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

Which we all know is a farce. And so we havent had bipartisanship, and i was so encouraged when the majority leader earlier this year first week of the year, i think, right before convening, said he wants to do things on the basis of 60 votes, which is the way the senate has always worked. And the i know he considers himself and institutional i. And i understand that they felt an comparative to try to repeal the Affordable Care act and do their tax cuts via the reconciliation process, which is a 51vote threshold. But he a nnounced, were going to do bipartisan stuff in year. But what we have is an erratic administration that changes its position every hour, so it is difficult to get to 60. They lack the clarity, they lack the capacity, and it appears they lack the desire to govern in a bipartisan fashion. So i just want to be really clear. Democrats are ready and eager to talk. We are here to find a way forward, but that does require president ial leadership. I dont understand why we couldnt have a oneday c. R. , a twoday c. R. , a fiveday c. R. I dont understand why we cant negotiate with the government open. Why cant when bill nelson comes down to the floor and says, why dont we buy ourselves another 24 hours so civilian d. O. D. Employees can get paid, to people who work for the federal government can get paid, so many of the people who work in the United States congress, in security, elsewhere, and pawrg. All of these parking. All of these Civil Servants will not get paid and they will all be shut down monday morning because no one will allow a proposal to get a vote. If you dont want to do a 24hour c. R. , vote against it. But at least allow us to keep the government open and keep these negotiations open. Now is the time for congress to conduct itself as the article 1 branch, as a separate coequal branch of government. And i understand the publics. We politics. We had eight years of president obama and democrats were eager to understand the president s position so we could calibrate and coordinate. We didnt always do the same thing. You have to keep an open ear to what a president of your party desires to do. But when a president of your party is totally unclear or changes his mind every 12 hours, then you have to make a judgment that youre going to exercise your constitutional obligation and get the job done with his participation or over his objections and thats what we need to do on a bipartisan basis. I yield the floor. I notice the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call good afternoon. This morning the president s has spoken to leader mcconnell, to speaker ryan, to leader mccarthy. He also received updates from secretary nielsen about the impact of payments, salary not going to our Border Agents. He also spoke with secretary mattis who gave an update, about 90,000 National Guardsmen and 20,000 Army Reservists who have had their training canceled because of the Government Shutdown. Additionally additional costs that theyve had to incur including they have to pick up their own pay and travel costs. We stand here ready to sign the bill that the house passed last night, anxious to keep the government open or, i should say, to reopen the government. The white house position, though, remains the same; that we will not negotiate the status of 690,000 unlawful immigrants while hundreds of millions of taxpaying americans, including hundreds of thousands of our troops in uniform and Border Agents protecting our country, are held hostage by Senate Democrats. We continue to remain anxious to reach a deal on daca, and we look forward to resuming those negotiations as soon as the Senate Democrats reopen the government. The reality though that is difficult for, i think, Many Americans to understand is if, if you put forward a bill that continues funding the government, reauthorizes Health Insurance for nine million children, provides a relief of taxes that democrats and republicans on a bipartisan basis, the rationale for shutting down the government over a bill that republicans and democrats agree with on the basis of saying we will not, we will not negotiate, we will not reach a resolution to open the government until theres a solution on a tangential issue that remains plenty of time to be solved, i think a lot of americans have a hard time understanding how you make the argument of why were not going to pay our men and women in uniform, our agents serving on the border in order to try to resolve an issue that we also want to resolve related to unlawful residents. We look forward, i think, that the Senate Majority leader is going to offer, as you know has already offered, a continuing resolution that goes to three weeks instead of the original four weeks. We look forward to that vote. We hope that Senate Democrats will yield and accept that the position is unreasonable and reopen the government to make sure that our men and women in uniform continue to get paid. Director of omb mick mull vain is here to address the status of the update, and then well take a few questions with. Good morning. Good afternoon. A couple different things. Walk through some of the how a lapse in appropriations, a shutdown works. Keep in mind the technical term, the legal term is actually a lapse in appropriations. So when you saw the notices go out today, they referenced a lapse. That is the formal name for the shutdown. This morning, early this morning federal workers not notices from their various agencies as to whether they were exempt or furloughed employees. They sort of fell into three categories. Either you were exempt and you were to come to work either today or monday depending on your ordinary work schedule, you were absolutely furloughed in which case you were not to come to work, or actually theres another group of people who would show up for a few hours on monday or today in order to shut down or prepare for the lapse. So those notices went out today. I mentioned yesterday that this shutdown, this lapse would look different than it did in 2013. Were already seeing evidence of that, and i want to walk you folks through a couple ways its already different. In 2013 most of the epa shut down immediately during the, during the lapse. Epa this year, consistent with omb guidance and direction from the president , is using its unonly gated balances, what we call those carryforward funds. Most of the agency will remain open unlike several years ago. Mine safety inspection, the number of inspectors that will be on the job for mine safety inspections will increase from 25 of the total in 2013 to 50 . Here again, part of the administrations intentional plan to use unobligated funds that are already at agency, something the Previous Administration did not emphasize. Cybersecurity, agencies will insure that staff working on the maintenance and safeguarding of i. T. Systems will continue to work during the lapse and that systems will continue to get their critical updates. National parks, you may have already noticed that the parks, national monuments, private concessions that serve them are open. As i mentioned yesterday, wont be picking up the trash or cleaning the bathrooms. Number five, trade negotiations. During the last shutdown, i think the Obama Administration canceled a few very highlevel trade negotiations. By contrast, this year the ustr will use its funding flexibilities we talked, again, about that, the ability to use carryforward funds, transfer of funds from one account to another in order to continue round six of the and a nafta negotiations later this week. Finally, the Merchant Marine Academy was closed during the 2013 shutdown, will stay open. Theres another important example that doesnt compare apples to apples to 2013, but it is sort of evidence of how were managing this differently than the democrats did during the 2013 shutdown. After working closely with the white house, with omb to review the exceptions allowed in the law for agencies to continue to operate if their work is necessary to protect life and safety, the cdc has announced this morning they will continue Immediate Response work and surveillance to protect americans from seasonal influenza. So well have continued updates on that either later today or tomorrow as to the how this shutdown, how the lapse, if it continues, is managed. With that, i think well take a couple questions. Gentleman in the back. Yes, sir. Wondering how concerned you are that when we look at social media, twitter hashtags trending that trump shutdown seems to be far surpassing democrat shutdown or gop shutdown. How concerned are you that the onus by the public seems to be on the president . My favorite is still the schumer shutdown. So its got that nice little ring to it, doesnt it . Yes, sir. Speaking of senator schumer, he left the meeting yesterday with the president thinking he had arrived at the broad outlines of a deal, and senator schumer said the president relented under pressure from the far right. Whats your account of that meeting . I know you werent in that room yeah, i was in that meeting. I did talk to the chief about it this morning, and ill give you an example of how mr. Schumer is mischaracterizing the discussions. One of the things that, according to the chief, that mr. Schumer told the president was that i will give you all of the money that you want for your wall. And the president said, oh, thats great. I need 20 billion to build the whole wall. And mr. Schumer said, oh, no, no, no, only 13. 6. That 1. 6, thats all you asked for last year, which i happened to write. That is not all of the money for the wall, nor was it ever intended to be all the money for the wall. But Chuck Schumer actually had the gall to look at the president and say im giving you everything you asked for the wall, and then when pressed, admitted he wasnt doing it. Thats the type of negotiation that mr. Schumer has been engaged in with the president. You have to ask yourself at what point does it even become profitable to continue to work with somebody like that. So mr. Schumers going to have to up his game and be a little bit more honest with the president of the United States if were going to see progress on that front. Yes, maam. How long will this shutdown last . I youd have to ask congress. Again, the democrats in the senate could end this shutdown today. [inaudible] days, weeks . We plan mostly a today at a time. You sort of look, theres different sort of things on the horizon that come up, for example, we have a pay period on friday that would be one sort of goalpost. But well manage this day by day. The funds that ive mentioned, some agencies are sitting on quite a bit of carryforward funds, they could go out longer without being impacted. Some have none, so theyd be impacted immediately. Theres no real individual answer to that. [inaudible] is the president still going to go to davos if monday morning the government is shut down . No, my understanding is that the president will not be going to florida now, and were taking davos both from the president s perspective and the cabinet perspective on a day by day basis. Obviously, democrats [inaudible] youll talk about it after you get through the shutdown. Theres been talk among democrats of [inaudible] theres been talks from the president about trust issues. So if democrats do agree on this shortterm c. R. And to addresS Immigration later, why should democrats think they should trust this president on that . Halle, i would say again step back for a second where we were in asking congress to address this with [inaudible] providing the congress what we asked for in october as far as principles and then refining that again. And i know theres been some questions saying that theres, i think senator schumer today said theres lack of clarity as to what the white house is asking for. I dont think theres lack of clarity. Heres the principles we sent up in september. Seven pages sent up to congress saying here are the things were asking for in the four broad categories. Over the course of the negotiations and conversations, it needs to be refined. So we sent back several weeks ago a threepage document that pulled some of the items off the table, particularly for interior enforcement. And then there were meetings here at the white house with with leadership, republicans and democrats that many of you covered and was shown to the national audience. In that conversation at the end, there was agreement that there would be four principles leading the negotiations. Kevin mccarthy, senator durbin, senator cornyn, steny hoyer. That is the process that we have put in place, and it continues to focus on those four principles. What i would similarly add to director mulvaneys comments is that i would look at it as progress, the fact that democrats are now willing to accept funding for Border Security and physical barriers. That is a step forward as well, there are some areas where we are given some ground which is they want a broader definition of that daca population. To me, that is progress. All the more reason to, if were making progress, why are we shutting down the government . Why are we shutting it down . We were making progress. Were anxious to resume those conversations. But were not going to be held hostage and let our troops be held hostage over this. When they reopen the government, well continue discussions. Mark, can i ask you a discussion . This is the oneYear Anniversary of the president being sworn into office. How does this white house feel to have a shutdown one year after the president was sworn in . Well, jim, i think its disappointing that congress has chosen to shut down the government and particularly Senate Democrats at the oneYear Anniversary finish. Is it a reflection at all of leadership coming out of the white house . I think its a reflection of, candidly, the position many of the democrats find themselves in. There are many democrat act visits who have pushed their leadership to say we want something to shut down the government. Meaning they look back and say the largest tax cut in history, the regulatory rollback, they look at whats happened with 7 trillion added to the stock market, a new Supreme Court justice confirmed, those are things that we look at as tremendous progress, but i know that theyre captive by a small base in their party x theyre saying we demand a shutdown. I do think theyre related. They look at the accomplishments of the last year, and their reaction is because we cant beat them, were going to shut down the government. [inaudible] director mulvaney, just for the benefit of the public, can you go over and i have another substantive question on the politics but on entitlement patients, Social Security, medicare, just for the public [inaudible] regardless how long this lasts, what happens and what are the implications . Yeah. The technical answer is that if the source of funds is not appropriated, mandatory would be the largest component of that, then the funds will continue to flow. The Practical Application of that general rule is that Social Security checks will go out. And any other entitlements covered by that . Again, if its not generally speaking, the answer is yes. Okay. And you either worked for or you were a member of congress at times when you thought it was a matter of principle when you had political leverage to withhold votes on behalf of a principle you thought was important. Yeah. Ideological. Do you have any sympathy for democrats who believe they are doing that now under these circumstances because they believe, as a matter of principle and it might be politics but, mark, you know this and, mick, you know this. Back when you were doing that, you were accused of being the small base responding to activist pressure to do something that i and suppose [inaudible conversations] i might have a lot more sympathy if i hadnt been accused of being an arsonist. But keep in mind this is different in that in 2013 we were being asked to vote something that, vote for something that we did not like. The funding bill that was put before us in 2013 included funding for obamacare. We objected to that and for that reason refused to vote for that funding bill. We have a funding bill today sitting in the senate that senators do not oppose. They support all individual pieces of it. Weve talk about schip, weve talked about the delay in the cadillac tax, the medical device tax, talked about the fact that theyre genre okay with generally okay with crs. We were asked to vote for something in 2013 that we did not approve of. That is not the circumstance here. Here they are simply taking advantage of the situation to insert not only a new topic, but mark may have mentioned this earlier, theyve now introduced even another topic. I think you heard mr. Schumer earlier today, now they want to talk about bailing out Union Pension funds. Thats a new 60 billion topic that has been interjected into the conversation today. So clearly, things are out of control on the senate side. Do you really believe democrats are not negotiating in good faith and, therefore, this cant be resolved . I you cant, you cant i dont think its ever fair to get into somebody elses mental statement. I dont want to speak to someone elses good faith. Im just saying its extraordinarily difficult to negotiate with people who wont vote for something they like in order to raise a nonfinancial, nonfiscal issue as part of a spending bill. Weve got time for one more. Yes, sir. Mr. Trump was critical of president obamas handling of the shutdown. He said you have to get everybody in a room, you have to be a leader. President has to lead. Why isnt he following his own advice . I guess i would say that is what he is doing. If you look back to last week and the meeting that he had to discuss daca, he brought together 20 different members from both the house and senate, in bipartisan fashion. Hes continued to remain on the phone. He helped to encourage the bill that got passed in the house on thursday. It was his influence that helped make sure it passed to keep the government open. And following up on majors question just to, i think, reinforce what mick said, i think whats hard for us to understand in other times when theres been, i think, an argument over principle, there is nothing in this bill democrats say they object to. Yet its like a 2yearold temper tantrum to say im going to take my toys and go home because im upset about something else. It has nothing to do with this bill. Senate democrats are basically conducting a 2yearold temper tantrum in front of the American People. Matt . Whats the shortest cr the white house would be willing to accept . You said there would be a three week cr offered in the senate. Some democrats have said theyd vote for something that [inaudible] whats the minimum this white house would take. Matt, im not going to negotiate that in the National Press or what we would or wouldnt take hypothetically. I think the reality is that theres a bill the that pass thed the house the president said he would sign. We have now agreed to reduce that to three weeks. We think that is a concession op our part. Leader mcconnell has offered that. I hope that democrats come to their senses and support keeping government open. Mark, i know yesterday last one [inaudible] members of the administration were saying that they felt pretty confident that wed be able to avoid a shutdown by, hopefully, end of today. Yall have been up on capitol hill meeting with lawmakers. Based on those conversations, where are you at now . Well, i was confident that we would avoid a shutdown because, again, everything in this bill are programs that i think democrats have advocate for. So i was wrong. Im not going to get back to the job of handicapping what i think the chances are today. As i said, im just hopeful that democrats recognize the harm theyre doing to our Border Patrol agents, our troops serving overseas and the reality of inveepses theyre placing on millions and millions of americans. Keep in mind, when we handicap a bill, the likelihood of passage is can we get a bill together that people and will support because whats in the bill is acceptable to them. And thats one of the reasons that marc and i shared the opinion that this was going to pass. Again, because it was acceptable to the democrats. Once folks of either Party Started inserting completely new and unrelated topics into the negotiation, its impossible to predict. Thank you all very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, marc. [inaudible conversations] im joined by many of the members of our Democratic Caucus and leadership of the house Democratic Caucus. Democrats worked tirelessly to avoid this shutdown. Not a single democrat wanted to see critical federal programs shutter their doors or put our economyer at risk. This is not how we ran government when democrats were in charge. But republicans struggled in september to keep government doors opened, tweeted that, andi quote, democrats are holding our military hostage in this shutdown. Just the latest in the string of comments where he accuses democrats like me for not caring about our military. And its the latest example of him failing to show leadership to take responsibility for leading this nation. Does he even know that there are Service Members who are in harms way right now watching him looking for their commander in chief to show leadership rather than to try to reflect deflect blame . Or that his own pentagon says that there are shortterm funding plans, that the shortterm fund plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military but to our national security. I spent my entire adult life looking out for the wellbeing, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom i was responsible. Sadly, this is something the current occupant of the oval office does not seem to care to do. And i will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five deferment draft dodger. I have a message for cadet bone spurs. If you cared about our military youd stop bathe kim jong un into a war that could put 85,000 troops and millions of civilians in danger. Last night after the lights had been turned out in the white house and the president had gone to his private quarters, i voted to better train and equip our troops to stop wasting the taxpayers dollars with yet another c. R. I voted to make sure that our military men and women who are standing in the line on the d. M. Z. , who are in iraq and afghanistan, across africa and asia, get the help, the support, and the equipment that they need. If the president truly cared about them, then he would stop hiding behind his twitter account, stop blaming everyone else. And he can it tell his partya party that controls the house, the white house, and the senate, to do their job, to govern, to stop allowing the most extreme wing of your party to the prevent us from passing a longterm funding solution that the military itself, your own leaders that you nominated and appointed, is asking for. At the very least, you could ask your party to guarantee military pay and death benefits for Service Members and their families so that the troops down range arent putting their lives at risk overseas while also worrying about whether theyre going to be able to feed their families or if our government will take care of those families if god forbid, they must make that last measure of devotion for our nation. I am so disappointed that my republican colleagues refuse to allow us a vote for our troops last night. And i encourage them to please reconsider that vote. Lets get to a full budget. Lets move on. We can compromise. We can do this together. So many of the options on the table are bipartisan. In fact, a majority of them are republican offered. Our troops know how to work together. They stand shoulder to shoulder when protecting and defending this country. We surely in these chambers can do the same. So lets stop blaming each other and lets get to work. I will be here as i was today and tomorrow and the day after until we get this done. Our men and women in uniform deserve nothing less. Thank you. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . Officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President , i United States is one day into a Government Shutdown that Senate Democrats have forced on our country. Lets take a look at where we are. Last night a bipartisan majority of senators, republicans and democrats, voted to avoid this. A bipartisan majority voted to advance a noncontroversial bill that already passed the house and which the president had already said hed signing. Of course, like any compromise this funding bill cannot be all things to all people, but this bipartisan bill does what we need to do right now. It ends this pointless, pointless, irresponsible shutdown, funds the government for our troops, our veterans, and millions of vulnerable americans and extends Health Coverage for millions of children in lowincome families. None of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can point to a single thing in the bill that they oppose, not one thing. Thats why a bipartisan majority voted for it last night. It would have passed smoothly and been sent for the president s signature. Except except that the democratic leader took the extraordinary step of filibustering this bipartisan bill and initiating his own Government Shutdown. Why . Well, because he explains the president would not give him everything he wants on the issue of ilLegal Immigration in one afternoon in the oval office. Thats it. Thats it. Leaders from both parties have spent months negotiating longterm fixes for immigration policy, government spending, and other important priorities. Senators on both sides want a bipartisan solution to daca and other immigration issues. Senators on both sides want longterm funding for our troops. Bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on these matters have been under way for months months. Heres the difference between the democratic leader and the rest of us tonight. The difference he wants to keep the government shut down for hundreds of millions of americans until we finish negotiating on the subject of ilLegal Immigration. He wants to keep the government shut down until we finish a negotiation on the subject of ilLegal Immigration. Shutting down the government over ilLegal Immigration. Look, those discussion on the immigration issue continue. We dont have to shut down funding for our veterans, military families, opioid centers or anyone else who relies on the federal government over the issue of ilLegal Immigration. The occupant of the chair is one of the people involved in that very subject. Theres a lot of interest around here on both sides of the aisle in deal with it. But it is not an emergency. All of these other issues, which are affected by the Government Shutdown, are emergencies, particularly the Childrens Health issue. Look, the American People know whats going on here. Theyve got this figured out. A survey this week these a majority of americans say funding the government is more important than passing legislation on daca. Legislation, by the way, that doesnt really exist and which the democratic leader cannot present to us. We hear a lot of talk about it but we havent seen it. Fewer than half of democrats in this poll im talking about fewer than half of democrats say that dealing with daca is more urgent than keeping the government open. These numbers came in before americans picked up their newspapers this morning. When they did, they read from the Associated Press exactly exactly who is responsible for this chaos. From the a. P. , democrats blocked a fourweek stopgap extension in a latenight vote caution the fourth Government Shutdown in a quarter of a century. You might say they pinned the dale on the donkey. They pinned the tail on the done couple of the new york times, not exactly a bastion of rightwing sentiment, put the blame exactly where it belongs. Senate democrats blocked passage of a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open. Mr. President , Senate Republicans remain ready and eager to end this totally manufactured crisis. It is not a crisis. Its a manufactured crisis. Vietnamed to avoid it we voted to avoid it entirely in our bipartisan vote last night. Were ready to vote again. All we need is nor the democratic leader to withdraw his filibuster and let a bipartisan majority vote to pass this bill and reopen reopen the United States government. Earlier today i asked for consent to move up a vet on this bipartisan to move up a vote on this bipartisan solution and end the craziness today. Democrats objected. That wont work forever. If they continue to object, we cannot proceed to a cloture vote until 1 00 a. M. On monday. But i as sure you we will have a cloture vote at 1 00 a. M. On monday unless there is a desire to have it sooner p. In the meantime, shutdowns have consequences. The democratic leader may be playing for politics points but the rest us understand that the readiness of our armed forces, Health Coverage for poor children and Survivor Benefits for the familys family members of fallen Service Members are the fartherrist thing from a game. Playing with all of those lives over the issue of ilLegal Immigration. Congress has a lot of work to do. We need to provide for our war fighters, secure the border, resolve the daca issue,andcontinue work on health care, and attend to many other key priorities. I want to move forward on all of these issues. And we can when the Democratic Leaders filibuster comes to an end. Because these talks are only being delayed, not advanced, but delayed by the democrats filibuster and the democratic shutdown it has created. So i want to assure the American People well be right back at this tomorrow. I say again to the American People, well be right back at this tomorrow. And for as long as it takes. Well keep at this until democrats end their extraordinary filibuster of government funding and Childrens Health care and allow a bipartisan majority of senators to reopen the federal government for all americans and to get congress back on track. The democratic leader may put his personal political priorities ahead of Everything Else no matter the cost, but republicans stand with the American People. Mr. Rubio mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from florida. Mr. Rubio mr. President , my shall it might surprise some people here that while what we are dealing with here are is important, were not the center of the universe. All across this country, as i was reminded of this morning, calling home and speaking to friends and family and my wife, my children, life goes on. Most americans i think are aware that theres an issue going on here in washington, d. C. , with regards to funding the government, but i doubt very few of them are sitting in front of the cnn countdown clock or now i guess were into the ticker because were into the countdown. Its the reality that life goes on. So because people arent following this every single day and arent checking their phones on a 15minute basis to see how this is going to be fixed, i think that lost people are confused. Maybe some people have the perception that this is all about a disagreement regular the budget and or a disagreement solely is about an issue that is of critical importance and we need to deal right away. And thats just not accurate. Ill get to that in aempt mo. But its still hard for me to understand thousand happens. When i explain to people where we are and how we got here, it just doesnt make sense to a lot of people. But i want to beginning by something the bible says that theres nothing new under the sun. It is one of the things that came into my mind early this morning. I had occasion a few weeks ago around the new year to spend some time with my family at the Wonderful National park facilities which i hope are open today in philadelphia. And in the halls where our constitution, the very document that designed our system of government, that each of us appeals to, that each of us has sworn allegiance to, was debated. That debate was a contentious one. It began on the 23rd of may and ended on the 17th of september of 1737. It was contentious from the start. The new york delegation only stayed a few days. And the delegation from rhode island straight out boycotted it. Whats ironic is that one of the most contentious issues in that Constitutional Convention was the creation of the very senate, the creation of this body was a heated discussion. We dont know a lot about the details of that discussion because they had closed the windows, even though it was hot. They didnt go around talking about t there wan there wang 24hour news there wasnt 2 24horrisonous cycles. We know in the end, this constitution has helped create here and exceptional system of government. It was approved by 39 of the 55 delegates. They were people that voted against the constitution. The one thing that was clear was that none of them got everything they wanted. Now, at that time, by the end of that convention in fact on the 17th, monday, september 17, 1787, was the last dave that convention. One of the delegates was someone named Benjamin Franklin. He had he is biologically wellknown. He wanted to give a short speech to that convention before signing it. It was he was actually too weak to do it. So he had someone else give the speech. It beginnings with a line that says i conthats there are several parts of this constitution which i do not at present approve. He goes ton say, i agree to this constitution with all of its faults. I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain may be able to make a better constitution. For when you aacceptable a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views, from such an assembly can a perfect production be expected. So right from the very beginning in the history of this nation, we have acknowledged that in order to make progress, it is virtually impossible for everybody in that process to get everything they want. Our yob is notify things afford and i dont want to move everything. Maybe franklin was wrong he is not perfect though many tend to believe that we are the only people right. That the stage of his life he had learned to understand that he was not the holder of all wisdom, that he had changed his mind on the one hand issues when he came monk upon new information. He also understood when he brought a group of people together and asked them to come to agreement, unless they are clones of one another or unless they all qom from the samier thought process, theyre going to have disagreements. But in order to reach a conclusion, someone is going to have to get something they need even though no one is going to get everything they want. That was from the beginning of our founding. It was hard then. Imagine now in the 21 rs sent 21st century with 50 states and several territories, extraordinary diversity in terms of geography, opinion, background, and all of it covered by 24hour news which covers politics like entertainment and twitter feeds. Imagine if they had twitter and 24hour news during the Constitutional Convention. A, we would know a lot more about what they are saying to and about each other and, b, we may not have a constitution because of exacerbating those tensions. Im not saying we shouldnt have twitter or 24 hours news. Im saying it was difficult. Imagine today with these additional factors of diversity and the way politics is discussed and practiced. I say that because theres a growing temptation in american publics that comes from the politics that comes from the face of both parties. But the goal is to achieve total victory. Total victory is what you want to achieve in a sporting event. You want to win and beat your opponent by as many points as possible. But in a constitutional republic, it is nearly impossible, especially in a country like america. Its impossible. Its impossible for a president , for any party, for a faction to get 100 of what they want all the time. Instinct live despite the fact that they dont work here every day and glued in front of the Television Watching politics, most americans understand that. They do because they know it is a reality of life and they know it instinctively because thats the way the system was designed. Thats the way selfgovernment is supposed to function. Thats hard. Selfgovernment has never been easy. Its only gotten harder. When you explain what happened, here are the facts. We had a government funding deadline. Meaning if by midnight this morning we had not passed a bill to authorize more spending, we have this sort of mini shut down or shutdown or partial shutdown of the government. There is a provision that was put in law by president obama that gave status to young people who were brought into this country illegally by their parents through no fault of their p own and their own and that provision expires on march 5. We have a bill before the senate that funds the government, that keeps it open for four weeks initially. I think now were down the proposal before the senate is to end on the niepth, so about ninth, so about three weeks, and there is nothing in the bill that the democrats are against. But they voted against that bill last night and they are not letting us vote on the other bill today right now and independent tend to vote against it when we do vote on it monday morning because they want to see their demands met on something that doesnt expire for 43 days. So this shnot about whether youre this is not whether youre for or against doing something about daca. Its not. Its not like the government funding expired last night and daca expired last night. This is the government funding expired last night, daca expires in 43 days. When you explain that to people, why would how does that work . Why does that make sense . Why would they do this . So in fairness, i listened to the argument of my democratic colleagues and one of the consideration they make is that they dont trust the Republican Party on the issue of daca, but more pornl they importantly them dont trust the president to deal with it. They need to do something and use government funding as the leverage to force it to happen. Let me say at the outset that it is a legitimate tool in the toolbox of a legislator on a matter of deep principle to not vote on an important bill in order to get leverage for what you want. If there is something you are deeply principled about and we need to do, it is a legitimate tool to say, i know you really need to do this and i really need to do that and so im not going to let thank you do what you need to do unless you let me do what i need to do. And i think thats the argument they are making now. As pointed out to you earlier, it is not the same. This is a spending deal in fact, the bill they voted against would expire even before the march 5 deadline of daca. For instance, we would have to have another government funding vote before march 5. It is not really a leverage argument. In order for the selfgovernment to work, as i have described already, we have to be judicious and careful about how we use the tools. You have to reserve it for key moments. The first is international implications. We talk a lot about russian interference. The goal about russian interference above all else was to create conflict around american politic politics. So putin can say their democracy not a real democracy and their leaders are corrupt and elections are rigged. Thats what he wanted to drive. There are nations like china that under our very nose are rapidly working to change the world in our time. While we spend all of these days arguing with each other about the outrage of the day, china is like working underneath us and all around us to rebuild the world in their image and to their advantage and at our detriment. One of the things they tell other countries is that americans as a country are in decline. They are in total decline, abandoning the world and more importantly they cant govern thesms. We are themselves. We are doing their job for them when we create these kinds of controversies. That shouldnt mean we shouldnt have debates. That doesnt mean we shouldnt use leverage to achieve our goals. But it does impact the way the world views us. People watch this stuff all over the world and they dont understand, as some of us do, that it all works out. Some places believe that we are crumbling, riptd apart ripped apart at the seams. It encourages nations to do things sometimes through miscalculations. That is the first reason you want to be careful. The second reason you want to be judicious about using these tools is because it poisons the process. I would say that the abuse of these prerogatives of this over the last decade has done tremendous damage to the senate and affected our ability to solve problems. I say that as someone and say that republicans have done this. Republicans used loanch in situations where used leverage in situations. And activists insist that Democrats Use the same tool. They did it in the minority and now they need to do it when they are in the minority. We have to be careful because we all have matters of deep principle. I have matters of deep principle that havent been addressed yet. I have a matter of deep principle, and as much as i believe we need to do something about daca, i have a principle that i believe is more urgent and requires attention right away. The people of florida, the people of puerto rico, the people of texas have a desperate need for Disaster Relief. 40 of the island of puerto rico has no electricity. This is a u. S. Territory with american citizens living in thirdworld conditions. In the state of florida our Citrus Growers are in a dangerous situation. You still have People Living in hotel rooms and motel rooms in florida because their homes were destroyed. That is a real need that doesnt have a deadline. They needed it yesterday and we still havent addressed it. And so i suppose if i wanted to use this tool, and some maybe encourage me to do that, i could say im not funding for the government until we get Disaster Relief. The problem is all 99 other senators have a principled position as well. All we do is take hostages every day on every opportunity we get. Well, you get the picture, and its starting to happen more and more. And, by the way, i say all of this to you understanding if we passed a longterm funding bill. Lets say the bill before us funded government through october, and i voted for that, and Disaster Relief hadnt happened yet, there would be no guarantee to get disaster leaf so we have to be judicious about how to use it. I decided not to do it because i think it hearse the hurts the people. There are people in puerto rico who were hit by a hurricane and cant go to work on monday. There are getter services in florida. There are federal services in florida and people are going to call offices on monday even if i have essential staff there, there may not be an employee at a federal agency to pick up the phone and intervening on their behalf. It happens all the time. Common things that we face, calls that we get is if someone has a loved one or relative visiting somewhere around the world and killed in an accident and they want to bring their body home to be buried and we have to deal with the paperwork at the embassy, were not going to be there on monday to do it because the people we need to call may not be there to answer the call. In the end, you dont cut off your nose to spite your face and in this case you dont shut down government to hurt people in other places. This is not about leverage. Its not. I say this with honest respect. The democratic leader is someone who understands legislation and understands politics. I do not believe this is about leverage. He has to know this because this is no different than in december. We passed a shortterm spending deal in december and democratic members voted for that the at time and the daca issue was unresolved at the time. By the way we had a chance to deal with Disaster Relief in december too. They sent a Disaster Relief bill from the house to the senate and the democratic leader chose not to take it up, i believe, because he wanted to hole hold it over for this debate. The more things pending, the more leverage you have. We were going to put additional things on that house bill and send it back. Suffice it to say it is unresolved. Heres what i think this is about in many ways, and im here to cite some examples of why i think it is easy to prove. In december, as i said before we got ready to leave before the end of the year, there were a lot of activists involving the daca issue that were really pounding on the democrats to shut down the government unless daca was handled. To their credit, a number of Democratic Senators didnt do so. They voted not to shut down government and the end result was they unleashed a furious assault in terms of pressure and protests and sleepins and all kinds of things. This really started back in october. Lets go to october 2, 2017. This is an article that talks about ill just quote from it. I underlined the key provision. Democrats seeking an immigration deal are facing resistance from imgrant activists who are demanding more extensive legislation to protect Illegal Immigrants from deportation. It says despite Democratic Leaders declared commitment to help dreamers, they are catching sustained flak from immigration flack from immigration activists. This talks about the minority leader in the house pelosi. She said that activists south down her speech and called her a liar. If you havent seen a video, she did a press conference in, i believe, san francisco, and as she was there doing this press conference with dreamers, these other dream act visit people showed up and screamed at her. For those of us on this side of the aisle we view her as one of the more liberal members of congress and someone i identified as a support of the dream act. Then you have people saying, well, the dream act is not enough. You have to cover other people. They are under a lot of pressure. Heres a quote from an immigrants right advocate an daca rerecipient. Recipient. He say i think senator schumer crumbles under pressure just so he can deliver something. Lets go to december 19. It begins by saying dozens of immigration activists ral lied outside senator Schumers Office on tuesday. In spanish and English Speakers at the rallies demanded the Senate Minority leader asked his fellow democrats to refrain from supporting any legislation until a clean dream act is passed. A clean dream act means the dream act, nothing else, no Border Security. By the way, any legislation. Dont vote for anything until that happens. This is the pressure they were under. The article goes on to say as Congress Negotiates the budget protesters called for schumer to help shut down the government if a dream act isnt passed by the end of the year, chanting if we dont get it, shut it down. Those are the quotes of the this is in december. So this article was december 19. This must have been december 18. And the chant outside his office in manhattan was if we dont get it, shut it down. So calls for shutdown began as far back as december. Not 43 days before the deadline, but 60 or 70 days before the deadline. So finally the spokeswoman for the minority leader put out a statement to, i believe the protesters but i guess the press who was assembled. She said we want to make sure nothing passes until we have the dream act in there. Theyre already telegraphing this from december. This is not something that happened in the last two days or three days. This is ongoing and sustained pressure. We have more. On december 21 there is an article in the washington post, the headline in private meeting schumer aeupbgly confronted by hispanic caucus members as prospects for daca deal slip again. Ill read it. It says disagreements among democrats over how to keep fighting to enact Legal Protection for immigrant dreamers broiled over in the office of Senate Minority leader charles e. Schumer on thursday as he met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in what several participants described as a tense and heated exchange. With just a few minutes notice they showed up in the lobby of schumers suite across from the senate floor in hopes of pressing him to persuade more senators to vote against the g. O. P. Spending plan set to be approved in the coming hours. The latest shortterm spending plan was set for approval as democrats backed off a pledge for undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children. Their decision angered immigration activists. Several people who attended the meeting granted an the senator fromty said the an the senatorononimity. Said some unloaded on schumer. In response schumer raised his voice telling gutierrez not to disrespect fellow democrats. Gutierrez yelled back dont raise your voice. A few other democrats made pointed comments towards schumer. Later in the day gutierrez tweeted the fight continues in january. I think were all on the same page. Pressure. Incredible pressure being mounted the whole time. Probably one more thing ill cite here. This is from the new yorker, january 18. Many democratic activists are demanding schumer and other elected democrats vote against the g. O. P. Spending bill even at the risk of a Government Shutdown. On a wednesday, three protesters from the dream Action Coalition were arrested while demonstrating outside Schumers Office in new york city. Some democratic activists and strategists are arguing the party should take its stand now while the stench of trumps you know what, alleged comments are still hanging in the air. So this is all about political pressure. Thats the leverage point. Thats why this is happening. And its untenable. The position theyve established is untenable. Most people in america wouldnt agree with this. If youre being honest with yourself, i challenge anyone go into any diner in your state or call ten people that are just kind of, you know, follow politics a little bit but not activists or whatever, and just ask him, ask him, do you think it is right to shut down the government over an issue that we have until march 5 to fix. Ask them that. Call people and ask them, do you think it is a smart thing to do to close the federal government over an issue that we have another 43 days to address . You know what the answer is going to be. You do. Thats why the position theyve adopted is untenable. But that tells you the amount of political pressure theyre under to do this. This is all motivated by that. This is all motivated by incredible amount of pressure brought to bear on my democratic colleagues and particularly on the democratic leader by activists. And brings us to this point. By the way, i would also argue that this strategy in addition to being driven by that is counterproductive. Yesterday there was supposed to be a meeting with the white house and congressional leaders from both parties to keep working on daca. The democrats didnt show up probably because they were too busy dealing with the shutdown. So this isnt making arriving at a deal for daca easier. Its making it harder. On this this argument that they dont trust, if we dont do this, cant trust the president is going to do this, i dont think that is true. I think theres a balance of leverage here that exists that almost guarantees can happen if we want something to happen. Lets begin with this fact. The president of the United States, he campaigned on a very specific promise. We know what that promise was. He was going to build a wall and secure the border. The president knows he needs 60 votes in the senate. The president knows, he knows that he isnt going to get that promise fulfilled. The president is not going to get a border wall. Were not going to get increased security unless we have, do something about daca. Theyre well aware of that at the white house. I think they have said that openly. What is important to remember as well is that there isnt going to be a deal on daca unless you have a deal on the wall. Thats the way our system works. And i say that to you as someone that supports a wall and supports dealing with daca. But as ive already talked about earlier, in this system of government it is not a zero sum game. It cannot be i get the wall and you get nothing. And it cannot be you get daca and even more and you get the wall. Its not going to work. Right now we have a lot of wasting of time going on entertaining ridiculous fantasies about what can be achieved here. A bill that creates permanent status under daca but would allow some future congress to stopl funding the wall isnt going to pass. The president s not going to sign that. Think about it. You have a wall, it takes ten years to build, and you have daca thats permanent, next year they dont fund it, daca stays, the wall is not there. Theyre not going to sign that. A bill that creates a path to citizenship under daca but then also allows the recipients of that citizenship to use it to bring in their parents who brought them into the country illegally, thats not going the president is not going it sign that. Thats just reality. And i say this to you as someone that has tremendous sympathy for the young people who were brought here as minors, yes, in violation of the law but through no fault of their own. They didnt commit a crime and now they find themselves with no Legal Immigration status. It would be a mistake, in my opinion, to allow their status to expire without a replacement. There are practical reasons why it would be a mistake. We spent years in taxpayer money educating them. We would be hurting their employers. These people are working somewhere now. Overnight they cant work there anymore. They might even own a business. You would be hurting the people working for them. Maybe they are married tpo a u. S. Citizen. You would be hurting a u. S. Citizen who is their spouse. They have children who are u. S. Citizens and these children would lose their parents. These are practical reasons why we shouldnt let it expire. There are more reasons why we shouldnt let it expire too. Its immoral to have laws that punishes anyone for mistake their parents make. You were two years old when you came to honduras, you dont speak spanish, dont know anybody there and they are going to send you there. It didnt feel right. It is my belief if daca expires and we allow young adults who have spent the majority of their lives among us are forced to leave this country, i think it would be a dark stain on our history. I think future generations will look back at that and say that was a terrible thing those people did back then. And i think, we have more support for what i just said in the Republican Party than weve ever had in the seven years that i have been here. But i have to be fair, and i want to be frank. It is also a mistake to overreach on the other side of this argument. It is fair to argue that we should deal with daca because its the moral and compassionate thing to do. It is fair to argue that dealing with daca is in our national interest. But it is a big mistake to demand a right that does not exist. There is no right to illegally immigrate to any country on the planet. No one has a right to daca. But dealing with daca is the right thing to do. And i think its also overreaching to insist that not only must Daca Recipients be accommodated but we also have to being a accommodate their parents. And maybe because i personally know so many people under these circumstances, i am personally open to figuring out something that allows their parents to stay, especially the children who are minors. But i understand its not a majority position in my party. And i have to be honest with you, i believe that if we take the position around here that we are not accepting any deal unless it takes care of both the daca recipient and the parent, if thats the hard position we adopt and people arent willing to move off of it, i think there may be no deal at all. And that means that neither the recipients of daca nor the parents will have anything. By the way, i also think its overreach to oppose a border wall because you find it symbolically offensive. First america has a right and more importantly a responsibility to protect its borders and enforce its laws. Second, theres not going to be a daca deal of any kind without a wall. Period. Donald trump is not going to sign, cannot sign and will not sign a bill that doesnt have real enforcement. Thats a fact. That has to happen. So what is the way forward . Right now the government is shut down. You dont really know this until monday but on monday people will start to notice. Daca expires six weeks from monday. On monday if we havent done anything the government will be shut down and we have 43 days to go until daca. I think we should fund the government on a shortterm basis. Maybe its february 9. Then spend the next three weeks working on an agreement on defense, disaster reef and agreement on Disaster Relief and daca. For democrats who worry they dont have hrefrpbl, you have plenty of leverage without shutting down the government. For example, there are two republicans who oppose shortterm spending in general. Then you have several republican members who oppose any longer term spending without defense spending increases. In essence, this worry that you have that theyre going to fund the government for six months and walk away from daca, theres at least five republicans that are going to vote no on that, three because of defense several because of defense and two because of shortterm spending. You add to that, there are at least three other republican members, myself being one of them, who will have a lot of trouble voting for a longterm spending plan that doesnt include Disaster Relief. That alone gives you leverage to ensure that not only do those issues need to be dealt with but all three of them would have to be dealt with in order for there to be any longterm deal that forecloses the leverage you want. You have another piece of leverage. The president needs to fulfill his Campaign Promise which americans supported at the ballot box. Build the wall. And he knows he cant do that without the daca deal. So really both sides have leverage. But as long as the government is shut down, were wasting valuable time. Monday could have been a day that people met and hashed out key details of the daca thing. Instead monday will probably be all about the shutdown and maybe tuesday and maybe wednesday. We are wasting time we do not have. Finally, as for daca, what is the way forward on that . You know, a lot of bills or ideas going around, not actually bills, but ideas. Heres what i would say to you. The baseline in the core of any agreement is one that basically codifies daca, in essence deals with the president s decision to suspend the executive order on it and funds in a way that can guarantee continue funding the president S Immigration enforcement plan. Thats the core. You codify daca and you do something to ensure that the wall is going to be built and they cant come back and cancel the funding. Then the senate can go into an open amendment process and debate any additional matters you want to put in there. For example, maybe theres a deal that instead of codifying daca alone, actually creates a pathway to citizenship under daca. But it eliminates all future applicants. Not just daca applicants. Future applicants from being able to sponsor parents. Im not saying it will past but that might be a debate that happens. Even if you cant reach 60 votes on any of these amendments people are offering, even if all those amendments fail, in the end you are at least left with a bill that secures our border and gives certainty, permanent certainty to close to 700,000 people who currently are registered under daca. That means that like Benjamin Franklin said after he agreed to the constitution in 1787, we may all be left with a law in which none of us got everything we wanted. But everyone got something that they needed. The Daca Recipients would have the certainty of knowing that they can stay in america legally for the rest of their lives. And perhaps future congresses and future president s may build upon that. And the president would have achieved a signature Campaign Promise and achieved something republicans and Many Democrats have been promising to do but failed to deliver for over 15 years, and thats to secure the border and build a wall. There is a way forward on all of these things. If we rem if we remember how our system works, we can start making it happen. But i think it will require us to accept what it takes to make progress in a constitutional republic, and we cant even begin to do it until we end the shutdown. And thats what i hope well do sooner rather than later. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Blumenthal mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from connecticut. Mr. Blumenthal thank you, mr. President. We are in the midst of the trump shutdown, aptly named for him because he is the one perhaps the only one in america who thinks its a good shutdown. In fact, his head of office of management and budget, mick mulvaney, gloated that it was, quote, kind of cool that he was the one who got to shut down the government. Kind of cool, he said on friday in a radio interview. As i speak tonight, all americans know, there is no such thing as a good shutdown. All of us in this body strongly believe that we must end this shutdown. We mark the first Year Anniversary of the Trump Presidency with the trump shutdown and his now infamously saying on may 2 that our country needs a good shutdown. But this shutdown has damaging, even potentially devastating, effects on millions of america americans, our troops, whose pay will be delayed, our families who rely on the childrens Health Insurance program and who will soon be without funding, Community Health Center Patients whose source of health care will be closed, government workers who keep our nation running every day, the Disaster Relief victims in puerto rico who will be denied relief, along with their fellow americans they are americans in texas and florida. This shutdown is not a good shutdown, and it is not kind of cool. And i beg to differ with the majority leader, who has just come to the floor, in saying that democrats agree with everything that is in the measure that came to us from the house because, as damaging as a shutdown is, so satining resolution so is a continuing resolution corrosive and destructive to good government. Weve been through three continuing resolution, each a month in as many months, now a fourth in the fourth month is proposed. That is no way to run a government, whether it is three weeks or four weeks. The at the end of that socalled continuing resolution, a shortterm temporary patch we will be in the same place as we are today. But the good news is that we have bipartisan consensus, not only that we must end the shu shutdown but also on each of those issues that is necessary to reach consensus on a longe longerterm full fiscal year package. That is also why a continuing resolution and the measure that came to us from the house is completely inadequate because it continues to fund those programs at the same level as the previous year, 2017, and the pentagon, the secretary of defense, our military leaders have told us unequivocally and clearly that those levels are inadequate to our national defense. I hope theres bipartisan consensus among us on the Armed Services committee and in the chamber as a whole that we need a Strong National defense. Both military and nonmilitary funding. And there needs to be an increase in that funding, which the bill presented last night did not provide. So far from agreeing with every provision in that fourweek extension, it is inadequate, it would be irresponsible and reprehensible for this body to go along with it. And thats why four of our republican colleagues joined us in opposing it. Were all here tonight ready to vote, but were waiting on one man president trump. To finally be the leader that we expect and demand the president to be. The leader that donald trump himself in 2013 said that president obama should be in ending or stopping the shutdown then. He said that, in effect, the buck would stop with president obama, just as now it does with president trump. In president obamas case his party did not control the two branches and houses of the congress. The republicans control the house, they control the senate, and they control the white house. They are in charge. They are responsible. And they are dysfunctional. They are in disaray. And in division. There have been weeks, indeed months, of difficult negotiations, and i am not here to blame my republican colleagues. I think they have worked, many of them, in good faith, and thats the reason that we have arrived at bipartisan agreements on the need for increases in defense spending, both military and nonmilitary; on the need for the childrens Health Insurance program to be reauthorized along with Community Health centers, needs of veterans and pensions and Disaster Relief to aid the victims of the recent hurricanes irma and maria. And why we need also to prevent the mass, draconian deportation of 800,000 young people brought here at instan brought here s and children through no fault of their own. Those bipartisan agreements on each of those issues can be turned into a package that can unite both sides of the aisle maybe not everyone, but a majority here and a majority in the house of representatives if they are simply put to a vote. We are here to vote on the substance. Give us that opportunity to vote on a package that embodies those bipartisan agreements. And the president must either lead or get out of the way. Now, these difficult negotiations have to be contrasted with the talks that took place just yesterday between the president and the minority leader, senator schumer. And in a kind of microcosm, that day epitomizes the kind of lack of leadership that has led us to this point. The president and the minority leader emerged from that conversation at midday with a conceptual frame, an agreement virtually on a constructive set of principles, including the path to citizenship for the dreamers. To the consternation of some of our side, the minority leader put on the table, in effect, full funding for the wall, the wall that my colleague senator rubio has just discussed, as a condition for such an agreement. Now, this wall was supposed to be funded by the mexicans. It is, in my view, excessively costly, a waste of money. Border security is absolutely necessary, but it can be done more effectively and less expensively, with surveillance, drones, censors, more patrol officers, better training. There is a set of fencing system improvements that we can agree on, but if donald trump wants that wall and its a condition for literally the survival of 800,000 young people, the minority leader was willing to put it on the table. That flexibility and willingness to compromise epitomizes the approach that we have offered to take and must be taken to reach an agreement. And within hours literally, the president backed away from that virtual agreement, maybe backed away, in fact, is inaccurate. He was pulled away by his farright extremist staff and supporters. We may never know all of the names that spoke to him, but the fact is the agreement fell apart. The shutdown is almost entirely the making of one man, who happens to be president of the United States and who today marks his oneYear Anniversary, a year characterized by chaos and conflict, disaray, and dysfunction disaray, and dysfunction, personal invective and partisan controversy. He has reversed himself so many times that the majority leader himself expressed frustration just a day or so ago because we have no idea what he wants to emerge from these bodies on any of these issues. And the majority leader characterized negotiating with him as trying to deal with jello. I think it is equally like a ping pong ball. It ricochets back and forth depending on who has last talked to him and what his mood is and what his last tweet may have been. So, just as many times before, the president is likely to put the extreme rightwing members of his party before all else before children and their health, before dreamers and their potential deportation, before funding for our troops and one party is in charge of the senate and the house and the white house. And it owns this shutdown. But, more important than pointing fingers and assigning blame is reaching an end and reaching agreement on what is necessary to end this shutdown. And more important than who is hurt politically in this body or in the house or in the white house, it is who is hurt in the country by the failure of this government to function. So we have work to do. Were here tonight. I will be here tonight, tomorrow. We have engaged in some very constructive conversations and discussions across the aisle. I think theres goodwill on both sides because ultimately we have in our hearts and minds this great nation. If the president is not able to take yes for an answer, he needs to accept what we provide and resolve that the great dealmaker has to be a deal acceptor. He has repeatedly shown himself to be an erratic, unreliable, unpredictable, and capricious negotiator. And there are a number of ways to resolve this shutdown that are within reach with the right kind of leadership on both sides. I went today to the march on washington, the womens march here in washington. I was impressed with the excitement and energy and the dedication of many of the young people who are there. Far from the cynicism and partisanship that maybe we find all too rampant in this body, their idealism seems boundless. It is inspiring and exciting. Their their dedication to equal rights and equality and Womens Health care and engaging in the political process. Believing that one person, one of them, one of us, can make a difference. If we are impressed by the resolve and determination of those young people, as i was, we should fulfill those High Expectations which they and all america have for us, restoring trust in our institutions is a service recan help perform we can help perform by ending this shutdown, coming to an agreement and making sure that we do what is truly in the public interest. And looking into their eyes, i was reminded also of the dreamers. They are known as dreamers because they believe in that same American Dream and many of the individuals on the mall this morning in washington, d. C. , at the womens march were, in fact, dreamers. Not a majority, but many were there because they believe in america, the only country they have ever known, their community, their schools, their families are intricate parts of this nation. They are americans except for the papers and documents that they lack. I know that my republican colleagues want to give them a path to citizenship. Its not so much give but afford them the opportunity for a path to citizenship because they have so much to give back to this country. Theyve lived here all their lives. They played by the rules. They are future doctors and engineers and nurses, Business Owners and entrepreneurs. We can fulfill the American Dream for them and for us if we give them that path to citizenship. Great nation fulfills its promises. America is the greatest nation in the history of the world. We need to keep our promise. We need to keep our promise in this body to the American People, the oath we have taken to uphold the law and the constitution and to do what is right. We should do whats right for the dreamers and the American Dream and for our military who need support, children who need Health Insurance, families that need health facilities, veterans who need programs that theyve earned and deserve, fellow americans who need Disaster Relief. Every one of them should be done now, not three weeks from now, not four weeks from now. Were already 112 days into this fiscal year. Now is the time to do the right thing. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Rubio mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from florida. Mr. Rubio i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Rubio mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 1 00 p. M. Sunday, january 21, following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. Finally, following leader remarks the senate resume consideration of the house message to accompany h. R. 195. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Rubio if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. The presiding officer the the presiding officer the with that, the senate has adjourned until 1 00 p. M. Tomorrow and we will return now to book tv. The way my editor didnt pan when pressed. You look at the editing and sometimes it was quite good. Sometimes it was political and sometimes it was literary and ascetic and an improvement. He screened all the films he wanted to see and he made edits or suggestions what needed to be done before they were released to the public. He read as i said as he got on in the 1930s and began to murder his own officials he read up on despotism, he read quite a lot of russian history, Imperial Russian history, roman history