Good afternoon. Im susan collins, senator from the great state of maine. As the cochair with senator joe manchin of the bipartisan common sense coalition, im so pleased to be here with my colleagues to present our immigration security a and opportunity act, which will be offered as a floor amendment sometime today. I want to thank each one of my colleagues for their hard work and their commitment to achieving a bipartisan solution. I appreciate the leadership of senator rounds and senator king and all of the cosponsors who have joined them. I want to point out that this is the one and only bill that deals with immigration issues with broad bipartisan support. The bill would address two urgent concerns. First, the fate of young people who are brought to this country by their parents who entered illegally, and second, those who allow drugs to be smuggled into our country, devastating families and communities across our nation. We have provided robust funding at the president s level over ten years and actually require a 60vote margin to block that funding. Among other provisions, the bill also prevents a parent whose dreamer child becomes a citizen from ever being sponsored for citizenship by that child. Now, let me say what this bill is not. It is not a comprehensive immigration bill. It is, instead, a goodfaith effort, a bipartisan effort to address some pressing urgent issues and to let the cloud of uncertainty over the heads of young people who are contributing to our society and our economy and remove the fear that they could be at risk of deportation as of march 5th. Again, i want to thank everyone who has worked so hard. Senator manchin, my cochair of the coalition, will speak next and expand upon that effort. Thank you. Thank you, susan. Let me say quickly that first of all, i cant be more proud to be part of a group that came together truly as citizens and americans and as senators, working in a bipartisan way. I have never since ive been here in 2010, ive never been in a group that truly was so knowledgeable, so truthful, and so trustful as far as in a group for three weeks and kept coming and coming and coming. We always had 20 to 25, as you can see. It was truly in a bipartisan effort. Thats the way the senate should work. Its the way it has worked. Susan did a wonderful job. We used little switzerlands office here. Susans office is called little switzerland. It really worked and worked well. But we have a bipartisan agreement, a bipartisan piece of legislation, we think, would really, really serve the United States of america very well. With that, im going to turn it over to some of the real workhorses that were able to put the their heads to the grindstone and make it happen. Mike roupnds, who was invaluabl to the meetings, did a wonderful job and contributed so much. At this time, im going to turn it over to mike rounds from south dakota. First of all, let me say i appreciated the opportunity to be invited to attend this Coalition Series of meetings. I come in as a conservative republican who truly cares about strengthening our borders. I also understand clearly whats going on with young people who want to be a part of this country, these daca kids. So coming from south dakota, our interest was in trying to find some Common Ground. I found with angus king, my colead in this, another individual who wanted to Work Together to find something in the middle. Our goal is to provide the president with the tools that hes asked for, 25 billion to fund Border Security, to make that wall less porous than what it is today. Also, we wanted to begin the process of ending chain migration. This is not perfect in that respect, but it starts to make the steps. Allowing these young people to participate freely at the end of between 10 and 12 years as citizens and yet at the same time to respect the fact their parents violated the law and should not be allowed citizenship was a key part and a component in this discussion. Wed like to do more, but right now we needed something we could agree on to begin the discussion. We recognize longterm that nothing happens unless the president has a chance to look at it and to offer his suggestions about fixing it long term and can offer support to house members as well. This is a step, it is the first step, but nonetheless, this will have some very strong support among both republicans and democrats, a first step only. Once again, i want to say thanks to both susan and to joe for allowing me to participate with this team that theyre trying to develop in the middle of this entire concept to find ways to move forward in the United States senate. I have appreciated my working relationship with angus king, independent from maine, whos also stepped forward and said lets find a way, lets find a way to move forward and have something we can actually talk about, modify, and make into the best possible product. The one thing we all know, this bill, regardless of what you say, would be better on Border Security and better on immigration than the failed system that we have today. Its a step in the right direction. Thank you. I think susan made one of the most important points. I want to begin by quoting our president a little over a month ago at the white house. He said were going to come up with daca, were going to do daca, and then we can start immediately on phase two, which would be comprehensive. I think thats very important. Later on in the same meeting, he said, i think we have to do daca first. Thats the premise that weve worked on. This is a narrow bill designed to confront two issues and then later that evening, the president tweeted that same evening of january 9th, he said that the border has Border Security has to be part of the daca discussion. We agree. Thats the bill were presenting this afternoon. And it is narrow. As many of you know, the department of Homeland Security issued a press release this morning critical of this program. I went through it. Its mostly critical of whats not in the bill. Things that arent in the bill. They were never intended to be in the bill, and this is merely a first step, but its an important first step because the time is ticking for these young people who have been in this country, in our country, and this is the only country theyve known. The time is ticking for them. Also, its time to step up and address the issue of Border Security. So i think thats what really has to come through. The other piece is lets not kid ourselves. This is the only bill that has a chance to get through the United States senate. It is the only bill that has any level of bipartisan support. So if we fail this afternoon not if we fail, but if the votes arent there, then there is no solution for daca and theres a delayed solution for the border. So i think this is a critical moment, and i know this is a difficult vote for many of our members, but this is a vote where really we need to fe us can focus on whats in the bill. Whats in the bill is dealing with these young people and dealing with Border Security. There are many other issues. I would urge the president , whose Party Controls both houses of our national legislature, that we could start on comprehensive Immigration Reform next week. That could be the next nic initiative. All of us here stand ready to do that. There are difficult issues that need to be addressed, but were not going to be able to do all of the things that have to be addressed in a narrow bill in the time frame in which we have to operate. And i guess finally, the thing id like to say is how extraordinary it is to have this group here who have met literally daily, almost every day, phone calls on weekends, some weekend meetings, for the past three weeks, four weeks to get to this point who have been in good faith, who trusted one another, who have open discussion and debate, and we have, i think, a bill that we can be proud of. I just hope the president will take a look at what we have proposed. Although it is not comprehensive Immigration Reform, i think it meets the two criteria he set forth in that january 9th meeting. Daca and Border Security. Thats what weve intended to do, and i think thats what weve done. Thank you. Were going to go ahead and take some questions. If you want to direct them to anybody, or in general. Start right here. Go ahead. Senator collins, the white house just issued a veto threat on an eamendment which is prett rare. Senator king mentioned the dhs statement, i think 2,000 words, which was rather scalding. Whats your response to how the administration is treating the proposal and operating right now . Well, im personally very disappointed in the administrations response. The press release that was put out by the department of Homeland Security is a real disservice to the brave men and women who work every day to defend our borders and to do internal enforcement. It has a lot of statements in it that are absolutely false, such as saying that it would expand chain migration. The opposite is the truth in this bill, although it does not take a comprehensive approach and we make no bones about it. Im going to ask Lindsey Graham to respond in more depth to this. Itll be more colorful. So you got the president who is most days pretty good on this. The january 9th tuesday trump was awesome. Show back up, get us to a solution. Obama tried. Bush tried. They failed. Mr. President , you can do this if youll just step forward and be the guy that we saw on january the 9th. You dont want comprehensive . Well, we gave you something less comprehensive. You say you want comprehensive. Were going to move to comprehensive next. As to the press statement, i said who the hell wrote this . Because it sounded like something that came from a political hack, not dhs. And guess who i found wrote the statement. As long as steve miller is running the white house and tom is in charge of dhs, were going nowhere fast at warp speed. You got the two most extreme characters in town running the show. What do you expect . This press release was offensive to most of us, and it was like tom tancredo never left. If you dont know who tom tancredo is, look him up. Mr. President , youre going down a path where we wont get a result. Reject this kind of engagement with the congress, tell us what you dont like in a constructive fashion. Whats wrong with dhs . You give washington dl 25 milli of the money they ask for, and they slam you. Theres some crazy people out there. Just shut them out. This is the best shot youll ever get. America is with us, mr. President. If youll be with us, we can make this bill better, but were not going to turn this agenda over to the apostle of tom tancredo. Steve miller is never going to run the show here and get you a successful outcome. Go where the American People are. The American People want the border secured, and they want the wall you talked about. And you can get it. The American People want to give these young folks, the daca recipients, a better life. This is the only place they know. Well go to the parents next and go to everify next and do Legal Immigration and do meritbased immigration next. But mr. President , listen to the American People. And lead us in congress, and all will turn out well. If you turn this agenda over to the most extreme people on this issue, youre going to fail like obama and bush. Let me just say, to interpret that, the senate is designed to work in a bipartisan way. What you saw is a Bipartisan Group of people defined by one of our bipartisan partners here, Lindsey Graham. Let me address the veto issue, because it was reminiscent. Three years ago, february 2015, i was a cosponsor of a bill with democrats and republicans that we were introducing to tie president obamas hands with respect to negotiating a nuclear deal with iran. He called me on the floor, and he said, you are my friend. If this bill passes, im going to veto it. I said, mr. President , were the article i branch, and youre the article ii branch. We dont play mother may i with you, and we dont take away powers that you have. We have to do what we think is in the best interest of the nation, and then you can decide whether you think is in the best interest of the nation. The bill was passed on a bipartisan basis, and he didnt veto with it. I dont think we need to play mother may i with an executive. We have to pull together to do what we can to find Common Ground. Thats what this effort represents. Let me just bring this all back down to a center point again. As you can tell, the discussions we had during this time were rather spirited. Lots of different ideas were discussed. Getting to the central point, trying to find a way to take care of the daca kids and also to do Border Security became the focus that we really thought we could find some Common Ground on. We also recognize that the white house needs to be in a position of strength to begin with. They need to point out the fact that the chairmans mark is actually up for debate after ours is. If ours were to pass, it would make it difficult for the chairmans mark to pass. Im going to vote for the chairmans mark. I respect what theyre trying to do. Im also voting for this one. So if this one doesnt receive the votes, they most certainly would expect theyll try to get the chairmans mark through. We get that. In the meantime, we want to be in a position after everybodyses toeverybodys tossed the bombs back and forth to come back to a center part and say how are we going to make this thing work. These young men and women are working in the military. Theyre still at risk. At the same time, we havent taken what the president ran on, which is to fix that border. So with Everything Else being said and all of the bombs being tossed all the way around, reality is theres got to be a group of us that can sit together, take a deep breath, and come back to how are we going to actually give something to improve the immigration system in the United States and actually fix the security along all of our borders. Thats what this is all about, and this is what we continue to remind ourselves of. Were trying to find Common Ground. We know we cant do it without the white house. We understand that. But weve got to start some place. So well take the best shots. I think for the most part, we probably wont return a lot of the fire. When we get all done with it, hopefully well find that center piece that the American People say washington finally is going back to work. Senator rounds, there are a number of other republicans who are part of most of these meetings. Sta senator corker was one who said theyre not going to support this final product. Why do you think you lost some of these people, and whats your message to your fellow conservatives as to why they should get mibehind this . I think there are a number of technical issues that many disagree with, some of which well be able to repair. There are some other areas wed like to move forward on and perhaps add some things that would make it a better bill. Once again, what were trying to do is not just get to 60 votes in the United States senate but rather to 70 votes in the United States senate where probably 70 of both republicans and democrats could agree on moving forward. I know were not going to be able to satisfy everyone. Lets make it better than what it is today. Four of those individuals, in many cases, they brought up ways in which they really could and in my opinion improved the bill. I want to work with them to get that done, but we node to start some place and we need to do it with both republican and democrat support to get there. Theres plenty of room right now for give and take, but the key issues, Border Security, which all of us conservatives agree on, and as a matter of fact, some of those who you might consider to be more liberal would agree with us on. The second part is we all know we have to address the issue of daca. Thats part of our goal as well. I think even in a calmer environment, we all agree that the issue of the migration pattern we have now where theres more on family rather than merit needs to be addressed. We need Legal Immigration in the United States. What the American Public has seen is a week of inaction on the floor. This could have been a week where we saw a 2013style floor fight. A lot of us were looking forward to that. Can you explain to the American Public why it is that both parties have been able to have a really substantive debate, apart from the one youve had behind the scenes. It seems we dont have any resolution on this issue right now. Okay. As soon as we brought out our proposal, you saw the fireworks begin. In a lot of ways, it was a matter of what can we do to refine it, what can we do to get as close as we can to something we could present and do it in a timely fashion. We did run out of time this week as well. The second part, and with all due respect to my colleague cans colleagues on both sides of the isaisle, i really believe senator mcconnell honestly intended to have and open discussion, but he was very disappointed with the fact that senator schumer decided to oppose even allowing the debate of two amendments that he thought was offensive. I think that sent a real negative message to the folks on our side of the aisle saying, listen listen, if you disagree, then vote against them. If you want to offer countermeasures, offer countermeasures. Until republicans and democrats realize we can both play this titfortat game and offer something uncomfortable for both sides. Unfortunately, this time it was a matter of saying were not ready to debate these particular ones so were going to object and not let them come to the floor. I think that was a tactical error. Who did you want to speak to . Anybody. Rounds, yourself. In the bill, you prioritize deportations for all Illegal Immigrants in the country, inviting a surge of Illegal Immigrants. Why move that date into the future . Okay. First of all, lets look at what the prioritization language says. It says rather than going after a chemistry professor whos been in this country for many years and has contributed greatly to his community and sending his back to his native land at a time when he was going to pick his child up from school, the first priority, not the only priority, should be to go after people who have committed felonies, serious misdemeanors, multiple less serious misdemeanors, are a threat to Public Health or safety. Wouldnt most americans agree that is where our resources should be targeted . Then we send a strong message to people who come to this country illegally after the bill is enacted. Let me get to that point. The message were sending to them is they are going to be a priority for deportation, just the way someone whos committed a felony is a priority for deportation. We are going to readjust that back to january 1st, our original proposal for that date. But because it has been misunderstood. But what that is, is a deterrent. It is saying to people who come here after a particular date that were going to focus resources on your deportation just the way we prioritize the deportation of criminals and someone who poses a threat to Public Health or safety. Let me just say a quick word about that. I had a law professor who said always go back and read the statute. The statute said shall prioritize. That doesnt mean to the execution of all other usage. It says this is where you start. You start with criminals. You start with people that have come in recently. You start with people who are threats to national security. It doesnt mean youre prohibited. Thats what the dhs press release suggested, that youre somehow prohibited from all other deportation activities. Thats simply not what the statute says. I think the only other thing i would like to add, to go back to the very beginning, weve tried to give the president what he outlined back in january. We have members on the Democratic Caucus i should say, there are members on the Democratic Caucus who are very reluctant about this bill because of what it does for the wall. This bill doesnt make everybody happy on both sides. But it is an attempt to meet the requirements of the president , and i hope he can take yes for an answer because if this doesnt go, theres no answer, and this could drag on, you know we have an immigration debate once every ten years around here. We wont be able to solve this problem. This is a positive start, and we can then go to the next step, whether its next week, next month. Thatll be up to the leadership. Senators, what are you going to do about the issue that caused such concern yesterday in florida . To whom are you asking . All of you. I mean, im happy to take it if you want. You guys have tried for several years to tackle this issue. Well, first of all, i think there are a number of steps that need to be taken. Happened yesterday is not only so horrific, a tragedy, but it also has happened far too many times in this country. And joe manchin is the coauthor of a bill with pat toomey, another bipartisan bill, that would strengthen background checks. I believe personally that needs to be done. I have a bipartisan bill with pat leahy that is aimed at straw purchasing. Thats when someone whos legally prohibited from purchasing a firearm uses someone who can buy a firearm to make the purchase for them. We need more by way of Mental Health services. Sz so clear that anyone who would shoot children is mentally ill and needs help. And we dont invest enough in Mental Health in this country. So those are three very practical steps that we can and should take and that are overdue. Theres one final one that i want to mention that my friend Heidi Heitkamp authored with me. That is we had a nofly, nobuy proposal. In other words, if you are so dangerous that youre on the governments list that says that you are not allowed to board and airplane, you are too dangerous to buy a firearm. So thats a fourth one that senator heitkamp and i were the coauthors of last year. Im sure there are others who would like to final question. Thank you. The one gentleman in the white. Hold on, hold on, hold on. A female. [ overlapping speaking ]. Hes been in line much longer. Whats the whip count . How close are you to 60 . Look, i dont think well finally know exactly how many senators will vote for this until were on the floor and we are calling the vote. There is a Democratic Caucus meeting going on right now. The purpose of which is to reinforce the strong support of our caucus leadership for this bipartisan compromise. It is exactly the sort of compromise in which there are people unhappy in both caucuses about it because it either gives too much to the president of his priorities or doesnt go far enough in meeting the priorities of those who want to do comprehensive Immigration Reform. The great thing about a compromise is that it solves two, as this case does, real problems right in front of us. Im optimistic every democrat will support this bipartisan compromise, and im hopeful well get to 60 votes, but theres work to do in the next couple hours to clarify misunderstandings, to push back against misleading efforts by dhs and the white house to mischaracterize it, and to clarify why this is the one strong bipartisan proposal that can pass the senate. And i wanted to add one more thing. When i look back, having been involved in the comprehensive reform debate f y, if you remem that, it strongly passed the senate. It was not easy. It was much bigger than this. And we had 68 votes. We had 14 republicans voting for it. I think 11 of them are still here. So no matter what kind of things are written in press releases, this Group Believes that we can just stand in the corners throwing partisan punches if we want for the rest of the year, but we can actually get something done for the American People and thats what this bill is about. Thank you, all. Coming up this afternoon on cspan, remarks from Supreme CourtJustice Clarence thomas on his life and career on the high court. Hell sit down at the library of congress, and that gets under way live at 3 30 eastern on our companion network, cspan. Both chambers of congress are in session today. The house gavelled in to work on a bill that aims to reform the americans with disabilities act litigation process while also educating local and state governments on ada compliance. The house is done for the week, and members now head home for the president s day recess. The senate in the meantime continues work on immigration policy with several proposals to be voted on today. Watch the senate live on our companion network cspan2. Tomorrow night, former president ial candidate mitt romney will speak at the lincoln day dinner in utah. Its a Salt Lake CountyRepublican Party fundraiser. You can see it live friday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Sunday night on q a, michael on his book crashback, the power clash between the u. S. And china in the pacific. First of all, there was a public and china lost a lot of and it is hard for westerners to get to the idea. Especially that it is a big and proud as china. So never been mentality. So they start after that this mindset, we will build up our navy and Missile Defense forces in such a way we never lose like this again. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q and a. Sunday night, on afterwards. Former u. S. Trade negotiator and Senior Senate staffer with his book broken account senate save itself and the country. Interviewed by tom dashel. Politics supposed to be about refining a way to over come differences through extended discussion and a real legislative process. Through compromise. It wasnt suppose to be about one Party Winning on their own. The times as you know, the times in history where one party is able to do this on your own are very few. Maybe 1933 and 34, fdr dealing with the depression. Lbj, 64 and 65 and fdr had the support the first two years. Watch it sunday night, 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2, book tv. Today President Trump addressed the nation regarding yesterdays shool shooting in parkland florida. 17 died and a dozen injured. The president spoke to children across the country urging them to seek help if they feel lost, alone and confused or even scared. [ inaudible ] my fellow americans. Today i speak to a nation in grief. Yesterday, a school filled with innocent children and caring teachers became the