quorum call:

ms. stabenow: mr. president, i would suggest an extension of the quorum call. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. stabenow: i would suggest suspension of the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: before asking unanimous consent, and we will do that as soon as it's appropriate to do, i just want to stress again why we have been on the floor this afternoon, and that is that we know that we have bipartisan support, not only for the children's health insurance program, but for the health centers where they get their health care, which is community health centers, and

that we can address this without pitting children against children through the unanimous consent in the amendment that i'm offering along with senator brown and senator casey, and in addition to that, there are critical issues that normally get done before the end of the year that did not relating to rural hospitals, ambulances, other issues that relate to pregnant moms and children and so on, that again normally have bipartisan support. so we put these together in a bipartisan effort that really addresses not just one piece of the children's health insurance program but the places where they go to get their health care. they're going to small hospitals like the town where i grew up, where my mom was director of nursing, they are going to community health centers. we need to be addressing this together. these are things we have done together. and so therefore, mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of

calendar number 36, h.r. 1301, that the stabenow-brown-casey amendment providing for permanent extension of the children's health insurance program, a five-year extension of community health center programs, and extensions of other expired medicaid, medicare, and health extenders which is at the desk be considered and 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 with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. mcconnell: mr. president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: thanks to the democratic leader's decision, along with my good friend from michigan, to filibuster an extension of the state children's health insurance program, low-income families are going to slip closer to losing health coverage for their kids. in many states, it's already an

emergency. there was a carefully crafted compromise that she and every democrat on the committee supported. the senate has not reviewed this new proposal currently being offered today, but members are serious about funding chip. there's a bill before us that reauthorized the program for a full six years. that can be signed into law today. the only thing preventing chip reauthorization from being signed into law today is the democratic filibuster of the house-passed bill. therefore, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the house of representatives, the president, and a bipartisan majority of republican and

democratic senators all agreed on a compromise bill that would have prevented a shutdown. we can pass this bill today, have it signed into law so we can end this nonsense. there is one way to do all of this, and it's right in front of us. it's the pending measure. it would enable congress to do the commonsense thing, keep gorks other issues while providing for our troops, our veterans and millions of vulnerable americans. but the democratic leader chose to filibuster that bipartisan bill. so here we are, day one, and already funding is in jeopardy for our veterans and our troops, funding for a six-year children's health insurance bill is sitting here because the democratic leader filibustered a bipartisan compromise that a majority of senators supported and chose instead to shut down the government. thanks to the democratic leader's decision to filibuster an extension of the state

children's health insurance program, low-income families will slip closer to losing health coverage for their kids and in many states this is already an emergency. again, we can do all of this today, we have a way forward. it's right in front of us and ready to go. so i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, the senate immediately vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur with amendment which funds chip, reopens the government. further, that if cloture is invoked, yule postcloture time be -- all postcloture time considered expired and itself senate immediately vote on the motion to concur with further amendment. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. wyden: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i will object here in a moment, but i just would like to say that because here on our side we feel so strongly about getting this

resolved, we now are seeing a whole host of discussions between members on both sides of the aisle here in the senate, we're hearing about discussions between this body and the other chamber, and it would be my hope that with the good faith that we have seen since last night -- and i know the distinguished president of the senate is involved in some of these discussions -- that with those kind of good-faith discussions, we would have a chance to get this resolved, address the concerns the american people have in a matter of days rather than several weeks. so for that reason, mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard.

a senator: mr. chairman? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, i take this time, i'm going to ask unanimous consent request concerning our federal workforce and the reason for doing this is that we've gone through shutdowns before. it's been our view that our federal workforce should receive their pay. that's been a bipartisan effort after each of the shutdowns. i could tell you our federal workforce is concerned. they're concerned as to those who are on furlough whether they will receive tear paychecks when government opens -- their paychecks when government opens up again. i was pleased to see a comment come out of the white house where the white house says they support the pay for our federal workforce. i think it's important that we give them that assurance. i understand there is disagreement as to what has happened to date and how we're going to reopen government.

but let's not make our federal workforce have anxiety where they should not have it. our federal workforce has suffered long enough under furloughs and c.r.'s and pay races that have been less than cost of living -- raises that have been less than cost of living and shutdowns,'s. i would hope on a bipartisan basis we could do what we've done on every shutdown and that is to tell our federal workforce that when we resolve these issues, we will make sure that they are paid if they are furloughed today. so, mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 290, s. 2274. i further ask consent that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. mcconnell: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: the men and women of our armed services

should not be left to suffer at the hands of political obstruction. these troops are currently deployed in harm's way and left behind are their families and colleagues training to replace them. it's irresponsible that their pay to include eminent danger pay would be delayed because the democrats are insisting that we deal with illegal immigration exclusively on their terms. but let me remind the senate that we have an all-volunteer force that doesn't ask much of us but we are obliged to pay and support them. we owe them the certainty of a full year funding bill. therefore, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 36, h.r. 1301, that the mcconnell amendment at the desk which provides for full funding for authorized activities in the national defense authorization act be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered

read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the gentleman from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, if i might, what the democrats and i hope republicans have been trying to do is let's have a budget for this country. that's what we've been saying. let's stay here and negotiate the budget. pass a short-term c.r., get the budget numbers done so not only defense but nondefense we can provide the support that we need. i came to the floor to make sure our federal workforce knew we were behind them and to make sure that they understand whether they're furloughed or not that they're going to be paid for their services. that's what we've always done together. i take this time because i want to get a budget for the entire country. we're not going to be able to divide the issue and say we take care of some but not all. that was not the purpose of my unanimous consent request and therefore for those reasons i do object. the presiding officer: the

objection is heard. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: i'm here to make one point crystal clear. for those montanans wondering what is going on with their government. there have been a lot of speeches given today and last night. a lot of interviews going on. let me try to sum it up as succinctly as possible. the reason that the government has shut down is because of a

controversial illegal immigration policy that was not included in a bill that funds the government. if you don't know that, you're missing the facts. we should not hold the country hostage for a controversial immigration policy that impacts poin-- .0007% of montanans. but a minority of the u.s. senators want to shut the government down and now their leader is filibustering the united states senate. this is a huge mistake. we need to get the government back up and running so the least amount of pain is felt by montanans and the american people.

>> good morning, and welcome to the trump shutdown. i'm congressman joe crowley, the chair of the democratic caucus, and i'm joined by many of the members of the democratic caucus and leaders of the house democratic caucus. democrats worked tirelessly to avoid this shutdown. not a single democrat wanted to

see critical federal programs shutter their doors or put our economy at risk. this is not how we ran government when democrats were in charge. but republicans struggled in september to keep government doors open, they struggled in the december, and yesterday they failed. they failed the american people. this trump shutdown certainly could have been avoided. if at any time speaker ryan or leader mcconnell would have shown just an ounce of leadership, a bit of courage, none of this would have happened today. we wouldn't be here today. if instead of enabling and being complicit in this trump shutdown by our republican colleagues, government would be open today. if they had shown half the effort that they did in passing their tax bill, a quarter of the

effort in passing a tax bill for the wealthiest 1% in this country and the richest multi-national corporations in the history of the world, government would be open today. but republicans and president trump have shown they lack the leadership skills, that they have no courage, and probably more importantly, they lack the empathy which struggling americans today. and that, and that alone, is the reason we are shut down, and the middle class and middle class americans and working families are being put at risk. this is the penalty that we pay for the trump shutdown. and with that i now turn to the ranking member on the budget committee, our good friend, john young. >> thank you, joe. we are at this point for one reason and one reason only, and

that's the incompetence of the leadership of the republican majority in the house and the senate and the incompetence of the leadership in the white house. if you think back to not just through this year, but even last year, we never had an operating budget for the first seven months of the fiscal year. we finally got one for five months. so far this year not only have we gone through four continuing resolutions, we didn't get a budget resolution at all until july which was several months past when it is normally put forward with. that was only to get reconciliation instructions. and now here we are four months into this fiscal year with absolutely no spending plan for the remainder of the year. that is the only reason we are here, incompetent leadership from this republican majority. we're not here because of c.h.i.p., we're not here because of daca, we're not here because of any other singular issue. what the republican incompetence has done is brought a much greater urgency to get those

items dealt with because they were not dealt with under regular order. so once again, all of my colleagues here i know will feel the same way. we are ready, willing and able to try to help the republican majority exercise their basic responsibility to govern this country, and if they would allow us in the room, we'd be happy to do that. thank you. oh, yeah. i now am pleased to introduce one of the members of our, the chairs of our democratic policy communications committee, sherry abuse toes from illinois. >> good morning, everyone. washington republicans like to talk about how government should be run as a business. well, i can't think of any business who's successful who would be running things like the republicans are today. it's exactly what paul ryan is doing to the military, to the

v.a., to community health centers, to the children's health insurance program. for the past year, it's been this up and down emotion that he's putting folks through. so whether you're a doctor in a small clinic, whether you're a scientist in an ag lab like we have in peoria, illinois, whether you're a general commanding the troops, how can we expect any of these dedicated americans to do their jobs when a congress led by the republicans is constantly threatening to pull this rug out from beneath them? but that's exactly what speaker ryan has been doing from one day to the next, from one month to the next. since september i was one of the democrats who voted for each of those continuing resolutions. all three times that it's been presented. on this fourth time, i said enough is enough. and e really hoped that by giving paul ryan and the rest of the republican leadership this extra time to do this, i really hoped that they would lead to bipartisan solutions for our

country. but instead, what did they do? right after of the holidays -- after the holidays, they decided to add another week to their vacation. and when it gets down to offering real solutions, we have the party in control saying they're not ready to offer any of those. it's republicans leading the house, leading the senate and controlling the the white house. and i know that when i go home and when i walk the supermarket aisles and the bread aisle or the milk aisle or the cereal aisle, what i keep hearing is just get something done. they're fed up with washington doing nothing to help them or their families. they're sick of these midnight deadlines, and they want bipartisan solutions right now. , are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. sullivan: mr. president, as we all know right now, the federal government is in a shutdown, and unfortunate.

certainly don't think it had to happen last night. i think there's some good news. if you're watching some of the speeches today, you see a lot of ideas coming to the floor, a lot of bipartisan ideas that i think on a lot of key issues, and i think hopefully our country is going to make some progress on. let me just give a few examples for those of you who have been watching, for those who haven't. the presiding officer, i'm not trying to embarrass him or anything, but i watched my friend from arizona's speech a couple hours ago on the way forward, what we can do to break through this unfortunate circumstance we have right now. and i think he certainly has a lot of good ideas, and i commend him and appreciate his leadership on those issues. my good friend, the senator from maine, senator king, he was down here talking about continuing resolutions and these huge omnibuses, and how, and i would agree with him completely. as a matter of fact, senator

king and i had a long discussion on the floor last night about this, how the system is broken. and there's a number of senators, i think some of the newer senators who see it that way. this is no way to move forward to fund our government. the way it works with these continuing resolutions, these huge omnibuses at the end of the year. so there's a number of us -- and i think it's bipartisan -- who want to look at reforms to fix this. senator perdue of georgia has been leading efforts, and i think that that's very important, and i certainly am part of that group, look at longer-term fixes. senator -- the senator from michigan came down and talked about community health centers. community health centers are incredibly important for my state of alaska. as a matter of fact, 10% of all community health centers in the country, 160, are in my state. i couldn't agree more about the

necessity to move forward on more stable funding. also a number of senators who were just down on the floor giving very impassioned remarks about the child health insurance program, chip. again, very important to my state. a lot of people in this country are concerned about the reauthorization of chip. and there was some passionate statements on the floor. i would say to my colleagues respectfully, and i respect all of them and welcome the opportunity to work with all of them, they didn't actually address the one issue when they said, boy, a lot of americans are worried about this, have been for three months. but they didn't say why they actually didn't vote to reauthorize last night, six-year reauthorization. you know, there was this discussion about, you know, the senator from ohio talked about people worried and concerned. guess what? last night he had the opportunity to get rid of their worries and concerns.

and when they woke up this morning, they were still worried and concerned. and so were my alaskans constituents, which is why i voted for the bill last night. we voted for the bill on chip, then the worries and concerns would have gone away. so there's a lot of impassioned speeches on this issue but not one of them actually said here's why i didn't vote for it last night. it would be good to know what the answer to that is. mr. president, i wanted to come to the floor again to emphasize something that i made a few remarks on in the last couple of days on the floor, because it's something that i'm concerned about and something i want the american people to recognize. and it's a big issue for me. i think the american people need to be skeptical when they hear on the floor the minority leader and part of his leadership team with their new talking points about their focus on the

military and military spending and rebuilding our military. in the run up to the shutdown, we started to see the minority leader and some of the leadership team trotting out new talking points. they went like this: with the shutdown approaching, we are really, really concerned about the military and readiness and funding for our troops and their families and rebuilding the military. in fact, in the last three days, i think i've heard more from the leadership of the other side on this issue, the leaders, than i have in three years, my three years in the senate. and you know, i think the minority leader in the last three days is starting to sound like my good friend from arizona, senator mccain, this body's true champion of the

military and military funding. now i actually welcome this change of heart by the minority leader. there is a group of us in the senate, many who serve on the armed services committee, led by senator mccain, who have been focused on increasing funding for our troops. a lot of it's republicans. but it's also some democrats. i see my good friend from west virginia is on the floor. he's certainly one of them. we talk about this issue. senator king was down here on the floor. he's focused on this issue. it's an issue that a lot of us in this body have been focused on daily, whether in the armed services, or in other committees. the senator from west virginia and i serve on the veterans' affairs committee together. it's one of the more important issues that we can focus on here in this body, the national defense of our country.

i've had the and hon -- the honor of serving in the marine corps for almost ar quarter century -- almost a quarter of a century and to the state of alaska these issues are important to my constituents. we have more veterans per capita than any other state in the country, thousands of reserved troops, thousands of civilians that support them and our bases in alaska because of our strategic location. so a number of us really care about these issues regarding the military and funding and supporting our troops. so, as i mentioned, mr. president, i welcome the democrat leader's new focus in the last 72 hours on military readiness and full funding as we put forward a national defense reauthorization funding bill. but i must admit i'm a little bit skeptical.

as a matter of fact, i'm very skeptical, and i think the american people who are watching these debates and listening, whether on tv or in the gallery, will see these new talking points about concern about the democratic leader about our troops and funding, you should be skeptical too. why? why? what is really going on here? why all new talk, again, more in 72 hours than i've seen in watching c-span than in three years from the democratic leader on how important it is to fund our troops. well, i think he might be overcompensating. i think they might be a bit worried. i think they might be feeling a bit defensive. i think they might be trying to reement -- preempt arguments that this is harmful to our military and the troops and

their families .if you look at their record, mr. president, their policiles of late have been really harmful to our military and our troops and our families. and this is the most important point. actions on this issue speak louder than words. policies that will are being promoted are more important to look at than newly crafted, slick talking points. let me provide a few examples. the most recent was last night. we had a government shut down. we didn't need to have a government shut down, but we had a government shut down. it was driven by the democratic leader, but the people who are hurt the most on this by far are our troops and the civilians who support them. and we all know this. we all know this. because as of today, guess what, the lance corporal in the marine

corps who is deployed overseas in iraq, he's not getting paid. when you're a lance corporal, you don't make a lot of money. well, he's not getting paid. he's risking his life for his country. he's in combat protecting our national interest and he doesn't get paid. that happened last night. now, we talk about how bad a continuing resolution, again, the democratic leader was making all the, hey, the continuing resolution is bad for the troops. i want to protect the troops. a continuing resolution is really bad for our troops, but what is worse is a government shut down. ask any military leader about what the disruption on the floor last night on the senate floor does for our readiness for the country. i served in the military and

active duty almost 25 years and reserve duty. i remember when i was in the reserve. we didn't know what to do what the government was shut down. it was chaos just as the democratic leader predicted it would be. here's another one. survivor benefits. survivor benefits is to a spouse or child of someone who is related to one of our heroes who was killed in the line of duty. it's really important that we, as a government, take care of those families. guess what happened last night when we shut down the government. survivor benefits stopped being paid. so, again, stay skeptical on this idea, new points, we're really supporting our troops. last night was a case in point where actions speak louder than

words, not supporting the troops at all, and the civilians. in my state we have hundreds, if not thousands of patriotic civilian members of the military, or civilians who support the military, many of whom were retired military who are now not going to go to work on monday if we're still shut down at the military bases to support our troops. so that's not helping our troops. let me give another example of where actions speak louder than words. we've been having very difficult discussions, and they are tough. it's one of the reasons why we need to fix our budget process on what level we should be increasing money to the military, which those on the armed services committee have agreed to a significant increase, it was in the ndaa

bill, but the democratic leader has been demanding in the negotiations parity. it sounds simple. what does it mean? let me give you background on that. from 2010 to 2016, we cut our defense spending by 25%. 25% as national security threats to our country increased. there's nobody who disputes that, isis, iran, russia, china. these are all -- north korea. these are all challenges right now facing us, and we are cutting our spending and cutting troops, dramatically cutting troops. well, i think pretty much everybody in this body is saying, whoa, bad idea. in the ndaa we dramatically increase the authorization for our military. it's a good step. very bipartisan. but in these negotiations we've been having over the last

several months, the demand from the democratic leader is any increase in the department of defense budget has to be met with an equivalent increase in domestic agencies. in other words, you want to increase the budget for the marine corps, increase the budget for the e.p.a. now, i think, mr. president, most americans don't agree with that, and it certainly doesn't show some kind of newfound respect for supporting for our troops, but that's what's happening right now. again, actions speaking louder than words. let me provide one final example of actions that certainly don't seem to be supporting our military speaking louder than words. unfortunately the other side is starting to have a practice, a regular practice, of filibustering spending for our troops. now, let me explain this. in 2015, a number of us were

newly elected. we said we need a better budget process. obviously we're seeing that it is not working well. let's go through the regular order. let's get the appropriations committee to work really hard and put out 12 appropriations bills -- they debated in the appropriations committee -- and then let's bring them to the floor and let's vote on them. that way you avoid the crazy omnibus, continuing resolution debacle that we find ourselves in today, and most of the time. so we really focused on doing that and we tried. as a matter of fact the appropriations committee did a great job, a lot of hard work, very bipartisan, and they reported out 12 appropriations bills by the spring of 2015. and most of those bills, mr. president, were very bipartisan -- very bipartisan. so what we thought was, all right, that's a good start. everybody seems to want to do that. let's bring up the bill that's

actually really important, 2015, the rise of isis, our troops are in combat. let's bring the defense appropriations bill, which came out of committee unanimously. every senator on the appropriations committee, democrat and republican, voted for that. let's bring that to the floor. so we did. so we did. let's have a debate. we're going to fund our military with these new talking points about supporting our troops. so what happened that summer, mr. president? the democratic leadership filibustered the spending for our troops. they wouldn't let us vote on the bill. they wouldn't let it come to the floor. they stopped funding for our troops. so a number were upset. i know some of the democrats were upset by this. they didn't support it. you only need 41 to filibuster,

like we saw last night. so a number of us said, let's keep bringing it up. they can't be serious. our troops are in combat. everyone knows that we have national security threats. the bill came out of committee unanimously. let's bring it up again because i guarantee you if they are constituents back home, whatever state they are from, whatever party they are in, democrat, republican, if they knew that their senator was filibustering the spending for their national security and the troops and their families, they probably wouldn't be very happy. so we brought it to the floor again and again and again. five times. five times. and guess what. every time the democratic leadership filibustered spending for our troops. now, again, i don't think -- i guarantee you that was probably 80% support in this country, or

more, hey, let's vote on that. it came out of committee unanimously. the troops are protecting us all over the world. let's vote on that. we never got to vote on it. so, mr. president, in conclusion, the next time the minority leader comes to the floor during this debate emphasizing his concerns about our troops and their funding and the need to rebuild them and their well-being, shakespeare's insights about protesting too much should come to mind. be skeptical. be skeptical. actions speak louder than words. this has not been a focus of the democratic leadership. and here's what i believe is happening. given their actions, which included what happened last night, which really harms our military, and everybody knows it.

given their actions the specter of the democratic party once again becoming equated with america's antimilitary party which occurred in the 1970's haunting them. now, again, i serve on the armed services committee and i serve with wonderful senators, democrats and republicans who support the military and support our veterans being on the veterans' affairs committee, and i know the vast majority in this body support our troops, but the actions of the leadership on the other side don't show that and yet they are trotting out new talking points about their newfound focus of rebuilding the military and taking care of our troops and their families. so let me just make this final suggestion. the best way to actually show that for the american people, all of whom support it, is not

through newly crafted, slick talking points but through actions and policies that truly ands isly -- and sincerely focus on what we all agree we need to do which is to rebuild our military, rebuild readiness, take care of the troops and their families and we can start by ending this ill-conceived government shut down as soon as possible as one concrete action to actually do that. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. man. mr. manchin: last year there was a vote on short term continuing resolution. i voted for the continuing resolution because i refuse to support a government shut down

in any way, shape, or form. it doesn't mean i believe this is the way the congress should work. my good friend from alaska, and i consider everyone in this body my friend, and the blame game -- i was here -- i got here in november of 2010. the democrats were the majority at that time. and i wandered why we weren't voting. and i didn't understand the process. i started learning the process and i kept wondering, why aren't we voting? then the filibuster and cloture and couldn't get things done. so i am not here to say who's at fault. i know when you are in the majority, you are expected to lead. leadership has to make sacrifices sometimes to find a path forward. both sides are guilty of not doing that as well as it should be done. we're in a government shutdown that should never happen. 300 million people should not be

penalized because of the dysfunction of this body. i would hope it would be americans first. i don't think of my democratic party before i think of what's good for the country or what's food for state of west virginia. i have my democratic principles i believe in. i have my republican friends in west virginia who believe a little differently than the washington republicans. but at the end of the day, we always try to do what's right for the state of west virginia and most importantly what's right for the country. we're not going to let our troops down. there's no way, shape, or form. you have to be accountable and responsible. and all the things that we're doing, i can't fathom how we have allowed so much power in two people's hands -- both leaders of our respective caucuses -- to where it seems like any negotiation that's done is amongst two people. and we're supposed to as a body,

blindly go along. as you know, i don't do that all the time. my votes are pretty independent, and they will be. i always said, if i can go home to west virginia and i can explain what i'm voting for and why i did it, whether they would agree or not, if i can explain it, i can vote for it. if i can't look a west virginian in the eye and explain my vote, then i made it for my political reasons for myself or for somebody else but not for my state. i'm not going to do that. for us to go beyond tomorrow would absolutely be a travesty. if we can't open this government up -- back up and work through our differences, it would be a travesty. if we allow this country to suffer starting monday morning when everybody should be at work and everybody should be paid for the work they're doing for our great country to keep it safe -- our military and everybody down that line -- then shame on all of us. i believe that we can. i believe that the majority leader here is going to find a

pathway forward that he'll be a accept to lead and accept when the minority, the democrat party, is saying that we can make some adjustments here. we'd like to be able to proceed further and we want to come to an agreement at that gives a long-term solution, not every month coming back to it. i truly believe that can be done and it will be done. and i have in my state of west virginia -- i have 20,000-plus children on the chip program depending on their health care, depending on their health care. and i know you do, too, mr. president. we all d we want to take care of them. we want our military to be funded properly and be able to defend us and making sure they have all the necessary equipment and armament and all the technology they're going to knead to be safe themselves. we want to make that happen. for us to divide ourselves up between democrats and

republicans about who supports the military more or less is wrong. it's the one thing that keeps us bipartisan. it's the one cohesive thing we have in this senate is our military and our love of our veterans and our military, what they are doing and what they've done for us. i've never found a democrat or a republican that wouldn't rally behind a veteran 0er help the military be as safe as they can. so that should be taken off the table. that is not against anybody -- or no one is against that purpose for what we're here. every time we pass another short-term funding bill, we put our national security at risk. we've talked about that. we know it does. we stall critical projects and throw our economy and our citizens -- a c.r. means that you're stagnant, you can't plan, you have to long projection that you can take care of. it basically gets you past one day to the next f it is 30 day, gets you one day past.

but somebody has to move the needle forward to make sure we're able to run in a consistent way. we need a budget, we need a 12-month budget. we need appropriations bills. we need those to be taken up. and again leadership must lead and make that a during the shutdown, government agencies and service services will closee people we were supposed to serve are going to suffer. that's just wrong. the department of defense -- we talked about that from both sides of the aisle -- would not be able to pay death gratuities to families. think about that. will not be able to death gratuities to the families of service members killed in combat without additional legislation from congress. that's not going to happen. everyone wants to use something as a wedge and something they can hold against each other and then basically what they can do is say, well, i'm for this but, my good in i want to take care

of the death benefits. that's the least we can do. i can't fix it that way. it doesn't repair it. yesterday as congress was preparing for a shutdown, i spoke with my good friend, kim fisher. i don't know if you know about the fisher house, if you've heard of them. they're a all over the country taking care of our military families, whether someone is wounded anywhere in the world, if a family need places to stay -- it's kind of like the ronald mcdonald homes that helps families in need when they want to go visit a understan -- and t afford these types of trips. the foundation has always been there for us. ken fisher is making sure there's no funding gap during the time of unfathomable loss. can you imagine, here is a philanthropist, private individual, the fisher house,

they're agreeing to offer the families an advance grant until the government can make reimbursements as an appropriate -- at an appropriate time. they will also cover the flights and hotels and incidental for the families for this period of time. here is an individual, an american willing to say, listen, we're going to put our family money on -- up for supporting our military families who've lost a loved one defending our country, making sure they're able to travel to be with that -- with the body of the deceased, being able to give the comfort and knowing that we're dysfunctional right now and can't make that happen to have a private individual step up and do that for us is unbelievable. so you talk about the love and the pride of an american and being an american, putting your country first -- ken fisher and his family have put their money where their mouth is. they put their money where they

believe, what's good about this country, what makes us different than any other place in the world. ken and his family and the fisher house has stepped up to help our soldiers, their families during this time of need, and especially during the senseless shutdown. as i said before, this shutdown shouldn't go anymore than tomorrow. tomorrow it should come to and he p. this silliliness that we go through should stop. we have important work to do including ensuring that the military is equipped to protect our country. our pensions plans are going to lose by 2022 -- the average pension a minor gets for all the years puts in a mine you would think is some exorbitant amount? $586. $586 is the average pension. and all we're asking for -- most of these are widows collecting these pensions to try keep their homes opened up and be able to take care of themselves. we need help there.

the children's health insurance program. chip, 9 million men's -- 9 million americans. that must be taken care of immediately. because of partisan politics and everybody in this room is guilty -- 100 guilty as charged -- not being able to sit down and do your job, not being able to work through your dinners, not being able to put your country before yourself, that might benefit you or party you think -- that's all you belong and that's the oath and the alliance and allegiance you owe to. that's not who i am. it's not just who i'm going to be. so i'm going to do everything i can to keep this government openaged get it back open, let's put it that way. governing this way is dangerous to our national security and embarrassing, truly embarrassing. i want to apologize to every

citizen across west virginia and this great country. we are better than this and i am ashamed that we haven't been able to show the true spirit of who we are and who we should be and why you sent us here to do our job. i'm going to continue to fight to make america what it should be band what it is -- the promise -- it is the hope of the world. it's people all over the world thinking that we can be better than what we are and what we've shown. so let's do our job. let's do our job. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: as a native west virginian, i just want to say how proud i am of our colleague, joe manchin. you heard the old saying, i'm tom carper, i'm so-and-so. i approve this message. we do a lot of that on political campaigns. much of what joe said today is no exception.

my wife and i like to go to movies. we don't get to go to many of them. over the christmas holidays, we had a chance to see a couple of them. one of the best movies of this past year was a movie about world war ii, britain, "churchill." and i'm reminded as we wander through this impasse of two things that churchill said and one of those was about democracy. he says democracy is the worst form of government b devised by man except for all the rest. this is a hard which to governor. we've provingen it again. a lot of democracies around the world prove it year after year after year. churchill knew that we saved their behinds over in britain in world war ii, came to their rescue and helped turn the tide. he was always grateful for that

but he used to the like to poke you know at our country. and another great churchill quote was about america. he said this is about america. he said, you can always count on america to do the right thing in the end, after trying everything else. you can always count on america in the end to do the right thing after trying everything else. the situation we're in right now with a shutdown, a lot of people are calling it the trump shutdown, but whatever you call it, i think it cries out for low. i just want to quote comments of one person at the time not -- someone who is not in elective office, but who said these words talking about low. leadership. he talked about an earlier shutdown. this individual said, if you say who gets fired, it always has to be the top. i mean, the problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top and the pros

is the leader, and he's going to get everybody in the roomed and he's got to lead. and this person went on to say, when they talk about government shutdown, they're going to be talking about the president of the united states. they're going to be talking about who was the president at the time. this individual goes ton say, they're not going to be talking about who was the head of the house, they're not gimmick talking about who was the head of the senate or who's running things in washington. so i really think the pressure is on the president. close quote. the pressure is on the president to do -- to lead. those were comments given in 2013 during an earlier shutdown. those are the words of donald trump, criticizing the then-president barack obama. think about those words. think about those words then and think about those words today. the president has got to get

nearby a room -- get everybody in a room and he's got to lead. it was true four years ago, five years ago, and it's true today. you'd think this president would find the willingness on the part of senator schumer, senator mcconnell, speaker ryan, leader pelosi, respond to an invitation, go down to the president even tonight, go to the white house even tonight and say the down and try to hammer things out. it angst going to be easy -- it ain't going to be easy, but there is a lot of consensus in terms of of what we ought to do, defense spending and nondefense. there is a lot more agreement than disagreement. we just heard some discussion about that between senator manchin and the senator from alaska. some talk about extending the chip program, the children's health insurance program, the federal-state partnership, there's a lot of agreement on

that. there is a lot of agreement on these federally qualified community health centers, got them in every state? the country. they provide a cost-effective, affordable if approach to health care coverage for people who don't have coverage, maybe don't have any money. they can get coverage and have access to primary care. it is important to alaska, west virginia, it's important to delaware. and it's important in missouri. there's a lot of agreement there. frankly, you have a lot of agreement on what should happen to the dreamers. the idea that these young people were brought here by their parents many years ago, in many cases they are going to school or working here, they are police officers or teachers, they are doing all kinds of things. at this very time in this country where we have roughly three million jobs that are going unfilled because the folks who would like to do those jobs,

in many cases, don't have the education, they don't have the experience, they don't have the interest in doing these jobs, they don't have the work ethic. in many cases they can't pass a drug test. i think the eighth year of the longest economic expansion in the country. barack obama took office at the worst time since the great depression. and they hand it had over with the longest expansion in the history of the country. for the last year the expansion has continued. 1 of the keys to making sure -- one of the keys of making sure that our economy expands is to make sure that the workforce our employers need is being provided by our schools, our high schools, our public schools, other schools, colleges, universities, community colleges, and at a very time when employers say, look, when we open our doors for business

on monday, there's going to be three million jobs that we don't have anybody to come to work to fill. and are we serious about saying that rather than enable 700,000 or so -- 800,000 or so dreamers who have the skills, who have the education, who have the work ethic, who want to do the job, rather than letting you do those jobs, fill those jobs, we're going to send you back to the country where you were born? by the way, we will send back 2,000 el salvadorians who came here 10, 20 years ago, we'll send them with you. does that make sense? as a former governor of delaware and cut taxes eight years, paid town the -- paid down the debt. i think -- we sure know something in delaware about

creating a nurturing environment for job creation. and basically sitting close to a million people who are able to do jobs that aren't being done, wouldn't be done, send them back to the country where they were born, that makes no sense at all. the last thing i will say about my little state. delaware is the first state to ratify the constitution. we're very proud of that. we're the first state to ratify the constitution, december 7, 1787. for a short time delaware was the only state in the united states of america. it has turned out pretty well. we're struggling with it a little bit now, but we'll get through this. 1 of the keys in delaware, more often than not, democrats and republicans working together, which is what is needed here, we have a bunch of governors who actually did leave -- who did leave who were at the heart of

the sermon, who believed that governors unite, not divide, who build bridges, not walls, who don't try to tear other people down to try to build others up. that's one of the reasons we had a couple of good republicans, mike castle, pete dumont. here's a big -- there are four reasons that delaware has enjoyed success, i think able leadership, not just as governors, but legislators, democrats and republicans. we have something we call the delaware way -- the delaware way. and to the amazement of a lot of people, two days after the election every other year, winners and losers get together in sussex county, delaware, and we have a big brunch hosted by our community college in georgetown. when the brunch is over, the

democrats and republicans are there, the people who ran against each other and supporters are there and on the thursday after the election, we get in the horse-drawn carriages and winners and losers ride together side by side with our families. a big parade, thousands of people come. schools are closed. and when the parade is over, we all gather, not in the town square, but the circle in the middle of georgetown. we have some speeches, some inspiring, patriotic music, some prayers, and then the political leaders of the democratic party, republican party, and maybe the libertarian party, stand in front of the masses of people and have what is an aquarium that is full of sand and they take an ax, the party leaders, they lower this ax into the aquarium and fill it up with sand from wrench hobo -- from

rohoboth beach or ocean city. we spend time together, lick our wounds and we go on to govern our state. we use the four season though -- i know that senator mccaskill is ready to roll behind me. but we have the four c's. communicate. we talk to one another in my state. last night when we were on the floor here, there were a lot of communications going on of that's important. we need to continue those communications but the president needs to invite our leaders, two from the house, two from the senate, two democrats and two republicans and have real communication and have air cover for those in the house who are unwilling to take up a reasonable -- first communicate. next compromise.

in a compromise nobody wins everything they want. senator schumer was willing to put on the table what donald trump has been talking about for years and that is a wall, actually authorizing a wall, not every single inch or mile of the border with mexico, but a good deal of it. that's what donald trump has been talking about. do i think that's a great idea? no. in some places it makes sense in other place it's does not. i have been on this board a -- border a lot. there are other things that will be more cost effective to enable the border patrol folks to do their jobs. but chuck schumer put on the table the authorization for building the wall, and that's a pretty good compromise. that's a step that shows we're willing to compromise. the second c is compromise. number three, collaboration to actually work together on this stuff. the last one, civilities.

to treat one another the way we would want to be treated. communicate, compromise, collaborate, civility. it doesn't just work in delaware. it works in states all over the country. it used to work in this place, in this body. we could use it again. the point i use from donald trump from four or five years ago talking about the leadership that barack obama needed to show, i think he did. sometimes we need to listen to our own words, look ourselves in the mirror and remember our own words. mr. president, we would do well to do just that. with that, i yield the floor. mrs. mccaskill: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator for missouri. mrs. mccaskill: mr. president, first, i would just like toes once again state for the record that the very first effort that was made after the vote was

declared to not pass the c.r. was me standing at this podium and asking unanimous consent to pass an amendment that would pay the military and the death benefits and that was objected to by the majority leader. i am hopeful that this will get worked out quickly. we have -- the last time we had this kind of dysfunction in the government, we did this by unanimous consent very quickly so there was no even hint that anybody in this body was not 100% making sure that our military got the pay that they deserved. i'm hopeful that this is done yet today. i think it would be good if we could do it yet today, but certainly no later than tomorrow. we need to take care of that because i know -- i'm guessing

it will be every single senator that will support it without anyone objecting. but the reason i rise today is because i had to miss a very, very important event in st. louis this morning. there was a going home celebration for a warrior in st. i have been blessed to have the opportunity to meet so many amazing people in my journey serving the public. i don't think anybody i met could, in many ways, stand up to frankie friedman. frankie friedman was a woman who had a very simple goal in life. her goal was to do everything she could eliminate discrimination.

franky was born in november of 1916. she was one of eight children. she was raised in a segregated neighborhood in virginia and she said from the time she was a very young girl that she wanted to change the world. she met her husband of over 50 years in new york where he was attending graduate school. why was he in new york attending graduate school? he was from missouri. he was in new york attending graduate school because after graduating from lincoln, a historically black college in missouri, the university of missouri refused to admit him. they said rather than allow you on our campus, we will send you to new york for graduate school. frankie was in new york, her husband was in new york. they met, they fell in love, and they got married.

frankie then -- they moved to the washington, d.c., area and tbrangy then -- and frankie then decided she was going to law school. her third year of law school, she went to hour law school, her third year of law school she was nine months pregnant when it was time to sign up for law school. she went to the dean of howard law school and said, could you allow me to join a few weeks late in the term. he took one look at her, nine months pregnant, and said you have to sit out a year. she said, i don't want to sit out a year. i have to get this done. i have work to do. i have justice to seek. i will not sit out. she she went out and -- so she went out and stood in line to sign up for her classes third year literally within days of giving birth. and four days later, after she finished registering for her third year of law school, she

gave birth. did that slow her down? no. she went on to graduate from howard law school that year number two in her class. now, keep in mind she graduated from law school, an african american woman in america graduated from law school in 1944. that's almost ten years before i was born. imagine what life was like for a young black woman lawyer in america in 1944. she had two children, her daughter shelby and her son who was also named shelby but called butch. they moved to st. louis. butch, by the way died when she was 11. shelby remained by her side

until the last days of her life. she moved to st. louis as a young woman african american lawyer, and you can imagine there were no law firms that wanted to hire frankie so frankie opened her own law office. her mission, to go after the institution of discrimination through the courts. and she was fearless. and strong and kind and polite. one of the most famous cases that frankie did occurred in 1952, davis versus the st. louis housing authority. keep in mind now that in 1952 there was the written policy of the st. louis public housing authority that said that races should not mix. it was unnatural for the races to mix.

frankie decided she would take that on. she won that case in 1952 and she went on, it was appealed and appealed and went on and won the appeal in front of the supreme court in 1954. i was one the year she won that appeal. one of the stories about frankie's life that i think is important to put in context happened in 1961. you see, she was a delta. in fact, she went on to be the president of the deltas in 1967, a very important sorority for many, many accomplished african american women in this country. but in 1961, the delta chapter in the boot hill, right on the heel asked her to come down and give a speech. she was famous for having won this case, and she was honored to be asked to go down and give the speech.

she didn't have anybody to drive with her, and she was worried about driving by herself into the boot hill in 1961. this is the year after president kennedy was elected president. so she got on the greyhound bus, and the greyhound bus stopped at a restaurant along the way so that people on the bus could use the restroom and get a bite to eat. and frankie walked in that restaurant in a small town between st. louis and the boot hill, and she was told by the waitress that she couldn't come in the front door. keep in mind, she had been all the way to the united states supreme court arguing ugly discrimination in public housing , and this waitress in this restaurant in this small town told her she could not come in the front door. and even worse, when frankie

ignored her and walked toward the restroom, a customer got up and blocked the door so she could not use the restroom. frankie wrote about this in her book, "a song of faith and hope." and i think about the strength that this woman had by herself in that situation, and i am filled with awe and admiration. in 1964, frankie was the first woman on the u.s. civil rights commission, and she did so much more than all the famous cases and trials. in the midst of her landmark trials and court cases, she became the president of the deltas, as i said. she later went on to travel and visit many african nations serving as u.s. representative at the united nations housing conference. in 1978 president carter appointed her inspector general of the community service administration. she continued to show her commitment to service as an active member on several boards including the howard university board of trustees, the urban

league of metropolitan st. louis, the board chair, and also the board chair of the national council on aging. in 2007, friedman was inducted into the international walk of fame at the national martin luther king historic site in atlanta, georgia, for her leadership in the civil rights movement. frankie had a nickname among people who were touched by her passion and commitment to that elusive quality known as justice. she was known as frankie freedom. i had an opportunity to get to know frankie in the last decade of her life. i treasured the time i had with her, the encouragement she gave

me, the stories she told me, the legend that she was. she would always say to me, when i was express frustration, and frankie said this throughout her life. she would quote luke chapter 9 verse 62. no one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of god. frankie would always say keep your hand on the plow. keep your hand on the plow. keep your hand on the plow. frankie lived 101 years. glorious years. she had personal tragedy, countless, countless setbacks, but she never lost her attitude of love and commitment to

justice. i was so sad to miss her coming home celebration this morning. she has gone home. there is no question she is reviewing legal briefs for the good lord himself in heaven above. thank you, frankie freedom for a life well lived. thank you. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president. thank you to my colleague from missouri for sharing frankie's story with us today and the fight for progress, the life she lived. i was thinking last night as we

were debating here on the floor about one of the ways that martin luther king summarized how we move forward towards justice, and he said it takes a tireless exertions and passionate concerns of dedicated individuals. that's what it takes to move us forward. and it sounds like she was every bit the tireless individual, the passionate individual who worked to advance justice. and thank you for sharing that story. speaking of fighting and justice, we have a lot to talk about. we're here in the middle of the trump shutdown. last night was quite interesting. democrats came to the floor and said we need to keep the

government open, so we want to have a debate and a vote on a provision to extend the government by 24 hours so that we can really force the leadership to get in the room and work out a resolution on multiple issues that are already bipartisan issues. it shouldn't be that hard. but the majority leader who is in control of this body proceeded to say that he objected. and it takes unanimous consent to be able to get to a bill. so he sealed the deal on the trump shutdown, made sure that this body couldn't debate or vote on keeping the government open for another day. senator nelson put that forward, and senator tester tried to say, okay, well let's take a little more time. if you don't think you can do it in a day, how about three days. senator tester moved to proceed to consideration of an amendment

that would provide a continuing resolution for three days, keep the government open three days to force our leadership on both sides to sit down and work out the details on these bipartisan proposals. and again the majority leader objected. he sealed the deal on the trump shutdown. and then had the gall to come to this floor and blame others, when he's in charge. that's fascinating, this blame game by those who are in charge. republicans are in control of the presidency. republicans control the house. republicans are in control of the senate. the republican leader objected to debating an extension of our government staying open. not once but twice last night. well, it's very clear where the responsibility lies for this

situation which never occurred here in the united states. president trump back in 2013 said the responsibility for a shutdown -- of course this is when president obama was in office. he said it always comes back to the president. well, how true those words are today. in 2013 there wasn't unified control of -- we didn't have the same party in charge of the presidency and the house and the senate. so it was a little bit of a more mixed up story. but then public citizen trump said it's all the president's fault. now we have a different situation where the same party controls all three settings. and let me tell you that the mechanism by which the senate operates has changed dramatically. dramatically. you can think of the possibility

of offering amendments on the floor of the senate. here's an amendment box. and you can take and put your proposal in that box so that you can get it in line to be debated. but the majority leader has the ability to close that box and put a padlock on it. and that's what mitch mcconnell did. the technical term here is filling the tree, but that's a little hard to picture so let's talk about the amendment box. he put a padlock on it and said there will be no democratic amendments considered. he has that power under the rules of the senate. and then he did something else, which is interesting, which really is a new level of obstruction of dialogue here in the senate. he took that box and he put a tarp over the top of it. now that tarp is another type of motion that has to be resolved

before you can even get to the amendments to propose that one be taken out of the box so another can be put in. and in fact, if you were following the senate last night, you saw this very crazy motion in which the majority leader himself took the tarp off the box, a resolution related to a motion to move to committee, the bill to committee and back, so that he could change the amendments that he put in the box. but that box remained completely forbidden ground for democrats to be able to participate in, to be able to put a bill on this floor. so it takes particular -- i don't know what the right word for it is. particular, i guess, determination to spin the politics. for that individual who has locked up the amendment box, preventing democrats from putting a proposal on the floor, even a bipartisan proposal

supported by republicans, and then to blame democrats who he's locked out of the process. while the responsibility is absolutely clear here, this trump shutdown sits with the president who made an offer a week ago tuesday and took it back a week ago thursday. made another offer a couple of days ago. a few hours later, withdrew it. yes, i want to take on these issues. no, i don't. yes, i do. no, i don't. the democratic leader said it's like negotiating with jell-o. with just no there there to be able to have rational policy consideration. so this trump shutdown is doing a lot of damage across this country. it will do more damage with every succeeding day. and i say this directly to the president of the united states. get engaged.

your job is to govern, to be part of the dialogue. not to be going off to pennsylvania to campaign. not to be ignoring issues until it's only 24 hours out before we hit a deadline. not to be spending every weekend golfing and making your personal schedule off limits to the public, won't see you virtually ever paid attention to governing. mr. president -- and i'm speaking president trump -- get engaged. you have a job to do. this is your shutdown, just as you said it is the president's responsibility, in 2013. now these issues that we're wrestling with, these issues go back to the middle of last year. because in the middle of last year, we were approaching the deadline for the fiscal year which ends the end of september. and so it was time to get a bill for children's health care to this floor and debate it and reauthorize it, renew it before

we hit september 30. and it was the time to get the bill for our community health clinics to the floor to be debated, reauthorized so our community health clinics would stay open. it was a time to get to the floor a bill to take on the opioid epidemic. but what was the republican party engaged in? they weren't engaged in facilitating addressing health care problems. oh no. they were engaged in a bill to try to wipe out health care for 30 million americans. and we had five different versions of that bill here on the floor, and it wiped out health care from 22 million to 30 million americans by a bare margin of a vote. we were able to block those, those bills, and i thank my republican colleagues who joined in that effort. but they weren't interested in

talking about children's health care or community health care clinics or opioid crisis. and then when finally the health care debate was sealed, what did they turn to? not the governing issue of spending bills that should have been done by october 1. oh no, they had a different plan. a tax bill to deliver'd 1 trillion-plus to the richest americans. that was more important than children's health care. increasing wealth inequality was more important than our children. increasing income inequality was more important than our children. so we, the democrats, are saying, stop -- stop taking up the time of this body on making the situation worse in america on health care, making the deficit worse here in america, robbing the common fund to enrich the richest americans. stop all of that. let's instead address these

issues right before us. the members of our community that have gone to grade school and high school and in our community colleges and colleges working on our businesses, doing so much for our community, and their legal status isn't nailed down. and there's bipartisan support to nail that down. that's just and fair and right, and all of us have members in our community that are contributing so much and are being left in just an incredibly stressful limbo. they deserve better. and i think the democrats and the republicans who have said so -- and i thank the democrats and republicans who have said so. so here it is a bipartisan deal waiting to a but president trump says yes today and no tomorrow. yes in the morning and no in the afternoon. and quite frankly, the republican leadership does the same thing. so quit saying yes and no and just say yes. let's get this bipartisan deal done. let's get the opioid funding done. it's an epidemic. it's killing more people in

america than traffic accidents are killing. so let's get help in the right place. yes, let's get children's health care bill done. senator stabenow asked unanimous consent for immediate consideration of the bill for permanent chip funding, but who said no? the republican leader came to the floor and blocked it because he's in charge and he's got the amendment box all locked up. so democrats can't put even a bipartisan proposal before this body. so i thank senator nelson fiercely fighting to keep us open for other day for negotiations. i thank senator tester for fighting to -- putting forward the proposal to stay open for three more days while we force negotiations to get these important issues addressed. i thank senator mccaskill, who just spoke, for working so hard to get a bill before this body that would ensure that the pay

and death benefits for members of the armed services were taken care of. but who said no in every situation? who said, i'm keeping the lock on the amendment lockbox? mitch mcconnell, republican leader of the senate. complete control. oh, this is no longer a deliberative body. deliberative body debates issues. a deliberative body invites proposals from all members. this is completely unlike the senate i saw as a young man when i first came her here as ann tern in 19 -- when i first came here as an intern in 1976. they argued their hearts out and they voted. they voted or killed it. but now we can't even start a conversation. and when we do get an amendment, it is at a supermajority. and that's a rare event. it's happened -- it's outside the reconciliation bills, which were a provision for the budget. we've had virtually not a single

democratic amendment in all of 2017. that's what's happened to the senate. and that's why we're here and the responsibility is clear. this trump shutdown should never have happened. president trump needs to get his act together and get engaged. the majority needs to quit locking the amount box so we can have actual dialogue and debate here on the floor. the republicans have to quit blocking things that both democrats and republicans have agreed to -- on children's health care, on community health clinics, on opioids, on legal status for our dreamers. this should not be a hard deal to close. so let's open this government up and let's get these issues dealt with and done for the benefit of the citizens of the united states of america. thank you, mr. president.

mr. schatz: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator for hawaii. mr. schatz: thank you, mr. president. here's what's happening. last night senate democrats asked to do a one-day continuing resolution. they also asked to do a three-day continuing resolution. what does that mean? that means that we were at an impasse because the house-passed continuing resolution was four weeks and that was not acceptable to the 60 -- to enough united states senators to pass. so you subject it to a vote. it doesn't get cloture. it fails. under normal circumstances, then you try to find out what might be able to get cloture. but we were so close to the deadline that we needed something called a unanimous consent request. in other words, we needed ever single united states senator to accede to the idea that we should vote on something. and it's not unusual for a unanimous consent to be granted. a lot of times it is just

perfunctory staff, everyday staff, to allow someone to have ten more minutes to speak or whatever it may be. but on big things you don't always grant consent. i get that. but think about where we were last night. we were at the precipice of a government shutdown, and senator nelson from florida asked for unanimous consent -- in other words, all 100 united states senators agreeing -- to bring up a measure that would have kept the government open. the idea being, that's better than a shutdown. the idea being, everybody on the senate floor was actually behaving like a senator last night that did not want to shut the government down. there were lots of very interesting, constructive, productive, bipartisan conversations. we were close. we weren't ten minutes away, but we weren't so far apart that it wasn't worth trying. that's why senator nelson said,

why don't we buy ourselves another 24 hours and not shut the government down. but the majority leader objected. had that been subjected to a vote -- and it was the majority leader's prerogative to allow it to be voted on. had that been subjected to a vote, i doubt there would have been more than a handful of people voting against it. nobody wants a government shutdown. senator nelson provided the opportunity for us to are avoid this -- to avoid this. and then senator tester said, okay, maybe one day is too short. maybe we can't get this done -- my view was, we should have 12-hour c.r.'s. we should have absolute burning pressure on ourselves. it should be physically miserable. we should be here. we should be working. we should be negotiating. that's my view. i think we should on 12-hour c.r.'s. i don't think people -- listen, i can't go home, right? i live pretty far away. but even those who live on the

eastern seaboard, i don't think anybody should be comfortable this weekend. politically, physically, mentally -- to understand what's happening to the company, you should not be comfort -- to the country, you should not be comfortable; you should be embarrassed. so i think we should be on 12-hour c.'s. okay, 24-hour c.r. i was fine with that. that got rejected. how about a three-day c.r., which was by the way what president trump wanted to do, to try to close the deal. but those were rejected. and no one can explain to the public why we can't keep the government open for a few days to negotiate without punishing the whole country. nobody wins during a shutdown. we were so close to an agreement. but the overarching reason why -- that we didn't reach the agreement is that we have an eraddic white house.

i've been trying to dial down my rhetoric. i am looking at the presiding officer who is a republican with whom i have a constructive working relationship. i'm trying to watch my tone here. because we're going to have to vote on something together at some point. but the simple fact is that the white house has been erratic and inconsistent in this process. there was at least the framework for a deal on january 11 and it got blown up in that very famous meeting with the expletives. and then there was at least the framework for a deal yesterday, and it got now very famously blown up by a subsequent meeting hand a subsequent phone call of the and here we are with four continuing resolutions in four months. we haven't been able to actually do the appropriations process -- and we haven't done great with aopenings pros in the past, since i've been here, five years, but occasionally we'll get an omnibus done,

occasionological we will look at each executive agency and do our job properly. it is not the regular order like it used to be with my predecessor and many of the people of the senate of old. but it's not as bad as this -- a c.r. month by month, week by week. enough is enough. and instead of trying to deal with this, the white house is failing to address these baseline issues and then creating new crises. this was a manufactured crisis on daca. they didn't need to create this crisis. but now we have one. and instead of using the executive's hortito solve problems, they're focusing on the wrong things. they are punishing children who were brought to this country through no fault of their own, around now as american as anyone in congress except in the eyes of the law. but there is a level of

inconsistcy sasse a ufemme i.s.ism that we've had to deal with. the white house told the republicans to fund chip as part of a 30-day spending bill. and then the president tweeted that we should only fund chip if it's part of a long-term solution. we had to deal with -- we had a deal on the table to help dreamers in exchange for border funding only to have the white house change its find mind. that happened once the deal was blown up a couple of weeks ago and yesterday. so senate republicans may feel comfortable, they may feel uncomfortable. i don't know. i think it probably depends on the member. but they are in a holding pattern p waiting for presidential leadership. and they don't know what the white house wants. and they don't with a tonight move on legislation without white house approval. but trying to get clarity from the administration on this or any other issue is a fool's errand because it changes by the hour and certainly by the day. and that's why we're in this position. now, it's not unusual for

congress to have disagreements between the parties within the political parties, between house and the senate. that's the way the legislative process works. it's a mayescy process. -- it's a messy process. but the way an executive is supposed to play that role, is supposed to wield that authority, that power, whether it is a governor or a president, is that when it gets close, when it gets close -- and we were close -- the executive is supposed to close the deal. and this executive does the opposite. this executive has blown up every deal every time -- sometimes we're far apart and it gets worse; sometimes we're vanishingly close and it gets blown up. but what an executive is supposed to do is play that role, is play that adult in the room. right now we are a ship without a captain. that's why we're marking the one-year anniversary of this administration with a government

shutdown. that's why hundreds of thousands of people across the country are marching to say that they are dissatisfied with the direction of this country. in the year 2017 in this united states senate, it was a unique year, and that is because we had basically no bipartisanship on the senate floor. there were a few things at that went by unanimous consent and the process of the united states senate is supposed to be you stick a bill on the floor and it takes a week or two, everybody offers amendments, there's lots of haggling, it's kind of messy, people talk too long, people, a but in the end you move a piece of legislation. and it's a bipartisan process by construct. we are supposed to be different than the house. we're not a majoritarian institution. we're supposed to be a moderating force on the country. we're supposed to be the adults in the room. and the way you do that is

through an open amendment process. but i want everybody to know that we had a couple of situations where democrats were allowed to offer amendments, but that wasn't -- but that was in something called vote a m the -- called vote-a-rama. i know most of us hate vote a rama. why? because it is a farce. it is like worse of student council. everybody is doing stuff to position themselves back home. none of the things that we vote on in the vote a rama process have any force of law or are going to be enacted. there is nothing meaningful that happens in vote-a-rama. other than that, not one single solitaire democratic amendment was considered on the united states senate floor. no democratic senator had their amendment considered on the senate floor except inside of