The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST ACT OF 2019--Motion to Proceed” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Senate section on pages S166-S179 on Jan. 14, 2019.
The Department oversees more than 500 million acres of land. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the department has contributed to a growing water crisis and holds many lands which could be better managed.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST ACT OF 2019--Motion to Proceed
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to S. 1.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion to proceed to S. 1.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to the consideration of S. 1, a bill to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to authorize the appropriation of funds to Israel, to reauthorize the United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015, and to halt the wholesale slaughter of the Syrian people, and for other purposes.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Government Funding
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, here we are, January 14. Twenty-four days ago, the border security funding and 25 percent of our government funding lapsed.
Democrats refuse to come to the negotiating table with a legitimate offer that would end this partial government shutdown and provide vital funding for border security measures. Their negligence has harmed 800,000 Federal workers who are not being paid while this standoff continues, and it has completely stalled the work here in the Senate because the minority leader, the Senator from New York, has gotten his colleagues to fall in line to block the legislation that is currently on the floor that would offer aid and comfort to our friends and allies in the Middle East, countries like Israel and Jordan. So it has completely stalled our work here in the Senate, as well, and, sadly, their efforts have sought to make border security more of a political football than the national security issue that it is.
What I find so cynical is the fact that Democrats have drawn a line in the sand over something they have largely supported in the past. For example, in 2006 we passed the Secure Fence Act. This legislation called for more than 800 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, and it authorized additional layered security that we keep discussing--
things like vehicle barriers, sensor technology, cameras, and lighting. That bill passed by 80 to 19--80 to 19--exactly the same kind of border security measures we are talking about today and that Democrats have shut down 25 percent of the government over--80 to 19.
Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, and Hillary Clinton all supported the Secure Fence Act. Yet their opposition to President Trump and anything and everything that he wants has somehow become an article of faith for the radical left.
A few years later, in 2013, the Senate, with Democrats holding the majority, voted on the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, sometimes known as the Gang of 8 comprehensive immigration bill. That bill, among other things, provided funding for infrastructure--that is, barriers along the border--as well as personnel--the types of things we continue to advocate for today. In total, that bill appropriated $46 billion for border security.
So the Democrats--Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi--have shut down the government over $5 billion that the President has requested for border security. Yet 54 Democrats--every single one, in 2013--voted for
$46 billion for border security.
Well, today, they turn their nose up at the President's request for
$5.7 billion, and it makes no sense whatsoever unless you look through the lens of partisan political gamesmanship, because rational actors, reasonable people trying to find a solution, could easily come up with a solution based on this history. It wouldn't take 24 days. It wouldn't take 24 hours--maybe 24 minutes--to come up with a bipartisan, bicameral solution that the President would sign.
So what are we talking about?
Well, we are talking about the same thing we talked about back in 2006 and in 2013. We are talking about infrastructure. The President likes to call it a wall. Other people call it a fence. But it includes things like vehicle barriers along the Arizona-Mexico border. This is exactly the sort of things we talked about and voted for in 2006 and 2013. The majority of Democrats supported those measures in the past. Yet today they seem proud of what they have wrought, which is that one-
quarter of our Federal Government is being held hostage over the same exact measures.
Their continued intransigence and refusal to get serious about negotiating shows one of two things: either their party has completely flipped their position on commonsense border security measures or they simply refuse to work with the President because they loathe him. Either way, they should be ashamed, they should be embarrassed, but they are not.
While Democrats continue to sit on their hands, the President has said he will consider declaring a national emergency--left with few other options--in order to provide funds for border security. I don't believe declaring a national emergency is either necessary or productive, although I do support the President's request for $5.7 billion for border security. One of the most fundamental constitutional responsibilities of Congress is to provide funding for our government. It is our job. It is our job, not the President's job. This standoff should be resolved as all other funding disagreements have been in the past, where everybody comes to the table with a serious offer and everybody negotiates in good faith. In a democracy, nobody gets 100 percent of what they want.
I support the President's effort to secure our borders, period, full stop, but I also believe taking a step like declaring a national emergency and diverting disaster relief to border security would seriously hurt those who are still recovering from the impact of natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey. The storm that hit my State was the largest rain event in American history. More than 50 inches of rain fell on parts of Houston over about 5 days. It destroyed homes, businesses, and communities, and though a great deal of progress has been made, we are still healing.
Last year, Congress and the President worked very hard to secure nearly $90 billion in disaster relief for the people of Texas and other States and territories impacted by the devastating hurricanes and wildfires during that time period--an effort, by the way, that the administration strongly supported. In Texas, that money was needed to both support recovery and rebuilding efforts as well as fund projects that would mitigate future flooding from hurricanes. Hurricane Harvey isn't the first hurricane we have sustained, and it will not be the last. We need to get ready for the next one. Diverting those funds away to support border security would be a major step backward and could further harm the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
So what Democrats, by their intransigence, have forced the President to do is look at other options like taking money away from disaster relief for border security, but the fact is, we need to do both. We can't rob Peter to pay Paul. We need to do both.
I have been grateful for President Trump's continued support of my State as well as other States affected by natural disasters, and it is critical that every dollar of the money supporting Hurricane Harvey recovery is preserved to finish the job. I know that is true, and I know we all feel that way about natural disasters that have hit our State.
Sometimes the Senate is referred to as the greatest deliberative body in the world. At times like this, when congressional leaders like Senator Schumer and Ms. Pelosi refuse to negotiate with the President, I wonder whether the Senate is actually blocked by Senate Democrats from proceeding to consider important foreign affairs legislation. I wonder if we can still look ourselves in the mirror and call ourselves the world's greatest deliberative body.
Historically, we have been able to reach a consensus on very tough issues, far more controversial than this, because we all believe American interests should come first, that our constituents should come first, and we are there to serve their interests, not merely to play political games and score political points.
So it is time for our Democratic friends to come back to the negotiating table so we can finally end this unnecessary and harmful shutdown, and, hopefully in the process, the 800,000 Federal workers who missed their paycheck last Friday can get paid during this next pay period, and we can reopen the Federal Government so we can serve the interests of the American people, as we should have done 24 days ago.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Ernst). Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The Democratic leader is recognized.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, as the government shutdown enters its fourth unfortunate week, its effects are widespread and worsening. As of Friday, 800,000 public servants were without pay. Tomorrow, roughly 41,000 Active-Duty Coast Guard members won't get their paychecks. By the end of the week, our Federal courts will start running out of operating funds. Farmers and small businesses remain unable to access loans and assistance. Some working families are unable to access home loans. Food safety inspections are curtailed. Airport terminals are closing amidst widespread staffing shortages at TSA. The Trump shutdown is even affecting the opioid crisis. The DEA is in charge of approving a critical daily medication used by doctors in the recovery and treatment of opioid addiction. As long as the DEA is shut down, that is not happening.
It is all the more shameful because the Trump shutdown is a completely manufactured crisis--manufactured by Donald Trump. The only reason the government is shut down right now is that President Trump reversed positions the day before the government funding ran out, bewildering Senate Democrats and Republicans who were assured he would sign a stop-gap bill to fund the government.
Leader McConnell is trying to blame the current Speaker of the House. He is way out to lunch on that one. We are here because the President reversed himself, and the last Speaker of the House failed to use his responsibility to put the Senate-passed bill on the floor. This House has voted to reopen the government. It is the Senate that hasn't done it because Leader McConnell won't bring the bill to the floor.
President Trump has stubbornly refused to negotiate or soften his position from the get-go. Democratic leaders and staff have been over to the White House over and over again to urge the President to open the government while we negotiate over border security. We are all for border security. There are different ways to do it. Everyone wants it. But why shut down the government while we are negotiating that? Every time we have asked that of the President, he has been intransigent and uncompromising. He refuses to back down from his position that the price to reopen the government is $5.7 billion of taxpayer money for a wall he promised Mexico would pay for.
I want to remind all my Republican colleagues and the American people that Democrats only want to reopen the government. We offered a proposal that would separate the government shutdown from our disagreements over border security.
The House has passed six bills to reopen the government, each of which was drafted and approved by Senate Republicans. Let me emphasize that point. The Democratic proposal to reopen the government is to pass the Republicans' government funding bills. Democrats are not demanding any added policy changes, no Democratic agenda items, no nothing. These bills are noncontroversial. Leader McConnell has voted for each of them.
According to a Quinnipiac poll that just came out, the American people support our plan by an overwhelming majority--63 percent to 30 percent. A healthy minority of Republicans are for the plan. Thirty-
nine percent are for the idea, while only 52 percent are opposed. So even Republicans are moving to the position: Open the government, and then debate border security.
President Trump started this shutdown. He is the person continuing it. It is irresponsible of him to do it. Make no mistake--Democrats are happy to negotiate about the best way to secure our border, but we need to open the government first.
The fact that President Trump refuses to consider our proposal means that he is holding the government and the American people hostage as a political tactic. To President Trump, innocent, hard-working Americans are no more than bargaining chips. He will bluster, mislead, and storm out of meetings until he gets what he wants. That is not how our system of government works. We don't--we can't--govern by temper tantrum. No President has done it. If we do not reject government by extortion now, what is to prevent the same thing from happening over and over again under this President? What will he do when the debt ceiling needs to be renewed?
Before the Christmas holiday, we had a solution in sight. We believed the President would support a true compromise to end the shutdown. At the last minute, he reversed himself and said no. And now he is continuing the shutdown.
It is clear that the President doesn't want to end the shutdown--at least not yet. He has flatly refused our proposal to reopen the government while we negotiate on border security. He has contradicted his own deputies--the Vice President, the Chief of Staff--after they made offers to Democrats. Just this morning, he refused to consider one of his closest allies, Senator Graham's proposal to open the government temporarily while we negotiate border security.
How many more reasonable offers can the President reject? How much more suffering must the President cause before Leader McConnell realizes it is time to move ahead without him? It seems clear to nearly everybody but Leader McConnell that Congress needs to move forward without the President. At every juncture, the President has been the obstacle to progress. We need intervention.
It is time for Congress to fulfill our constitutional duty to govern, even without the President. It is time for Leader McConnell to realize he has the power to break this impasse and pass the House legislation to reopen the government--legislation his party already supports and legislation Leader McConnell has voted for and bragged about. The President is unwilling to move the ball forward, so Congress must. I urge my friend Leader McConnell to allow a vote on the House-passed legislation to reopen the government. It seems to be the only way out right now.
Russia Sanctions
Madam President, on another matter--Russia sanctions--before the end of last year, the Trump administration moved to relax sanctions on three companies owned and controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
As a reminder, an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of the last Congress supported additional sanctions on Russia as a response to President Putin's malign activities, particularly in Ukraine. Oleg Deripaska and a number of companies he controlled were placed under U.S. sanctions because Mr. Deripaska was effectively acting as an agent of Putin's interests abroad, leveraging the wealth he had accrued through control of these companies.
In my view, the Trump administration's plan to provide sanctions relief to these companies is deeply flawed and wrong.
First, it fails to sufficiently limit Mr. Deripaska's control and influence of these companies. Even though this plan brings Deripaska's ownership interest in these companies down from 70 percent to 45 percent, the terms allow for other Russian shareholders with family and business ties to Deripaska to maintain shareholder interests. His ex-
wife and father-in-law will still own a combined 7 percent in the company, and a sanctioned Russian bank is acquiring more shares. Even with the 45 percent, he would probably control it--many American companies are controlled with far less--but with these additional people owning shares, there is no doubt that Deripaska continues to control the company.
Second, it must not be forgotten that Mr. Deripaska is wrapped up in Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and has deep ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. There should not be sanctions relief for President Putin's trusted agent before the conclusion of Special Counsel Mueller's investigation. Just days ago, it was revealed that former campaign chairman Paul Manafort provided Trump campaign polling data to a close associate of Mr. Deripaska's. We don't know what Special Counsel Mueller knows. And the timing--at a time when these things are coming forward, to undue the sanctions on Rusal is very suspect.
Lastly, removing sanctions on these companies will benefit President Putin's government and economy since the export of metals, such as aluminum, is a key revenue generator for a country that needs revenues. At a time when Russia has failed to curtail its hostile action against our Nation and our allies--this is not the moment to give up a source of leverage over the Russian Government.
Tomorrow, the Senate will take up a motion to disapprove the Treasury Department's proposal. I strongly believe the Senate should vote to disapprove. And in a short time, I will be sending a letter to every single one of my Senate colleagues--Democratic, Republican, Independent--to urge them to block this misguided effort by the Trump administration and keep those much needed sanctions in place.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, it is interesting--we have entered the 24th day of the Trump shutdown. That means that for 24 days, hundreds of thousands of Federal workers have lived with the uncertainty of when they will get their next paycheck. Tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of private contractors know they will never be paid. For 24 days, nine Federal Departments and dozens of Agencies have been closed for business. They have withheld vital services from millions of Americans. I want to point out that the millions of Americans who are not receiving these services pay taxes to have these services. It has now become the longest government shutdown in history. Taxpayers have lost billions of dollars. The country has lost billions of dollars.
The United States should be considered the most powerful country in the world, but the rest of the world sees our government being held hostage to the whims of an undisciplined President who is proud of the shutdown and shows no concern for the chaos he is causing to all Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike.
Ask people at home what this means to them, no matter whether they are Republicans or Democrats, that the President seems not to care that the Food and Drug Administration has stopped inspecting seafood, fruits, and vegetables, and Americans are at the risk of eating tainted food and feeding their families tainted food. He seems not to care that the Environmental Protection Agency has stopped inspections of chemical factories, water treatment plants, and other industrial sites, leaving our country vulnerable to dangerous pollutants seeping into the air we breathe and the water we drink. Ask any parent how they might feel about their child going to school and drinking water that is tainted with chemicals solely because we closed down the Agency that is supposed to inspect those chemicals.
He seems not to care that over 800,000 dedicated Federal workers have gone without a paycheck this month. As a result, across this Nation, hundreds of thousands of families are wondering how to pay their bills and put food on the table. It doesn't make any difference whether they are Republicans or Democrats or Independents; they are hard-working Americans.
Just a few days ago, the President's own chief economic adviser went on national television and said furloughed workers were better off from this shutdown because they don't have to use up vacation days during this time they are being forced to take. Does he actually know what he said? Can you even believe such an arrogant, out-of-touch dismissal of hard-working Americans? The President's economic adviser is going to get paid and doesn't have to worry, but this cavalier way of treating hard-working, honest Americans is indefensible.
I hear from Vermonters every day about the impact the shutdown is having on their lives. None of these Vermonters--Republican and Democratic alike--are better off. Let me give you an example.
The other day, I heard from a single mother who works at the Department of Homeland Security in Vermont. She has been working without pay since December 22, when the Trump shutdown began, and it has taken a toll. Remember, this woman works for Homeland Security.
She writes:
I love my job and country. I do have a child to feed and bills to pay. I have been working a second job to get some money coming in, but when you are working full time and you have a family to care for, there are only so many extra hours you can work, especially if you are not getting a paycheck for some of the work you are doing.
I heard from another mother. She is worried about her daughter. Her daughter works for the U.S. Institute of Peace. She has been furloughed. She just missed her first paycheck, and she is unable to pay her bills and her student loans. Her daughter dedicates her life to combating terrorism, and now she is not only unable to do her job, but she is getting into financial trouble. She is worried, and her mother is worried, as any mother would be, but she does not have the financial resources to help her daughter.
Then there is the story of Anthony Morselli, who is a TSA agent at the Burlington International Airport. I see him often as I fly back and forth. The local paper recently reported he was forced to start a GoFundMe page in order to raise money to help his family pay the bills during the shutdown. His wife is also a TSA agent. They are both working without pay during the shutdown--it is a double hit--and they have two children to support. He points out that almost everyone seems to understand except the President.
Mr. Morselli says:
To see a zero balance in your bank account really hurts. Some of us live paycheck to paycheck. Today would be payday, and no money is coming in.
Another Vermonter called in who also works for the Department of Homeland Security in Vermont. He says he has a month's worth of money available in his savings account, and then he runs out of money entirely. He has a mortgage to pay, and the bills are piling up. He is scared. He works for the Department of Homeland Security. He says he wants to keep his job, but the shutdown is beyond reason. He says he certainly does not feel valued at all by the President and this White House. He points out that while the President says he wants border protection, he has been holding the pay from the people who protect our borders, including this Vermonter. I couldn't agree with him more.
Last week, the Senate and House passed a bill to ensure that all Federal workers will get backpay as soon as the shutdown is over. I was a cosponsor of that bill. I am glad to hear the President will sign it. It is the least he can do, considering the fact that he is the one who caused the mess. While this bill offers assurance to Federal employees that they will eventually get their paychecks, it does absolutely nothing to help them now. It does not help the people who call my office--the TSA agents, the DHS employees, or the State Department employees--because their bills are due now. This is not a case of,
``Oh, don't worry about it. Someday, you will get a check.'' The bills are due now, and the President has threatened that his Trump shutdown could last months or years. This is untenable.
The President says it is about border security. You could have fooled me. The examples I just talked about--and I could give so many more--
all involve dedicated Federal employees who are working to keep this country safe. They are proud of the work they do to keep America safe and are proud of the service they perform for their country, but they are all caught in the crosshairs of the Trump shutdown. The Trump shutdown is not about border security; it is about fulfilling a cynical campaign rally chant the President made to spin up his base. He even gave his word that Mexico would pay for the wall, while knowing, even as he said it, that it would never happen.
Congress is a coequal branch of government. We are not in the business of throwing taxpayer dollars around to build monuments to the Presidential egos of the Presidents of any party. Everyone knows the
$5.7 billion wall he wants to build is a waste of taxpayer money. Everybody knows it will not address the immigration challenges in this country.
The President has manufactured a sense of urgency on the southern border solely to generate support for his ridiculous wall. The President likes to spin up his base by talking about the invasion of illegal immigrants, but that is not the reality. Apprehensions at the southwest border have dropped 75 percent since 2000. More people are here in this country illegally because they have overstayed their visas, not because they have snuck across the border. Every Member of the Senate supports border security, but I would argue we need to invest in smart border security, not spend billions of taxpayers' dollars on a 30-foot wall that determined people will be able to go over, or through, or under.
The President is now asserting that Democrats are for open borders. That is nonsense. In fiscal year 2018, the Democrats supported $21.1 billion in direct appropriations for border security and immigration enforcement. That followed a similar amount in fiscal year 2017. This funding supports investments at our northern and southern borders to help stop the flow of dangerous drugs like opioids, fentanyl, and methamphetamines. It targets money where it is needed. It pays for 19,500 Border Patrol agents nationwide, including, roughly, 16,500 on our southern border. It pays for 23,500 Customs Officers at our ports of entry, including 6,815 who are assigned to the southwest border's ports of entry. In fact, with Democratic support, the number of agents and officers we have is at a record high, even though illegal border crossings are at the lowest level we have seen since 1971.
Last year, Democrats and Republicans came together and agreed upon
$1.7 billion in targeted border security investments. This included over $1 billion to be used between the ports of entry for improved facilities, tactical communications equipment, additional air assets, integrated fixed towers, video surveillance systems, ground detection systems, tactical aerostats, and money for countering cross-border tunnel threats. This is from Republicans and Democrats working together. It included $580 million for security at our ports of entry by increasing funds for intelligence capabilities at the National Targeting Center, nonintrusive inspection equipment so as to detect illicit contraband, and opioid testing equipment. It also included another $615 million to help address the root causes of migration from Central America.
These are investments that Republicans and Democrats can all agree on. This is how you protect our borders. It is more complex, but it is more effective than building a 30-foot wall. A 30-foot wall would not begin to do what this does. The shutdown is not about border security. Let's just be honest. It is about the President's own ego. It has to end.
In a few minutes, we are going to be voting on another bill that is one the Republican leader keeps bringing up. It is S. 1. At a time when people are desperate and are out of work here in America, we are to bring up this bill which has nothing to do with funding the government or border security. Rather than voting on the appropriations bills that would put Americans back to work, S. 1 authorizes more than $800 million, in this year alone, for Israeli defense contractors as part of
$38 billion for Israel over the next 10 years. It is money that will put Israelis to work. It will pay for them to go to work. That is fine, but couldn't we take time, first, to put Americans back to work?
It also includes the boycott, divestment, sanctions legislation. This is an open violation of our First Amendment. It would give up Federal authority over matters of foreign policy to our State and local governments. I might not like a particular boycott, but the right to boycott is fundamental. Just pick up any one of our books about the U.S. civil rights movement and wonder if Martin Luther King and others would have been successful if they had not been allowed to have boycotts. It is not up to the government to pick and choose which boycotts citizens should support or oppose.
We have bills that are supported by Republicans and Democrats alike that could reopen the government. That should be our focus. We could talk about creating jobs in Israel at another time. Let's create jobs in America. Let's reopen our government.
I call on my friends, the Republicans, to stand up to the President and put a stop to this madness. Otherwise, the shutdown will not be just the President's fault but the fault of the Republicans in the Senate.
I implore Senator McConnell to bring up H.R. 21 and H.J. Res. 1 and send them to the President. Let Democrats and Republicans join together in voting for them. We could pass them with a veto-proof majority.
Congress is a coequal branch of government. We should not be intimidated by any President of any party. We should start acting like a coequal branch of government. Frankly, we have 800,000 people in this country who will be paid for their work immediately if we start acting like we are supposed to--as a coequal branch of government. There are hundreds of thousands of others who need to work--contractors and all.
Let's stand up for Americans. We have the money for border security, but let's stand up for Americans. Let's put them to work. Let's let them get paid for what they are doing. These are our neighbors. These are people I see in the grocery store in Vermont when I am home on weekends. They are the people I see coming out of church on Sunday. These are the people I see when I am walking down the street to pick up my newspaper. These are good, hard-working people. Of the ones I have talked to, I have no idea whether they are Republicans or Democrats. All I know is that they want to do their work for this country. They support this country. They want to help this country be secure, but they can't understand why a temper tantrum at the White House will allow their paychecks to be stopped.
I yield the floor.
I don't see anybody seeking recognition.
So I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask for the time to be equally divided.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, this is day 23. For 23 days, we have had a partial shutdown of the Federal Government. It is now the longest shutdown in our history. That is not a proud record.
Government workers have now gone a pay period without getting their paychecks. Those who have been working have picked up their pay stubs, and their pay stubs show zero. Those who have been furloughed have not received a paycheck.
I think the American public would be outraged to think that we are asking our dedicated Federal workers--our frontline of public service--
to work and not get paid. That is not what this country stands for.
It has an effect on their work. It is difficult to show up every day and do your work and mission for the public and be worried about how you are going to have money to make your monthly mortgage payment or to pay for your children's needs or to meet your medical needs or your family's food needs. These are real decisions that government workers must make. Many are falling in default.
The largest number of Federal workers live paycheck to paycheck. In other words, they can't make it without their income coming in. That is a fact of life for American workers. Yet the government is in a partial shutdown.
I ask why? What is the disagreement we have here that keeps us from opening the government? Why is the President holding the American people hostage to his agenda?
I say that because the House of Representatives has passed over to us a bill that would pass the appropriations for six appropriations bills, opening up most of those Agencies, all except for one that comes under Homeland Security. Those would be opened up. They are not in any disagreement. The appropriations specifics were agreed to by the Senate in four of those six bills, and the last two were passed out of the Appropriations Committee 31 to 0 and 30 to 1. Under Republican leadership, in a bipartisan manner, we have already approved these six appropriations bills. So why don't we act?
I asked the distinguished majority leader for us to consider that bill, and he objected. Quite frankly, I don't understand why, because if we bring it up for a vote, we will pass it by overwhelming numbers, and the government will open for those Agencies that are under those appropriations.
Then, my colleague Senator Van Hollen asked unanimous consent that we bring up a continuing resolution for Homeland Security, which passed this body in late December by a unanimous vote, so we could have the government open and then we could negotiate the border security issue. We agree on border security for the country, but we disagree with wasting money for a wall that will not keep us safe.
In fact, those who had been involved in negotiating border security in the Senate have been arguing for spending more money for technology and personnel but not for a wall. That is what we should be doing.
Some people ask me: Well, can you negotiate a compromise?
It is hard to negotiate a compromise with the President while he is holding America hostage. It is hard to negotiate with the President when he undermines his own negotiators every time we get close to an agreement.
It makes no sense at all for the government to be shuttered while we debate these issues. The only ones we are hurting are our government workers, our constituents, and our economy.
Today, I met with government workers at BWI, or Baltimore/Washington International Airport. I met with people who represent the workers who are working for airline safety and for passenger safety on our flights. These are people who do safety inspections. These are people who work for TSA and who screen us as we get on the planes. These are air traffic controllers, who make sure that the air is safe. These are professionals who are showing up and working every day right now because that is their professional responsibility--to keep us safe.
They acknowledge that they are distracted. They are distracted because they don't know how they are going to pay their bills. They are distracted because they don't know when they are going to get a paycheck for working. They are distracted because they don't know whether they have to find other employment in order to pay their bills.
They don't have the full complement in because there are some who are out on furlough. Some safety inspectors aren't there. How do they carry out their mission unless we have the full team in place?
Of the 800,000 Federal workers, approximately half are furloughed without pay. That means the critical mission on behalf of the American public is not being done--whether it is food safety, whether it is approving a loan so that a person can buy a home, or whether it is a small business owner who needs help from the Small Business Administration and can't get that help, can't close on a loan, can't do what they need to do, and can't run their business. So it is not only 800,000 workers who are not working or working without pay. It is also those businesses that depend upon it.
When you look at the small businesses around Federal facilities, with so many of the workers not being there and others not having money to pay--they are not using those services--these businesses are losing customers and are laying off people.
It is not hypothetical. We know of specific companies that have shuttered as a result of the Federal Government shutdown. We know of nonprofits that had to lay off workers because their contracts with government Agencies expired.
Today, at BWI, or Baltimore/Washington International Airport, I heard directly from these individuals. Each one had a story to tell about how they are really fighting to make sure that airline safety issues are maintained and about the challenges they are facing, et cetera. They told pretty direct stories.
There was an AFGE worker there who told me of the situation where he had to try to explain to his young daughter why he could not pay the fee so she could continue in a dance class. He didn't have the money. It broke his heart. These are affecting real people.
Last Friday, along with Senator Van Hollen, we met with a group of Federal Government workers. We had a chance to talk to them. They are from different Agencies. One was in the Justice Department. He is an excepted employee. So he is there doing his work, trying to keep us safe, but he said the necessary investigative work that should have been done so that he could get his job done to keep us safe was not done because the person who would be doing the investigative work was on furlough as a result of the government shutdown. Why should the Justice Department be shut down? Why? They are not part of the border security debate, and yet they are.
We had another of our government workers show up and say that they could not settle on a home. They have a contract to settle on a new home. They are starting a family. The reason they can't settle is that they are required to bring in their two most recent pay stubs showing that their income is what they say it is. The problem is their most recent pay stubs--and they have them--show zero as income. They no longer qualify for their mortgage.
These are real-life people--800,000 of them. Yet this shutdown continues. It is dangerous. It is irresponsible. It is wrong.
We have the votes in this Chamber to change it tonight. I hope that Leader McConnell will bring up the two votes that passed the House of Representatives. We have already acted on those bills in the previous Congress. Let us open the government. It makes no sense whatsoever. The Congress is a coequal branch of government.
We know that what the President is doing is wrong. Each of us knows that in our hearts. We know he has shut down government for no legitimate reason. We can debate the issues with the government open and prevent the loss to individual families and to our economy. We are a coequal branch of government, and we should act. Let us vote on opening government.
Quite frankly, I hope we will have the votes that would show the President we would override any veto he may impose. That is our responsibility as a coequal, independent branch of government. Let us exercise our responsibilities, and let us take action tonight. This shutdown needs to end. It needs to end now.
I urge my colleagues to bring up this legislation. Let's pass it, and let's show that we can exercise our responsibility. We recognize the President is wrong. We have a responsibility to do what is right, and this is what we have done in the past.
I see my colleague from Maryland is on the floor. The two of us have been pretty active over the weekend, talking with Federal workers. I want to explain to the people of Maryland that we are going to do everything in our power to open up government. We are prepared to take all steps necessary to get government open. We know that people are hurting. We know that people are worried. This is irresponsible. It is costly, and it needs to end.
I hope President Trump will end this. If he doesn't, we, as a coequal branch of government, should take the necessary actions to open the government.
I urge the Republican leader to bring these bills to the floor. We are for border security. We are not for wasting money on a wall. We are for negotiating. Let Congress determine where money should be spent, not the President. Let us all work together for the safety of our Nation and for the protection of our workforce.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, first, I thank my colleague from Maryland, Senator Cardin, for his steadfast efforts to bring this shameful shutdown to an end. He and I have met with Federal employees all over the State of Maryland to bring their stories here to the floor of the Senate.
While they are under incredible hardship and incredible duress, the first thing they tell us at every meeting is that they want to get back to work for the American people, to do their job for the American people. These are civil servants; these are public servants; and they want to get back to helping the country.
To my friend and partner and colleague, Senator Cardin, I thank him for all of his efforts in this shameful episode of our history.
President Trump often falsely boasts that he has accomplished what no other President in American history has been able to do. This time, he has succeeded. This time, he has succeeded in closing down the Federal Government for a longer period than any other President in United States history--24 days and counting.
President Trump said just a few weeks ago that he would be proud--
proud to shut down the government if he didn't get his way. But President Trump should know that reaching this historic milestone is nothing to be proud of. It is unnecessary, and it is shameful. Every day that goes by, we see mounting harm around the country both in terms of members of the public who are denied important services and denied important health protections and, of course, Federal employees and Federal contractors who are either going without pay--all of the Federal employees who are going without pay, and Federal contractors have been laid off in many cases.
Every day that this shameful shutdown goes on, our colleagues on the Republican side and the Republican leader have to own up to their share of the responsibility. Every day that goes on where we do not have a chance to vote on the two House bills that are on the Senate calendar, which we could take up this afternoon--every day that we do not vote on those bills, which have had bipartisan support here in the U.S. Senate, the Senate is an accomplice in the shutdown, and those who prevent us from turning the keys to reopen the government are complicit in the harm that is increasing every day around the country.
On Friday, 800,000 Federal employees began to get pay stubs that showed zero pay. I have one in my hand from somebody who is an air traffic controller. If you look at the area that says net pay, it has a big goose egg--zero. Among these 800,000 Federal employees, of course, are hundreds of thousands of people--like the folks at TSA, like the folks along the border--who are working every day, but in the mail or in their electronic pay stub they get zero for their pay.
Of course, there are hundreds of thousands more who are being furloughed, who want to get out and do their work for the American people, and they are being locked out of their jobs.
I have been talking with many of my constituents over the last several weeks, and I have shared many of their stories here on the floor of the Senate. They talk passionately and personally about how they want to get back to work and also about how they worry about their ability to provide for their families.
I met with Edward last week. He works at the Census Bureau. He is the only person in his family to have gone to college. He is very proud to be a civil servant and wants to do his job. He owns a home, and his mortgage payments are coming due every month, like those of millions of Americans. While those mortgage payments are coming in, his paycheck is not. He told me he is very worried that he will soon miss a payment.
It is important to understand that the harm from this shutdown is not just felt in the Washington metropolitan area. Of course, Americans around the country are losing access to services, and it is a fact that 80 percent of the people who work for the Federal Government live outside the Washington metropolitan area. TSA officials at airports throughout the country are just one example.
It is also important to recognize that about 30 percent of the Federal workforce are people who previously served our country in uniform. They were in the military. That means that as a result of this shutdown, 250,000 Americans--in fact, a little more than that--who served our country in the military are also suffering and going without pay.
One of those veterans is somebody I spoke to last week, an Air Force veteran who works at the Office of Personnel Management. He told me he was worried that he wasn't going to be able to pay his electric bill on time. He told me he had contacted the electric company and said: Look, I am not going to be able to pay you this month because I am not going to get a check. Can you just hold off? Can you defer my bill?
They told him: Sorry, that really isn't our responsibility.
It really is our responsibility here in the U.S. Senate--and, of course, the President of the United States, who said that he was proud to shut down the government. I would like the President to visit Maryland and look at that Air Force vet who now works as a civil servant and tell that Air Force vet that he is proud to be shutting down the government.
There are other veterans around the country. As I said, the harm from this is not confined to the Washington metropolitan area. Toby Hauck served our country in the Air Force and continues to serve as an air traffic controller in Illinois. His son and daughter-in-law are about to deploy overseas, and Toby and his wife are going to care for their 2\1/2\-year-old daughter--their granddaughter--
during this deployment. Toby says that the continued lack of pay adds stress to their already hectic jobs. This is something I have heard from other veterans, air traffic controllers, and others going without pay throughout the State of Maryland.
In fact, we know from a lot of the Federal employees who work in law enforcement that the impact on their jobs is hurting our national security. Just reading from an article in the Washington Post,
``Shutdown threatens national security, FBI agents group warns,'' it goes on to say: ``A group representing FBI agents warned Thursday that the partial government shutdown is threatening national security as thousands of federal law enforcement professionals, working without pay, grow anxious that personal financial hardships may jeopardize their security clearances and as furloughs of their support staffs slow investigations.''
I spoke to a Federal law enforcement officer just last week. He made exactly the point made by others in this article, which is that his entire support team has been furloughed. These are the folks who track down DNA analysis; these are the people who do the investigations. When they are furloughed and when they are not on the job, it puts their colleagues who are on the job--in the FBI or other Federal law enforcement missions--at greater risk, and it puts the public at risk to the extent that those FBI agents are not able to fully do their job.
The harm is spreading. We know that a lot of Federal contractors, including a lot of small business folks who do work with the Federal Government, have had to lay off people. I know that because, in my State of Maryland, a small outfit that contracts with the Federal Government to help seniors find work just had to lay off 173 employees last week. Senior Service America is the name of the organization. They do great work, but they just had to send pink slips to 173 people saying: At least for now, you are out of work, and you are out of a paycheck.
Again, this is something we are seeing and witnessing around the country. A business in Denver, CO--Sky Blue Builders--had to stop work on several Federal contractor jobs for Federal construction projects they were doing. The GSA--General Services Administration--put their projects on hold, and a 50-person company had to lay off 8 carpenters and a superintendent because of the shutdown. They will need to lay off more in the days ahead if the shutdown continues.
Every day that goes on, we see a mushrooming effect in terms of the damage and harm being done throughout the country. A lot of the folks who work for these small business Federal Government contractors are already getting low-wage paychecks; now, they are out of income altogether.
One of those workers is Lila Johnson. She is a janitor at the Department of Agriculture. She works for a company, and that company contracts with the Department of Agriculture to provide janitorial services.
Lila is 71 years old. She has bills coming due for her rent, her credit card, and her car. Here is how she has described the impact of the shutdown:
I don't have enough from my retirement and my Social Security to make ends meet. Everything is piling up on me, and I don't know how I'm going to have the money to pay these bills.
I don't know how many of my colleagues saw President Trump the other day. He sort of waved off reporters when they asked him a question about the harm being done as a result of the shutdown. The President said he can relate to these people who are just one paycheck away from not being able to make a mortgage or not being able to make a medical copayment. He said:
I can relate. I'm sure the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. They always do.
Give me a break. The President clearly doesn't realize that 40 percent of our fellow Americans cannot pull together even $400 for an emergency. They do live paycheck to paycheck.
When you have grown up with a background of privilege, as the President has, you really have not experienced that kind of hardship. Between Trump Tower, the White House, and Mar-a-Lago, it is pretty clear the President doesn't have a clue about what our fellow Americans are experiencing in this shutdown.
Because all of these Federal employees are unable to do their jobs--
in many cases, for the country--and because the small business contractors are not able to do theirs, every day you are seeing the growing, harmful impact of the shutdown in terms of denial of important services and protections for the American people.
We know now the FDA is no longer conducting their routine food safety inspections. We know the EPA has halted inspections of major polluters, including chemical factories. We know 1,000 affordable housing contracts have expired because of the shutdown, which can delay critical repairs and place families at risk of eviction. We have seen trash and waste piling up at our national parks.
Despite the efforts of the administration to hide a lot of these impacts, the result has been a disaster. At Joshua Tree National Park, we saw motorists cut down several of the iconic Joshua trees so they could drive in areas of the park where vehicles are banned, and vandals have sprayed graffiti in the park. That is just one example among many.
Why is this happening? It is because the President says, if he doesn't get his way entirely, he is going to be ``proud''--that is his word, not mine--to shut down the government.
I can tell you what it is not about. It is not about the need for strong border security. We need secure borders. I think Senators on both sides of the aisle know that over the years, we have worked on a bipartisan basis to do that. We certainly can continue to work on a bipartisan basis to do it going forward.
I know Senators on both sides of the aisle recognize that wasting taxpayer dollars on a 2,000-mile-long wall is not the answer. For goodness' sake, the President's own Acting Chief of Staff--a former colleague of mine in the House of Representatives--Mick Mulvaney said a couple of years ago that it was childlike to believe that building that 2,000-mile wall was going to actually provide the kind of security we need.
We need a multilayered approach. Yes, there are areas along the border where we need barriers, fences, walls. Call them what you want. They are already there. They were there before President Trump was ever elected President.
What was the President's budget request this year for this part of the Homeland Security budget? What was his request in the official document he sent for this fiscal year? He asked for $1.6 billion. That is what the Senate Appropriations Committee voted for on a bipartisan basis, $1.6 billion.
It was only in December, when all of a sudden you have the rightwing talk show hosts going 24/7, spinning the President up, that all of a sudden, oh, boy, I guess I didn't really mean what I asked for; I need something else.
Then, to justify the $5.7 billion, he did this national address the other night. What was the very first example he gave for why we needed this border wall? The very first example he gave was to interdict and stop the flow of drugs across the southern border. That was the first item he mentioned in the speech. He focused on it. By focusing on that, he demonstrated the argument against spending all this money on a 2,000-mile border wall.
As everybody knows, including his Department of Homeland Security, to the extent we have drugs coming across the southern border--and this is a big issue--they are actually coming through the legal points of entry, so building a wall on all sides of the legal points of entry will not do a thing. We all know that on a bipartisan basis, we have looked for new technologies and new investments to better detect drugs that are flowing through those legal ports of entry.
My goodness, we can certainly talk about further steps that can be taken, but the leadoff point in the President's speech showed his ignorance about the overall issue on how we need effective border security.
We should not be spending what will ultimately be $30 billion on a 2,000-mile wall the President said Mexico was going to pay for. Make no mistake. We are talking about $30 billion because the President may ask for one amount this year. It started at
$1.6 billion. That was his official request. Then, in December, it was
$5.7 billion. Now he is going to threaten to shut down the government every year if he doesn't get his $30 billion, which Mexico was going to pay for.
I know he is doing all sorts of dances, saying that is not quite what I meant, but that is what he told the country.
Since we are talking about border security, let's talk about some of the men and women who, right now, today, as we gather here, are defending that border, providing border protection. I will tell you what, the folks at Customs and Border Protection have had enough. The Customs and Border Protection officers are suing the United States. They are suing the President because of this shutdown and demanding that they get paid for the work they are doing.
I know the President likes to talk about the good work a lot of those men and women do at Customs and Border Protection, and they do, do good work. They are now suing the President of the United States and the U.S. Government because they are out there providing border security, and they are now getting big goose eggs, big zeros for net pay for the work they are doing.
I know Members of this body are not ``proud'' of this shutdown, as the President of the United States is. He said he was proud. He hasn't said otherwise, although he started pointing fingers now at everybody else. He said he was going to take responsibility; that he would be proud to if he didn't get his way.
Every day that goes by in this Senate that we don't take action, which is within our power to take, this Senate becomes an accomplice in President Trump's government shutdown. That is why, together with my colleagues, we are going to continue to press the Senate and the Senate Republican leader to take up the two House bills that are on the Senate calendar, which are the keys to reopening the government.
The House of Representatives, on their very first day of the new Congress, said their priority is reopening the government, and they did. They passed those two bills.
I have had them on the floor before. I am going to show them again because they are still on the calendar. They haven't disappeared. They are still right there. One is H.J. Res. 1. It is a very simple bill. It is a bill that would reopen the Department of Homeland Security through February 8. It is identical, with respect to the Department of Homeland Security, as to what this Senate did by a voice vote before Christmas--
identical. It says: Let's reopen the Department of Homeland Security at current funding levels while we discuss the best and most effective way to provide border security.
That bill was on the Senate calendar. Last week, standing right here, I asked for unanimous consent to take it up and vote on it right away. The Senate Republican leader denied that request.
Just last week, standing right over there, Senator Cardin brought up the other bill that is on the Senate calendar that was passed by the House to reopen eight of the nine Departments of the U.S. Government that are closed and have nothing to do with Homeland Security or the wall--nothing to do with it. That bill is right here, H.R. 21. Senator Cardin asked for the Senate to vote on it. Again, it was blocked by the Republican leader on behalf of the caucus.
As many of us have discussed, the great irony is, these are pieces of legislation that have bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate.
As I said, the bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security through February 8 while we work on the best and most effective way to provide border security is something we passed by voice vote. Republican colleagues thought it was a good idea about 5 weeks ago. I don't know why it is not a good idea to do the same thing today.
The other bill, which contains the funding levels through the remainder of this fiscal year for the other eight of the nine Federal Departments that are currently closed, also had broad bipartisan support. One of the parts of that bill dealing with the Department of Agriculture, the Treasury Department, the Interior Department, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development passed this Senate by a vote of 92 to 6.
The House of Representatives said: Do you know what? We like the funding levels the House put together, but let's send the Senate a bill that was already supported by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the U.S. Senate, 92 to 6.
This bill, H.R. 21, contains those Senate funding levels voted on 92 to 6 to reopen all those Departments. This bill also includes measures that were overwhelmingly passed in the Senate Appropriations Committee. One measure was adopted in the Senate Appropriations Committee by a vote of 31 to 0--Republicans and Democrats voting for it. That is in the bill the House sent over.
The other bills relating to the Department of Commerce and the Department of Justice passed the Senate Appropriations Committee vote 30 to 1. In this package the House sent us, you have bills that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee by 30 to 0, 30 to 1, and the floor of the U.S. Senate by a vote of 92 to 6.
It is a very simple question: Why is it that the Republican leader refuses to allow this body to vote on measures that have already had overwhelming support in this body and would reopen the government today?
The answer we get is, well, you know what, the President of the United States says he will not support it.
Do you know what? We are an independent branch of government. We are a coequal branch of government, although these days I begin to wonder if we relegated ourselves to the very bottom of the totem pole here.
There is no excuse not to vote. Ninety-two to six? That is a veto-
proof majority. Let the President veto it. It has to come back here? Ninety-two to six. I will tell you, the fact the others passed 30 to 0 and 30 to 1 in the Senate Appropriations Committee--that is a pretty good indicator of their strong, bipartisan support. So let's not go hide out. Let's not go hide out. Let's do our job in the Senate, and if the President wants to veto it, let him do it. That is how the system works. But nobody here should be hiding from accountability to their constituents because the Republican leader refuses to hold a vote today on what the Senate supported overwhelmingly in weeks past.
I do want to thank my colleagues for a measure that we passed last week, passed it on Thursday or Friday. The Senate passed a provision that was introduced by Senator Cardin and me and many other Senators and that had some bipartisan support and cosponsorship and strong bipartisanship here on the floor. We said that Federal employees should not, at the end of the day, be the ones who have to bear the entire burden of this shutdown they had nothing to do with. So we passed legislation to make sure that when this shutdown is over, Federal employees will be made whole in terms of their pay. That then passed the House, and it is on the way to the President. It was on the way to the President before the weekend. The Republican Senate leader said that the President said he was going to sign it. Of course, that is what the President said about the bill that passed the U.S. Senate before Christmas to provide stopgap funding, so we will see. I hope that is the case because Federal employees, at the end of the day, should not be the ones who are penalized and never made whole.
But it doesn't address the problem before us right now, which is that while those Federal employees--hundreds of thousands of them--are not working, they are not there to provide important services for the American people, and the harm done from the denial of those services is growing every day. And of course it doesn't help those hundreds of thousands of Federal employees--in fact, 800,000 Federal employees--who are not getting paid now but have their bills coming through the door every day. That creates great harm because when they can't pay the bills, their creditors come after them. Even though, whenever this shutdown ends, whenever it may be, they may get back pay, it is going to be very hard for them to get back their credit rating. It is going to be very hard to undo the damage that is being done to them by their inability to pay their bills because of our inability to vote on two House measures that the Senate has already supported on a bipartisan basis. So it doesn't solve that very, very real problem, which is growing every day.
I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are hearing more and more from their constituents--hearing from their Federal employees who are going without pay, hearing from small business contractors who have had their contracts cut and are at risk of going belly-up, from those small contract employees who live paycheck to paycheck--and from the American people who are being denied services on a growing basis.
So let's open the government. Let's vote on these two bills that would accomplish that. We could do it tonight. Do it right now, as soon as the Republican leader comes in.
I can assure you that my colleagues and I will continue to ask consent to bring up those bills. We are going to continue to move to bring up those bills because they are the one thing before the Senate right now that we could vote on that would at least demonstrate that we in the Senate are doing our job. It is the President's job to decide whether he thinks it is a good idea, and if he thinks it is a bad idea, he can veto it, and then it comes back to us.
Let's do our job here. Let's not contract to the President of the United States our constitutional responsibilities. That is not how it is supposed to work. And we need to do our job. Let's end the shutdown. Let's reopen the government. We can have a conversation on the most effective way to provide border security, but for goodness' sake, let's release the hostages here. Let's release eight of the nine Federal Departments that have nothing to do with homeland security or the wall. Let's release the 800,000 Federal employees who are not getting paid. Let's release all of the small businesses that do contract work for the Federal Government, many of which are at risk of going belly-up. Let's release the Federal contract employees who are now being told not to come to work because the contract is not in effect during the shutdown. Let's release all those hostages who have nothing to do with the political dispute here.
Nobody should be proud of this shutdown, and so I say to the President of the United States: Let's not take pride in being the President of the United States who is now overseeing the longest shutdown in American history. That is not a first that any President should be proud of, and it is not something this Senate should be complicit in.
Let's reopen the government. Let's vote on the House bills.
I yield my time.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Cloture Motion
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 1, a bill to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to authorize the appropriation of funds to Israel, to reauthorize the United States-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015, and to halt the wholesale slaughter of the Syrian people, and for other purposes.
Todd Young, Mike Rounds, Richard C. Shelby, James E.
Risch, Mike Lee, Josh Hawley, John Boozman, Shelley
Moore Capito, Mike Crapo, Tim Scott, Cory Gardner, Roy
Blunt, Steve Daines, Marco Rubio, Rob Portman, John
Barrasso, Mitch McConnell.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 1, a bill to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to authorize the appropriation of funds to Israel, to reauthorize the United States-
Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015, and to halt the wholesale slaughter of the Syrian people, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Perdue).
Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin) and the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) are necessarily absent.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 50, nays 43, as follows:
YEAS--50
AlexanderBarrassoBlackburnBluntBoozmanBraunCapitoCassidyCollinsCornynCottonCramerCruzDainesEnziErnstFischerGardnerGrahamGrassleyHawleyHoevenHyde-SmithInhofeJohnsonJonesKennedyLankfordLeeManchinMcSallyMurkowskiPaulPortmanRischRobertsRomneyRoundsRubioSasseScott (FL)Scott (SC)ShelbySinemaSullivanThuneTillisToomeyWickerYoung
NAYS--43
BaldwinBennetBlumenthalBookerBrownCantwellCardinCarperCaseyCoonsCortez MastoFeinsteinGillibrandHarrisHassanHeinrichHironoKaineKingKlobucharLeahyMarkeyMcConnellMenendezMerkleyMurphyMurrayPetersReedRosenSandersSchatzSchumerShaheenSmithStabenowTesterUdallVan HollenWarnerWarrenWhitehouseWyden
NOT VOTING--7
BurrCrapoDuckworthDurbinIsaksonMoranPerdue
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 43.
Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
The majority leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Government Funding
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to urge my Republican colleagues to do the right thing and stand with us to reopen the government and end this completely unnecessary and, really, absurd crisis.
President Trump's latest government shutdown is now the longest one in American history--24 days of workers unsure of when their next paychecks will come, 24 days of economic impacts in communities all over this country, 24 days of slowdowns at our airports, 24 days of small business owners waiting on loans. Twenty-four days of trash piling up and irreparable damage being done at our national parks. Twenty-four days of dysfunction. Twenty-four days of chaos. Twenty-four days of the government simply not working at its most basic duties, not being allowed to work by its own leaders.
There have been 24 days of story after story here in the United States of America that would embarrass citizens of far less developed nations.
One woman from Seattle--she is a Federal employee and has been there 25 years--wrote that the stress of not knowing how she will manage her bills is causing her sleepless nights--nights she is worried about her credit score taking a hit if she can't pay her bills on time. She is trying to balance all of that while helping take care of her father, who is a Navy veteran suffering from a progressive neurological disease.
Another man wrote to me. He is not a Federal employee, but he and his wife own a small business frequented by people who are. He told me that the shutdown has brought his business to a halt and that he is not sure how much longer he can make it work.
A U.S. Forest Service worker wrote to me saying that he is pretty sure he can weather the shutdown financially, but he is very scared for his coworkers who cannot, and he is worried about the deeper damage now being done to his restoration work that is supposed to be happening in the Olympic National Forest.
I know every one of my colleagues is getting letters like these, hundreds of thousands of them. They need to read some of those letters. I would challenge them and anyone who doubts the sincerity and fears so many Americans are feeling right now to sit down and hear from their constituents who are being impacted--face to face.
This past weekend, when it became clear the Senate would not get a chance to vote on reopening the government, I flew home to Washington State. I walked through security lines on my way out and thanked the men and women of TSA who are working to protect us, not knowing when they are going to get paid. When I got to the airport in Seattle, I sat down with people who had tears in their eyes, who were describing their fear over the uncertainty this Trump shutdown has caused. I talked to an air traffic controller who worked overtime during the busy holiday season and who worries about the added stress and distractions on top of an already very tough job. I heard from a Coast Guard spouse who talked about friends in a similar situation returning Christmas presents to pay bills. Story after story--workers with their families, small business owners, and many more. This is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities.
(Mr. SULLIVAN assumed the Chair.)
This is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities.
Right now in my home State of Washington, paychecks are frozen for nearly 13,000 workers. They are workers who are not going out and spending money at local businesses the way they usually do. They are at risk of missing their rent payment or their mortgage payment or their car payment or their phone bill or their credit card bill. They may know they will get their pay back eventually when this shutdown finally ends, but that is not going to cover late fees or interest fees, and it will not compensate them for the emotional anguish and deep uncertainty. And that is just those 13,000 workers and their families. Millions of people in my home State, like every State, are affected by work that is not happening or at risk of being cut off, such as routine inspections on Washington State ferries, an accident investigation report concerning a deadly train accident, decisionmaking on the ongoing Hanford nuclear site cleanup process, applications for Federal financial student aid, Federal food safety inspections, emergency food supplies for hungry families, and assistance for domestic violence survivors and crime victims.
The government can't even pay its bills. Just this morning, I saw the headline ``Layoffs hit two space companies.'' One of those is in my home State. Tethers Unlimited said it is going to lay off 20 percent of its employees because it hasn't been paid for its government work during this shutdown. This is absurd. This is no way for a country like ours to run. It is shameful. Once again, this has to end.
Those whom I just talked about are just a few of the stories. Those are just a few of the impacts. There are so many more--big ones, small ones, narrow ones, broad ones, from individual workers and their families who are being impacted in unique and specific ways, to entire industries and regions that are being harmed.
This is not a theoretical issue. It is not just a debate here in DC. This is very real for millions and millions of people, and that number grows with every passing day. I and other Democrats are going to keep making sure these stories aren't forgotten or pushed aside. We are glad to be joined by a growing number of Republicans who are also hearing from their constituents and who know this shutdown simply cannot be justified and cannot be explained. We are going to keep up this pressure. We are not going to stop until President Trump agrees to end this crisis or until Republican leaders in the Senate finally decide to stand up to him and work with us to end it for him.
Let me close with this final point: Although no shutdown is good, this one is particularly obscene and particularly unnecessary. Democrats and Republicans right here in this Senate voted unanimously just a few weeks ago to keep the government open without any funding for President Trump's wall, and the House voted to do the same. Whatever one thinks about using American taxpayer dollars to pay for President Trump's wall--a wall, I would remind us, he promised Mexico would pay for--there is absolutely no reason to keep this government shut down while we have that debate. All that does is hurt people and hurt communities and hurt our country for absolutely no reason at all.
President Trump and some of his Republican allies may see this as a political fight they somehow need to win, but I see this as a fight for the people we represent, for a government that functions, and for a country that we all know can do better than this.
This is about whether we send the alarming message that President Trump can make outlandish demands, throw a tantrum, not care how much instability he causes or how many people he hurts, and get away with it, or whether instead we make clear here in this Senate that his bad behavior will not be rewarded. Tantrums and dysfunctional governing are not the path to success.
I call on Republican leaders to allow a vote on the bill the House passed, allow a vote to reopen the government. That bill would pass overwhelmingly, just as it did last month.
Let's send a message to President Trump that the people who sent us here want this dysfunction to end. Let's end this Trump shutdown, and let's then get back to work to fix the problems it created. Let's get our country back on track.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to follow my colleague from Washington and talk about the effects of the shutdown. If I am really fast on a given day, I kind of have a mind-meld with her. I kind of have a little bit of a mind-meld now because I want to talk about the effects on America's national security.
I was on the floor last week talking about the effects on Federal employees, so many of whom live in Virginia. I had a roundtable on Friday in Alexandria, where they came out and talked about having to reschedule medical appointments, worrying about missing their mortgage payments, and withdrawing monies from their IRA and having to pay a penalty to do it to cover their bills. These Federal employees all share how passionate they are about serving the public. That is all they want to do. They shared the hardships that are visited upon them and their families by not getting a paycheck.
I heard another, different story today that is not about a Federal employee but a dentist in Alexandria who shared with our office how many of her patients are canceling their appointments. People don't have copays--people are worried about whether they will have copays, so they are canceling and postponing. So now it is not just the Federal employees, but it is also this small business woman who runs a medical practice who is seeing the effect of it.
I want to talk about something different tonight. I want to talk about national security. I want to do that because the President tweeted something interesting on Saturday. He said his whole motive for the shutdown was because ``I promised safety and security for the American people.'' That was the quote--``I promised safety and security for the American people.'' I want to take the floor to say that this shutdown is actually hurting the safety and security of the American people, and I want to go over this in some detail.
Of the 450,000 Federal employees who are working without pay, more than 150,000 of them are in charge of keeping America safe. So, arguably, the most punished group of Federal employees in this shutdown are those charged with keeping us safe.
I say to the Presiding Officer, you are a veteran. You served in the military. A third of Federal employees are veterans. So it is not just people whose current job is keeping America safe, but one-third of Federal employees are veterans. Veterans are very affected by this.
Just to kind of run through some examples, of the 450,000 Americans working without pay--and we had representation from a number of these Agencies before us at the roundtable last week--41,000 of those working without pay now deep into the third week are Federal law enforcement and correctional officers, 2,600 are ATF agents, nearly 17,000 are Bureau of Prisons correctional officers, more than 13,000 are FBI agents, 3,600 are marshals, and 4,400 are DEA agents.
I had an experience last year that was very vivid to me. I visited a Federal prison in Petersburg, VA, and I had a chance to really eyeball the challenges our prison guards deal with. The staffing ratios are such that one guard--especially on an evening shift--is responsible for a wing of the prison where there may be 100 to 150 inmates. It is a very tough situation from a security standpoint because if there were to be a problem in one of the rooms and if a guard went into the room and there were 25 people in the room--and that was not uncommon--while tending to a problem, others could overpower that one guard. And on the entire wing, there is just one.
This is a very, very difficult job, and the notion that these correctional officers are now deep into week 3 and that they are not being paid is just shocking. I have a letter sitting on my desk from Federal prison guards at a Federal prison facility in southwest Virginia imploring us to reopen the government because their job is so difficult that it just compounds when they are not being paid.
When the President gave his speech last week, he talked a lot about how the challenges at the border are largely challenges with drugs and the interdiction of drugs.
If that is your worry, Mr. President, why would you not be paying ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals, and FBI agents? If that is your worry--the safety and security of the American people--why are these people the ones you want to punish? You make us less safe by doing so.
All of these people are hard-working public safety professionals, but they are human. When they are on the job, they are focused on keeping us safe, but they are human. There are going to be issues rattling around in their brains, just like all of us have issues rattling around in our brains during the day. Do you really want our DEA agents, the AFT, and the U.S. Marshals having about 10 percent of their mind mad that they are not getting paid and the other 20 percent of their mind worried about making the mortgage payment or rescheduling the kids' orthodontist appointment? It would be unrealistic to expect these people to wall that off completely even when they are at work. Why are we subjecting them to this, which makes us less safe?
Fourteen thousand of those who are working without pay are air traffic controllers. Many of them are not just working, but because of other job shortages in the profession, they are working tremendous amounts of overtime.
If you were to ask me ``Who would be a public safety professional you would most like not to be mad, most like not to be distracted, most like not to be diverted and thinking about something else?'' it would have to be an air traffic controller.
The last thing I would want is for somebody who flies a lot--and so many Americans do--to think that their air traffic controllers are sitting in the tower--last Friday, I came back, and I tendered about 100 pay stubs from air traffic controllers, most of which had zeroes on them. They had just gotten these pay stubs. One was for one penny, and one was for $41.75. You get that in the mail as a hard-working professional. You are in the tower trying to do your job, and that is going to be working on you, thinking about what that means for the tuition check that gets written in the middle of January for your kid who is going to school for the spring semester, or the Visa bill that is the biggest one in the year because Christmas purchases are on it, or the heating bill that is the biggest one of the year because this is the coldest time of the year. I don't want air traffic controllers' minds filled with anxiety and anger because they got a pay stub that said ``one penny'' on it.
Eighty-eight percent of DHS security employees are furloughed. That is 54,000 Customs and Border Protection agents, 42,000 Coast Guard employees who interdict drugs, DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. If the issue is security at the border, what possibly would be the reason why we wouldn't take up the bill that is at the Senate desk to fund that function at least through February 8 so we could find a legitimate compromise on border security and immigration reform? If the President is really worried, as he said, about the safety and security of the American people, why would you punish the very people who are at the frontlines providing that safety and security on our border?
The FDA is having to recall furloughed employees to ensure public health because of the prolonged state of the shutdown in its third week. It has forced the FDA to suspend a large portion of food safety inspections. Again, with flus and viruses and all kinds of challenges and recalls of lettuce or recalls of other unhealthy foods, this is an important part of keeping America safe and secure. What possibly can be gained first from furloughing and sending them home or then bringing them back and not paying them?
The Transportation Security Administration. There was news about this today: Because of the pain of having to work without pay, there has been a spike in people calling in ill. That is leading to longer lines at Dulles, longer lines at Hartsfield in Atlanta, and longer lines at the Miami International Airport, and that is likely to continue. We all know the hassle of any line at the TSA. We don't like it, but we also want the TSA to do their job and stop people from getting on the planes if they have weapons or some other issue.
There was a story about somebody being able to get through a TSA line carrying a weapon that could be attributed to the staffing shortages and the challenges we are putting them under. Again, if this President wants to care about the safety and security of American personnel, why punish TSA agents?
Today, there was an announcement that TSA will reallocate screening officers on a national basis to meet staffing shortages that cannot be addressed locally. So now not only will Federal workers be unpaid--not only will they be unpaid--but they will be forced to relocate to do work to cover staffing shortages elsewhere.
My colleague from Virginia is here, and I want to cede the time to him, but the Presiding Officer understands the point I make. The first job of any of us in public life, at whatever level, is to protect the safety and security of the American people. There is absolutely no reason, if that is our goal, to take so many dedicated public safety professionals and mess up their lives so badly by not paying them and putting them in a situation where they have to call in sick and they have to worry about medical appointments for their kids. That is not conducive to American security and safety. We should reopen government and get these folks back to work.
Now that the Senate has passed the backpay bill, I would also point out, we will pay these people. Wouldn't we rather pay them to serve citizens rather than pay them and lock them out? We do not allow Federal workers to strike, but there should be an equivalent. We should not lock them out. We are now locking them out, even though we will still strike a backpay check to them. Wouldn't we rather they be providing safety and security services to their fellow citizens?
With that, I appreciate the opportunity to address the issue, and I yield the floor to my colleague.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, let me pick up where my friend the Senator from Virginia left off.
We are now in the history books: the longest shutdown in American history on this President's watch--a President who, a few weeks back, said he would be proud to own this government shutdown; a President who, in the lead-up, said: Gosh, don't those Democrats know that most of the folks who aren't going to get paid are Democrats-- which was, frankly, one of the most insulting comments any elected official in my lifetime has ever made.
I wish the President or somebody from his White House had been with Senator Kaine and I when we sat down with Federal workers from Virginia last Friday. Senator Kaine may have already mentioned a couple of these stories. I am going to briefly recap a couple of them.
A number of Federal employees who came and sat with us said they were in Federal service because they thought it was national service, many of them former veterans who felt they had an obligation to continue to serve our Nation, to protect it.
One lady, who worked at a small Agency that investigates chemical spills--and there had been a chemical spill in Houston the week before--felt her job was to get out and investigate.
A young man who served in the military now was supposed to be approving the safety of helicopters that are supposed to be deployed to Iraq. This guy is not able to do his job. Who is going to watch out for the safety of those helicopters? What about the needs for those helicopters that may be for troops in harm's way?
There is the story of one worker who said she had a little bit and could get through with her savings, but she went into her IRA to draw down that money. As Senator Kaine mentioned, she will get repaid, but even if she gets repaid, she will not get repaid the tax penalty for an early withdrawal from her IRA.
Another employee was able to get a couple thousand dollar advance on a credit card, but even when he is repaid in terms of backpay, that will not make up for the fees and interest that is charged on the credit card.
My apologies to the Presiding Officer if the Senator from Virginia already recounted this story. A young couple, both Federal employees, brought their 7-week-old baby to this meeting and said they wanted to bring this small bundle of joy because they had the unthinkable happen. When they tried to get their daughter put on their Federal healthcare insurance, whoever was supposed to send in the form had been furloughed. So when they took their daughter to the doctor and the doctor prescribed medicine, at the drug store they couldn't pay the bill because the folks didn't have their insurance. They had done nothing wrong. In this case, it didn't end up in a tragedy. The insurance company, with additional documentation, put the child on the insurance plan, and this family was able to get medicine for their child, but no parent who has earned the right to have their kid covered by health insurance should have this kind of action interfere in their life.
I did hear Senator Kaine mention, we had some of the air traffic controllers there, and they brought a series of their checks. It almost added insult to injury to get checks that said 1 cent or a zero on it. It is better to not even send them a check. As Senator Kaine mentioned, do you really want, in the crowded airspace over Dulles, your air traffic controller spending 30 percent of his time figuring out how he will pay the mortgage or pay his kids' tuition? You want 100 percent of that Federal employee's focus on landing that plane safely.
So 800,000 thousand Federal workers, about half of them furloughed, half of them working not just full-time but in some cases overtime.
Another colleague, earlier today, had some folks working at a Federal penitentiary. A lot of the workers weren't showing up to work not because they were upset or because they want to rightly protest, they couldn't afford the gas because they live 2 hours away from the Federal penitentiary.
We have a President who is willing to go to the border and go on TV but who is not willing to sit down with any of this workforce. That is embarrassing and, frankly, disgraceful.
If you were saying this is only about Federal workers, that would be bad enough. What about the contractors? Even though there are a group of us trying to put legislation in place, even if we reopen government, many of these contractors will never be made whole.
We have in our State a number of small businesses. One veteran-owned business with nine employees had to shut down last week because she couldn't meet her payroll. Now, will that small business be able to reopen? I don't know.
We in Virginia are blessed with incredible National Parks, the Shenandoah National Park and around the area where Senator Kaine lives in Richmond, civil war battlefields. This isn't just Federal employees. What happens if you are a campground around the Shenandoah National Park? What happens if you are a little restaurant right outside of Petersburg Battlefield? When those facilities shut down, those small businesses will never see that income come back in.
We have a flourishing craft brewery industry in Virginia, as I know they have in New Mexico and I imagine even in Alaska. Port City Brewing, based in Virginia, can't bring a couple of new brews to market because ATF workers are furloughed.
There has already been mention of the growing lines at TSA and the airports. In fact, ag workers, farmers, are waiting to see whether the President's support checks are going to come in. They are not going to come in right now. You have bad trade policy reinforced with the bad business practices of a government that is shut down.
As a matter of fact, we can look at this at a more macrolevel. What is the cost to the taxpayer? The cost to the taxpayer has already exceeded $3.6 billion. Why, in good gracious' name, can't we at least just vote on what the House has already voted on, what 96 Senators voted on in the middle of December?
If we want to continue to litigate how we can better protect our borders, count me in. I am in favor of additional resources for border security. I am sure we can find a way to get to yes, but why hold 800,000 Federal workers and hundreds of thousands of contractors and, for that matter, the whole county hostage?
I know my friend, the Senator from New Mexico, is here. I am only going to take one more moment. In my career, I have spent longer in business than I have in government, and most of my career in business was about trying to do deals. I was a venture capitalist, which is all about doing deals. I was an entrepreneur.
Subsequent to that, I was Governor of a State that had a 2-to-1 Republican legislature. If I was going to get anything done as Governor, I had to find common ground with a legislature of a different party. I am proud to say, we did find common ground, and Virginia got independently recognized as best managed State and best State for business.
So I have had a little experience doing deals, and I will wager this; that when this shutdown comes to a conclusion, that business schools and management consultants will write case studies about how not to negotiate based on Donald Trump's activities. Donald Trump, who sold himself to the American people as the ultimate dealmaker, has, I think, in the last 24--even days before that--violated every cardinal rule of how to get a deal done. Let me briefly go through this.
The first thing you learn in business when you are trying to do a deal, even if you have a slight advantage, you try to make it at least appear like it is a win-win circumstance for both sides. There has been nothing out of this White House that has been any effort toward those who don't agree with the President any sense of a win-win. It has been all about my way or the highway. That is not the way you practice business.
The second rule of business is, if you have somebody negotiating on your behalf, you back up your negotiator. You don't cut their knees off. This President has humiliated not only the majority leader of the Senate, who had the misfortune of taking and accepting the President's word and having the Senate vote 96-to-2 on a plan that he thought the President was going to sign and then have his knees cut off, but a few days later, he had the Vice President come to Congress and offer a plan as at least a starting point. I don't think he even got back downtown before the President of the United States had cut off his own Vice President's negotiating skills.
In the last few days, one of the folks whom--I think, at least, based on reporting--a friend of all of ours, the President, is supposed to listen to, Senator Graham from South Carolina, has been shot down as well.
Rule No. 2, don't kneecap your negotiators.
Rule No. 3, realize that no matter how important the deal is, there is always going to be another deal. You have to leave something on the table. This President has so broken faith with folks in his own party and folks on our side of the aisle, how can this individual think he is going to have any credibility--regardless of how we resolve this issue on any forward-going basis--to be a strong negotiator?
Rule No. 4, have somebody that is willing to speak truth to power. Unfortunately, in this administration, any independent voice has quit, been fired, or if they quit, as is the case of the Secretary of Defense, the President changes the terms and says he fired them, after all.
Finally, for management 101, if you are asking your workforce to go through tough times, show a little empathy. I have never seen a leader in our country, in my time in politics, ever be more disrespectful of the Federal workforce, and both parties have done this. Whenever, over the last decade, we have gone to the well to try to cut programs, the part of the programs we always cut are what we call in Washington-speak domestic discretionary. In English, that means the folks who work on food stamps, the folks who work at our national parks, the folks who work at TSA, and the folks who work on the Coast Guard. Yet there has been zero empathy from this White House for those workers who all of us have spoken about, who are asked to do more, who aren't getting paid, or are asked to work overtime. We are a better country than this.
The President who said he was dealmaker supreme, I think, will go down, at least in modern management history, and will be studied but not studied on how you get a deal done but, frankly, on how not to get a deal done.
So I think it is incumbent upon us in the Senate to do our job. We do not have to ask permission from this President to reopen this government, to pass legislation that could override his veto should he choose to do that, to make sure the 96 Senators who voted in favor of keeping the government open in December would have a chance to reaffirm that vote on a going-forward basis.
I appreciate the time to come to the floor. I am going to hand off to my friend, the Senator from New Mexico. It is my hope that we don't make further history this week and that we find some way in this next day or so to get this government reopened so we can get this Federal workforce back to work.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, let me say to Senator Warner, my good friend from Virginia, who has an incredible empathy for the Federal workforce, we have the same thing in New Mexico, and to our good friend Senator Bennet from Colorado, we have Federal employees throughout this Nation that really give the extra bit. They go the extra mile. I am going to talk a lot about that, the same way Senator Warner is and with the same kind of passion he has.
Today is day 24 of the Trump shutdown. Federal Government employees are furloughed, and others are working but did not get paychecks. Federal contractors have already received stop work orders. Not only are they not getting paid, but they will never receive backpay for work lost.
This Trump shutdown is now the longest shutdown in U.S. history. History will show this shutdown to be a political and financial fiasco of the President's making.
You can see in this map, published by the New York Times--and I am sure our Presiding Officer will see--that as you get more green on this map, you are hurt more by this shutdown.
You can see Alaska, Maryland, Virginia, New Mexico, Montana, and Colorado, and there are a lot of States that are really hurt. We have a large workforce in some of the Federal agencies that are currently shut down, including the Department of Interior, the Homeland Security Department, and the Department of Agriculture.
My staff estimates, conservatively, that we have at least 10,800 Federal employees affected, not counting law enforcement. We are a small State. This has a big impact. There are no good estimates of the impact on many New Mexicans employed by or under contract with Federal contractors.
Federal employees are true public servants who often forego jobs that pay more because they believe in public service. These men and women have families. Some don't have much in the way of savings. Some live paycheck to paycheck. One of those individuals is a Border Patrol agent from Las Cruces, in southern New Mexico, who has worked for Customs and Border Protection for 18 years. He tells me:
I live paycheck to paycheck. If I don't get paid the money that I earn, I AM NOT GOING TO MAKE IT! Creditors are not forgiving any debts. I am asking you to please try and help me and all federal workers get paid. I feel stressed and helpless, please help.
This is from a Border Patrol agent--the folks we rely on to keep our Nation safe, which the President claims is his aim. This agent is hurting. The President is devastating these agents and their families.
While Border Patrol agents may or may not support a wall, they do not support going unpaid for the difficult and dangerous work they do in service to our Nation, in service to keeping our borders safe, which we all know is the President's claimed goal.
The President's unconvincing claim that he can ``relate'' to Federal workers not getting paid was belied by his completely out-of-touch statement that they can ``make adjustments'' and be just fine.
This President cannot relate to the professional support employee in the Las Cruces FBI office whose mortgage company, gas company, and credit card companies are giving her no leeway--making no
``adjustments''--while she goes without pay. She says she is ``a REAL human [being] who is being held hostage.'' She has worked for the FBI for 21 years, but she will probably leave Federal service early so that she has the financial security she needs to pay her bills.
She and the other 800,000 other Federal workers are being held hostage by a President who is willing to wreck American families for his vanity wall.
An occupational therapist with the Indian Health Service at the Gallup Indian Medical Center in northwestern New Mexico tells me, emphatically and in all capital letters: ``I AM NOT WITH THE PRESIDENT ON THIS ISSUE.''
She is working hard, providing needed services to Native communities, but providing for herself and with no pay, she is beyond stretched. She was helping her son pay off college loans. She has had to tell him that she can't help right now. She has an elderly mother she visits in Las Cruces. She can't plan a trip now.
In fact, Indian Health Service healthcare providers all over the country provide services essential to the health and wellness of nearly 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in over 800 hospitals and clinics in 37 States. These Federal employees and medical professionals--including over 2,000 nurses and nearly as many doctors, pharmacists, dentists, and physician assistants--aren't getting paid. They are forced to work without pay, and there is no end in sight.
Federal contractors really feel the brunt of the shutdown. Their contract payments are stopped. Contractors have never received back payments after a government shutdown.
We have a Federal contractor in Albuquerque, ADC LTD NM--a minority, woman-owned company that has 2,600 employees and contractors nationwide--with 330 employees in Albuquerque. The company conducts background check investigations for, ironically enough, the Department of Homeland Security and other Federal Agencies. This company's work has come to a complete stop. This slows down DHS's ability to hire qualified employees, inhibiting its mission to keep our borders and Nation safe.
This company is losing tens of thousands of dollars a day. This, you can imagine, really hurts my State. Its loss in revenues translates directly to a loss in State tax revenue. The multiplier effect of the shutdown on New Mexico and the Nation will ripple throughout the economy.
This privately held company, owned by New Mexicans, whose lineage in our State goes back more than 300 years, is currently paying its employees, even though its revenue has stopped. The owners are sacrificing to do so, but they can't continue for the months or even years the President says his shutdown could last.
Federal employees will not stay in their jobs without pay for months or years. They have to feed their families and pay their mortgage or their rent. Last week, the Senate passed S. 24, sponsored by 43 Democrats and one Republican, by voice vote. The bill guarantees that furloughed Federal workers would be paid from retroactively as soon as possible. This is the least Congress can do for these workers. It does not resolve, however, the pain Federal workers endure through a shutdown or guarantee that their homes will not be at risk during a shutdown or guarantee that food will be on their table or ensure that the Federal workers will stay in their jobs during a prolonged shutdown like the one this President apparently foresees. The solution is to shut down the shutdown--to do it now, to do it immediately.
This Trump shutdown doesn't only affect Federal employees and contractors. It affects the tens of thousands of Americans who rely on government services or need approval for projects. A local Sante Fe small business--a construction company, Sarcon Construction Corporation--is ready to begin an $8.4 million project to build two new hangars at the Sante Fe Municipal Airport. This 32,000-square-foot project will generate $650,000 in local tax revenue, and it will employ 75 to 100 people. Many of those people are unemployed now, waiting for this project to begin. This project is a big deal for my home city of Sante Fe.
Do you know why the project is stalled?
Sarcon can't get the necessary approval from the Federal Aviation Administration because of the Trump shutdown. The FAA personnel responsible for approval are furloughed. As we can see, the shutdown has real consequences for real people, especially for people like those unemployed construction workers in New Mexico, ready and eager to go to work but unable because of our President's inability to do his job.
The President's ridiculous claim that many Federal employees who are not getting paid support his shutdown has no basis in reality. The Federal workers in New Mexico who are furloughed or are working without pay and the Federal workers we have heard from do not support this shutdown.
An employee with the Department of Interior in Albuquerque writes:
While I am not sure how much good it would do, I emailed the White House to go on record that I am not one of the Federal employees the President is touting as wanting to be out of work without a paycheck until he gets his wall. I just want to go on record . . . that no, Federal employees do not want to stay out of work; we want to go back to work and get paid. This is not our fight, just his.
A husband and wife from Las Cruces who both work for the Environmental Protection Agency are also among the many Federal workers who did not support the Trump shutdown. They have three children, and they need their paychecks. They don't support Trump's wall either. As EPA engineers, they understand and oppose the environmental destruction it will cause.
A scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico is one of the hundreds of thousands of Federal workers who are essential and working without pay. He is working on critical space infrastructure and testing related to the Space-X launch scheduled for later this month. There is no good reason why this important work is not being paid for right now.
There is no good reason why any Federal employee is not getting their salary today. There is no good reason why Federal contractors' contracts are not being honored. This Federal shutdown hurts American families across my State and the Nation. It hurts our economy.
One Federal employee in New Mexico wanted to tell their story but was banned by their employer on the ground it would represent illegal lobbying of Congress. That is patently false. Federal employees contacting their elected representatives about this shutdown and its impact on their work and lives is not prohibited lobbying. The Trump administration has not only put these people out of work, it is now gagging them and denying them their free speech rights.
I call upon the President to end this terrible shutdown. He should do so immediately.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
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