but, so that's, and there are other horrible stories. >> host: well, we have come a long way in society, but we still have a long way to go. that's pretty clear. ultimately, what is it that you want readers of this book, "not a crime to be poor": the criminalization of poverty in america" what is it that you would like for readers to take away after they had read that book? >> guest: well, number one, how big these problems are. the book also goes into the fact that we sentence kids from school to jail to courts now instead of just -- >> and you can watch the last few minutes of this program by going to booktv.org and searching for the author or edelman. we will go live to the floor of the senate for more debate on

funding the federal government. this is day two of the government shutdown. a vote to limit debate on a temporary spending bill to fund federal operations through february 8 is scheduled for early tomorrow morning at 1 a.m. eastern. on twitter president trump wrote if the stomach continues, republican should use the nuclear option to rewrite senate rules and try to pass and long-term spending bill with a simple majority. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has said he opposes this option. live coverage of the senate now here on c-span2. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god almighty, who rules and reigns forever. as our lawmakers seek to solve the problem of this government

shutdown, remind them of the miscalculations in our history. give them the wisdom to remember that those who sow to the wind often reap the whirlwind. provide them with the faith to trust you to direct their steps as they discontinue the blame game and strive to do the most good for the most people. may our senators be grateful for the opportunity to serve you and country in these grand and challenging times. we pray in your sovereign name. amen.

the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., january 21, 2018. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable dan sullivan, a senator from the state of alaska, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: here we are, mr. president. this is day two of the senate

democrats' government shutdown. day two since the democratic leader made the political calculation to do something that according to a recent survey even most democrats don't support, he shut down the government to appease a portion, a portion of his party's left-wing base. makes you shake your head. who comes up with ideas like this? well, on friday, a bipartisan group of senators voted to advance a bill that would have kept the federal government open, provided six years of certainty for the state children's health insurance program which at least seven democratic governors have written they're in dire straits, allowed ongoing talks to continue on a variety of other

important issues that we've been discussing here for a couple of months. together democrats and republicans had enough votes to pass it. five democrats crossed over and voted against shutting down the government. to keep the government open while we do our work. the house had already passed it. the president was ready to sign it. we were poised to send him this compromise solution and erase -- erase the threat of a shutdown. but unfortunately, my friend, the democratic leader, had other ideas. now, we all know in the senate the minority has the power to filibuster. i support that right from an institutional point of view, but

the question is when do you use it? on friday the democratic leader made the extraordinary and destructive choice to filibuster our bipartisan bill and guarantee the american people a shutdown of their federal government. now, it's the second day of the senate democrat filibuster, and the senate democrats shutdown of the federal government. because the president wouldn't resolve months of ongoing negotiations over massive issues in one brief meeting and give the democratic leader everything he wants, my friend across the aisle has shut down the government for hundreds of millions of americans because he didn't get everything he wanted in one meeting friday with the president. so who pays the price for that?

health care for needy children, training and resources for our men and women in uniform, care for our veterans who came home and survivor benefits for families of heroes who did not. full funding for the c.d.c., for the n.i.h., and for routine safety inspections of food and medicine. to most americans, those signed like fundamental responsibilities to. to the democratic leader, apparently they sound like hostages ripe for the taking. and all of this was totally unnecessary. there is a broad consensus on both sides of the aisle that daca and other issues related to illegal immigration require a

compromise solution. almost everybody here, democrat and republican, believe we need to get to a solution on the daca issue and related immigration matters. bipartisan, bicameral negotiations have been under way for months. but they can go nowhere until senate democrats realize the extreme path their leader has chartered leads them nowhere. a filibuster of health care for nine million children, a filibuster of the tools and training that our war fighters need to keep us safe, a filibuster of funding for the federal government itself, for hundreds of millions of americans, all over a tangential issue related to illegal immigration that does not even ripen until march.

all of these other things are an emergency. the one nonemergency issue that our friends on the other side are trying to shoehorn into this discussion doesn't reach that status of emergency until march. this is pure folly. the american people know so. that's why in a recent survey, a majority said keeping the government open is a higher priority than shutting down the government over the issue of illegal immigration. that's why headlines all across america are laying the blame for this government shutdown right at the feet of senate democrats and their filibuster. now, the democratic leader could end this today. we can get past this manufactured crisis and get on to a host of serious issues before us that require thoughtful bipartisan

negotiations. this shutdown could get a lot worse tomorrow, a lot worse. today would be a good day to end it. all we have to do is pass the commonsense legislation the senate is currently considerin . ending a government shutdown and ensuring health care continues for vulnerable children, there's nothing in this measure that my democratic friends cannot support. so here's the situation. if nothing changes, the cloture vote will be no sooner than 1:00 a.m. tonight. we could resolve this much earlier if the democratic leader withdraws his procedural objection and allows the senate to proceed to a vote. our constituents want us to end

this. secretary mattis, our military leaders and our governors want us to end this and we can. today is the right day to do it. senate democrats only need to withdraw their filibuster and allow a bipartisan majority to move america forward. if they really care about the big issues, increased defense funding, disaster relief, daca and border security and other important matters that we've been negotiating and that i would like to bring to the floor, then they will stop their filibuster and this shutdown and let the negotiators get back to work. everyone has figured this out. this shutdown was a political miscalculation of gargantuan

proportions. but it doesn't need to go on any longer. it could stop today. so let's step back from the brink. let's stop victimizing the american people and get back to work on their behalf. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. schumer: mr. president, are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the minority leader. mr. schumer: we now enter day two of the first real government shutdown ever to take place when one party controlled the presidency, the house, and the senate. under this unified control, it was the republicans' job to govern. it was their job to lead. it was their job to reach out to us and come up with a compromise. they have failed. our democracy was designed to run on compromise.

the senate was designed to run on compromise. we are no dictatorship, subject to the whims of an executive. just as we're not a one-party system where the winner of an election gets to decide everything and the minority nothing. we are a government that can only operate if the majority party, the governing party, accepts and seeks compromise. the majority, however, has forgotten the lessons of the founding fathers. they have shown that they do not know how to compromise. not only do they not consult us, they can't even get on the same page with their president, the president from their own party. the congressional leaders tell me to negotiate with president trump. president trump tells me to figure it out with the congressional leaders. this political catch-22, never seen before, has driven our government to dysfunction. americans know why the

dysfunction is occurring. a dysfunctional president. hence, we are in a trump shutdown. and party leaders who won't act without him. it has created the chaos and the gridlock we find ourselves in today. it all really stems from the president whose inability to clinch a deal has created the trump shutdown. i agree with majority leader mcconnell -- the trump shutdown was totally avoidable. president trump walked away from not one but two bipartisan deals. and that's after he walked away from an agreement in principle on daca we reached way back in the fall of last year. if he had been willing to accept any one of these deals, we wouldn't be where we are today. on friday, in the oval office, i made what i thought was a very generous offer to the president, the most generous offer yet.

the president demanded for months that a deal on daca include the wall. most of we democrats don't think the wall is effective. we think it's expensive and a waste of money. we're all for tough border security, but every expert will tell you that drones and sensory devices and roads and personnel are far more effective than the wall. so but, because the president campaigned on the wall, even though he said it would be paid for by mexico, and demands the wall, for the sake of compromise, for the sake of coming together, i offered it. despite what some people are saying on tv -- and mind you, these are folks not in the room during discussion -- that is exactly what happened. the president picked a number for a wall, i accepted it. it wasn't my number. it wasn't the number in the bills here.

he picked it. now, it would be hard to imagine such a more reasonable compromise. all along, the president is saying, well, i will do daca and dreamers in return for the wall. he's got it. can't take yes for an answer. that's why we're here. and we don't have anyone in the white house or here in the senate, in the house, republicans, or the president's own party to tell him he's got to straighten this whole thing out. he can't say yes one minute and no the next. three four, five times. the bottom line is this -- it would be hard to imagine a much more reasonable compromise. i was in principle agreeing to help the president to get his signature campaign promise, something democrats and republicans on the hill staunch ly oppose, in exchange for daca, a group of people the president said he has great love for.

i essentially agreed to give the president something he has said he wants in exchange for something we both want, but only hours after he seemed to be very open, very eager about that generous, tentative agreement -- and it was only tentative, no handshakes -- he backed away from the last best chance to avoid a shutdown. that's why from one corner of america, this is being called the trump shutdown. it's trending all over. people from one end of the country to the other know it's the trump shutdown, and they know why. they've seen what the president has done. it's a direct result of a president who has been proved unwilling to compromise and is thus unable to govern. the deal wasn't everything the president wanted. it certainly wasn't everything we wanted. what it was was compromise, something nobody loved but everyone could live with.

something good for the country. it would have staved off a government shutdown on friday. we could still reopen the government today. so, mr. president, i'm willing to seal the deal, to sit and work right now with the president or anyone he designates. let's get it done. meanwhile, the republican leader would have you believe we democrats forced the shutdown. he first forgets that several members of his own party voted against the c.r. are they holding the government hostage over illegal immigration? no, it doesn't seem that way. the republican leader accuses democrats of holding up pay for our troops. i heard speaker ryan blame the senate on tv. but yesterday, mr. president, senator mccaskill offered a motion to make sure our military gets paid, and the majority

leader himself objected. the majority leader prevented the troops from getting paid. because this would have passed in a minute. speaker ryan should talk to leader mcconnell who is the only person in the united states senate standing in the way of paying our troops. not anybody here. we don't want to use the troops as hostages. unfortunately, some on the other side may be doing just that. we could make sure our troops get paid right now if the majority leader would only consent or if there is pride of authorship, let him offer the resolution. we won't block it. we'll applaud it. i hope it can happen as soon as possible. the republican leader also accuses democrats of blocking chip when he full well knows that every democrat here supports extending chip. it's four months lapsed. who let that happen?

the republican majority. the democratic majority would never have allowed chip to expire. now, just because it was placed on a c.r. that was a bad idea for so many reasons, republicans want to pretend that they are advocates of chip. quite the contrary. they were using the ten million kids on chip, holding them as hostage for the 800,000 kids who are dreamers. kids against kids. innocent kids against innocent kids. that's no way to operate in this country. so, again, a party that controls the house, the senate, and the presidency would rather sit back and point fingers of blame than roll up their sleeves and govern. the way out of this is simple -- our parties are very close on all of the issues we have been debating for months now, so

close i believed we might have a deal twice, only for the president to change his mind and walk away. the president must take yes for an answer. until he does, it's the trump shutdown. he has said he has a love for dreamers. let him show it. he said he needs a wall and border security. accept our offer to do both of those things because we deems, while we think the wall will not accomplish very much and cost a lot of money, we strongly believe in border security and have fully supported the president's offer or budget proposal on border security for this year. so this is the trump shutdown. only president trump can end it. we democrats are at the table, ready to negotiate. the president needs to pull up a share and end this shutdown. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of house message to accompany h.r. 195, which the clerk will report. the clerk: house message to accompany h.r. 195, an act to amend title 44, united states code, to restrict the distribution of printed copies of the federal register to congress and other offices and employees of the united states, and for other purposes. mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: mr. president, president trump didn't vote to shut down the government. he's not a member of the united states senate. president trump did not shut down the government. and now senate democrats are reeling because the president has said while the government is shut down, he's not going to negotiate a change of our

immigration laws that our democratic colleagues and frankly many republicans like me would like to see changed relative to the deferred action for childhood arrivals, or daca young adults. so it seems to me that our democratic colleagues have literally -- well, figuratively, let's say, shot themselves in the foot, reloaded, and shot themselves in the other foot. and now they expect president trump to somehow rescue them out of this box canyon. i know i'm mixing my metaphors here, but this situation they find themselves in. they shut down the government, and now they're hurting the very people that they shut down the government to help. because there are no negotiations going on on a solution that we would all like to try to achieve.

so this is really surreal. you know, the old saying, everybody's entitled to their opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts. facts are facts. democrats voted to shut down the government because they're inpatient to get a solution for these daca young adults. now they have to blame somebody else because they're unwilling to own up to their own responsibility. you know, growing up, my parents told me one of the most important things that i could do and my sister and brother could do is accept responsibility for our own mistakes. not blame somebody else. that's simply juvenile. we could work this out today. we could work this out now if our democratic colleagues would simply acknowledge that they themselves are the ones who shut down the government, they

themselves have now caused negotiations for the solution they want to cease because the president rightly says why reward bad behavior by continuing the negotiations when they shut down the government? it is, as i said a moment ago, surreal. and there are casualties. there are casualities. not just the daca kids, now young adults. and again, these were the children brought in by their parents without complying with our immigration laws. being children, they're not responsible. they're not culpable. the law doesn't hold them responsible, and we all agree they ought to get some relief, and we'd like to be able to negotiate that, but we can't do that when the government's shut down as a result of their miscalculation. but the daca kids now young adults aren't the only

casualties here. it's our military, the national guard can't train. it's the nine million children who are depending on an extension of the children's health insurance program which enjoys broad bipartisan support. i almost couldn't believe my ears. the democratic leader is a talented politician. he's a very intelligent guy, and i enjoy working with him on occasion. but he simply has been driven into this untenable, unsustainable filibuster because he simply refused to say no to the most radical fringe of his political base. this isn't like him. this isn't my experience working with the senior senator from new york on a myriad of other

things. but as democratic leader, he simply could not say no to this narrow fringe of his political base that insists that a solution today on the daca problem is more important than funding the military, paying our federal law enforcement officials or providing health insurance to nine million vulnerable children. well, as people begin to realize this miscalculation, you start seeing it reflected in public opinion polls. cnn has reported that only 34% of the people they polled said that this kind of miscalculation was justified. 34%. and i bet as people learn more, as they are personally affected more and more by this government shutdown now in day two, then there's going to be an even

greater majority of people that said this just is not worth it. why won't you take yes for an answer from republicans who want to work with our democratic colleagues? why would you shoot yourself in one foot, reload, and shoot yourself in the other foot? now i realize it's hard for democratic colleagues to save face in this outcome, but sometimes in life you make mistakes and you can't blame it on anybody else, and you simply need to acknowledge your own responsibility and say you know what? i had the best of intentions, but i was wrong. i made a mistake. that could be liberating sometimes. but not in politics apparently and not on this topic.

at least not yet. 1:00 this morning we're going to have a vote. now democrats filibustered a four-week continuing resolution, but in an effort to provide them a face-saving way out of this dilemma of their own making, the majority leader has offered them a vote on a three-week continuing resolution during which we will continue to work on this daca solution. and my guess is it's going to pass, because there are a dozen or more democrats, 19 i understand were at one meeting, a bipartisan meeting just within the last -- well, since the government shut down, trying to

figure out how can we help our leaders find their way out of this mess. and you know what? people who are on the ballot in 2018, which isn't that long from now, it's a great way to run for reelection, isn't it? yeah, i shut down the government. i hurt the military. i hurt vulnerable children, and i inconvenienced everybody, including the government workers who diligently come here to the capitol and across the country and perform their important work on a daily basis. yeah, i basically made their lives worse. but, oh, by the way, elect me in 2018. what a great message that is. and there are members on that side of the aisle who are realizing, hey, this is going to hurt me personally. forget your constituents. forget the children. forget the military. they're realizing, hey, this is going to make it harder for me

to get reelected. and you know what? i've now created an election issue on which i might lose. it might be the end of my political career. well, i hate to think that that is the most important thing in people's calculation here. i would hope that rather than their own personal politics they would be more interested in the other people they are hurting and the futility of the situation that they created. but i hope that -- i hope, maybe i'm naive. i don't think i'm naive but maybe i am. maybe not enough senate democrats will reconsider what they've done on the four-week c.r. and they won't vote for a three-week c.r. even though the majority leader has moved their way to provide them a face-saving way to get out of this box.

but i don't care what it is, whether it's their own personal replying calculation, whether it is the realization that this is not worth the shutdown because republicans are willing to work with them to find a solution before the march 5 deadline for the daca recipients. whatever the rationale, i hope there are enough democrats who will simply say to their leader, you know, you made a mistake. you miscalculated. this isn't about president trump. president trump didn't shut down the government. he didn't vote to filibuster this continuing resolution. it was democratic members of the senate. and it was a mistake. let's correct that mistake and

let's move on. let's do the right thing for our constituents. let's do the right thing for our constituents who wear the uniform of the united states military. let's do the right thing for veterans. let's do the right thing for federal workers and the law enforcement agents who are simply being hurt needlessly, unnecessarily but callously by the shutdown. they may have forgotten about the hundreds and thousands of americans, including 200,000 texans who could be furloughed if this shutdown continues. i haven't forgotten about them. that's why i voted to keep the government up and running. but unfortunately, the american people lose out when their elected officials decide that

their personal politics or their own political interests are more important than the people they have been sent here to represent. we talked about this all last week. we warned our colleagues on the other side the -- on the effects of a shutdown and urged them not to vote against funding the government. it wasn't just senate republicans. our house colleagues did their duty on a bipartisan basis and sent us a four-week continuing resolution. in the meantime, our democratic colleagues have heard from bipartisan groups of governors including seven democratic governors who said in effect, wait a minute, these children who depend on the children's health insurance program are collateral damage to your political fights in washington, d.c. why hurt them?

and they implored us to extend the children's health insurance program for nine million children across the country who rely upon it. and the answer so far is forget about it. we don't care. that's our democratic colleagues who continue this shutdown for no good reason. and it really is a shame. here's the other thing. it's been pointed out time and time again, but i think it's worth repeating. there is nothing in this bill that senate democrats oppose. what they're saying is there's not other things in the bill we want, and so we're going to shut down the government. but it is bizarre in my experience in the senate to say

i'm going to vote against a bill that i support. what's that all about? do they want to fund the government? i think they do if they could figure a way out of this conundrum. that's not particularly controversial. do they want to fund the military? i honestly believe our colleagues across the aisle want to support our military. although it's hard to tell when you see what they've done here. but our military has broad bipartisan support generally. do they want to reauthorize the children's health program for six years? well, that passed out of the senate finance committee on which i sit with broad bipartisan support, and it's very popular not only to the governors who have to run the program, but also here in the congress. so why abandon all the things you support over an unrelated

issue and one that we are in earnest willing to work with our democratic colleagues to solve? why decide to be derelict in one of your most basic duties as elected federal official in order to hold hostage on congress and the country really on an unrelated issue that we are working on, we have been working on. but now as a result of their shutdown, we can't work on. let's open the government back up. let's get back to work and do our job on each of these issues. of course the so-called daca issue is important. i have 124,000 daca recipients who signed up in good faith with the federal government, even though president obama overreached his authority, according to the courts, and now it's our responsibility to clean

up the mess that was created by this end run around the constitution and congress. we are -- we welcome that part of our responsibility. it's important to me personally. like my friend, the senator from illinois, who has been a champion for many years for the dreamers. in other words, these are the same group of people who came here innocently with their parents who violated the law. but we don't hold children responsible for what their parents do. but sometimes they get caught up in the consequences, and that's what's happened here. but i've had a number of these current recipients of deferred action come visit me in my office. one young man was 22 years old. he told me he's really worried about his future, and he wants

us to try to provide him a predictable future because he wants to make the most of himself. he wants to keep going to school. he wants to contribute to this country that he was p brought to by his parents. and he knows no other country really. you'd have to have at pretty hard heart not to be moved by the story that so many of these young people tell. and i don't believe anybody here wants to do them harm intentionally. but indeed the very people that our democratic colleagues said they're shutting down the government for are the ones that are suffering and are being hurt because we've stopped negotiations because of this government shutdown.

this is an issue that deserves its own separate, thoughtful consideration instead of being lumped into a manufactured tug of war over a noncontroversial funding measure. i know it sounds ridiculous when you say it aloud because now we can't probably resume negotiations on daca when we're forced to negotiate to reopen our own government. what is really pretty amazing to watch is what the minority leader keeps trying to switch the blame to the president. there used to be a time when congress would jealously guard its authority under the constitution and tell the president, no matter whether it's a republican or a democrat, that is a congressional prerogative. the constitution provides that authority to the senate and the house, not to the executive branch. that used to be the fights we'd

have with the executive branch. but now after the democratic leader has simply abdicated his responsibility and tries to blame the president for something he himself created, it's turned that whole idea on its head. i for one am not willing to relinquish the authority given to the united states senate under the constitution, under the separation of powers. i'm not willing to relinquish that to any president. i believe it would be wrong to just say whatever the president wants or says or negotiates, we're going to rubber stamp. that would be an abdication of my responsibility to the 28 million people i represent. i'm not going to do that. we come from a big, diverse

country of more than 320 million people. the presiding officer proudly represents the people of the great state of alaska. their interests and their concerns aren't necessarily the same as every other state. they have unique concerns based on their history and culture and location in the world that are different than some of the other 49 states. and that's really the magic of the senate that each of us are here representing our constituents and our given states, and we have the responsibility of trying to build consensus and come up with solutions to problems. but i doubt the presiding officer came here just to be a rumper stamp for any president -- rubber stamp for any president. knowing him as i do, i'm confident that's not the case and i'm not here to do that either. so to hear the democratic leader say -- he called this a trump

shutdown. when the president didn't vote to filibuster this bill, when this is a congressional responsibility, not an executive branch responsibility, and to somehow then expect all of us to fall in line turns this whole idea of the separation of powers and our constitutional responsibility in the senate on its head. well, as i've said before, our great country is a product among other things of two great inheritances that we are indeed a nation of immigrants all except a small fraction of the people who live in the united states now came from somewhere else at some point in their family history.

my relatives immigrated from ireland in the 19th century, i'mei'm told, following a potato famine. others left their home country because of religious persecuti persecution. others came because of their dire economic circumstances and they simply wanted a better life. they wanted a piece of the american dream. so we all understand that in some ways the fact that we do hold out that promise of more opportunity, of the american dream for people who come from diverse places around the world, we literally have been the beneficiary of the hard work, determination, intelligence, and resolve of those immigrants that have come here to make america a better place and to pursue their

american dream in the meantime. but the part that some people seem to have forgotten, the second great pillar of what has made america great is the fact that we believe in the rule of law. we believe in the constitution. we believe in the people being the ultimate word on what the laws are, that the very legitimacy of our laws is derived from the consent of the government. it's not because of some great idea we've come up with here. it's because the american people have consented and given us the authority we need north to pass those laws and to govern our great country. so i'm -- all i'm hoping for that might come out of this mess we find ourselves in now is that somehow, some way working together in a bipartisan way which is the only way anything

gets done around here, we can regain our lost legacy as a nation of laws and a nation of iimmigrants. that's what's made our country so great, in my opinion. well, one of our democratic colleagues -- an aide to one of our democratic colleagues was reportedly of saying i'm concerned we don't have an exit strategy. well, i think the exit strategy is pretty straightforward, that at 1:00 a.m. tonight, early tomorrow morning, they're going to have a chance to vote to reopen the government for three weeks. again, governing by continuing resolution is a lousy way to govern. it's a miserable way to govern. it's irresponsible but it's better than a shutdown. so i hope our colleagues will

take advantage of this opportunity, of the conciliatory gesture that the majority leader has made to shorten the length of the continuing resolution that they filibustered that resulted in the shutdown and that they will now vote for this three-week continuing resolution during which we can reopen negotiations on the daca issue. it could be -- there's no guarantee, but it could be given three weeks more time. we could come up with a solution to all those issues and more. disaster relief for puerto rico, for florida, for the virgin islands, for texas. disaster relief for california and where the wildfires have devastated places out west. all of that is being held up, too, of the result of this, their unwillingness to deal with spending caps because of daca.

that's the other casualty here. but my hope is given three weeks to continue our discussions and learning from their mistakes, i hope we'll vote to reopen the federal government and take that time to discuss the spending caps and how to move forward on daca. all eyes are on us. the responsibility is ours. it's not the president's responsibility. it's our responsibility. and every texan and every american that relies on the federal government in one way or another and that would pretty much be all of us expects us to do our job.

so let's get to work. let's reopen the government and let's find a solution to daca and the other challenges with which we are presented. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the distinguished senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, first i want to thank my colleague from texas. i particularly liked your speech about daca and the dreamers. i've given a speech very similar to that a few times on the floor and thank you. i believe you. i do believe you really care and i'm hoping we'll both have a chance to demonstrate that very soon. so thank you for those kind words. mr. president, we think back of our memories as kids growing up. today's sunday and i remember so many sundays when i was a little

boy. sunday was our family day. dad liked to get up early and mom liked to sleep in. dad would get up for 7:30 mass in east st. louis, illinois, and i'd jump out of bed, too, because i knew after mass, dad and i would go out to some greasy spoon restaurant and get eggs and bacon. it was something i looked forward to. then we'd stop at a bakery and pick up a donut for mom, get home in time to see her wake up, give her a donut, coffee, and then she'd be off to 11:00 mass at st. elizabeth's and then we're anxiously awaiting her return because the big event was in the afternoon. the big event was anne durbin's fried chicken sunday dinner. without exception, that was the delicacy and banquet of my childhood. that sunday afternoon fried chicken. she had her own special recipe and she didn't like to share it. i know it included lowery seasoned salt and garlic powder but the secret to her recipe was

bacon grease. she fried that chicken in bacon grease. i apologize to all the nutritionists in the world but it was delicious and i'm still standing. i looked forward to it because we all gathered as a family. we set the table, ate the fried chicken and stuck around in the afternoon and we were together. that's what we need this sunday in the united states senate. we need to get our family together, democrats, republican, and independents. that's what's missing at this point. because when i listened to the speech by senator cornyn, i do respect him. there are so many things we agree on. there are so many things that we understand to be priorities. and i want to also set the record straight. there were some words said about senator schumer's opening remarks. the reason senator schumer continues to refer to the trump shutdown is because at last friday, senator schumer was invited by the president to come for lunch. this was before the critical vote on the continuing resolution, the funding of our

government. and this really was the first opportunity for senator schumer and the president face to face to try to reach an agreement. and the good news reported back to me by senator schumer afterwards, there was an understanding of what we were going to do on a myriad of issues, including the controversial issue of immigration and dreamers and daca and what we would do about the wall. some of us don't think the wall is such a great idea at all, but we know what the president thinks. and when you get down to a compromise to save the government and to move the nation forward, you have to give and senator schumer put the wall literally on that lunchion table. -- luncheon table. he was prepared to go further than any democrat in leadership has ever gone. and he told the president. and he came back to report to us, i think we've got an agreement. i think we're there. within two hours after that lunch, he got a call from the president and said it's over, no

agreement. we're not going forward. he was surprised and dispointed and i -- disappointed and i was, too, because i thought we were going to avoid the mess we find ourselves in now. it wasn't a big surprise because i had the same experience the week before. it was january 9 when i was invited with 24 other members of the house and senate, democrats and republican, to an amazing meeting. it was in the cabinet room of the white house called by the president and we came together and the president did something i've never seen before. he told the television cameras to stick around and they sure did, for 55 minutes as we debated the whole question of the dream act and daca. the reason for this debate i think is very obvious. we are facing a deadline created by president trump when it comes to protecting at least 800,000 young people in the united states. these are young people who took advantage of president obama's executive order called daca. they submitted themselves to a

criminal background check. they filed a fee of about $500 and they waited patiently and about 800,000 ended up winning protection under daca. president trump announced on september 5 of last year i'm ending this program. i'm ending this protection. officially march 5. but in the meantime, we've seen thousands of these young people losing their protected status. they are literally beside themselves. september 5 the president made that announcement. march 5 was the termination date. and for four and a half months congress has done nothing. despite the president's plea to us, challenge to us write a law, show me that you can come together and write a law to solve this problem, we have done nothing, not a single hearing in the committee that we serve on, the senate judiciary committee which is the committee of jurisdiction. i believe -- i shouldn't say no hearings. i believe there was one hearing but no bill, no markup, no vote,

nothing on the calendar from our committee. so a number of us came together, three democratic senators, three republican senators and said we've got to do something about this. this is a deadline and at the end of this deadline, lives will be in danger, the lives of these young people. so we wrote a bill. it wasn't easy. the president had challenged us to come up with a bill. at his meeting on january 9, he literally said if you pass a bill, i will sign it. i will take the political heat. not the republicans, not the democrats. i'll take the heat. he came back here after that meeting. six of us gathered again and said we have got to do it and we did it now. and we did. we reached an agreement on the bill. senator lindsey graham, myself, senator jeff flake of arizona, senator cory gardner of colorado, senator bob menendez of new jersey, and senator bennet of colorado, we all came together and we agreed on it.

it wasn't easy. there are parts of it i hate. i gave on some areas that hurt me personally. so did they. and that's why we're sent here, to compromise and come up with solutions. so we anxiously called the president two days after our meeting on january 11. i called him because he invited me to. and darned if he didn't call me back in ten minutes. i couldn't believe it. i said, mr. president, we have a bipartisan agreement. it hits all the four elements you wanted us to hit. senator graham's going to come down to the white house to explain it to you. and he said good. i don't want to slow-walk this, he said. let's get this done. great. and then i get a call, the president would like you to accompany senator graham. i'm not going to go into details of what happened next when we got there. they have been widely reported. i'm just not going to return to that whole experience, but it's fair to say the president rejected our bipartisan approach in its entirety. i was disappointed and a little

bit -- i was stunned because he had asked us to do just what we had done. here we had two examples, both with senator schumer and the president and the white house, and my experience with the president and the white house on this contentious issue of daca where the president literally said there's no agreement, we're walking away. so when senator schumer comes to the floor and says the president bears at least some responsibility, if not the major responsibility, had we reached agreement those two days, had we stuck with it, had we come back and met, had we reached a final consensus, a bipartisan agreement, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in today, and that's why senator schumer makes that reference. but i'd like to go back to a couple other issues before i conclude, and that is let's make it clear. when it comes to respect and love for our military, it's not a partisan matter. both parties do. each of us have seen good democratic soldiers and good

republican soldiers give their lives for that country. they were fighting for a political party and they were fighting for that flag, and i believe both parties love this country and both parties respect our military, and we don't want to hurt them in any way. senator claire mccaskill of missouri the other night offered a unanimous consent request to make sure there was no interruption in pay for the members of our military during this debate and this government shutdown. unfortunately, senator mcconnell objected. i understand it. i understand the political strategy. but let's use that as a clear illustration that both sides, both sides should stand behind our military, regardless. at the heart of this debate is a four-week continuing resolution. mr. president, if we were asking for a grade on our budget efforts this year, it would certainly not be a passing grade. we have yet a third of the way into this fiscal year, over 100 days in this fiscal year, we have yet to produce a budget. it's not easy. it wasn't easy when we democrats

were in control, and we failed, too. but with the republicans in control of the house and senate, they have failed to produce a budget. i'm on the appropriations committee. we have spent more hours -- particularly our staff has spent more hours putting together a good bill for the defense in this country, getting ready to bring it to the floor, getting ready to vote for it, and sitting there and waiting for six months or more. there is no excuse for these continuing resolutions. the department of defense came out the other night and said stop doing this to us. you're hurting our national defense by not having a budget and just doing temporary spending measures after temporary measures. the secretary of the navy said that he believes that continuing resolutions from congress have cost the united states navy $4 billion. $4 billion taxpayer have been wasted because we can't even agree on the defense of our country, for goodness sakes. so i wouldn't take any great pride in a four-week continuing resolution.

i notice my colleague from texas, senator cornyn, referred to them as lousy and miserable. put me down for the same remarks. i couldn't agree more. why are we facing this moment of truth in the senate today? because there is a lot at stake. we need to roll up our sleeves and do what we were elected to do. we need to pass a budget for this country. we need to take care of this looming daca deadline that president trump created, the march 5 deadline was his creation, six weeks away. this notion that well, we don't do it this week, maybe we'll get around to it next week. if you have watched this empty chamber as much as i have, you realize it takes a lot to get us to roll up our sleeves and get down to business, and that's what we need to do. one of the senators said this is about the democrats saving face. it isn't. it's about much more. it's about saving the chip program, the health insurance program which was allowed to

lapse for four months that provides health insurance for nine million kids. it's also about saving the community health care clinics which provide the lion's share of the benefits to the kids covered by chip programs. that's not included in this c.r. it has to be. we have to reauthorize it. i can't believe we're even debating it. it literally is the source of health care for millions of americans. it's about dealing with a pension issue we have in the midwest and beyond, one that we believe needs to be addressed forthrightly. it's about daca, which i talked about earlier. it's about health insurance. we are slow to come to realize that unless we do something significantly, more americans will lose health insurance and the premiums will go up. i want to give kudos to senator lamar alexander, republican of tennessee, senator patty murray, who is a democrat from the state of washington, senator collins, republican of maine, and senator nelson of florida, a democrat

from florida. they have come up with a plan that they want to include in this measure which can help to keep health insurance premiums affordable. who doesn't want that on either side of the aisle? disaster relief, i can't wait to vote for disaster relief for texas, for florida, for california, for puerto rico, for the virgin islands. my state has received that kind of relief in the past, and i want to stand up and help other states. that's something that should be included in this c.r. it is not. and finally, let's get this right for the department of defense. let's give general mattis, the secretary of defense, the resources he needs to spend money wisely in defense of this country, to make sure we never come in second in a war. it's a long litany of things that are being postponed and postponed and postponed again. for goodness sakes, let's not postpone it any further. i will just close. i think it's time for an east st. louis chicken family dinner in the united states senate. it's time for this family to come together after perhaps some fried chicken which i will be happy to provide and sit down

and work this out. we can do it. we can do it together. and i hope that we will soon. this moment of truth is a moment of challenge, not just for the democrats, but to the republicans, to the president, to all of us to do what we were elected to do. mr. president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. tester: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be eviscerated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. tester: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today for one simple reason. that reason is to tell this body to stop pointing fingers and start writing a budget that works for not only my state but every state in the union. it can be done. it's been done many, many, many times before. unfortunately, this year, our budget ran out on september 30. we had a c.r. that took us from the next day, october 1, to

december 8. and then when december 8 rolled around, we had another continuing resolution, c.r., to take us from december 8 to december 22. and then when december 22 rolled around, we had another c.r. that took us from december 22 to january 19, and that's where we are today. because some of us said enough is enough. we need to have a budget that works for this country. here we are on bay two of the government shutdown, and this body can't even agree to pay our troops. that's how dysfunctional we have become. now we're using military men and women as political pawns because of the dysfunction we have here in washington, d.c. in the past, we have always taken care of these folks

because the service members and their families have sacrificed much for this country. but we continue to draw out the leadership of this body for political gain. the folks i talk to, the rank-and-file folks, think it's ridiculous, both sides of the aisle, and they think it's ridiculous that we've gotten here in the first place. but the truth is if we're going to get predictability and the ability for our agencies to plan and the military to plan and the v.a. to plan and our border security folks to plan and everybody else, we need to have a budget that goes longer than month to month or three weeks to three weeks. we need a budget that funds more than just chip.

it's interesting that chip that could have been three months ago, i had events in montana talking about how important this was months ago. i am cosponsoring a bill that has set on the leader's desk that could have been passed months ago, but it was put in i guess as a sweetener but unfortunately using chip as a political pawn isn't exactly what i had in mind for the program, a program that's been around nearly 20 years and served montana's family so very, very well. but that's not the only program that we haven't funded. we haven't funded our community health centers. i heard the senator from alaska talk yesterday about how critically important they are for alaska. whether it's critically important for montana. i have a notion they are critically important for every rural state in the union and probably every urban state, too, as far as that goes. that needs to be taken care of. in montana, where we have just over a million people, 100,000 people depend on community health centers for their health

care. then there is a thing called 340-b, not to get in the weeds too far, but these are payments given to hospitals that hold pharmaceutical companies accountable and keep our hospitals open. i had hospital administrators and former hospital administrators in my office over the last month telling me if this doesn't get fixed, we're going to lose hospitals in montana. once again, taking away access from regular folks. that's not included in any of this and could have been done months ago. there have been plenty of folks come to the floor and talk about opioids, talk about pensions. neither of those are included in this. there is no money for the borders. the southern border needs some attention. the northern border does, too, particularly the ports.

there is no predictability for our military. defense secretary mattis has said that many, many times. things that are closer to home like rural ambulance services needs to be addressed, isn't addressed. it isn't going to be addressed unless we push the envelope and get -- work to get things done here. teaching health centers that allows us to have doctors in places around this country that can't get doctors. criticalically important. full medicare coverage for physical therapists and occupational therapists. we're going to lose these folks if we don't have it. special diabetes program for -- particularly for indian country where diabetes is rampant needs to be addressed. plus a whole lot more.

when i was in high school, i debated for a couple of years, and one of the things that was interesting during the debate, because you would go through the debate and you would hear the affirmative and the negative lay out their cases much in the same way as being done by the two leaders here on this issue. when you got done debating, if one team was particularly behind or ahead, they would say well, they didn't make a case on why this is a good idea. or they didn't make a case, the negative did not make a case and why their case should stand over the affirmative. and i hear the same thing today. when folks come to the floor and say people agree with everything that's in it. well, i don't, because there ain't much in this. we have been coming here for the last four months since the budget ran out the end of september and continue to kick the can down the road. it's just how dysfunctional this body has become.

we can't do the basic thing that we were elected to do, and that's pass a budget until the end of the year and have it include the things that are so important to this one, whether it be military or whether it be health care whether it be issues that resolve around medicare, whether it be issues that revolve around pensions. we just don't do much. and i think many of us are getting very tired of saying, you know what, we don't want to -- we don't want to put forth any excellence in this body. we don't want to put forth any vision or any leadership. we're just going to do the bare minimum every day. we need to stop. congress needs to stop. with short-term solutions going from crisis to crisis. that is no way to run a nation, and i would tell you that most

folks on both sides of the aisle would agree. that's why we need to start working together to get this problem fixed, because it's a problem. the problem of three-week or four-week c.r.'s, the problem of not addressing the issues that are so critically important to working families and businesses in this country need to stop. we need to work together. i have said yesterday we're being pulled apart by the far left and the far right, and that's the truth. in days gone past, in mike mansfield's day, 70% of the work got done in the middle. now we don't even do the basic of work today. so i would say let's get together. the truth is the republicans control the white house, they control the house, they control the senate, they control the agenda, and they should. they won the last election.

but that doesn't mean we shouldn't work together as democrats and republicans and most importantly as americans to do what's right by this country. so i would just ask that, in particular to the leaders on both sides, get together, do the tough negotiations, compromise, and come up with a budget that works for not only montana but for every state in this great country. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota -- i'm sorry. wisconsin. he told me minnesota. ms. baldwin: i'm proud to be a wisconsin senator. mr. president, washington is broken. washington isn't working for wisconsin or minnesota or the rest of america, for that reason. and i rise today to call on all my senate colleagues, democrats and republicans, to fix it. i think it's very important for all of us to be honest with the american people and shoot straight with how we got to this point where we are today, amidst a government shutdown. at the end of september, nearly four months ago,