Ms. Collins good afternoon. Im susan collins, senator from the great state of maine. As the cochair with senator joe manson of the bipartisan commonsense coalition, im so pleased to be here with my colleagues to present our immigration security 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 run 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, our po rouse borders that allow not only Illegal Immigrants but also 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 10 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 good faith effort, a bipartisan effort, to address some pressing, urgent issues and to lift 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 5. Again, i want to thank everyone who has work sod hard. Senator manchin , my cochair of the coalition, will speak next and expand upon that effort. Thank you. Mr. Manchin thank you, susan. Let me say, i cant be more proud to be part of a group that came together as citizens and americans and snars, theyre working in a burn way. I have never, since ive been here since 2010, ive never been in a group that truly was so knowledgeable so truthful, and so trustful, as far as in three weeks we kept coming and coming and coming, we always had 20 to 25, it was truly a bipartisan effort, thats the way the senate should work, thats the way it has worked. E used Little Switzerland susans office is called Little Switzerland and it worked well. We have a bipartisan piece of legislation that we think would really, really serb the United States of america very well. With that, im going to turn it over to some of the real work horses that were able to put their heads to the grindstone here and make it happen. Mike rauns who was vital to the committee was wonderful. At this time, i will turn it ver to mike from south dakota. Mr. Rounds i camcome in as a conservative republican and i understand these kids who want to be part of the United States, these daca kids. From south dakota, our interest was finding Common Ground. I founched in angus king, my coleader in this, someone who wanted to find something in the middle. Our goal is to provide the president with tools hes asked for, 25 billion, to fund boar Border Security, to make that wall less porous than 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, yet at the same time respect the fact that their parents who violated the law should not be allowed citizenship was a key part in a and a component in this discussion. Wed like to do more. But right now we need something that 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, longterm, 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. One again, i want to say thanks to both susan and joe for allowing me to participate with this team that theyre trying to develop in the middle of this concept to find ways to move forward in the United States senate. I have appreciated my working relationship with angus king, independent from maine who has also stepped forward and said lets find a way, lets find a way to move fwand and having that we can talk about, modify, and make into the best possible product. 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. Mr. King 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. 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 9 , he said the border, the Border Security has to be part of the daca discussion. We agree. Thats the bill were presenting this afternoon. And it is narrow and as many of you know the department of Homeland Security issued a press release this morning critical of this program and i want i went through it, its mostly critical of whats not in the bill. Things that arent in the bill. And 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 and also its time to step up and adrets 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 with any level of bipartisan support. 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 focus on whats in the bill and whats in the bill is dealing with these young people and dealing with Border Security. And 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 report next reform next week that could be the next initiative. There are difficult issues to be addressed but were not going to be able to do all 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, trusted one another, had open discussion and debate and we have, i think a bill that we can be proud of and i just hope the president will take a look at what we have proposed and although it is not comp reshensive comprehensive immigration reform, i think it meeds the two criteria he set forth in that january 9 meeting, daca and Border Security. Thats what weve intended to do. I think thats what weve done. Thank you. Were going to go ahead and take questions, if you want to direct them to anybody or just general questions. Reporter senator collins, the white house issued a veto threat on an amendment which is rare. Senator king mentioned the d. H. S. Statement, which is scalding. Whats your response to how the administration is treating the proposal right now . Ms. Collins im 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 worked 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. Also it does not take a comprehensive approach and we make no bones about it. Im going to ask Lindsay Graham to respond in more depth to this. Itll be more colorful. Mr. Graham so you got the president who is most days pretty good on this, the january 9 tuesday trump was awesome. 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 we saw on january 9. You dont want comprehensive, well, we gave you something less than 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 d. H. S. And guess who i found wrote the statement. Tom tancredos press secretary. So as long as steve miller is running the white house and tom tancredo is in charge of d. H. S. , were going nowhere fast, warp speed you got the two most extreme characters in the 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. It explains everything. Mr. President , youre being led 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, ill end with this. Whats wrong with washington . You give d. H. S. 25 billion of the money they asked for and they slam you. You give a pathway to citizenship for 1. 8 million Daca Recipients and the left calls it the worst civil rights abuse in the last 100 years. Theres some crazy people around here. Just shut them out. This is the best shot youll ever get. America is with us, mr. President. You be with us, we can make this bill better. But were not going to turn this agenda over to the apostle of tom tancedo, steve miller is never going to run this show and get you anything. The American People want the border secured an 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, to live in the country, this is the only place they know. And were we go to the parents next and well go to everify next and d Legal Immigration and comeritbased 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 nest most extreme people on this issue, youre going to fail like obama and bush. Let me just say let me just say, to interpret that, the senate is designed to work in a bipartisan way and what you saw is a Bipartisan Group of people defined by our bipartisan one of our bipartisan partners here lindsey graham. Let me address the veto issue. It was three years ago, february 20 15, i was a cosponsor of a bill with democrats and republicans that we were introducing to tie president obamas hands with respect to negotiate agnew clear deal with iran he called me on the floor and said, you are my friend if this bill passes, ill veto it. I said mr. President , we are the article i branch and youre the article ii branch. We dont play mother may i with you, we dont take away powers you have. We have to do what we think is in the best interest of the nation and you can decide what you think is in the best interest of the nation. The bill we introduced pass odden a bipartisan basis, and he didnt veto it. We dont have to play mother, may i with any executive. Eff we have to pull together. Let me just bring this all back down to a center point again now. As you can tell, the discussions that we had during this time were rather spirited. Lots of different ideas were discussed. And getting to the central point, trying to find a way to take care of the daca kids and also do Border Security became the focus that we really thought we could find some Common Ground on. We also rick nice 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. And look, 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 certainly would expect theyd try to get the chairmans mark through. We get that. In the meantime, we want to be in a pgs after everybody has tossed the bombs back and forth, come back to a center part that says, how are we going to make this thing work . If nothing passes, as you heard earlier, were still back in the same position. Daca kids still at risk. Many of them are working in the military and are still at risk. At the same time we havent take whan the president ran on, to fix that border. So with Everything Else being said, and all the bombs being tossed, all the way around, the reality is theres got to be a group of us that sit together, take a deep breath and come back to how are we going to actually get 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. Thats 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 someplace. Well take the best shot, i think for the most part we wont return a lot of fire and when we get all done wit, hopefully well find a center priest the American People say washington finally is going back to work. There are a number of other republicans who are part of most of these meetings, senator corker is one of them, saying 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 done . I think there are a number of technical issues in the bill folks disagreed with. Some of which well be able to repair. There are other things wed like to move forward on, perhaps add some things to make it a better deal. Were not just trying to get 60 vets in the United States senate , but to 70, where 70 of republicans and democrats will agree with this. I know we wont santa fe everyone but lets make it better. Many of those people brought up ways to improve the bill. We need to start someplace and we need to do it with both republican and 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 of you who might consider to be more liberal, would agree on. The second part is, we have to address the issue of daca. Thats part of our goal is well. I think even in a calmer environment, we all agree that the issue of the migration pattern weve got right now, where theres more on family rather than merit needs to be addressed. We need Legal Immigration in the United States. Legal immigration. Reporter the American Public has seen a week of inaction on the floor, could have been a week where we saw 2013 style fight, a lot of us looking forward to that. Explain to the American Public why it is both parties have been able to have a substantive debate, apart from the one youve had behind the scenes, it seems like we dont have any resolution. As soon as we brought out the proposal, you say 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 gets a close as we can to get to something we can present. We did run out of time this week as well. The second part and with all due respect to my colleagues on beth sides of the aisle here and i think some of my democrat colleagues may disagree but i really believe that senator mcconnell honestly intended to have an 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 believed was offensive. I think that sent a real negative message to the folks on our side of the aisle saying, look if you disagree, vote against them. And if you want to offer countermeasure, offer countermeasures. Until democrats and republicans realize we can both play this unfortunately e, in this case it was a matter of saying were not ready to debate these particular ones, so were not going to let them come to the floor. I think that was the tactic on the part of the democratic eadership. Reporter in the bill you deprioritize deportation for virtually all Illegal Immigrants in the country inlewding up until june 30 inviting a surge of Illegal Immigrants. . Hy ms. Collins lets look at what the prioritization language says. It says rather than going after a chemistry professor who has been in this country for many years and has contributed contributed greatly to his community and sending him back to his native land at a time when he was on his way to pick up his child from school, that the first priority, not the only priority, should be t