan, now, mr. Speaker, before we do anything in the senate we want you to write the bill and approve it and send us this, that and the other. We can have a discussion with him but thats not the way the system works. We should do what the senate can do, and we should do it with respect to the house. We should show them what were doing. We should talk to them about it. Nothing wrong with that. We should consult with the president of the United States. We want his signature. We want the houses approval. But the main thing for us to do is to do what we can do. How does that happen . In the current circumstances i think theres one obvious way to do that, and i suggested it to the majority leader, senator mcconnell, earlier. He didnt do that a couple of weeks ago. I suggested look, weve got a tough issue at daca. Weve got a lot of republicans who would like to get a result. We want the result by march 5 because thats when time runs out for these, these people who have been living in the United States who were brought here illegally as children through no fault of their own. So the best way to do that why dont we just vote on it . Why dont we take some time on the floor of the senate and rather than negotiate in the back rooms and say if we cant get the president , cant get paul ryan, cant do this, why dont we just put up the alexander bill or the daines bill or the durbin bill or the schumer bill or the graham bill. Put it on the floor. Let senators amend it and see if we can get 60 votes. If we can, then we can say to the president of the United States, mr. President , weve solved the problem here. Wed like your support. We can say to the house of representatives, wed like you to support it or if you have a better idea, lets see it or put it in a bill were going to send it. In any event, were in much better shape. Instead of just talking, weve actually done something. I think the majority leader could shorten the period of time or the continuing resolution. I think that would be a jest gesture of good faith to the democrats and second, say during if that period of time a group, such as the whips on our side and you can include the whips on the other side, but a group of senators cannot come to an agreement on a bill, then we will do what the senate is supposed to do. We will put the bills on the floor and we will vote on them. We will vote on them. Well do it in the light of day. Well let people see whos for it and whos against it and whose amendments work and who dont. Lots of times we come to a better result that way. So that would be my suggestion, that we dont need to shout at each other. We dont need to go on forever. Thats bad for the country, bad for the military, bad for us, bad for the government. Its unthinkable that we should be shutting down the government of the United States of america. Lets open it back up. Lets shorten the period of time. Lets say if we dont have the daca decision worked out among a group of senators who are talking today, then we put it on the floor and we stay here until we get it done. Now, finally, mr. President , were on the verge of doing some really important things for the American People in the United States senate. And i think almost Everybody Knows that. I noticed the temperature in here last night despite the fact we were in this absurd situation of shutting down the government, people were very respectful of one another because they know that were on the verge of passing a number of important issues that will help our country. Number one, a twoyear budget agreement which will give the military the funding it needs and at the same time it will give significantly more funding for biomedical research, for national parks, for as well as National Defense, national laboratories. Were close to that. Im not really involved in that very much, but everyone says were close to a twoyear agreement on that. We can write our appropriation bills in three weeks. We can have that done by the end of february. Thats the first thing. The second thing is the Childrens Health insurance. Now, we dont do that in this bill, we should certainly do it. Theres an agreement on a sixyear extension. All over the country people want that to happen. Third is whats often called alexandermurray, collinsnelson. Weve been in the halffieldmccoy hatfieldmccoy mud fight for seven years. We actually have some agreement on a way to bring down Health Insurance rates for selfemployed people like farmers, Small Business women, song writers. Senator murray and i have worked on that. Senator nelson. Senator collins have worked on that. The president supports it. The house is interested in it. Now, we havent said that theyve got to pledge allegiance to it before we pass it, but they do know what were doing. We have consulted with them, and were working it out here. So thats the third thing. So we have the twoyear budget deal. Weve got Childrens Health insurance. Weve got the alexandermurraycollinsnelson lowering the insurance rates for three people. Thats three things. We have disaster aid after three big hurricanes that hit us. We can get an agreement on that in a matter of days. And then we have what we call daca, the children who were brought here through no fault of their own. Now, thats the toughest issue. But a lot of work has been done. We have to be finished by the 5th of march. My sense is that everybody on the democratic side wants to get that done, and post of us on the republican side want to get it done. So lets get back to work. Lets dont be in a stalemate for a day or two or even an hour or two or a week or two when we could be taking five major bipartisan steps that are good for the American People. The American People sent us here to make the government work for them, not to shut it down. That should be unthinkable. That should be like Chemical Warfare. We should never even consider that. So i urge my friends on the other side, let senator mcconnell and senator schumer who are veteran senators, they respect this institution, theyre friends with all of us, theyre able to make a decision, let them sit down themselves and find an agreement to get this Government Back open. Lets go to work on the twoyear budget agreement, the Childrens Health insurance for individual americans on the daca bill and on disaster. Lets get that done in a very short period of time. That is my hope. Thats the way i like to work in the United States senate. And my view is thats the way about 90 of the 100 senators would like to see this resolved, sooner rather than later. I thank the president. I yield the floor. Mr. Durbin mr. President . The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Durbin let me thank my colleague from tennessee. Hes my friend. We worked on a lot of things together. I respect him very much. Weve done good things in areas like medical research and other areas. Thank you for coming to the floor. Let me say at the outset, you and i are of the same mind when it comes to the future of the United States senate. We have seen better days in this chamber. In the past year, i dont believe weve had one honest, open debate with amendments on the floor, not one. Maybe got close on a couple, but not like we remember it. When it was an open process and members brought their best ideas to the floor and the senate decided things, debated and decided things. Weve lost that. I tell new democratic colleagues, god, you would have loved the old senate. It was a great place. What you see today is a shell of what it used to be. And the second thing id like to say is i may have an old fashion view of these things but its one i feel very strongly about. I do not have the right to pass anything on the floor of the senate. I have the right to offer a measure on the floor of the senate to make my best argument, to convince my colleagues that its the right way to go, and to ask for a fair vote on the outcome. Thats what i have a right to do as a senator. Ive seen colleagues and i bet you have, too, in the past who say i want to offer my amendment and i want it to pass. Well, good. Good luck to you. Bring it to the floor and do your best. As intensely as i feel about this issue, when it comes to dreamers and daca, im not entitled to anything. All im entitled to do is to offer to the senate what i consider to be the best, most reasonable approach to solve the problem. And thats what im looking for. And i thank you for the litany that you produced of things that were close to solving. Thats a significant list when you consider the paucity of our performance over the last i wont go into specifics over a period of time. If we could do those five things that you mentioned, it would be significant and restoring the confidence of the American People in what this institution can be. I just think theres one element here that is critical. If the republican leader would come to the floor within the next hour and say all right, im going to allow those who have an opinion or a view or an amendment on the issue of dreamers and immigration, an opportunity to offer that on the floor starting tomorrow. Well start the debate or monday, tuesday, whatever it might be. And well put the work product that comes from that, which would require 60 votes, put that work product into the package of five that you mentioned. Caps, Health Insurance, clinics, your great work youve done with senator murray on health care. Then we know weve done our job as a senate. We send that measure to the house, understanding that we have to get these things done. And here is the senate offering. What troubles me is we seem to be waiting for a permission slip from others in the senate. When did this start . When i was over in the house spending most of my time loathing the senate and what it did to the great house ideas, they didnt wait on us. They led. They did what they thought was right. And now were in a situation where were facing the shutdown, something that i didnt come to congress to deal with and never hoped id be part of, and we ought to cure this and solve it as quickly as possible and we can. Theres several problems we have. Lets face it. This president at this point is impossible to negotiate with. Its impossible. On january 9 i sat next to this president at his suggestion in the cabinet room of the white house. He referred to me by my first name and i was flattered, i guess, because it was only the fourth time wed ever spoken to one another. And we talked about this issue involving immigration. And it was a good meeting. It was a surprising meeting because it was tell vased. The american televised. The American People got to see it. For 55 minutes we were there with the president leading us in discussion. And he was very clear in what he said. I recall what he said. You send me a bill and ill signed it, he said. Ill take the heat. You send me a bill, and ill sign it. And he went on to say, why is this taking so much time . Ought to do this quickly. You want a room here in the white house, he said, you leaders to sit down and write this thing . Lets get it done. So he was looking for bipartisanship. He was looking for a sent of urgency and he was willing to accept the verdict of congress on this. Within 48 hours, senator Lindsey Graham and i produced exactly what he asked for, at least we thought he did and he totally rejected it. So the january 11, thursday, President Trump was a heck of a lot different than the january 29 tuesday President Trump. I just through up my hands. After four months of working on a bipartisan measure, he rejects it out of hand. We cant wait for an approval stamp from the white house to do our work here. We shouldnt anymore. I heard your leader, senator mcconnell say we need to know what President Trump wants to do on this. Please, we cant wait long enough for that to happen and we shouldnt continue this situation waiting on something that is not likely to ever occur. I would just appeal to my friend from tennessee. Lets keep this conversation alive. Lets not get back to it on monday or tuesday. Lets do something today. Lets push this forward as we tried to last night. That to me is the only way to move forward. Youre in a strong position. The republicans are in control of the house, the senate, the presidency, and we are in a position thats much weaker politically. But i think if we go at this in good faith, if we use common sense, and if we look for common ground, that we can get something done here. I really believe it. I am not entitled to pass an amendment. I am entitled to offer an amendment. Thats the way i see it. And im prepared to do that and ask my republican friends, and youve been kind enough to express your support for some parts of what weve offered, to come forward. If you have a better idea, bring it to the floor. Lets do this but lets not languish in this situation with the Government Shutdown and no conversation and no dialogue taking place. At this point the president could solve this problem. Key have solved it yesterday with senator schumer when he invited him to the white house. Senator schumer came back and briefed me on the conversation, and i will tell you i was amazed. I thought this is it. We finally found the solution with the president. Within two hours, President Trump walked away completely from what he had said to senator schumer over lunch. Two hours, completely reversed his position. And thats why the shutdown really has his fingerprints on it. As the sign says, this president said i cant imagine why what he said is our country needs a good shutdown. It doesnt. There are no good shutdowns. There are those that are necessary, i guess, for a moment, but for goodness sakes, we ought to be solving problems and make this government work and move forward. And im prepared to do that. There are so many elements that you just described that i think are so important. I cant tell you what the chip Program Means to all of us. I hope it means the same. And ill just add something that most of the services in my state provided by chip are provided at Community Health care clinics. So weve got to make sure we reauthorize those and fund them properly if we are truly if we truly want to serve the children of this country. And, please, you know, you and i are both on an appropriations committee. Wouldnt that be great if we if that were the committee we were a member. I know the senator from vermont behind me is our ranking democrat on that. I was always proud to be on the appropriations committee. Now its just a faint glimmer in the eye of someone of who it might have been. We dont produce appropriation bills. We dont have the kinds of votes on the floor that we used to have, exciting moments with open appropriation bills where we honestly debated the goodness or the shortcomings of different programs and programs of our government whether to fund them. We dont do that anymore. We do it in the quiet with satisfy of our Committee Rooms instead. Theres a lot that needs to be done . The senate. Could we use this moment, this challenging moment of this shutdown to not only put this behind us but to really move forward and restoring this institution into something we can be proud of and the American People can be proud of as well . I think we can. And i know that you could be a constructive part of it because you always have been. So i stano work with you on a bipartisan basis to address this issue, and the sooner the better. Mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Leahy mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from vermont. Mr. Leahy mr. President , i appreciate what the senator from illinois, my dear friend, just said. You know, it is interesting when we deal with substance and not sound bite. I used to worry when i was first here and i would hear some of mf my very senior colleagues they were all senior to me. I was the most Junior Member of the senate talk about when this and that and the other thing happened. Well, i came here with president ford when he was president , served with president carter, president reagan, president george w. Bush, president clinton, president george w. Bush, president barack obama, and now of course President Trump is president. Now, every one of these president s were different, but when we get in times like this, they believed in substance, not sound bites, and every one of them would reach a point where republicans and democrats could sit down and you would reach an agreement, knowing that whether it was a republican president , democratic president , they would keep their word, and their members would. I was honored to be asked to speak at the gold medal presentation to senator bob dole the other day. Senator dole was a republican leader and the republican majority leader, one of the finest senators i ever served with. This from a liberal democrat from new england. Because he always kept his word. Because he always brought both republicans and democrats together, because he knew we would keep our word. Frankly, mr. President , i spoke those words at his gold medal presentation, i thought cant we go back to those days . Can we have a time when our leaders come together, members across the aisle come together, and then vote . The senator from illinois, the senator durbin said lets have votes. Yes, in the appropriations we passed most of the Appropriations Bills out of the committee in the past year, but we one time bring it up on the floor. There will be amendments that i wont like. There will be amendments i will like, but well get to vote on them, yes or no. Thats what we should do. Now, months ago when President Donald Trump called for a Government Shutdown i thought when i first heard that, it couldnt be. Then i saw what he said. Our country needs a good shutdown. Well, through his leadership and chaos and inability to govern and keep his word, he got exactly what he wanted. I would tell him after 43 Years Experience in this body, there is no such thing as a good shutdown. It hurts our nation. It hurts our reputation around the world. It hurts our military. It hurts our civilian population. It hurts our business people. It hurts our educators. It hurts those who are seeking cures for every kind of disease there is. Now, i know it is the majority, and the majority, of course, the republicans control the white house, the house and the senate, and i realize it is their responsibility to produce a bill to send to the president. If they cant get 60 votes because they refuse to negotiate with democrats, well, thats their responsibility. All they need was nine democrats. They couldnt get it done. In fact, they lost four of their own members. They could not get it done because republicans shut democrats out of their closed door meetings. They disenfranchised half the American People. They only appealed for our support after they had republican the bill without our input. Let me tell you, after my years of experience under democratic and Republican Leadership and democratic and republican president s, thats not the way to do it. On the first day of this trump shutdown, the anniversary of his vawtion, we are 112 days into the fiscal year. For 112 days, the leadership has told us they just need more time to negotiate a bipartisan deal. I have yet to see the negotiations. I have yet to see the deal. They spent that time pursuing a hyperpartisan agenda over the last year. They stripped health care from millions of americans. They rolled back commonsense regulations. They passed a tax bill from big corporations, super wealthy on the backs of middle class and working people. This was not time spent negotiating good faith on the budget or the Childrens Health Insurance Program or for veterans or for Community Health or for dreamers or for a comprehensive Disaster Relief package with the disasters that have gone across our country in the past year. Now, last night, they asked lets have another month of negotiating. Come on. Its been 112 days into the fiscal year. Now we want another month in the fiscal year, another month of not addressing the consequences of sequestration by reaching a bipartisan deal that increases spending on our military and invests in our communities, another month where we fail to adequately take care of our veterans. Our military leaders agree we cannot govern by continuing resolution. The military cant function under sequestration, and i agree with it because we need a budget deal. Defense secretary mattis i admire general mattis. He said for all the heartache caused by the loss of our troops during these wars, no enemy in the field has done more harm to the readiness of our military than sequestration. Last night i couldnt in good conscience support another continuing resolution without even the promise of a bipartisan deal. Democrats have been ready and willing and asking to negotiate since june. Just as we did in april to get the budget passed. In july, i offered a path forward that would have raised the budget caps set by the budget control act. My plan would have increased spending for our military by 54 billion, increased their investments in domestic priorities by 54 billion, and parity has always been the path forward. It allows us to strengthen our military, but also invest in our infrastructure, address the Opioid Epidemic, address the needs of our veterans. These are bipartisan priorities. I know from my friends both in the Republican Party and the democratic party, we share, we share these goals. But now for 112 days, the Republican Leadership kicked the can down the road and cast aside the basic responsibility of congress to fund the government. They gave us this Government Shutdown. They followed what donald trump said in asking for a good shutdown even though anybody who has had any experience in government knows there is no such thing as a president who said a good Government Shutdown, but this was done under the careening leadership and chaos of the president. He said he is support extending chip in the house bill, and then he was against it. He said he would sign any bipartisan deal brought to his desk to protect the dreamers and increase border security. Then when a bipartisan deal, republicans and democrats came to him and did exactly what he asked for, he scoffed at it. No, thats not steady as he goes leadership. If we cant take the word of the president when we know he is only one tweet away from changing his mind, why should we trust him when he says he will take care of our veterans or get serious about the Opioid Epidemic . Why would we take his word when he says he wants to protect the dreamers . After promising to treat Daca Recipients with great heart, President Trump and the republicans instead held our nations dreamers hostage. They came to the disen to the xenophobic voices within the party. President trump rejected the bipartisan deal with senators graham, durbin, and others, specifically crafted to meet his demand. As we speak, 122 dreamers lose their status every day. Thats yesterday and friday. Thats today on saturday. Thats tomorrow on sunday. And we know that on march 5, hundreds of thousands of Daca Recipients will begin to lose their status due to President Trumps actions. The republicans now argue there is no urgency to provide protections for dreamers. I wish you would go and sit with one of these families, the people who are pillars of our community, taxpayers, getting great educations, and listen to them, ask them is there any urgency . When you have a medical student about to graduate from medical school, and he worries he will hear a knock at the door, and hes gone. Well, you know, the decision to end daca, 122 dreamers lose their status every day. And the administration has acknowledged to congress to implement any dream legislation would take up to six months during which tens of thousands more could lose their status. No urgency. That was my if that was my family, i would feel the urgency every minute of the day and the night. Since President Trump decided to revoke their protected status, these hundreds of thousands of dreamers have had to live with fear and anxiety every day if their status is not resolved. You can imagine how they feel when they see the president s view seem to change constantly, almost daily. Talk about coughing whiplash. Dreamers have no reason to believe that President Trump will not prioritize them for deportation. In fact, his administration has asked of the Supreme Court to immediately nullify a District Court decision, immediately nullify it to protect Daca Recipients. And they seem to have no sense of enforcement priorities. They detain a 10yearold texas girl with cerebral palsy. They deport a michigan father with no criminal record who came to this country as a child 30 years ago, paying his taxes and obeying the law. Even the majority leader, to his credit, is uncertain of what the president wants for dreamers or for any path forward, for that matter. The majority leader, the republican leader said earlier this week as soon as we figure out what President Trump is for, then i would be convinced that were not just spinning our wheels. I have never heard a comment like that in 43 years here. Because we are spinning our wheels in the trump shutdown. Here we are on this trump shutdown, were spinning our wheels because leadership waited for guidance from the president. Instead of doing their jobs, working with us, sending a bipartisan deal to his desk. Were spinning our wheels because President Trump i will give him credit for this. He is very straightforward. He repeatedly called for a Government Shutdown, probably the only person in the government who has ever been foolish enough to do that, but he got exactly what he wanted, a Government Shutdown. So today, medical research has ground to a halt. Today in vermont and across the nation, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed through no fault of their own. In vermont and across the nation, every additional hour of the trump showdown deals another blow to the men and women trying to recover from opioid addiction. Every hour, the burden of the trump shutdown should weigh heavier on his shoulders. Because there is only one person in this country that wanted this shutdown, and thats President Trump. The trump shutdown is not and wasnt necessary. We have always had all the pieces. Everybody, republicans and democrats, want to raise the budget caps set in place by the budget control act. We want to stop the devastating consequences of sequestration. We want to take care of the bipartisan Childrens Health Insurance Program. We have a bipartisan agreement to protect the dreamers. We have all of the pieces. Lets put them together. Lets show the honesty and the courage to do our jobs. And, mr. President , i see other senators on the floor wishing to speak. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Inhofe mr. President , i ask unanimous consent to ask that my remarks that after my remarks, the senator from rhode island be recognized, senator whitehouse, and after that, the senator from arizona be recognized. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Inhofe we like to do this, mr. President , because on mornings like this when were supposed to be going back and forth between democrats and republicans, i that i thats the proper way to do it. This kind of lox it in. This kind of locks it in. Its really interesting because i have been through every shutdown in the last 30 years. I was eight years in the house, 22 years in the senate. And this is the first time in every other time theres always been some question, could it be a little bit of blame on the democrats . A little bit of blame on the kweupbdz . The fin on the republicans. The finger pointing is always happening until this time. This time there can be no question if you want to say whose fault it is. I suggested that the aids that were being used there, the picture of the trump shutdown was printed long before last night even took place. This is the first time there can be no question, if you want to play the blame game, it is the democrats in this case. I mean, and i think it was planned that way. Im not into their heads. I dont know, but there has to be some reason that all that stuff came along on the First Anniversary of his presidency. So anyway, this is something that there is not i cant find anyone in the nation right now who is saying there is some question as to whose fault this is. Even the new york times, they talked about the fact that and youve got to keep in mind, just use logic, there is one vote that caused this. One vote. 90 of the democrats voted in that one vote last night to shut down government. 90 of the republicans said, voted to keep the government open. So it was done in a premeditated way, i have to say, because all this was so planned out, and they thought maybe this is a good thing, good ring to people, they can say the trump shutdown. I cant imagine anyone who can really believe that theres anything authentic about that. Anyway, people have to remember this happened because of one vote and that one vote, it was almost unanimous republican versus democrat. Thats not why i wanted to talk. Ive been listening to all the things that can happen, and i think were sympathetic to all these things. I think most of the reasons are stated for shutting down the government by the Schumer Group last night, all having to do with the daca. Let me tell you, mr. President , i dont know of one republican serving in the United States senate that isnt very sympathetic to the kids, and particularly the ones who had no voice in it. They were here not by their own choice, they didnt personally violate any laws. We want to take care of them. Were going to take care of them. Our president is going to take care of them. That seems to be an issue that if they can convince the people this is put together by trump to hurt little kids, thats the only thing they have to hang their hat on. And i suggest my very good friend and i do have a good friend from rhode island, whos already got his picture of trump up, and so were going to hear more and more and more of that all day long until we finally get this thing opened up probably on monday. Were sorry it happened that way, but it was one vote that caused it and thats behind us now. Now with all the things i agree with the things that were said by each of the members, the republican members on the problems that come with this shutdown. Even if it gets opened early up, and i think it will be over by maybe monday im not real sure. I suspect that. But i have had the privilege in the past of being the Ranking Member on the Armed Services committee and that is the area that really concerns me the most. Now ive been critical of the last administration, the obama administration, and what has happened to the military. They had a policy, mr. President. Its a stated policy, all the democrats agreed with it. It said you cant put any money into sequestration for the military unless you put an equal amount of money in for social programs or for nondefense programs. Well, thats saying that defending america is not the numberone concern, not the numberone priority of what were supposed to be doing down here. And so, as bad as it is, has become over the last eight years in terms of our ability and the fact that were overworking our kids, the fact that our maintenance is down and those things are all bad, but for this to happen right now at this time, when were in the middle of arguably two, maybe even three wars and were with a, a defense that has gone through a starvation diet, and yesterday it was secretary mattis, he was very clear. He said, and this is a quote, he said a shutdown would at that time he made this, he was begging for it not to happen. He was hoping it wouldnt happen. But he said a shutdown would have terribly, terrible impact on two million men, women, and their families who serve in our military. A terrible impact. Now there are approximately 200,000 troops currently Forward Deployed who are now doing their jobs without pay as a result of this. Secretary mattis said all Maintenance Operations for the military will cease as long as there is no shutdown. Thats all maintenance. When you go through starvation as we have over eight years of the previous administration, the first thing that is hit is always maintenance because thats not obvious. Maintenance and modernization, those are the two things you can starve without the public being aware of, and thats what happened. So we have a lot of our, i think people are aware, just look at our f18s that the marines are using, only there are 62 of those cant fly right now because they have not been properly maintained. We are going through this problem already and its going to be its going to be exacerbated by the fact that we are closing things down, shutting things down. Ive gotten over the part in terms of whose fault it is, and i know theyre going to desperately try to sound like the president doesnt like kids and all that, but the bottom line is the Government Shutdown, there is a vote. It was a maintenance it was a partisan shutdown. So secretary mattis talked about the Maintenance Operations for the military that were already just starting back up, are going to have to cease as long as this shutdown maintains. That is all maintenance. In oklahoma were we especially know whats important to our civilian workforce. The civilian workforce, by the way, in a shutdown is going to be out of business. Theyre going to be gone for that period of time. The air force, the depo that performs the maintenance and overhauls of our planes, theyre going to be shut down. We have another one in mcalster, oklahoma. Its not known as much as some of the others but its the largest army depot in the country, and its one that has, its all civilian employees. We have one uniformed officer in the depot in mcalster, oklahoma, the army depot, and thats the commander. And all of the rest of them are civilian employees. Theyre gone. They are the ones that are off. Over half of the civilian workforce will be sent home and those projects will be halted. The impact will ripple for weeks and potentially for months beyond the shutdown. Once we open back up there, there will be the high cost of catching back up and getting things back on schedule. Secretary mattis said the shutdown will also shutter critical overseas activities until funding is restored. That is something i was not familiar with until he came out with that statement. Of course we looked at the threat were faced with in america. I dont think anyone can keep a straight face and not admit were in the most threatened position weve ever been as a nation. We have a country, north korea, run by someone who is totally unpredictable. Thats what all of our military people say. He, on november 28, he sent a missile that had the range of reaching washington, d. C. , anyplace in the continental United States. I mean, thats a different kind of threat. You think about the old cold war, that was a threat. Nothing like we are facing today. We had two super powers. We knew what they had. They knew what we had. It was all predictable because mutually assured destruction actually meant nothing at that time. Anyway, this is what we it Means Nothing today. So this is what were facing now. We have to recognize were in this threatened position, and a lot of democrats have long claimed support for the military, but when they when the rubber meets the road they have the problem that was established when president obama was president , and that is that were not going to do anything for the military to rebuild the military unless we put an equal amount of money into the nondefense programs. Every single democrat went along with the president. So thats how we got into this mess. And now were faced with the fact that we are not giving the right resources. I sometimes tell people up until 1964 we were spending half of all the revenues that came into the federal government on defending america. And thats what were supposed to be doing. Its always over 50 of the revenues. You know what it is now, mr. President . It is 15 . So were only devoting 15 of our total revenues to defending america. Weve gotten into this position over a period of time, and its now to the point where we have really Serious Problems that need to be addressed. Our Army Brigade Teams right now are, theyre very lethal and still very effective, but only 30 of them are able to get out and do battle as it is right now. Our air force squadrons, we have a shortage of pilots. We have 1,500 pilots short. 1,300 of those are fighter pilots. While they are willing to, well always have enough who will go on overtime, whatever is necessary to get out there. Nonetheless, they dont have the equipment properly maintained. The navy is the smallest and most stressed its been in the history of the navy. The marine corps. And so these things, thats where we are right now. Thats why if theres one thing that shouldnt happen during this time in our history is to have a shutdown. So i think about my state of oklahoma. We have 663 Oklahoma Army and National Guard soldiers that will be sent home from a planned training. I was there when they planned the training. I was there to send them off. And of course that will be, that will be put on hold. Its not just oklahoma. Over 100,000 National Guardsmen are being sent home around the country right now because of this, of this shutdown. So our reserve forces, the National Guard, all of them are going through this problem. As we face the threats from north korea, iran, islamic extremists and russia aggression, not to mention our severe readiness crisis, we cant afford the negative effects of a shutdown. You know, i believe that this is going to be over with. Im not sure how it is. Im not in the leadership. Others are going to make the decision. But i can say this, that the Senate Democrats know all of this is true, and they know now that america knows and if you look at the editorials around the country, they know that, because legitimately its called the democrat shutdown, and were going to try to get it corrected. And ive talked to several of my democrat friends. Hopefully that will happen in a very short period of time. My concern, of course, is for the military. I believe that i think that well be able to get this thing done. But i want to say one more time on the daca thing, i dont know of one republican in the United States senate who isnt just as sympathetic as any democrat in the United States senate in terms of these individuals. The kids had nothing to do with the problem that they find themselves in right now. In the meantime lets get this over with, rebuild our military, and become what i see is happening now that wasnt happening before, that we will once again assert america as the leader of the free world. With that, i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , let me first thank my friend from oklahoma. We often disagree. Indeed, we often violently disagree on matters environmental. But we have been teammates, indeed close teammates on the chemical safety legislation which has been passed into law, on Water Resources bills which have been passed into law, and on the last highway bill which was passed into law. And the lesson i take from that is that in the senate, we can disagree and we can disagree violently. But where we agree, push the throttles forward and get it done. So i would. Mr. Inhofe i appreciate that very much because theres an old document that nobody reads anymore. Its called the constitution. And you look at that, and they talk about what were really supposed to be doing here. And the priorities are defending america and then they called it transportation infrastructure. I would say this that we are a great team when we do that. And we couldnt have had the successes, i could not have had the successes as the chairman of that Committee Without you on my side making sure that we were doing what we were supposed to be doing here and taking care of our infrastructure. Right now were looking at an opportunity in this administration to do the same thing. And i anticipate, i say right now, predict its going to end up with you and a closeknit group of liberal democrats, conservative republicans working together to make America Great in terms of our infrastructure. Mr. Whitehouse i appreciate very much the senators words of goodwill and it aligns very well with a note of optimism that i want to open on after last nights vote. Last nights vote provoked the first real conversations, the first real bipartisan conversations about this continuing resolution that i have seen. People all around the country watching cspan saw right there on the senate floor, the senators pooling about each other, the conversations, the back and forth, the intermediaries going between the leaders. They saw live what the senate should have been doing for weeks, which is to work in bipartisan fashion towards a compromise. Now, when you start at 20 minutes to midnight, its hard to work it all the way through. My strong hope is that the energy and the spirit of bipartisanship that was evident right down there in the well last night persists through this weekend and as long as necessary to get a bipartisan deal accomplished. We have the weekend to do it. We probably even have monday to do it. And we should get about our business. The other thing that we can be optimistic about is the things that the democrats want are bipartisan. We are not trying to jam one side only poison pills through. We are trying to get attention to long overdue matters where there is a bipartisan solution. There is something of a back story to where we are right now, so i want to mention it. I have obviously considerable sympathy for majority leader mcconnells predicament with a president who takes opposite positions within hours. How do you negotiate with that . Give me a bipartisan deal and ill take the heat, the president said, and he has since then blown up anything bipartisan that came anywhere near him. Now majority leader mcconnell is reduced to saying i dont know what the president will sign, and i cant cant until i know. Well, i think last night shows that we actually can begin to act here in the senate even if the president cant get his signals straight about where he wants this to come. I cant help but remember senator grahams description in our Judiciary Committee of President Trumps reversal on the durbingraham proposal, and he described it in two hours. He described the 10 00 trump and then the 12 00 trump. And within two hours he completely reversed his position. As senator graham said, i want that guy back about 10 00 trump. It is really hard to negotiate with someone who doesnt know what his position is so i do have sympathy here, and i hope that the white house perhaps sits down and has a negotiation with itself so that it can decide what it wants. The other problem over at the white house is that the president has surrounded himself with extremists, and that means that nobody knows how to negotiate and the advice he is getting doesnt serve him. You really dont do deals, i think virtually everybody in politics knows, by bringing in the most extreme elements to shout at each other. You do deals by bringing people who have good faith and a common interest in solving the problem together. And if all you have around you is extremists, you have dramatically crippled and shrunk your own capabilities. Unless, of course, what youve wanted all along is what the extremists want, a good shutdown. Theres another backstory going on that i want to discuss. This is a fight over maybe a dozen legislative issues, but it is also a fight over the institution of the senate and how far we will let the senate degrade into a partisan dead zone. In the oceans we see more and more dead zones where there isnt enough oxygen to support life so there arent fish and there isnt the mixing and the turbulence thats necessary for mixing of life and oxygen. And the senate seems to be slowly turning into that dead zone. We know what works around here, because the majority leader has a long history of fighting to get it, to make sure that the minority has amendments, and to try to block things that are exclusively partisan. Indeed, at various times he has encouraged his caucus to avoid joining democrats on any bills so that they are partisan so that he can block them. So we have lived the experience of the majority leaders interests in amendments and in opposition to purely partisan legislation. We have also heard it and in the majority leaders own words, he has called for a senate and im quoting him here which honors and respects all the members and allows everybody to participate and offer their ideas regardless of party. He went on to say, thats something that the majority leader can do and i intend to do it. How do you do that . Well, he went on to say in another interview, the way to do that is to, quote, ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate in some way in the passage of the legislation. To be specific, he said, bills should come to the floor, be thoroughly debated, and include a robust amendment process. A robust amendment process. Answer he went on, is to let folks debate, to let the senate work its will, and that means bringing bills to the floor. It means having a free and open amendment process. He also timely said, we want to engage members from both parties in the legislative process to get our democracy working again the way it was designed. With that background, lets look at trump year one. The opener legislatively in the year was the partisan budget reconciliation bill, a purely partisan measure whose only purpose was to open the door to further purely partisan measures under the budget reconciliation process. So we opened with that partisan process. Having opened that door, sure enough we went on to partisan Obamacare Repeal which failed and they tried again over and over but always partisan, whatever the effort. Then we went back to partisan budget reconciliation two to tee up a partisan opening for a partisan tax bill. And then, of course, we had the partisan tax bill. There was one briefly shining light on the National Defense authorization. Chairman mccain and Ranking Member reed in the Armed Services Committee Led a robust, bipartisan amendment process that brought the committee together and brought forward a bill that i think everybody in the senate could be proud of. But when it got to the floor, here on the senate floor not one democrat was allowed a floor vote on any amendment. So the grand total for the year for the United States senate, if you set aside the budget and votearama amendments which in my view dont count that whole process is a joke. That simply tees up a reconciliation measure that allows further partisanship. So set those aside because they dont count. In real legislation, how many amendments has the minority been able to get on the floor . The grand total all year long ever since trump was elected last year to this year, a grand total of zero zero democratic amendments considered on the senate floor since trump, not one. Compare that to all the things i just read that the Senate Majority leader promised about amendments, that bills should come to the floor, be thoroughly debated, and include a robust amendment process, that the answer is to let folks debate, to let the senate work its will, and that means bringing bills to the floor. It means having a free and open amendment process. To paraphrase senator graham, i want that guy back. When the leader shuts down the amendment process, its not just the Minority Party that suffers. Republicans also under trump have gotten virtually zero floor amendments voted on all year long. That leaves the senate exclusively with partisan ram jobs which is what weve seen a lot of and u. C. s, unanimous consents, things so noncontroversial that they can avoid the dead zone of the Mcconnell Senate floor and be agreed to by everyone and passed into law. That is a worthy process . But its not a process thats going to yield a solution to the big controversies we need to resolve here in this worlds greatest deliberative body. This problem of mom open process and no amendments is a problem for all of us. When we get all tangled up in leadership chess games, all senators lose their ability to represent their states. Power gets concentrated in the leader. I remember senator sessions on the floor over there back i was actually in the presiding officers chair on some of the occasions when senator sessions was animatedly discussing his concern and irritation with what the masters of the universe were doing in secret rooms that he did not have access to. This is a bipartisan frustrati frustration. We all become cogs in the majority leaders leadership chess match, and we all have common cause in going back to a place where the leader helps the senate work its will, not where leaders impose their will on the senate. The senate is broken. Over and over again its been said here on the senate floor and by no one more articulately than by senator durbin. And the longer youve been around, senator durbin and senator alexander particularly, when you remember what it was like, its much more apparent how broken it is. And for whose benefit . For big donors so they can call the shots through the leadership . For the leadership thrill of being a bigger player in d. C. s game of thrones . This ought not just be a democratic revolt against the mess we are in. Republican senators are often just as neutered as their minority colleagues when all power moves to the majority leader. Zero amendments, not a single minority amendment in the entire year on real legislation ought to be a symptom that concerns everyone. I dont know what republicans got. Maybe two amendments, maybe three in an entire year . How Many Republican senators are there who have never had an amendment of theirs called up and voted on on the senate flo floor . Let me add one additional point against the looming deadline of a shutdown. Speaker paul ryan sent over a bill last night that we voted on last night that he knew was going to fail. Im a junior senator here, and i had last nights vote predicted exactly. With all the powers of the speaker of the house, with his direct line to his fellow republican, the majority leader, is it plausible to think that what happened last night in the senate was any kind of a surprise to the speaker of the house . Of course not. And we know from senator schumer and leader pelosi that there was not even consultation with democrats about the contents of the c. R. Last night. No negotiations, nothing. A partisan ram job that the speaker had to know would fail when he sent it over. Imagine the cynicism, imagine the cynicism with a shutdown of the government looming, of sending to the senate a partisan bill you know will fail. Teeing up a shutdown just so you can tee up a blame war about the shutdown you knowingly provoked, that is house of cards cynical stuff. Let me wrap up by saying that the Senate Balance is about as close as it could be. Moreover, democrats in the senate represent 40 million more americans than our republican colleagues do. When your Senate Majority is micro scoppic microscopic and you represent a minority of the American People, dictating terms to the Senate Minority as if this was the soviet duma is not justifiable. And it is destroying the senate. We on our side have been rolled and we have been rolled and we have been rolled and there was no end in sight. The senate of the United States has been turned into a dead zone. The mcconnell partisan dead zone. Those strategies amass power into the leaders hands, away from republican and democrat senators alike, but that breaks all the promises the majority leader made about amendments and regular order, and that is destroying this institution. This institution that we love. You simply cannot have both bipartisanship and utter dominion by the majority leader at the same time. That just cant coexist. Its impossible. You cannot have an open amendment process and utter dominion by the majority leader at the same time. If the majority leader insists on being to you, as senator sessions phrases, the master of the universe, what does that leave for everyone else . Well, we have seen what it leaves on our side zero amendments, zero consultation, no input, no bipartisanship, ever. And why, why should the Great Affairs of government be worked out in private meetings of two or five or eight . Those rooms may not be smoke filled any longer, but the atmosphere is just as unhealthy without the smoke. The atmosphere is just as unhealthy when so much gets done in the dork and so many senators who are not the master of the universe are reduced to begging and pleading to their leader to have favors slipped into the backroom deal. Thats not the way the senate should work. Smoke or no smoke, that is not helping. But too many senators, too many members here have never even breathed the fresh air of a healthy senate. Like the pit ponies of the old coal mines, they trudge and they haul in darkness. Trudging and hauling in the darkness so long, they dont know what daylight looks like. But senators like dick durbin and Lamar Alexander who remember what daylight looks like are here to remind us on how healthy a process that should be. Remember, in a senate in which the Minority Party, the barely Minority Party, i should add, is not for an entire year able to get even one amendment voted on on one piece of meaningful legislation, in a senate like that, mr. President , everybody loses, or maybe i should say virtually everybody loses. Unanimous consent, partisan ram job or nothing is no way to govern and no way to run a senate. I yield the floor. Mr. Flake mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from arizona. Mr. Flake one day into a Government Shutdown, we are in a hole as a body. I was just talking to one of my colleagues who said that we ought to spend less time worrying about who threw us in this hole or how we ended up in this hole, and more concern about getting out of it. I hope that we can dispense with the signs of the trump shutdown, the schumer shutdown, and realize were in a shutdown situation. Now lets climb out of it. There are ways to do that. I believe well be coming to a proposal today. I hope we can vote on it today. We can with consent to move the date from february 16 to february 8. That would be significant. We dont need to go for four weeks more without in this c. R. We can find agreement to get out of it. We can find permanent solutions, permanent Funding Solutions for the government. We can also find solutions on the daca situation. I just want to encourage my colleagues to not use loaded phrases as well here. I have heard the term that we cant deal or we shouldnt deal with the illegal alien situation right now. Who can honestly look at a child who was brought across the border. The average age when these daca kids were brought across the border was the age of 6. Some of them were toddlers. Some of them were carried by their parents. Who in the world can look at them and refer to them as illegal aliens . You can have a different description for their parents or others who brought them across, but to put that kind of a label on a child is just wrong, and with that kind of loaded language, it makes it more difficult to come to a solution. There is enough blame to go around for this shutdown on all of us. Its a pox on all of our houses. The question should be how do we get out of it . I would suggest, and i think that we are coming to this, the best way out of this is for the senate to be the senate again. I know that the majority leader and im glad he ds very jealously guards his prerogative as a majority leader to decide what comes to the floor. Thats his right as the elected leader of the majority. I hope he will just as jealously guard the senates prerogative, the congressional prerogative. We are an equal branch of government, and to say that we wont move on a particular topic until we have an agreement from the president when we have waited for weeks and weeks and weeks for that kind of agreement, for that kind of nod or signal, we cant wait anymore. Lets more jealously guard our prerogative here as legislators, and lets bring an immigration bill to the floor. My understanding now is that that is the agreement, that if we havent reached agreement with the white house and with the other negotiators by february 8, by the time this next c. R. Runs out, if we can agree to a c. R. That runs to the 8th, that we will bring an immigration bill to the floor, or we will bring a vehicle to the floor that will allow other immigration bills to come. I happen to have been working on a bipartisan bill. There are now seven republicans and seven democrats who have signed on. Thats my preference. I believe that some on the democratic side may want to bring another one up first. Thats great. Some on the republican side may want to bring another version up as well. Great. 60 votes will be required, and i think that well probably settle on one that we can all agree on. Well have to. We have to get 60 votes here in the senate. I think that that can be done and that is a way forward. I hope at that time theres no guarantee, but i hope that the president will, as he has said in the past, he will agree with what the senate passes. I believe that we can pass a responsible measure that takes care of these daca kids as well as reinforces the border where we need to and take care of some other issues as well that the president and our leaders have outlined. I think that that can be done. It can be done today. I hope that we can have consent to move that. I hope that the president can accept that as the will of the house, the will of the senate, and then promote that solution. We have until march 5 before these kids are subject to deportation. None of these kids should be under that cloud. Not knowing what theyre going to do with regard to school or work or their legal status here. There is urgency. For those who say there is no urgency, we have six months to deal with this. Now were just outside of a month before kids will start being deported. We shouldnt go further than february 8 to actually settle this in the senate. We can do it, but we have people who are working in good faith on both sides of the aisle. Lets just exercise our congressional prerogative to actually legislate. If we will do so, im confident, mr. President , that we can come to a solution. With that, i yield my time. Mr. Cornyn mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , i want to thank the senator from arizona who has spent an awful lot of time and energy on this topic. Im committed to working with him and all of our colleagues to come up with a solution well in advance of the march 5 deadline. One thing i hope he will help ms my understanding is the march 5 deadline means that the current Daca Recipients can no longer register again for an additional two years and qualify for an additional work permit. I think but i could be mistaken that it doesnt mean that they are subject to deportation. What it means is that they cant sign up again for another two years, and they will lose potentially lose their work permit. Having said that, im not diminishing the urgency of the issue of the timeline, and im committed to working with him and others to try to beat that well in advance during the month of february. I think it is does create enormous anxiety for these young people who i have met and as the senator from arizona has. They dont know what their future looks like, and they need to get the certainty that comes along with us giving them a permanent solution, which, again, im committed to do. So i want to make sure i understand exactly what happens march 5, and i have described what i think happens. I also know that the administration, department of homeland security, does not prioritize people unless they have committed crimes or otherwise abused the privilege of staying here in the United States. Peaceful, lawabiding individuals who have violated the immigration laws and of course these young adults are not culpable in any manner because they came here with their barents, so they really i mean, they are pretty blameless in my book. But the point is i dont think they would be prioritized for deportation. Im confident they would not be, even if im wrong about what happens on march 5. But, mr. President , i would yield moment airline to the senator from arizona so we can have maybe a little discussion about that. Certainly im committed to finding out what exactly does happen on march 5, but i have described to the best of my knowledge what i believe will happen. Mr. Flake i thank the senator for yielding. On march 5, as i understand it, the daca program would no longer apply. Those who have already registered, that registration will continue until it runs out. There are some now i think the figure is some 150 a day who are losing status. There is a question about whether or not they can renew. Courts have been trying to weigh in on that, and the administration has asked the courts to finalize, asked the high court to, but the problem is even if its not deportation on march 5, there is a real question, they cant get work permits. They wont be able to register for school in certain circumstances. So they are left in limbo. Thats not fair to them. And so i thank the gentleman for working on a solution here, the senator, and thank him for yielding time. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , i i appreciate the comments of my friend from arizona. Hes right about the work permits. That Everything Else aside, if these young people, some 690,000 can no longer work, thats going to have a dramatic negative impact, not only on them but also on our economy and on the people who hire them. So all of which is to say we shouldnt play with fire here. We need to get this addressed. We need to get it addressed on a timely basis, and thats something im committed to doing. The thing that confounds me the most, though, is why we find ourselves here with the senate in session and the federal government otherwise shut down. It strikes me as completely unnecessary, especially when a number of us, me included, are having two or three meetings a day to try to come up with a solution on this problem. I know that people are anxious for the status and what happens to the future of these young adults, and i am, too. I am eager to come up with a solution as soon as we can, but i think some have had what i would view an unrealistic view of the end game here. In other words, i know that our friends have been the senator from arizona, the senator from South Carolina and others have a group along with the senator from illinois that they think will be the seed of a solution here, but as they found out last