every year. they settled down in houston and saved money for a car and an apartment. they sent for victor and his sister when he was only four years old. victor spent most of his childhood not even knowing his immigration status. it wasn't until he came home one day with a permission slip to join his middle school class on a trip to spain. it was then that his mom told ms undocumented. learning what it meant to be documented, that if he traveled to spain he couldn't come home was really hard for victor, but he trade to put it from his mind. as the years passed it got harder for victor to grapple with his status. he loved going to school, but he knew as an undocumented immigrant, his options after he graduated from high school were limited. he developed depression and his

grades suffered. but a few months after graduation, president obama created the daca program and victor successfully applied for it. victor told me that even though he had daca, he was still too afraid to talk about his status with anyone. during the 2016 election, he talked about what losing daca would mean to him. victor knew there would be an announcement about his future. he put his phone away and cleaned his house to distract him from what was about to happen. eventually he watched attorney general jeff sessions daca announcement. victor began to cry. in the days that followed victor began having panic attacks, sometimes as many as five to seven per day.

he was afraid to get in a car because he didn't want to hurt anyone if he had a panic attack while driving. a few days later victor showed up at his first united dream event in houston. there he met others committed to fighting for him. he told me it was amazing see so many people show up in support of him in solidarity. victor made himself a promise that once the dream act passes, he's going to go back to school to study psychology so that he can help lgbt youth like him. before he left, victor said something really insightful. he said that it was really important for people to come out of the shadows to tell their stories because once you tell your story, then they can no longer deemonnize -- demonize you. i couldn't agree more.

fighting for dreamers is about much more than the law, it is about compassion and basic human decency. late last night dreamers won a temporary reprieve when a district judge in san francisco issued a preliminary injunction to reinstate the daca program for existing enrollees. the judge said ending daca and the way this administration ended it was arbitrary and capricious. this was an important victory for now -- victory. for now it is just a temporary injunction. so i agree with our democratic leader that we cannot allow this decision to make us think that we're out of the woods, not at all. it cannot dim our resolve to pass the dream act. the fight continues. mr. president, i yield the floor.

i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. kaine: parliamentary inquiry. are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. the presiding officer: i ask that it be suspended -- mr. kaine: i ask that it be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. kaine: i have risen in the past to tell stories about virginia dreamers. we have about 13,000 dreamers in virginia and i highlighted the stories of dreamers from latin america, dreamers from africa, dreamers from sweden, dreamers from asia. one i just talked about graduated from william and mary law school and women's became the first dreamer to become a law school graduate in virginia

and one of the few in the united states to graduate with a law degree. i am here to talk about how to put it in context with the message being the time is now to make a decision. we need the will to act and do what i think is the right and fair thing to do because we've been at this discussion now, it's hard to be believe we've been at this discussion for 16 years. american public, democrats, republicans, and independents, overwhelmingly support a permanent solution for dreamers and it's not that -- it's not that we need to know anything more to solve this. we've been talking about it for a very long time. and i want to encourage those members in the house to come to an agreement, provide a permanent protection for dreamers before next friday so that we can protect this community which is frightened because they are so worried

about being deported or losing their ability to go to work, go to school or protect their families. but it's more than just protecting people because they are frightened, it's -- as i have seen in virginia and every state, they so enrich this country. first verse of the dream act, hard to believe, was introduced in 2001. the senator from illinois, senator durbin, who has been a champion of this and has my deepest admiration for this persistent endeavor, introduced the first dream act together with the senior senator from utah, senator hatch. the bill has evolved since then. it is not exactly the same as what we're contemplating now. it sought to repeal the 1996 immigration reform that prohibited immigrants for higher education. what the original bill did 17

years ago was to grant permanent resident status to high school graduates who fulfilled certain resident requirements and did not have criminal records. that was the start of this discussion. we are still looking for the permanent answer. the dream act first almost passed in 2007. it attained more than a majority vote in the senate but it didn't get to the 60-vote threshold, and so that was insufficient for passage. in 2010, the house passed the dream act but the senate, again, failed to approve it with the 60-threshold. in 2013, just a few months after i came to the senate, we contemplated, debated, discussed, voted upon comprehensive immigration reform in june. i was kind of proud then. i was a young senator, had been here for a couple of months stood at my chair and offered a speech on the floor of the

senate in spanish to describe what was in the bill to the 45 million americans who get their news every day in the spanish language. after i was done describing it, people came up to me and said, has anybody done that before. i said, frankly i don't know. it turns out tches the first time -- it turns out that was the first time a speech was given in a language other than english. what was important was not the speech but the vote. the package was comprehensive. it included not just the dream act but border security, assistance for employers to discover those bona fide for work, visa reforms, approval who are here from temporary protective status from guatemala and other countries to become permanent legal residents and possibly then convert that into a path for citizenship.

that comprehensive immigration reform bill, which is an example of the senate working at its best, coming to -- through committee and to the floor, passed this body with 68 votes in favor. it was evidence, mr. president, the naive senator at the time to assume, well, of cows something is going to -- of course something is going to happen. i knew the house wouldn't do exactly what we did but i thought they would do something. but alas, i was naive. that was not to happen. we are now in a different place and we have the ability to act. i supported president obama's actions in the june -- in june of 2012 to protect dreamers. the daca and then the daca programs. i felt that those actions were completely in accord with earlier executive actions that the presidents had taken in the areas of immigration. since then, june of 2012,

800,000 young people have achieved dreamer status. some of them aren't so young anymore. i sometimes refer to them as students and kids but her -- they are in the military, parents, teachers. i meet them all over virginia. as i said there are 13,000 in my state. the daca status has allowed them to continue their educations legally and to remain in the only country they have ever known. i will say, i was disappointed when president trump in september announced that he would terminate the program in six months in march. i felt like it was a breaking of a promise to these young people because he had said even as a candidate and then as president that dreamers were good kids and they wouldn't have anything to worry about from him. but i will say that there was one aspect of what the president said. i can't -- i can't just be critical without pointing out there was one thing about what he said that i thought was right, he said and congress should fix it. now, that i agreed with president trump on. i wish he hadn't terminated the

program, but he was right that this is something for congress to fix because anything done by executive action and even fully within the power of a president to take it is subject to being changed by another executive. and the lives and futures of these young people are such that we shouldn't be scaring them about whether they are protected or not or maybe back to being protected, depending upon who was the occupant of the white house. so that presidential announcement in march, although i was disappointed, that core piece of it. i think president trump was right and i think he is right. i think this is something that congress must fix, should fix, can fix, and we have all the information about it to fix it right now. it's been difficult and a little bit heart breaking to talk to these young people and their families about the fears that

they have. i don't live under the fear of deportation. i don't live under the fear of my job being taken away because of my status. i don't live under the fear of my kids not being able to get in-state tuition and instead having to pay out of state or not being able to afford it at all. it's not a fear i walk around with every day. it's hard to put yourself in somebody else's shoes and even experience the fear and terror that they are feeling when you don't have that same exposure yourself. but i have spent a lot of time listening to these young people and their parents in northern virginia and richmond especially where i live, and the fear that they feel is very palpable, and the panic that they feel is very palpable. and i understand why they do, and i think part of our job should not be to increase anxiety and fear. part of our job should be when we can, when it is the right thing to do, when it's within our grasp to -- to take action

and provide clarity and certainty so people will know what their status is. and i think the time for that is now after 16 years, again maybe the most important thing i'm saying is that this is not a new issue. it's not that we need another week or another month or another year to figure out what the answer is. the first bill was introduced in 2001, and i think january 19, 2018, is ample time for us now to get this right and make it either part of the spending bills that will do it year end or part of a stand-alone bill that we could embrace as a body. i was heartened by some of the comments that the president has reported yesterday during the meeting with bipartisan leadership at the white house about this week. we can do it, and the time is right to do it now. so i would ask my colleagues and then especially urge on those negotiations to make this decision and provide these wonderful young people with certainty about their future. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor.

ms. klobuchar: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i join my colleague from virginia, as well as senator durbin who has been working so hard to get this done to stand up for the dreamers and give my strong support once again for taking action on the dream act. we need to take up this bill. as senator kaine just noted, i also was heartened after the meeting and the white house, the fact that the president understands, said he understands that we just can't wait until march to get this done, that we need to get this done soon. for me, the easiest way to do this is by passing the dream act. the federal court decision in california yesterday will provide some temporary relief, as every single day, more and more kids fall out of status. that sounds like a legal term, but for them, it changes their whole life.

and these are kids that literally believed our government. they were told you register, you sign up, we're going to allow you to stay. and then with one little moment and a signature, that all changed, their life changed. so it's our obligation now in the united states senate to get this done. we've already seen the harmful effects of the administration's decision to end the deferred action for childhood arrivals program, and the situation will continue to get worse until we take action. this is not just a small thing. i have met these kids. 97% of them either work or they are in school. the average age that they were brought to this country, 6 1/2 years old. and a few months back, i stood in front of a catholic church with our archbishop of the twin

cities, archbishop hebda and a number of his parishioners and a number of the priests from that church to talk about what this meant in people's lives. kids brought over through no fault of their own. my favorite example of a dreamer, senator kaine and mr. president, is joseph medinah. he was brought over -- didn't know this at the time -- as a baby. they brought him. his parents had died, and he was brought over to sleepy eye, minnesota, where he was raised. this is a long time ago. when he got to be the right age, he decided that he wanted to serve our country, and he signed up to serve in world war ii. well, back then, he went to the military, to the army, i want to sign up. they said well, it turns out -- i don't know what term they used back then, but that he was undocumented. as he explained to me when i first met him at the young age of 99, as he explained to me

back then, all you did was go to canada for a day, with our country's okay, and slept in a hotel for a night, which is what he did, and then came back and then he was made legal and the army signed him up, and he ended up going over and serving in the pacific. he came back to this country, met his wife, got married, and had a son, and that son served in the vietnam war. and a few years ago, when he was 99, i got to bring him to washington, and we stood in front of the world war ii memorial, and there he stood. he had never seen it before, and he would never go again. he just died at the age of 103. but he stood there with two dreamers, suburban high school kids from minnesota who wanted to join the air force, but they couldn't do it. they didn't have that right status, and they were dreamers, too. they had been brought over as young kids. to me, that just brought it all home. this was a war hero, someone who had served our country, and this

is the kind of person that we're talking about when we talk about the dreamers. and his last acts of patriotism and the last few years of his life was to continue to push so that other kids could serve their country just like he had and just like his son had. well, we have not reached an agreement yet on this bill, but the reports about that bipartisan meeting are hopeful, but time is ticking by here, time is ticking. and the american public is with us. this is now one of these issues where the public says what are they doing, this makes no sense. no. recent poll, 86% of americans support action to allow dreamers to stay here in the united states. so i'm very hopeful that we can come together on a bipartisan agreement. you know, the dream act is based on one simple principle, and that is that you should have the opportunity for this set of people, 800,000 people that came over here no fault of their own,

they should have that opportunity to call this country home as they have been doing for so many years. passing the dream act isn't just the morally right thing to do. it is the economically right thing to do. one recent study estimated that ending deferred action for childhood arrivals would cost the country over $400 billion over the next ten years. it would cost my state more than $376 million in annual revenue. we are proud to be the home of more than 6,000 dreamers. since it was established in 2012, it's helped, as i have noted, nearly 800,000 young people who have lived in the u.s. since childhood to get better lives. think about that. 800,000 people. as i mentioned, 97% of them in school or in the workforce. 72% of them currently in school pursuing a bachelor's degree or higher. more than 100 students right now applying to medical school last

year. nearly 100 of them currently enrolled in medical school at a time when we need more doctors, particularly in rural areas. those are the facts. and i note that at the meeting at the white house, the president actually said that when this got done, he wanted to pursue comprehensive immigration reform, something that we have done before on a bipartisan basis in the senate, and i believe that's where we need to turn now. you talk about the economic sense of the dreamers. look at our country overall. 70 of our fortune 500 companies are headed by immigrants. 25% of our u.s., u.s. nobel laureates were born in other countries. immigrants have been an economic engine for this country. everyone in this chamber came from somewhere. their relatives came from somewhere. my grandparents on my mom's side came from switzerland. on my dad's side, my great grandparents came from slovenia. they worked in the mines.

they worked so hard just to send my dad to college and save money in a coffee can in the basement. and i'm here today with the great grandparents coming straight from slovenia, the grandfather working in a mine, my dad growing up there and being the first one in his family to go to college and getting a two-year degree and a four-year degree, and i literally stand here on the shoulders of these immigrants. on my mom's side, the swiss side, my grandpa came over and ended at ellis island when he was 18 years old, and they had reached the cap, the cap on swiss immigrants. that might sound amusing, but that was the case. he then somehow got himself to canada. i think he said he was going to live there. came back through because he wanted to be in our country. came back through, ended up in wisconsin, like all good swiss, with my other relatives on my grandma's side, working at a cheese factory, and was an alien for 20 years.

and he finally applied for citizenship when world war ii was breaking out, and that's when they found out that, in fact, he may be had come in the country two different ways. but back then, he listened to his story, and they gave him citizenship. otherwise, he would have been deported -- i think it was three weeks, yes, three weeks before the u.s. joined world war ii as a swiss german. but instead, he married my grandma back then, they had my mom and my mom's brother, and here i am again. i am on the shoulders of those immigrants. so when i see these dreamers, i see my own family, and i hope everyone in this chamber sees the same thing, the american dream. and that's why, mr. president, i stand with the senator from virginia, senator kaine, with senator durbin, and so many of my colleagues who have been working on this for so long on both sides of the aisle, the leadership on both sides of the

aisle. let's get this done, let's pass the dream act, and let's never forget that we all come from somewhere. thank you. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: the senate is not in a quorum call. the senator is recognized. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, a number of us are here today with a very simple, straightforward demand. we must act now to pass a dream act. very simply, the honor and integrity of this chamber are at stake. young people who would be covered under the dream act are americans in all but name. they came here as children. they grew up as americans. they go to our schools, serve in

our military, and support our economy. they work hard and they give back and they believe in the american dream. deporting dreamers would be cruel and irrational, inhumane, and very simply repugnant to basic american values. just think of jonathan gonzalez cruz. he is a college student at southern connecticut state university. i had the privilege of meeting him in december. his story has stuck with me. his story haunts me when i think of the moral imperative of this nation to pass the dream act. jonathan was born in mexico. he came to this country when he was just 4 years old. the united states is home for him. it's the only country he has

ever known. and he received a full scholarship to attend southern connecticut state university and he's set to graduate this spring with a degree. in fact, an honors degree in economics and math. his dream is to attend law school, but due to the uncertainty surrounding daca, he has decided to delay applying knowing that he will be unable to receive scholarships without his daca status. he could attend but he can't pay for it with scholarships unless he has that daca status. jonathan first became compelled to speak up and tell his story after his father was deported. and they were unable to even say

goodbye. despite his own struggles, jonathan is a passionate advocate for his community, and he actively works for connecticut students for a dream. that organization, connecticut students for dream, is a group of students who help empower and advocate on behalf of other undocumented students. in fact, today jonathan is here in d.c. to help ensure that the voices of students are in fact heard. jonathan is a volunteer peer mentor through that organization because he is so passion fat about -- passionate about raising graduation rates and ensuring that all students like himself have support they need to succeed. during his senior year, jonathan

has been interning at an immigration law firm, and he's glad to be helping others gain legal status in this country. the irony is not lost on him and should not be lost on us, that he himself could face deportation this year. if jonathan is not permitted to stay, if congress does not act and he loses his daca protection, connecticut and this nation would be the losers. connecticut and this nation would lose an educated and compassionate public service-minded individual who dwifgivesback to his community,s fellow students, to our state. and he's just one example of the estimated 10,000 like him in connecticut and at least 700,000

around the country who could lose their status in march if congress fails to act now. very simply, we have an obligation to do our job and provide permanent status and a path to citizenship for the dreamers. and the hopeful news is that there is broad bipartisan support for affording the dreamers protection against mass draconian deportation. and our challenge is to make sure that what we do here reflects that broad bipartisan support in this chamber and around the country. because america knows that it's made a promise. it's made a promise to those dreamers, and great countries do not break promises.

last night a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction ordering d.h.s., the department of homeland security, to resume accepting renewal applications. once again the courts have served as a bulwark for basic rights and the rule of law, but this reprieve is no final remedy. we must redouble our determination to protect these young people from draconian mass deportation, a continuing threat as long as president trump refuses to reverse his cruel, unconscionable policies. a federal judge has struck down president trump's order as unconstitutional, but a dream act is no less necessary today than it was yesterday. and congress should waste no

time in swiftly passing clean legislation, a clean dream act, to protect these young people. when daca was adopted in 2012, it changed the lives of young people like jonathan. it provided dreamers with the opportunity for driver's licenses, to attend college, to become productive members of our economy. importantly, when daca was adopted, we made that promise to these young people. we promised that if they came forward and provided the united states of america with information, some of the most personal information any of us have, information about their addresses, employment, date of birth, their families, we would not use that information against

them. they had a place here under daca. they had rights, moral if not legal. that promise is now about to be broken. great countries keep those promises. the united states is the greatest country in the history of the world. it should not be breaking promises to innocent young men and women who know only this country, who believe in the american dream, who believe in america's promises, who believe those promises when they offered that information. and now are relying on the good faith of america. the rescission of daca threatens to tear apart families, destroy lives, create disarray and derail futures. we are a country that is better

than this rescission. we are a country that keeps promises, and congress must now act to protect these young people. daca protections are set to expire in two months. already tens of thousands of daca recipients are estimated to have lost their protection from removal, and the longer congress takes to act, the longer these young people promised the american dream continue to anguish with targets on their backs. continued waiting means instability to the job market because companies are forced to hire replacements for daca recipients and train new workers in anticipation of the march deadline. it could mean a massive ejection

of qualified, hardworking people vital to our economy. it would be unprecedented. this kind of massive deportation by plane, by boat, by car, by foot, we have never seen anything like it before. and as i have said repeatedly, this kind of mass draconian deportation would be a humanitarian nightmare, a betrayal of america. if congress fails to pass the dream act, we will lose nearly $500 billion over the next ten years. let me repeat. $500 billion over the next ten years. we will lose $25 billion in medicare and social security taxes alone. and in my home state of connecticut, we stand to lose $300 million in economic

benefits a year. now is the time to abandon the myth that the dreamers work on the sidelines of american society. they are part of the fabric of this nation. their lives are woven into the great tapestry of america. they drive our economy. they give back to our communities. and the administration has thrown a ticking time bomb into their lives. but it is also a ticking time bomb in this chamber. we have the power to defuse it. in doing so, we can give hope to hundreds of thousands of members of our society and reaffirm the greatness of our country.

at stake is nothing less than the character of our country, and that's why there is such bipartisan support for a dream act. evident yesterday in the cabinet room when the president met with members of the congress on both sides of the aisle. in the dreamers, we see ourselves. we see relatives who came to this country years ago, many of them as teenagers. my father who fled germany at 17 years old with nothing more than a shirt on his back, speaking no english, knowing virtually no one here. and like him, they believed in america's promise, america's dream. and we should believe in the dreamers. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the

clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the

senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: i come to the floor to speak as -- about daca. it provided temporary legal status to immigrant students and young people if they registered with the government, paid a fee, passed a criminal and national security background check. it was for two years, renewable. young people who were protected by daca are known by some as dreamers. they came to the united states as children. they grew up singing "the star-spangled banner," pledging allegiance to our flag. they believe that they are americans but legally they are not. the average daca recipient came to the united states at the age of six and has been here for approximately 20 years. it was seven years ago that i sent a letter to president obama asking him -- and i was joined

in that letter by senator dick lugar, a republican of indiana. i asked president obama, can you find a way to protect these young people? we've passed the dream act on the floor of the house. we passed it on the floor of the senate. we've never managed to pass it in both chambers in the same year. and the president created the daca program. that daca program has been a success. approximately 800,000 dreamers have come forward and received daca protection. that's allowed them to be part of america. as teachers, as nurses, as engineers, first responders and even serving in the united states military. but on september 5 of this last year, 2017, attorney general jeff sessions announced that the trump administration was setting out to repeal daca, to put an end to it. that same day president trump called on congress to come up with a solution to legalize daca. he challenged us. he said to the united states

senate and the house, pass a law. if this is a good idea, pass a law. it's been more than four months since the president issued that challenge. the republican leadership in congress has not proposed any legislation to legalize daca as the president asked. the deportation clock is ticking for these young people who are protected. already 15,000 have lost their daca status. beginning on march 5, the deadline that initially was imposed by president trump, every day for the next two years 1,000 daca young people will lose their ability to work legally in the united states and will be subject to being deported from this country. who are they? 20,000 of them are teachers in our schools who would lose the right to work legally and have to leave the classroom. nurses would leave their

patients. first responders would leave their post. and those 900 soldiers would lose their ability to volunteer to risk their lives for america's future. this isn't just a looming humanitarian crisis. it's an economic crisis. more than 91% of daca dreamers are gainfully employed and paying taxes. many of them are students. yet they're still gainfully employed because they don't qualify for federal assistance to higher education, so they have to work jobs, sometimes many jobs. the nonpartisan institute on xationnd economicolicy reports that daca-eligible individuals contribute an estimated $2 billion a year in state and local taxes. the cato institute, a conservative operation in washington, estimates that ending daca and deporting daca recipients will cost the economy $60 billion and result in a $280 billion reduction in economic growth over the next decade.

poll after poll shows overwhelming bipartisan support for the dreamers. fox news found that 79% of americans support a path to citizenship for dreamers, including 63% of trump voters. the answer is clear. it was 16 years ago that i first introduced the dream act, bipartisan legislation to give these young people a path to citizenship. in july last year i introduced the most recent version with my colleague, senator lindsey graham of south carolina. we need to pass the dream act, and we need to do it now, before january 19. over the years i've come to the floor to tell the story of the dreamers. i can give a pretty nice speech here, but these story tell the story of this issue more than anything that i can add to it. these stories show what's at stake when we consider the fate of daca and the dream act.

today i want to tell you about this young lady. her name is he have len valdez ward. -- her name is evelyn valdez ward. she was six months old when her family brought her from mexico to houston, texas. she was quite a good student. she graduated 11th in her high school class of 650. she took all advanced placement classes and was a member of the national honor society. she was a member of the collar guard and marching band -- color guard and marching band and volunteered at homeless shelters and animal shelters. it wasn't until she began to apply for college that she finally learned her immigration status. she wasn't like her other students that she had grown up with, that she had shared classrooms and experiences with. evelyn is undocumented, but it didn't stop her. she was going to pursue college. one of her teachers believed in her because she was such a

bright student, and wrote her a letter of recommendation to go to college. she was accepted at the university of houston. she received multiple awards while in college including the excellence in s.i. leadership and mentoring award, the american society of plant biology award for outstanding research, and the outstanding biology leadership award. the summer after her freshman year she was offered a great research opportunity through the national science foundation. because of daca, she was allowed to work legally in the united states, and she was able to pursue this important research. that opportunity was in plant water transport research in california. this is where evelyn fell in love with ecology and plants. she graduated magna cum laude in 2016 in biology. today she is a second year student in irvine, california in

the department of ecology. she is researching the effects of climate change on plants and soil. her dream is to continue her research as a scientist and become an advocate for strategies to mitigate climate change. in september the america association for the advancement of science wrote a letter opposing the white house decision to rescind daca. her's what they -- here's what they said. many daca students make significant contributions to the scientific and engineering enterprise in the united states. high-achieving young people in daca contribute in many ways to our nation. many are studying to become scientists, engineers, medical doctors and entrepreneurs. given the administration's decision, we urge congress to craft legislation that provides long-term protection for these young people who seek to continue their education and contribute to society. our nation needs an immigration policy, they said, that advances u.s. innovation and prosperity and stays true to foundational

american goals that seek contributions to society from all. mr. president, you and i had a unique invitation yesterday. i would just say as a member of the house house and the senate,e never been invited to a meeting quite like the one we had yesterday with the president in the cabinet room of the white house. it was the president's idea. i don't know if it was a spur of the moment idea, but it's one that came together very quickly, in a few days. i think there are many almost 26 of us. democrats, republicans, house and senate members who were called together by president trump. i was kind of surprised but there i was sitting right next to the president of the united states. it was only the third time we had ever spoken. the other two times incidentally were about daca and the dream act, as you can probably guess. he invited me to sit next to him as he talked about this issue. then he did something that was really unusual. i've been to some meetings with the president in the cabinet room with president obama and

president george w. bush. and usually what happens is the cameras come in. the president says a few words and then the staff tells them to leave. they reluctantly pull out and leave. yesterday was quite different. the president told the press they could stay and they did, for almost an hour. and the conversations between the president of the united states and members of congress were shared with the american people. i'd never seen anything quite like it. i kind of like it, to be honest with you. i think there was a lot of candor in the room. people were expressing their points of view and there were many different points of view. but i think i came away from that meeting with more hope than ever that we can do something about daca and the dream act. the president told us he would like to see it done. he added, though, there were things that he wanted to be part of it. one of them dealt with border security, which has been a priority for all of us from the beginning. we want to establish both

political parties want to establish that we are committed to border security and we are. how you define it, what it costs, how it's implemented, some of these things we can defeign in our -- define in our agreement. others will be left to future efforts by congress and the president. then he talked about family unification and that is an issue that's very delicate. it's one that as you can imagine really hits home. it's very personal as to whether a family can bring someone they love, some relative of their family to the united states even if they decide to bring them, incidentally, they may be waiting 30 years. in the case of those who are seeking entry into the united states through family visas, 80 years from china. 160 years from mexico. some of these things are unrealistic and will never happen. but to talk about family unification really strikes home with a lot of families. i want to hear the president's point of view, but i want to deal with this in the most

sensitive and sincere way. we don't want to flood the united states with people who are any danger to us, number one, or not productive citizens, but we certainly want to see families unified. there was a question about diversity visas. i won't go into it because it's a long story. the creation of this program, where it is today and where it might be in the future. but here's what i do believe after yesterday's meeting. i believe president donald trump called for that meeting because he wanted to let the american people know he was serious. he warranted to show them he can be a -- he wanted to show them he can be a president presiding over a table with 25 members of congress attacking a sensitive, delicate, challenging issue. he wants to show the american people he can lead. i want to help him lead if the goal is to make sure that daca and the dreamers ultimately have their chance to be part of america's future. i'm willing to work in good faith with the president to

compromise, whatever it takes to bring this forward. there are so many lives hanging in the balance. this is one of them. this wonderful young woman, this brilliant young woman who wants to make not only the world a better place but america a better place, simply wants the chance to be here and be part of america's future. we can give her no less. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. durbin: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 282, s. 875. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 282, s. 875, a bill to require the comptroller general of the united states to conduct a study and submit a report on filing requirements under the universal service fund programs. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. thursday, january 11. further, that following prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. finally, following leader

remarks, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the brown nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until c president harry truman said if we don't have friends in the

nation's capitol we should get a dog. i'm very lucky, i really have a dog. i'm speculating that i may be sued, fired or held in contempt and that's just the past 24 hours. [laughter] my father called me and asked, are you times you okay? i said yes, i had a great day. and he said really? my parents grew up in a time when news happened twice a day. once in the morning newspaper and once in the evening broadcast. there were only a few suppliers of news. most people accept the news as gospel truth and usually it was true. in those days facts were different than opinions. newspapers and television networks were editorials and they made efforts to distinguish between the news. it was the perfect system a line

between fact and opinion was blurred sometimes but there was a line. >> was poverty an issue in terms of the war on drugs or the victims of the war on drugs? how did poverty play in to that? >> what happens to families, what happens to the men who have been locked up and all the collateral consequences where they can't get jobs and they are

not allowed to live in public housing. 45 thousand laws across the country collateral consequences of one kind or another, it destroyed -- destroy someone's life if they weren't poor when they would present they are definitely poverty-stricken for the rest of their lives. it's totally connected to poverty. earlier today senator martin heinrich of new mexico talked about young immigrants also known as dreamers and the trump administration decision to end the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. >> madam president i rise today to stand up for the hundreds of thousands of young immigrants known as dreamers whose lives president trump hasro