israel. senate democrats plan to vote against moving toward a vote on this bill. not necessarily because they oppose it, but because they say congress should first take up legislation to reopen the federal government. today is day 18 of the partial government shutdown. a vote is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. eastern and to end the debate move toward a vote on that bill. now lives in a coverage here on c-span2. the chaplain: let us pray. merciful god, enthroned far above all other powers, we need you to exercise your might for our nation during this challenging season. as we wrestle with the stalemate

of this partial government shutdown, inspire our lawmakers to do what is best for our nation and world. remind them that your power is far above any conceivable command, authority, or control. help them to appreciate their accountability to you, as you guide them to contribute to unity and finding common ground. be near to those who are the collateral damage of this impasse, supporting them with your wisdom, power, mercy, and grace. we pray in your sovereign name. amen.

the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. 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. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i understand that three bills at the desk due a second reading en bloc. the presiding officer: the leader is correct. the clerk will read the titles of the bills for the second time

en bloc clerk s. 28, a bill to reauthorize the united states jordan defense cooperation act of 2015 and for other purposes. h.r. 21, an act making appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2019, and for other purposes. h.j. res. 1 making further continuing appropriations for the department of homeland security for fiscal year 2019 and for other purposes. mr. mcconnell: in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding en bloc. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bills will be placed on the calendar en bloc. mr. mcconnell: so, mr. president, for years, america's vital interest in the middle east have been jeopardized by regional chaos. the security of our ally israel continues to be challenged by

the long reach of the iranian regime and its affiliates. in syria, the assad regime has made its own nation a graveyard for hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. and the resulting chaos continues to provide iran and russia opportunities to expand their malign influence throughout the region. that's why the senate is going to vote later today to take up pressing legislation that tackles all of this head-on. the bill at hand would reaffirm the united states commitment to israel's security and authorize military assistance, cooperative missile defense, and loan guarantees. it would counter an aggressive and hostile attempt to delegitimatize the state of israel through economic boycotts. it would also reauthorize efforts to strengthen defense

cooperation with our ally jordan as its people and government grapple with the security and humanitarian ramifications of the syrian crisis. and importantly, the legislation also includes the caesar syria civilian protection act. this provision would hold accountable the individuals responsible for the senseless evils of the assad regime and impose severe penalties on the entities that support them. so a vote later today on whether or not members of this body believe that these issues should be addressed. it's my sincere hope that the senate will approve these bipartisan proposals and send the strong message of support that our friends and partners in the middle east deserve. during the last congress, it -- there was broad agreement on both sides of the aisle on the

need for action. i expected today's action to be a big bipartisan vote, not some partisan showdown. but over the last few days, mr. president, something seems to have happened. the democratic leader and several of his colleagues have stood up and said they want to block the senate from even considering this legislation. now, never mind that it includes legislation cosponsored by the senate democrats last congress. never mind that senate democrats mentioned the syria crisis literally dozens of times last month here on the senate floor. in spite of all that, some democrats have now threatened to block us from even taking this legislation up later today. so you would have to ask why. because we're 18 days into the partial government shutdown caused by democrat total unwillingness to negotiate with the white house over border

security. democratic intransients have made sure a quarter of the federal government has been shut down for more than two weeks. two weeks. now they're threatening to shut the senate down, too. got the government shut down for two weeks. now she want to shut the senate down. they're threatening to shut down efforts to protect our allies and strengthen our relationship with israel. something they all recently claim to support. so let's remember what we're talking about. in light of the urgent humanitarian and security crisis on our border, the president is requesting $5.7 billion for physical barriers and border security. for some context, that's just about one-tenth of 1% of federal spending. one-tenth of 1% for physical

barriers like the fences and barriers which already exist which democrats have previously voted for with enthusiasm back in 2006, then-senators hillary clinton, barack obama, joe biden and our current democratic leader all voted for more than a billion dollars to construct about 700 miles of physical barriers. then-senator obama called it badly needed funding for better fences and better security that should help stem some of the tide of illegal immigration. that was senator barack obama. senator schumer later described his vote proudly, quote, miles of border fence that create a significant barrier to illegal immigration. as recently as 2015, secretary clinton boasted, quote, i voted numerous times to spend money to

build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in. that's hillary clinton. well, mr. president, obviously that was then and today the new speaker of the house is trying to argue that a physical barrier is, quote, immoral. immoral? today my friend, the democratic leader, is proposing to add a senate shutdown to the partial federal government shutdown and block even more of the people's business all -- all to avoid more of what he already voted for. maybe the democratic party was for secure borders before they were against them. or maybe they're just making it up as they go along. or maybe they are dead set on opposing this particular president on any issue for any

reason just for the sake of opposing him. now look, walls and barriers are not immoral. how silly. enforcing our laws wasn't immoral back in 2006 when then-senator clinton, then-senator obama and our friend the democratic leader were proud, proud to vote for physical barriers. the only things that have changed between then and now are the political wins and of course the occupant of the white house. so this is no newfound princip principled objection. it's just political spite, a partisan tantrum being prioritized over the public interest. so for more than two weeks they've indulged in that

partisan tantrum rather than negotiating good-faith over border security funding, hardly something that should be a partisan subject in the first place. they've put that partisan tantrum ahead of keeping a quarter of the government open. and now they're saying their partisan tantrum is more urgent than pressing legislation that concerns our alliance with israel and the syrian civil war. well look, mr. president, i hope that isn't the case. i hope that our democratic colleagues don't pile on even more pointless obstruction. i hope they don't block the senate from turning to this important legislation, legislation by the way, that they support. we'll find out later today. we all know what is necessary to move past the funding impasse, a negotiated solution that can

pass the house, earn 60 votes here in the senate, and get the presidential signature. that's what it takes to make a law. as i've stated clearly, the senate will not waste floor time on show votes, messaging votes or any other proposals which fail to check those boxes regarding the funding bill. and the democratic leader actually shared that opinion earlier. it was a fairly recent quote from the democratic leader. the president must publicly support and say he will sign an agreement before it gets a vote in either chamber. that was a fairly recent quote. well i'm glad we seem to agree on that. no wasted floor time on appropriation bills that fail to clear the president's reasonable threshold. for the sake of the humanitarian

crisis on our border as the president will describe to the nation this evening, for the sake of our national security and for the sake of all the americans who need all of their federal government reopened, i would urge our democratic colleagues to get past these harmful political games and get serious about negotiating with the president. the presiding officer: the lerk will call the roll. the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i would ask that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, today the senate will vote to begin consideration of legislation that will address some of the seemingly never-ending challenges of the world, including the united states is facing in the middle east.

the decision made at the beginning of the 20th century by then-first lord of the admiralty winston churchill to convert british ships from coal to oil for fuel changed world history by making access to the middle east oil reserves a national security imperative for all developed nations. more recently on 9/11/2001, when nearly 3,000 americans lost their lives in a terrorist attack directed from afghanistan on new york's world trade center and the pentagon, we learned a hard lesson -- that those separated by an ocean, what happens in the region does not stay in the region. finally with the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the nuclear aspirations of iran, the number-one state sponsor of terrorism in the world, to attain them, the relative stability and security of the middle east has a direct connection to our national security as well as that of our

allies like israel. with the administration's announcement that the u.s. will begin withdrawing troops from syria, this debate and these votes could not be more timely. while i'm comforted by the national security advisor, john brennan's recent statement that the withdrawal be conditions-based, the precise details of how and when it will be executed remain to be seen. one thing, however, is perfect think clear -- we cannot allow the creation of a power vacuum in the middle east to bolster our adversary's influence in the region. and that's precisely what this legislation addresses. the strengthening america's security in the middle east act incorporates four bipartisan, noncontroversial bills that were nearly enacted last year, but the clock on the 115th congress ran out on december 31. as we begin what i hope will be another productive year in the

senate, i'm glad we'll have a chance to vote on this legislation. our national interests demand that we fully support the security of israel, our closest ally in the region. as the majority leader said last week, this bill affirms that the u.s. needs to do more than just talk the talk. we must also walk the walk to support israel's security. this legislation will help israel maintain a qualitative military edge against ongoing threats by authorizing military assistance and allowing the transfer of equipment and defensive weapons. importantly, it would also assist israel in countering the unmanned aerial vehicles deployed by iran in particular. in addition to supporting israel, it will power state and local governments in the united states to counter the

anti-israel boycott and sanctions movement better known as bds, and its discriminatory economic warfare against the jewish state. in addition to nurturing our relationship with israel, the bill also recognizes the importance of supporting jordan, another key regional ally. it authorizes legislation to strengthen our defense cooperation and support jordan's response to the overwhelming humanitarian crisis caused by the syrian civil war. according to the united nations, there are more than 740,000 refugees in jordan. that equates to 89 refugees per 100,000 -- excuse me, per 1,000 inhabitants, making them the second highest refugee host nation per capita in the world. the impact of the crisis in syria is immense and potentially destabilizing and requires our support to maintain the peace.

finally, this bill takes critical steps to address the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in syria by providing aid to impacted communities and condemns the heinous human rights violations committed by the murderous assad regime. until this horrendous conflict is resolved, new sanctions will be imposed on anyone who supports syria, either financially or militarily. it is true that this bill will not solve all the problems in the middle east. it will not, for example, provide justice to the innocent civilians killed by the assad regime. it will not rebuild the communities treated as collateral damage throughout this crisis. but it is a step to ensure our allies are prepared to fight for and defend our shared national security interests. senate democrats have indicated,. , that they're likely to block this legislation from coming to the floor, as their discussions with the president on the one hand border security funding remains -- on border security

funding remains at an impasse. leader mcconnell has made it clear that the senate will not waste time holding show votes on legislation that the president will not sign. so we continue to wait for speaker pelosi and minority leader schumer to take serious, credible action to break that impasse. until that time, there's a lot of work we can and should do, such as debating and voting on this legislation, which will protect our national security interests in the middle east. 25% of our government has already been shut down, mr. president, because of this impasse. i urge our democratic colleagues in the senate not to shut down the work of the senate, too. i want to thank the majority leader for scheduling this important debate and vote, and i look forward to voting yes when the time comes. mr. president, as i mentioned, this partial government shutdown continues now in its 18th, but

18 days in, not much has changed. the newly elected democratic house refused to come to the negotiating table with a serious offer or to negotiate in good faith. this entire debate has been surreal. i would say it's been a joke, but it's really not funny. it's now degenerated into a game of silly seaman sticks, while losing -- semantics, while losing sight of just how much of the the people affects. it plays a vital part in the daily life for many texans, especially those who live and work in the border region. if you visit el pass so, for example, out west, you will see firsthand how interconnected the city is with its neighbor juarez. mexico is on the other sides of the bridge. each day at that single port of

the entry, an average of 20,000 people cross the border on foot legally, going to work, going to school, visiting friends and family, or shopping. that's in addition to the 35,000 car crossings and the 2,500 cargo tax reduction that -- trucks that cross each day at the el paso port of entry. i often compare the united states and mexico to on old married couple that have occasional differences but who can't get divorced. we depend on one another, and we depend on a safe, secure, and efficient border to allow both countries to live in harmony. but not everyone or everything attempting to cross the border is in our country's best interest. transnational catch and release, drug smugglers, human traffickers -- they try to take advantage of any opportunity, any gaps in our border, and they use it to infiltrate, threaten,

and endanger our communities. for too long, our frontline officers and agents haven't had the tools and rears sources need to -- resources to do their job. whether it is outdated infrastructure, personal shortages or technology, the fact remains we need additional border security funding to empower these hardworking officers and agents to complete their mission. at both the ports of entry and between those ports of entry. after talking to the experts, border patrol officials in texas as well as local stakeholders, i introduced legislation in the fall of 2017 to address a number of their concerns. that legislation called the building america's trust act would have authorized approximately $15 billion over four years for a long-term border security and interior enforcement strategy. notably, the bill had a great deal of discretion for the department of homeland security's experts on the ground to determine what tactics were needed and where.

as my friend, former chief man did i padilla, formerly border control chief of the rio grande sector told me that the answer from the border patrol's sector is finding the right balance of three things -- personnel, technology, and infrastructure. the landscape along the u.s.-mexico border, particularly the 1,200 miles of common border between mexico and texas, the geography varies significantly. so there's no one-size-fits-all solution to border security. that's why it's important to listen and learn from law enforcement and key stakeholders on thousand adapt -- on how to adapt the right mix to each area. that way we can make sure we're deploying the correct solutions to operational control along the southern border. yes, we need physical infrastructure in places -- a

fence, a wall, a vehicle barrier, for example -- because the hardworking agents and officers on the ground tell us that it works and we would benefit from more from it. but we also need personnel to enforce the laws along the border and ensure our ports of entry are operating efficiently and, yes, we need technology, things like scanners, to scan for drugs that are embodied in shipments that come across the border. we need drones and radar and sensors to help maximize border security as well as have access to the rio grande for border patrol agents they they can police the border for illegal entry. now, this shouldn't be a partisan debate and historically our differences on this topic have not been so polarizing. i think the nature of our political system today makes it easy to forget that not too long ago border security was actually

something supported by both political parties. in 2006, the senate passed the secure fence act by a vote of 80-19. that's what i would call a bipartisan victory. among those who voted for that bill include many current and former leaders of the democratic party, including minority leader chuck schumer, then-senator barack obama, and then-senator hillary clinton. they didn't believe that fences and walls and physical barriers were immoral, as apparently the current speaker of the house of representatives does. not only did that legislation call for more than 800 miles of fencing along the u.s.-mexican border, it also authorized the other important components of border security that i talked about -- things like technology and personnel. that was in 2006. in 2013, more recently, all 95

democratic -- all 54 democratic senators voted for more dollars in border security and now president trump's request for $5 billion is now a nonstarter. the border security economic opportunity and immigration modernization act provided funding for, yes, infrastructure, personnel, and technology. that's exactly the right mix that chief padilla mentioned that i referred to a moment ago. so these are really the same types of issues that we're talking about today. these are not radical ideas. we need a sensible combination of physical barrier, technology, and personnel. my democratic colleagues supported border security during the bush administration. they supported border security during the obama administration. and now i would urge them to come to the table with a serious proposal to help secure our border and end this standoff and to stop the foolishness and the political games.

mr. president, i yield the floor. and i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: will the senator suspend? will the senator suspend? mr. cornyn: yes, mr. president. 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 the motion to proceed to s. 1, which the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 1, s. 1, a bill to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions and so forth and for other purposes. mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president. i'd now note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the vice president: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: the senate is not in order. the vice president: the senate will be in order. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that the further reading of the quorum be suspended. the vice president: without objection. the chair previously laid before the senate the certificate of election from the state of florida. the certificate was in the form suggested by the senate and was printed in the record. if the senator-elect will now

present himself at the desk, the chair will administer the oath of office. the vice president: please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter: so help you god? mr. scott: i do.

the vice president: congratulations.

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be

suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: a few moments ago, we welcomed our newest colleague and my colleague from the state of florida, our former governor, now u.s. senator rick scott who will do a phenomenal job here on behalf of the state of florida. i welcome him to the united states senate, the world's greatest deliberative body, and on occasion perhaps its strangest as well, for in about an hour and 15 minutes, the senate is going to take up senate bill 1, which is a combination of four separate bills that enjoy widespread support in this chamber from colleagues on both sides of the aisle, all of them sponsored, cosponsored by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and apparently we will fail to get a significant number of votes to get on this bill, nonetheless. so it is perhaps one of the few places on earth where people vote against things they are for for reasons unrelated to the issue at hand. and i don't want to dig too deep

into that. that will be a topic for conversation later on. maybe i will be wrong. maybe they will change their mind here in the next hour and 15 minutes and we'll be able to have the votes we need, but i just don't think it makes a lot of sense to say i'm upset about the government shutdown -- by the way, the senate voted to fund government unanimously. we had a voice vote. we didn't even have a roll call vote. so this chamber is already active in that regard. at this point it's incumbent on the leaders of the democratic party here in the senate to reopen the government. this government shutdown is not good for anybody. i have never seen anybody win one of these. that said, i don't know why we would should down the senate, too. given the issues that we face. about three weeks ago, the president announced that the united states was withdrawing from our engagement in syria, and i and i think the majority of people in the senate believe that that decision was a mistake and is a mistake, and while i was certainly encouraged by some of the comments by the national

security council director -- the head of the national security council, john bolton, ambassador bolton on sort of the pace and scale and scope of the withdrawal, nonetheless, there has been conflicting statements since then which puts this all in question. and at the time he made this decision, we walked through all of the reasons why this was a mistake, not because we want to be at war in syria forever. that's false. of course it has to come to an end, but it needs to come to an end in a way that's in the interest of the united states of america. and it is not in the interest of the united states of america to see isis reemerge the way they did after 2011 when the united states left iraq. when the u.s. left and pulled back its presence in iraq, it will allowed isis to reconstitute itself, reemerge. they were called something different then but basically a

spin yuf of al qaeda. they started out as an insurgency and grew very rapidly. they are larger today and more powerful today than when they reconstituted themselves almost a decade ago. so i have no doubt that if this moves forward, isis will reconstitute itself, maybe not as a caliphate but as something equally dangerous. and that is an insurgency with the capability not just to create havoc, mayhem, murder and destruction in syria and potentially once again in iraq but also to externally plot and attack us here on the homeland. this raises all kinds of other possibilities like the iraqi troops along with irregular forces sponsored by iran, the shia militias that have been on the ground in iraq coming across the border into syria. we've all read and herd about the turkish troops that want to come into the kurdish areas. the u.s. is pulling out, you've

got all this going on and he probably figures at this point what does he need a political solution for, what does he need the u.n. or anybody for. the saddest part about that, of course, is that this diminishes the chances that assad will ever have to face accountability for the crimes committed by his regime against innocent civilians and children, women, and others through not just the gassing and use of chemical weapons but the widespread torture and murder. we'll discuss that more as the week goes on. also concerned about iran's growing influence with the u.s. leaving, especially in southeast iraq and on the border of jordan and israel. hezbollah, other iranian proxies and iran itself, the rigc, and general solo mani, basically doing whatever they want, more freedom of movement and a direct

threat that it poses to both israel and to jordan. and by the way, when the turks come in, when potentially iraqi troops come in, when isis is rescons instituted and -- reconstituted and starts killing again, you're going to have new refugee flows. maybe it will be mostly kurds this time, maybe folks from the syrian defense forces who fought alongside us for a while and their families. but where are all these new refugees going to go? potentially some will wind up in jordan, further destabilizing -- testing that country's ability to deal with all this. and one last point. both the kurds and the syrian defense forces have an excess of 700 isis fighters in custody, imprisoned. are they going to let them all go? because without us there supporting them, i don't know how they hold them.

none of the countries they came from want them back. you can potentially face hundreds of isis fighters being released overnight. these are all the consequences and more. what are we going to do if a few days, a few weeks, a month from now isis decides to deploy chemical weapons against kurds or others in these areas? i mean, the parade of horribles, the possibilities are extraordinary. we could go on and on for a while but that's why among other reasons it was a mistake. when we came out and said it was a mistake, a lot of people said what are you going to do about it. don't just talk. act. it's difficult in an issue like this. congress can stop wars. congress can defund them, deauthorize actions, but congress cannot force the commander in chief to stay in a military engagement. we cannot force the president to deploy troops or keep them somewhere. we can keep them from doing it but we can't force him to do it. so our options in this field are limited. but we wanted to do something.

we felt so strongly about this. and the response is senate bill 1 which is the item before us here today. and senate bill 1, as i said, combined these four elements, four bills that enjoy widespread bipartisan support. and would you think in the midst of everything else that's going on, this would be a really good way to start the new congress. on foreign policy, in an area that traditionally has not been partisan or shouldn't have been. combining these four bills into one, senate bill 1 which is what's before us today. and i want to briefly outline the four provisions that were combined in this bill. two of them deal directly with our ally in israel. first, it says that it makes very clear that it shall be the policy of the united states to provide assistance to the government of israel in order to support funding for cooperative programs to develop, produce, and procure miss il, rockets, project aisles and other defense capabilities to help israel meet

its security needs and help develop and enhance u.s. defense capabilities. that last line is important. because much of the technology that's being innovated and developed by israel to defend israel can also be used by the united states to protect us from rocket attack there or when we're deployed abroad. the reason why this is so critical is hezbollah who has a large presence in syria and their base of operation in lebanon, hezbollah today is better funded, better equipped, better -- more armaments than at any time in its history. we all recall hezbollah-israel war from about over a hec -- ova decade and a half ago. the next war will be far deadly and costly because hi hezbollaho longer depends on iran for the weapons. they make themselves. it has enough rockets to overwhelm defenses. can you have the best missile

defense system in the world. eventually some will get through. when they get through in a small country like israel that its narrowest point is only nine miles wide and it hits a population center and kills thousands of people, then you know we are facing a catastrophe for israel -- catastrophe. israel will respond to that sort of attack with overwhelming force and this can spiral quickly out of control. how can we wind up in that point? we can because now that the united states is leaving syria, the israelis are going to say we're not going for allow iran and hezbollah to build up its presence. we're going to step up our military attacks inside syria and it is possible when they step it up, it is likely iran and hezbollah will respond by hitting back. then israel will hit back harder. at that point of escalation, you can easily see the missiles start coming out of lebanon into israel. israel responding with overwhelming force and now we have a much broader conflict

with thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people whose lives are on the line. and so making it clear to hezbollah and any enemy of israel that the united states stands ready to equip them in the case of such a contingency is one of the best things we can do to prevent it from happening. if israel's enemies believe that there is any doubt that the u.s. will step forward and help israel resupply in case of such conflict, you have increased the properrability that they will -- probability that they will miscalculate and take such action. but if they know that we are committed to rearming israel as often and as much as possible and necessary in order to help them defend themselves, then the chances of them attacking are diminished and that's why this bill authorizes u.s. security assistance in foreign -- and foreign military financing for israel at an amount no less than $3.3 billion for the next ten years. this is authorizing a memorandum of understanding signed between the obama administration and

israel. we're authorizing that and putting it into law. we're also authorizing the president to transfer precision-guided munitions to reserve stocks as needed for legitimate self-defense meaning the united states has put aside in reserve munitions, precision-guided munitions that are there if israel needs them to quickly transport to them in case they come under attack and run low on the munitions they need to defend themselves. that's the first thing this bill does. another thing it does does, by the way, is combating the act of 2019. those not familiar, it's boy cot -- it's to punish israel by convincing companies, international companies and others to boycott doing business with israel or israeli entities, to divest of investments in israel or israeli entities and

commission governments to sanction israel. and so this provision of the law does not boycott -- i'm sorry -- does not outlaw boycott divestment sanctions. if a united states company caves to this pressure and decides it's going to boycott or divest from israel, they have the legal right to do so. this doesn't outlaw it. but it does say, however, it does say that if a state or local government decides that it's not going to do business, if the government is not going to issue contracts for goods or services with any company that is boycotting or divesting from israel, they have a right to do that. i've heard the argument that this is about free speech. first of all, it's not about free speech. it's not about free speech. it's about foreign policy. and we'll talk about that more as the week goes on but there's court cases out there that talk about -- this is not an effort to influence a doamic split -- domestic political debate or speak or take action in the form

of speech that influences a domestic political debate. this is about influencing the behavior of a foreign government. influencing the behavior of a foreign government is foreign policy and the courts give broad, broad discretion to congress and the president in the setting of our foreign policy. but put that aside for a moment. as i already told you, this doesn't in any way prevent anyone from participating in boycotting or divesting from israel. all it says is that if you do, your clients in the state or local governments can boycott or divest you in return. free speech is a twoway street. -- two-way street. it makes it clear that nothing in the law should be congress trued, nothing -- construed, nothing to violate anyone's first amendment rights. so these are the two provisions that help israel to prevent the sort of economic warfare that's being driven against them and to make clear to their adversaries that the united states stands ready to resupply and strengthen israel's ability to defend

itself. in the hopes of not just helping israel defend themselves if they come under attack but frankly nts hopes of -- in the hopes of deterring an attack against israel. we do that by authorizing and putting into law the memorandum of understanding signed by the obama administration in september of 2016. in addition, the third thing this bill does is it deals with major dafnlt jordan is a u.s. ally. it is by the way a nation that along with egypt has been a linchpin of israel's security in the region. and it is also a nation that is faced -- has faced an onslaught of refugees fleeing the conflict in syria. they face the threat from isis as well. and in senate bill 1, we reauthorize the u.s.-jordan defense cooperation act that was passed in 2015, an act that among other things includes jordan on the list of countries that are eligible for certain streamlined defense sales. because jordan itself is facing

many of the same challenges, particularly because of our pullout from syria. if you think the pullout from syria, especially from southeastern syria, is a good thing for jordan, you're wrong. once the u.s. leaves that area, the iranian influence will grow, potentially the isis influence will grow. it will become harder, not easier on jordan. this is the least we can do to strengthen and important ally in this region. the last piece is one that was sponsored by the chairman or soon so be chairman of the foreign relations committee, senator risch, the caesar syria civilian protection act. it does three things. it requires the treasury to determine whether the central bank of syria is a financial institution that launders money for the regime. i'm not sure it will take them long to conclude that they are. but that opens the door for the second thing it does. that is, new sanctions on anyone who does business with or provides financing to the syrian

regime. it also, by the way, requires the administration to brief us in congress as part of our oversight role on what our strategy is to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian products and humanitarian assistance inside syria. hopefully we'll be on this bill but as the week goes on, i sadly will have to come to the floor and point out the horrifying atrocities that have been committed that i believe 50 and a hundred years from now people will look back at as one of the most horrifying things that have happened in this century. and the people who have done this should be held to account. this law puts in place -- puts in place not just requiring the administration to tell us what they plan to do in the short term to help people to the extent possible but also puts in place the ability to hold those who have done this responsible and accountable for what they did and what they continue to do. so i sincerely hope we can get

on this because the american people in the face of all this noise that's out there are in desperate need of reassurance that our republican -- our republic still works, that at a minimum we can still agree on what we agree on and we don't use the pretext of a shutdown to shut down the senate. as i remind everyone again, i know we have some new members but this body passed unanimously a bill to fund the government. i have my views on the shutdown. i don't understand the objection. to $5 billion of spending on border security. by the way, it's not $5 billion on a wall. it's $5 billion to fund the top ten priorities of the border security plan. included in the pop ten are strengthening existing walls and barriers and building some new ones but includes far more than just a wall. i remind many of my colleagues when we sponsored the senate bill on immigration we spent four times as much on the bill. we authorized four times as much in that bill for border security. but of course the politics have

changed. so people's position on the border security issue have changed. that said, i'm not in favor of government shutdowns. i don't think they make sense. and people have nothing to do with this. they're not responsible for this. border agents, t.s.a. employees, federal employees from these agencies all across the country, these people are missing paydays now. and their mortgage company doesn't care and the credit card company doesn't care there's a shutdown. they want to get paid and will ruin your credit. i hope we can find a liewtion for them but also for the country without abandoning the reality that we need to deal with border security. here's what i know, though. i don't believe that shutting down the senate and not allowing us to move forward on something as important as syria policy is the way to resolve a shutdown issue. you don't solve a shutdown with a shutdown. and shutting down the senate saying we're not doing anything

here until we resolve this issue is not a constructive approach and certainly not the way to start this new congress. at a time when i think the senate serves a role as important as it has in two decades, this country needs a senate that's capable of new of functioning and agreeing on the things we agree on, passing bills that have broad support and not allowing them to fall victim to debates that are unrelated to the issue at hand. and so i remind all of my colleagues who just two or three weeks ago joined me and others in criticizing the decision to draw down from syria that there isn't a lot we can do in congress to force the president to stay there but there are some things we can do to reassure ow allies in the region that at least here in the u.s. senate, they have our support. that israel and jordan and the innocents who have been tortured and killed in syria have our

support. we have a bill in senate bill 1 that does that. i don't know why we would not move forward to at least debate t. the vote we're taking in 59 minutes from now is not a vote to pass it. it is just a vote to begin debate on it. that's all it is. it's a vote to begin debate on it. to not even allow debate to begin on something we basically, largely agree on, it may make a lot of sense in the hallways here. it doesn't make a lot of sense to men and women back home who are already watching the government shutdown with disdain and then on top of it seeing -- not -- seeing not even the senate can function in the midst of all of this. i hope that my colleagues will reconsider their objection to even beginning debate so we can get on this and we can get to work on behalf of the men and women of this country that we work for and represent. mr. president, i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. udall: thank you, mr. president, for the recognition. mr. president, i rise to call on the president to stop holding the government hostage and trying to force taxpayers to pay for his border wall. a wall that would be ineffective and wasteful and that is rejected by the american people. president trump said he is proud -- those are the words he used -- he is proud to shut down the government. he's proud to force hundreds of thousands of people across this country to miss their hard earned paychecks, proud to shut our critical services, proud to try and extort the american people into paying for a wall they don't support.

this trump shutdown is nothing to be proud of. it is a national disgrace. it's time to end this recklessness. today i join with my democratic colleagues in calling on republican leaders to do their jobs and reopen the government right now. the american people don't support trump's border wall and they don't support this trump shutdown. the funding bill is being held up and used by the president as a bargaining chip, have broad bipartisan support. democrats in both chambers want to pass these appropriations bills now. but as democrats stand ready to reopen the government, president trump plans to address the nation tonight to tell us again why he is proud to keep the government shut down. tonight we are like -- we'll likely hear more bizarre talk

about what we need at the border from a president who doesn't know the first thing about the border. once again we'll likely hear blatant lies about immigrants, about our border, and about our border communities. the american people are tired of this president's assault on the truth. they are tired of having their lives and livelihoods caught up in this president's inability to rise to the office that he holds. no address from the oval office will change that. we need the republicans in this chamber to muscle the political will to stand up to the president and get federal employees back to work and critical services restored. we're now on day 18 of this shutdown. the second longest period that the government has been shuttered since 1980. and we've already begun to see

real live consequences for families all across the nation. my home state of new mexico is one of the states that is being hit the hardest by the president's temper tantrum, by his act of political extortion. roughly 5,800 workers in new mexico are either furloughed or working without pay. these ar dpsh these are real people are. real people wondering how they will make their mortgage or rent payments or feed their families. a federal employee from albuquerque wrote my office and told me how this shutdown is affecting her and her family. she wrote to me and i quote here, she wrote, i'm not one of those federal employees as the president time-outed that -- tou ted that i want to be out of work. i quote. the senate does not work for the

president. it's supposed to represent the citizens of the united states. federal employees do not want to stay out of work. we want to go back to work and get paid. she ended with this. this is not our fight. just his. economic anxiety is pervasive in all corners of the state. in fact, new mexico was recently ranked as the most vulnerable to the impacts of the disowrn because of our significant federal workforce and the importance of the federal government to our economy. as ranking member of the subcommittee on interior, environment, and related agencies, i'm acutely aware how the lapse in appropriations is affecting the agency's funded in our bill and the services they provide. these include the department of interior, the environmental protection agency, and the indian health service and as ranking member of the indian

affairs committee, i'm especially cognizant of how this shutdown is hurting native communities. the shutdown consequences are particularly dire after more than two weeks without federal funds. simply put, tribes report that federal programs critical to health and public safety are grinding to a halt and lives are in danger. in new mexico the shutdown has left one reservation, which is larger in size than the entire city of houston, texas, with only one on-duty police officer. that would be unacceptable even under normal circumstances. but due to a huge winter storm that left my state under heavy snowfall and subfreezing temperatures, that lone officer is responsible for not only responding to domestic violence

and child welfare but also snow-related accidents and emergencies across 720 square miles all because furloughed road crews aren't clearing snow and ice on the reservation roads. one elder has already died because he was unable to make it to dialysis. sadly their experiences are not uncommon. the tribe of california will soon have to close its court to curtail its efforts to rein in the opioid epidemic. others are days away from closing completely leaving native families in these cities without support. the yantin sioux tribe will have to reduce services and the 276 tribe that's depend on the usda

food distribution food program, a program that feeds near 100,000 american indians and alaska natives are faced with reliving the 2013 shutdown crisis when food rotted in locked warehouses while hungry families gathered outside, all because the president and some extreme members of the party refused to do his job and keep the government open. it is disgraceful and it is dangerous. every day the president continues to treat tribal health and public safety programs like hostages for political gain endangers families across indian country. they have entrusted treaty obligations for creeding millions of -- ceding millions of acres of land. the consequences of the senate majority leader's inaction are

real, and the consequences of the republicans unwillingness to stand up for tribes in their states, to stand up for basic humanity and common sense are real. mr. president, we are talking about people's lives and the fundamental obligation of our nation to honor its commitment to native americans. it's really that simple, and we all know how pressing these problems are. the impact of the trump shutdown are far and wide. there are thousands of stories across the nation. let me tell you another from my home state of new mexico. a local santa fe small business, a construction company, sarcon construction corporation, is ready to begin an $8.4 million project to build two new hangars at the municipal airport.

this project will generate $650,000 in local tax revenue and it will employ 75 to 100 people. many of those people are literally unemployed now. waiting for this project to begin. this project is a big deal for my home city of santa fe. but do you know why the project is stalled? sarcon can't get the necessary approval from the federal aviation administration because of the trump shutdown. the f.a.a. personnel responsible for approval are furloughed. this shutdown has real consequences for real people, especially for people like those unemployed new mexicans ready and eager to work but unable because of our president's tran trump. -- tantrum. the president says he can, quote, relate to federal workers who can't pay bills during the shutdown, but in the next breath

he blithely assumes they will make adjustments and they will be fine. as he has demonstrated time and time again, this president cannot and does not relate to the struggles of every day americans who are hurt their his policies. he cannot and does not relate to federal employees who live by paycheck to paycheck or fanta fai -- santa fe construction workers who worked anxiously to get back to work. he has shown time and again that his behavior is thoughtless. i'll say it again, the president told the american people on camera that he's, quote, proud to shutdown the -- shut down the federal government. the responsibility falls squarely on him and noun on his republican collaborators in the senate, and the impacts reach every corner of our nation. his shutdown has already had real impacts our nation's public lands, including our most iconic

national parks. many national parks like the national preserve in new mexico remain closed. restaurants have been closed for two weeks, trash has accumulated and roads have not been plowed. for two weeks we have heard horror stories of poor sanitation and public safety issues at national parks because of the shutdown. including overflowing toilets, vandalism, and other damage. in big ben national park, good samaritans had to help rescue a hiker who fell and broke his leg while hiking on christmas eve because of the lack of emergency services. the effects have been devastating, in fact, and this -- the effects have been so devastating, in fact, that an illegally questionable move this administration just made the unpress did noted decision to

dip into -- unprecedented decision to dip into the park's entrance fees at a handful of parks across the country, that congress authorizes the park service to collect to pay for deferred maintenance projects and other critical needs, not to take the place of appropriated funds. we still don't know which parks will be affected by the administration's decision, but i fully expect this band-aid approach to fall far short of protecting our treasured national resources. or restoring services to the public in a meaningful way. it's merely a cynical attempt to get the problems caused by the president's shutdown off the front page of the newspaper. if we want to reopen the parks, there's a simple solution -- pass the interior appropriations bill without delay, and we can reopen the entire national park system.

in the meantime, reopening some park sites but not others won't help many gateway communities that depend on parks and public ants to provide needed revenue -- and public lands to provide needed revenue and are facing economic crisis as the shutdown wears on. it is estimated that visitors spend an average of $20 million per day in january in nearby communities. that's real and vital revenue. in new mexico alone, national parks generated more than 1,700 jobs in 2017 and created more than $140 million in economic output for my state. i can tell you that new mexico can't afford for these sites to be closed. and it's not just the parks that are at risk. fire prevention programs funded by the u.s. forest service are being deferred during the shutdown, despite a record-breaking fire season.

environmental protection programs are suffering. e.p.a. has halted most activities related to hazardous waste cleanups under its national superfund program. enforcement activities against polluters have ground to a halt, as have federal permitting efforts. states aren't receiving funds to operate their regulatory programs, and even our nation's cherished national museums are shuttered. on january 2, the smithsonian ran out of funds and closed its doors, preventing more than 110,000 visitors a day from accessing its prized collections. it's next-door neighbor, the national gallery of art, is also closed, leaving school groups, families, and everyday citizens out in the cold. mr. president, again, there is a simple solution to stop this damage. we all -- all we have to do is pass an appropriations bill and

reopen the government. so i want to end where i began. the president has nothing to be proud of here. president trump needs to stop holding federal programs hostage to his demands for a wasteful, ineffective, and destructive wall. and end this shutdown now. we can do it easily. the senate can immediately take up and pass h.r. 21, the appropriations bill passed by the house last week. this should cause no controversy. these are bills drafted by republicans with broad bipartisan support. in fact, the interior bill is the exact same legislation that was passed by this chamber by a vote of 92-6 last august, a margin in a would override a veto of the bill, i might add. i call on leader mcconnell and members of his party to let us get to work. we need to do what's right and

immediately take up and pass the house bill. today. there's no reason why this shutdown must go on one day longer. the lives and livelihoods of everyday americans hang in the balance. and i just want to say, as a final comment, i so much appreciate working with senator leahy, who is he's our vice chairman of the appropriations committee, and i know feels and sees and hears from all of his appropriations members how concerning this situation is. and with that, i yield the floor. mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i thank the senior senator from new mexico for his kind comments. he knows that the appropriations committee has worked extremely hard to get these bills through. we passed them almost unanimously. every single bill that would keep this government open has

been passed by this senate, and it will be passed again if republicans would allow it to come to a vote. and it passed almost unanimously. senator shelby and i worked very, very hard to have bipartisan bills, and we did. in fact, the appropriations bills have had the most bipartisan votes that they've had in over 20 years. now, where are we? 18th day of the trump shutdown. for more than two weeks now, the president has held the paychecks of over 800,000 americans -- he's held them hostage in order to extort congress into funding his border wall, a wall for which he gave his word -- he gave his word -- that -- to the american taxpayers over and over again that mexico would pay for it, not the american taxpayers,

and now he says, i want the american taxpayers to pay for it. for more man two weeks the president has -- for more than two weeks, the president has withheld vital services in order to gain leverage to fulfill a divisive campaign promise and rally his base, totally ignoring that we have passed the bills that would open the government. shamefully, he cares more about this butcher-sticker symbol of his presidency than he does about the millions of americans impacted by a shutdown and the hardships to come if the trump shutdown continues. he wants rhetoric, not reality. mr. president, i want reality. i would say, what will the president say to 800,000 federal workers who will not get a paycheck this friday because of this political stunt in what will he say to the men and women who have mortgages, families to

feed, bills to pay? what will he say to those forced to deplete their hard-earned savings of their retirement funds or to those who have no safety net at all? i'll give you an example. just yesterday a man called my office. he has a job with the internal revenue service in vermont. he's been furloughed. he's not -- he can't receive a paycheck this week. he fears he will not be able to pay his bills past mid-january if he doesn't get paid. he's already turned off the cable and most of his family's cell service to save money. he was concerned about feeding his family and his wife has serious medical issues that require attention. incidentally, i was looking at the weather report for parts of vermont. tomorrow it will be five degrees below zero. he also has to heat his home. so he was upset, he was worried. he was looking for help.

does the president even care about these kind of people? you know, the president claims he can relate to these people. he dismisses their fears, glibly saying they'll make adjustments, make adjustments for their child's medical bills? make adjustments for their mortgage payments? make adjustments heating their homes when it is five below zero? he's even absurdly claimed that they support his silly wall. really? really? come on. you got 800,000 federal employees. let somebody poll them and find out how many support what many in vermont have called a dumb wall. i never heard anything more tone-deaf from a president of the united states.

perhaps for a man who was made a millionaire by his father by the age of eight, the idea of living paycheck to paycheck is a foreign concept but it is not to the millions of americans, both republicans and democrats alike, across this country who struggle to make ends meet. they should not be bargaining chips in the president's game. this is not a game for them. the president should not treat it as such. and in fact in addition to all the federal employees who are wondering when they'll get their next paycheck, vital services on which many americans rely and pay taxes to support have come to a grinding halt. remember that. americans have paid taxes for these services. they've come if a grinding halt. farmers can't get loans from the u.s. department of agriculture, the usda, to get them through the next planting season. because no one is in the office to process the applications.

we passed a five-year farm bill. i'm proud of the bipartisan bill that senator roberts and senator stabenow led through here. i was one of the conferees. it was bipartisan. but it's complicated. and there are new rules in it. the usda cannot implement the new farm bill because all the staff have been furloughed. how about all the midwestern farmers who don't know what the rules are going to be before they start planting? they have to make that decision now, and they've paid their taxes to have a department of agriculture to help them, but it's closed down. our national parks -- the prize of this country, since the time of teddy roosevelt, are being vandalized, littered with trash and human waste. since the trump shutdown began, seven people, seven american taxpayers, have died in national

parks. they were left unsupervised and unstaffed. home buyers are finding out that their federal housing administration loan applications are on hold. food safety inspections are slowing. how many people are going to die of food poisoning? the small business administration has stopped issuing new business loans and our federal courts are running out of money. this is the united states of america. we're an embarrassment to the rest of the world because of this. the president should be embarrassed because he's the one who's asked for it. everyone agrees we need to secure our border oz, but there are smart ways of doing it. a wall is not one of them. it is a fifth-century solution to a 21st century problem. the president's own acting chief of staff said in 2015, the idea

of a wall was absurd, almost childish. he said, a fence doesn't stop anybody who really wants to get across. you go under, you go around, you go through it. one of the few times mick mulvaney and i are in agreement. but to do what the president wants to do, including seizing land from farmers and ranchers, some of them have had that land in their families for years -- they're hardworking, proud, taxpaying americans and we say we're going to come in for a dumb alec wall. it requires building walls through wildlife nature preserves that will forever scar the ecoscape in ways we cannot anticipate. and after all that, and tens of billions of dollars of wasted taxpayer dollars, what would we have accomplished?

now tonight the president will assert that the security of our nation is in crises. he willssert that catch and release are pouring across the -- he will assert that criminals are pouring across the borders. it is typical of the claims that he makes. but these -- the disinformation coming from the white house has been staggering. in his zeal to feign a national emergency at the border, the president has employed nothing short of a propaganda campaign that we've seen in dictatorships of the past. the reality is that between the year 2000 and 2018, apprehensions at the border have dropped. how much? 75%. the reality is that apreparations at the southwest border -- apprehensions at the

southwest border have dropped to similar levels we had in the 1970's, as this chart shows. look at this. this is back in the 1970's. this is where we are today. are it's dropped. the reality is that many southern border communities have violent crime rates that are lower than the national american average. the reality according to the drug enforcement administration is the fast majority of drugs are seized of ports of entry. so a wall between such ports would be entirely useful for stopping drugs. the demographic that is increasing in number are families, women, and children seeking asylum. many are not even trying to sneak past the border but totally present themselves to border patrol agents when they cross. they're not here to perpetuate violence.

they're fleeing violence, murder, rape, they're fleeing crime from their countries. wavings billions of -- wasting billions of american taxpayer dollars to build a wall will not stop them from coming. we need comprehensive immigration reform, like the bipartisan bill the senate passed in 2013, and then smart foreign policy to address these issues. not fearmongering. not distortions. not lies. and certainly not thousands of miles of concrete or steel. the constitution vests the power of the purse to congress. it's our job to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. the border wall doesn't meet that threshold. even if it did, the president has never provided us with a detailed plan for how to spend the money. he's been all over the map about how much he's demanding. the only thing he'll say is we're going to have a wall and

mexico will pay for it. oh fine, let mexico pay for it. yeah. for someone who spent years as the host of a reality tv show, reality has never been his strong suit. we're not in the business of providing blank checks to satisfy presidential whims. the president's own budget request to congress was $1.6 billion for his wall. he has never submitted an addendum, no matter how much he or others talk about it, he never has. then he makes demands and by tweets and to the press. i've actually lost track of all the times his demands for the wall have changed, but i still go back to the original request, the only request in his budget was $1.6 billion. in fact, this weekend democrats asked the vice president for more details in the border wall

request. somebody enacting -- a person in the administration sent chairman shelby and me a letter asking for $7 billion in border security investments that the president is demanding as part of this negotiation, including $5.7 billion for the wall. this letter sort of came out of nowhere three months into the fiscal year, 18 days into the shutdown. and it didn't come from the president. it came from the acting director of the office of management and budget. i think i may have that letter. you know, they're asking for $5.6 billion more for the department of homeland security than they propose in their original budget request,

including an additional $4.1 billion. this came up this weekend, but the letter included no budget justification, no details, no suggestions for how to pay for it. the letter has a lot of cliches cliches, but it doesn't say where the money comes from or what it's going to do. that's not the way we operate. it shouldn't be. in fact, i'd ask unanimous consent the letter be made part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: now the president may not care about the impact the shutdown is having on millions of americans, but the united states senate, a body that should be the conscience of the nation, we should care. and stoking fear through misinformation in order to

promote a political agenda is simply wrong. we could and should reopen the government this week. last week the house passed a bipartisan six bill minibus to reopen most of the government and a continuing resolution for the department of homeland security. now to show how bipartisan it is, the six appropriations bills the house passed originated in the republican-controlled senate last congress. it had bipartisan support, including senator shelby as chairman and by myself as vice chairman of the appropriations committee. i have worked hard with senator shelby, and i admire his efforts on this to produce these bills last summer and fall. all of them received nearly unanimous support when they were considered on the floor of the senate or in the appropriations

committee. we want to end this, then senator mcconnell should bring them to the floor of the united states senate today and put them up for a vote. we've already shown, virtually every republican and every democrat in this body would vote for them. bring them up, let's vote for them. end this nonsense. end it. the leader owes that to the american people. we owe that to the american people. let us be the conscience of the nation, not somebody who is simply a foil for the latest tweet or posting. we can do it. we passed these bills before. bring them up. bring them up. bring them up and pass them again. republicans and democrats have voted for them in the past. the republican chairman and i strongly support them. bring them up. bring them up.

bring them up and pass them and open the government and let 800,000 americans stop their suffering. mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the -- mr. president mr. president, i see a senator seeking recognition, so i will withhold my request. mr. graham: thank you senator leahy. mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: thank you, mr. president. i'll be quick. we've got a lot of to do before we vote. but if you're from south carolina, you've got a lot to be happy about today. if you watched the football game last night, i thought you saw a real display of college football. i'm a south carolina graduate. i went to the university of south carolina. i've lived near clemson most of my life, and i'm here to congratulate the clemson tigers because after last night, the clemson tigers have become the gold standard for college football both on and off the

field. what i like most about clemson, they believe you can't win on the field if you lose off the field. and it starts at the top. coach sweeney is the very of definition of all in with his family, faith, his staff, he's one of the most beloved men i've ever met in the coaching profession. his players understand that he cares about them, and when he pushes them it's only because he wants them to be the best they can be and the best the team can be. clemson university is not a football school, for those who are wondering. it is one of the top tier academically challenging public universities in the entire country, and it's not bragging if it's true, who happens to have a great football team and a great coach. to those who don't want to see clemson versus alabama part 5,

i can understand that. i've got some advice for you: get better and beat one of them. don't complain. these are the two best teams in the nation. to my friends from alabama, your program is going to go down as one of the most historic programs in the history of college football. but last night the best team in the nation was the clemson tigers. they won decisively. they won with class. the 2018 season will be remembered as long as there's a clemson university. i live five miles from the stadium. i grew up in the shadow of clemson university. i got an honorary degree from clemson, about the only way i've gotten a degree. i'm very proud of what clemson university has accomplished on and off the field. tim and i will be introducing a resolution recognizing its great accomplishment by the clemson tigers, and i just want to end with this, that in these troubled times when there's a lot going on in the world,

there's a lot of bad news, this is a chance to celebrate something very positive. america's a football country, and college football is one of our most beloved sports. and last night you saw two quality teams. and i can say without a doubt if you're going to follow college football, get to know the clemson tigers because you're going to see them again. go tigers. i yield. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: thank you, mr. president. to my colleague from south carolina, we'll challenge the clemson tigers to the ncaa skiing championship any time. mr. president, i rise today to speak about the bill we're working on today, senate bill 1, the strengthening america's security in the middle east. i'm proud to be a sponsor of this legislation along with senator rubio and senator rich. i commend senator risch for

working with the majority leader, chairman risch, for attempting to move forward with this important legislation and effort without delay. this bill combines four noncontroversial -- i think that's important to recognize today, this bill provides four noncontroversial pieces of legislation from the 115th congress intended to support israel and jordan and provide sanctions against the human rights abuses of the assad regime we have no greater ally in the middle east than israel. it has faced existential threats daily since its founding in 1948. our nations worked closely to fight terrorism, to stop the spreads of radical islamic terrorism and preachers proliferation -- and stop proliferation by rogue regimes. the legislation would show our strong support for israel

including $3.3 billion in annual assistance consistent with the memorandum of understanding which was signed by in 2016, president obama. in the 115th congress, 72 senators -- 72 senators, republicans and democrats, cosponsored this legislation. it passed in the senate unanimously on august 1 of 2018. there is no reason why my colleagues across the aisle should not support this legislation today. no reason in order to show our strong bipartisan support to our friend and ally, israel, at a time of great need. this package also includes provisions supporting state governments that have taken action against the anti-israel and anti-semitic movement known as boycott divestment and sanction. to date 26 states including my home state of colorado have adopted laws or executive orders against b.d.s. this legislation before us today simply endorses those decisions

and clarifies that these measures adopted or enforced by a state or local government are not preempted by any federal law if they comply with the requirements in the legislation. this anti-b.d.s. legislation had 48 bipartisan is cosponsors in the 115th congress. there is no reason it should not be passed with bipartisan support today. b.d.s. have a vile movement and should be vociferously oa posed by republicans and -- opposed by republicans and democrats. this is why on december 20 i led a letter with 14 of my senate colleagues right here -- i ask unanimous consent this letter be entered into the record. 14 of my colleagues, a letter to the majority leader, to the democratic leader to take immediate action against b.d. s. in that letter we asked for immediate bipartisan response against b.p.s. including moving today's legislation, that we move this bill forward. in that letter we quote the

senate minority leader, senator schumer when he spoke at at a conference this past march. here's what he told the audience on march 15, 2018. we must continue to stand firm against the profoundly biased campaign to delegitimize the state of israel through boycotts and sanctions. while iran executes citizens, turkey jails journalists, scores of arab nations punish home sex wallty why does b.d.s. single out israel for condemnation when the world treats everybody one way and the jew and jewish state another way? let us call out the b.d.s. for what it is. let us delegitimize the delegitimizers. they are actively participating in an anti-semitic movement.

words of the minority leader in 2018. today i understand he and members of his caucus plan to vote against the motion to proceed on bipartisan legislation that would condemn b.d.s. it's regrettable. it's unfortunate. it's horrible. it's also part of a new trend that we see from some of our colleagues in the democratic caucus. as we noted in a letter several members have publicly endorsed b.d.s. and have not been condemned by senator schumer and other democratic leaders. we saw the manifestation of this dangerous trend when a democratic member said that the senators who introduced the bill before us today, myself included, forget what country they represent. this is unbefitting a sitting membering of congress. we must come together to condemn such violin sin -- vial insin

vagueses -- a.j.c. has issued strong statements rebuking this democratic member of congress. the a.j.c. reads, in part, a.j.c. is outraged by the representative who introduced israel-related legislation forgot what country they represent. that avoids legitimate debate about the contents of the bill itself insinuates respected long-serving senators are somehow more loyal to israel than the united states. it has classical anti-semitic issues, even this does not have place in our political discourse. i ask that this be entered into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. gardner: i ask my colleagues to put politics aside, so vote yes on the motion to proceed to this legislation that will help enhance our national security and take a strong action against

a reprehensible and racist movement known as b.d.s. there are some who believe we should shut the senate down because of the current funding. let me remind members of this chamber in 2013 under democratic majority leader harry reid what was voted on during the shutdown in 2013. a bill to authorize the secretary of interior to take actions to implement actions between the united states of america and united mexican states of reservoirs in the gulf of mexico. somehow it was okay to find time for that measure. in 2013, while campaigning about finding time for other measures, during the 2013 shutdown, they looked at the reform enhancement act, the small airplane revitalization act, and any test pride offed -- providedrd for those operating mfs for sleeb

disorders and for other purposes. but now they don't want to bring up anti-b.d.s. legislation because we shouldn't talk about anything else. but in 2013 they voted on things and considered things like extend the period during which iraqis were employed by united states employees and to temporarily increase the fee or surcharge on nonimmigrant issues. i'm not downplaying the importance of these bills, there is a significant double standard and significant partisan double standard. what is complained about today was the same thing that was fine in 2013. had time to vote on a couple of district judges as well. buts now there's no time for that. people are saying we shouldn't vote on this legislation until the government is funded. i said it clearly. we need to fund the government. but what also needs to be very clear is how people will vote on this legislation, to not hide behind the shutdown on how they

would vote on anti-b.d.s. legislation. we heard the rhetoric. we heard the very real comments from not fictitious members of congress, but from actual members of congress who support an anti-semitic movement. we can condemn it today with a simple vote to proceed that people don't want to take too much time to debate on it. i think everybody knows that it's right to support an anti-b.d.s. position, they know it's right to oppose assad and his chemical attacks and the other torturous actions he's taken against his own people. it's a pretty simple vote on this motion to proceed, vote yes, support the underlying legislation. bipartisan members supported this legislation, voted for this legislation, and i hope they won't let partisan politics get in the way of doing what is right. mr. president, i yield the

floor. . the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. president, we're now in day 18 of an unnecessary and shameful partial gown. i'm -- government shutdown. i'm proud to be joined on the floor with my partner, the senior senator from maryland, senator cardin, senator tim kaine and many of my colleagues to say loud and clear that the first order of business in this united states senate should be to reopen the federal government because every day that goes by more and more americans are losing access to important government services and 800,000 hardworking federal employees are going without pay and facing mounting monthly bills.

400,000-plus are working without pay to help protect our country. another over 300,000 are forcibly furloughed. small businesses who do contract work for the government are getting clobbered as are the employees who work for them. mr. president, we have it within our power to vote tonight to end this shutdown by voting on the two bills that passed the house of representatives last thursday. they made it their first order of business, so should we. mr. president, i have copies of those bills. i've got a copy right here in my hand of h.j. res. 1. it would reopen the homeland security department at current levels until february 8, allowing us an opportunity to discuss with the president the best and most effective approach to border security.

it is identical to what this senate passed on a behalf basis just before christmas. the second bill, mr. president, that passed the house, and i have that right here at my desk as well. it would reopen the other eight departments of the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year, and importantly, at levels that were supported in this senate on a bipartisan basis either through votes on this senate floor or in the senate appropriations committee. both these bills, h.j. res. 1 and h.r.21, are on the senate calendar. we could bring them up and we could vote tonight to end the government shutdown. and then we can have a discussion with the president on the best way to secure our borders. but let's stop holding the entire nation and 800,000

hardworking federal employees hostage in a disagreement they've got nothing to do with. now, president trump did say that he was going to be proud to shut down the government, and he did it. but every day that goes by in this senate without a vote on the house bill to reopen the government makes this senate more and more explicit in the -- complicit in the shutdown. no senator -- no senator should be contracting out their constitutional responsibilities and their vote to the president of the united states. let's not be an accomplice to this shutdown. let's bring up the vote, bring up the bill, vote on it now, no business as usual tonight, and let's, first of all, do the people's business and reopen the government. let's do it now, and i'm proud to now give time to senator

cardin, my friend, the senior senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, i take this time to support what senator van hollen said. i'm here with senator warner and senator kaine. we have the honor of representing the states of virginia and maryland where there are so many government workers. senator van hollen mentioned two bills that are from the house. these are not democratic bills. these are bipartisan bills. these are bills that passed this body just a few weeks ago by unanimous vote to keep government open as we continue to negotiate on border security. they deal with appropriation bills that passed our appropriations committees in one case unanimously, in one case it was was all by one -- but one senator voting for. it these are bipartisan bills that have been sent over to us from the house that have already

cleared this body once. now we can pass them, keep government open for most of the agencies and in the case of homeland security a continuing resolution. mr. president, this shutdown caused by president trump is a disaster. it is hurting people. in this morning's "sun" there was an article about an important project on the east side that cannot move forward because h.u.d. can't process the paperwork so it can go forward. we're getting hurt every day. senator van hollen mentioned the 800,000 federal workers, about half are being asked to show up and work every day without a paycheck. the others are being locked out and are being furloughed without pay. people are getting hurt. the taxpayers of this country expect to be able to get government services from their agencies and they can't get those services. they are being hurt.

contractors are being hurt. small businesses are being hurt. and our economy is being hurt. it makes no sense whatsoever. the first order of business should be to take up these two bills. let's put aside what is currently pending. let's bring up these two bills. we can return to that calendar immediately thereafter. we can do that, but let's make sure that we get these bills passed so that we can open government now. the senate should not be complicit in the shutdown that president trump has caused. let's act in good faith. let's open up government. let's negotiate border security. if we can't get that done quickly, we can at least have a continuing resolution to continue our debate on border security, but don't hold the american people hostage. that's exactly what the president of the united states is trying to do. mr. president, i would yield the

floor to senator warner. mr. warner: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that myself and senator kaine speak it up to five minutes prior to the scheduled vote. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. warner: i join my colleagues from maryland and my colleague from virginia as well to speak out on this manufactured crisis. this president, who is holding 800,000 federal workers hostage, folks who are going to work, some of them without pay, others who are furloughed, as has been mentioned, this is not just affecting federal workers. senator kaine and i have been talked to a number of contractors, small business owners, a couple of them closing their doors this week because they have gone for weeks without being paid. you can't put a business back together after you've closed your doors.

the 800,000 federal employees, the federal contractors and there are a slew of other folks who are being affected. the complete lack of thought this administration did in the shutdown where they said we're going to make it seem not like a disowrn so they'll -- shutdown so they will he leave the parks open. we have seen destruction in our parks. in our state, shenandoah has trash overfilling, we have battlefields where people have had inappropriate activities, and we've seen as well a whole slew of businesses that depend on a high volume of tourist travel. none of that took place. the presiding officer: order in the chamber. mr. warner: i heard the president say this is about security. if it's about security, we ought to make sure that our coast guard is paid. we ought to make that your shoo the t.s.a. is paid. we are seeing dramatic numbers calling in sick and dramatically

less people showing up. that will get worse after friday when these employees go without a paycheck. the fact of the matter is these workers don't work for donald trump, they work for america. and we, echoing what my colleagues said, our first order of business should be to reopen the government. the final point i want to make it is this. the heartlessness of this president and his comments about our federal workforce, that somehow they can manage through without a paycheck, somehow they can negotiate with their landlord if they can't pay the rent. rather than donald trump putting on a political show on tv and a political trip to the border tomorrow, i invite the president to come anywhere in virginia, maryland, or the district and sit down with federal employees an explain this crisis and why they are not getting paid.

so my hope is the senate shouldn't be complicit in this. we need to reopen the government. we need to negotiate border security. i'm for it. but not holding hostage, literally our federal employees, and countless others. with that i yield to tim kaine. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i ask unanimous consent that following my remarks, senator risch be allowed to speak for up to five minutes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. kaine: mr. president, tonight following this vote, senator shaheen and i have organized a group of more than 50 democrats who will take the floor to talk about the effect of the government shutdown in each of our states. we'll talk about the effect on workers, on families, on citizens needing services, and i don't want to repeat what i will say in about an hour, but i want to address the issue of the vote that is now coming before us. the vote is a vote to proceed to a number of issues that are

important to the security of other nations. i'm the cosponsor of one of the bills that's before us, a u.s.-disal security assistance bill and strongly, strongly support it. but as pargt as i have been for the security of the nation of israel, i'm every bit as passionate about the security of the united states, and i think the first business of this senate should be to reopen the government of the united states. i think to take any other action or focus on any other issue when we have bipartisan bills pending in the senate that have been supported by our republican colleagues that would reopen government, to skip by those bills and push them aside, what, for another 18 days or longer makes absolutely no sense. so i will be opposing the motion that's on the floor this evening

because the first business of this body should be to open government. i think of the question that abraham lincoln raised at gettysburg. he talked about this nation dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal, and the question about whether any nation dedicated to that proposition can long endure. i don't think president lincoln, the founder of the modern republican party, would have supported a government shutdown for a year, for a week, for a day, or for a minute. this issue that's on the table before us is about the endurance of the united states government and giving people confidence in us that we support the government's operation. we should not take up other items until we take up the bipartisan proposal before this body and make sure that the government of the united states is funded and that people are protected. with that, mr. president, i

yield the floor. mr. risch: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho. mr. risch: i rise today to present senate bill number 1, the strengthening america's security in the middle east act of 2019. it is really a compilation of three bills addressing three different issues in the middle east. it's left over from the last congress, from the 115th. it's fitting that the first piece of legislation on the senate floor in the 116th congress is made up of bills that have previously enjoyed the support of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. this is a bipartisan piece of legislation. all three of them that are put together in this bill, with many senators from both sides of the aisle having contributed to the construction of this bill. we need to get this important work done now, not in a month or

two. it is leftover business, as i said, and it is about as unanimous as anything around here gets. now, i understand that there is friction around here at the moment as my good friend from virginia just talked about, but, look, we're the united states senate. we can walk and we can chew gum at the same time. this issue -- these issues that are in this bill desperately need our attention, and it's disheartening to see that there is going to be a vote against this simply because the parties want to focus on just one issue. that isn't the issue in front of us. if it was, of course, we could vote that way. i don't think there is anybody on this floor that wants to see the government shut down. a lot of us would like to see a smaller government, a less intrusive government, a less regulatory government, but we were elected to govern. we were not elected to not

govern. and it's important that we do resolve that. but in the meantime, we have these important matters left over from the last congress, and i hope that we could move to them and get it done. israel and jordan have been steadfast allies and friends of the united states. this legislation reaffirms our strong friendship with these countries and extends critical aid to these two allies. israel and jordan deserve the support and cooperation that this legislation would extend. we should not let them down. also included in this legislation is the caesar civilian protection act which barely nearly passed in the full senate by unanimous consent in the closing hours and minutes of the last congress. there was only one objection to it, but 99 senators agreed to this act. that bill declares, the caesar bill declares that it is u.s. policy to use all diplomatic and economic means to compel the government of bashar al-assad to

stop the slaughter of the syrian people and work toward a democratic government. mr. president, sanctions are an important tool of u.s. foreign policy. carefully designed sanctions allow the united states to create the conditions to influence decision-making and serve u.s. national security interests without having to implement additional military measures and put u.s. troops in harm's way. this method, the sanctions method, has been particularly effective in some very important situations. the caesar civilian protection act includes strong financial sanctions to target those individuals responsible in the assad regime for the terrible loss of life and destruction in syria. further, it extends sanctions to those who would support the syrian regime's actions in the war in syria, such as iran and russia. in order for us to bring a

permanent defeat for isis which necessitates getting iran out of syria, we should encourage politically negotiated solutions that will have a major change in the current syrian regime structure. with nearly 500,000 killed in syria, this legislation is deserved and it is long overdue. we must exert maximum pressure in coordination with our allies and friends to bring the syrian dictator assad and his iranian friends and their allies to account. it is my hope that the senate can move to this bill and take up this important legislation with its three-pronged approach that supports our important allies. let's not let these allies down. again, i come back to i understand that there is some friction here on other issues that we should be addressing, but right now the vote is do you or do you not support the allies

and the civilian population of syria who is being -- who are being slaughtered in the fashion that they have? my fellow senators, i urge an affirmative vote on this good piece of legislation. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 1, s. 1, a bill to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: by snack unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to s. 1, an act to make improvements to certain defense security systems provisions and to authorize the appropriation of funds to israel to reauthorize the united states-jordan defense cooperation act of 2015, and to

halt the wholesale slaughter of the syrian people, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule, and the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, on this vote the yeas are 56. the nays are 44. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i enter a motion to reconsider the vote. mr. mcconnell: the motion is entered --. the presiding officer: the motion is entered. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion on the motion to proceed. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion.

the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the r standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 1, s. 1, a bill to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to authorize the appropriations of funds to israel to reauthorize the united states-jordan defense cooperation act of 2015, and halt the wholesale slaughter of the syrian people and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that mandatory quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: without objection.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: mr. president, i rise today to speak in memory of five children from louisiana, my home state, tragically killed in an awful car wreck last thursday in florida. jeremiah warren, 14. joel cloud, 14. cara deskant13, briana. all from louisiana, a small town of less than 6,000 people.

all the children were members of the house of mercy church family traveling together in a van with four other children and three other women on their way to disney world. a tractor-trailer traveling the opposite direction hit their car, crossed the highway, hit their van creating a ball of fire. the drivers of the tractor-trailers died, steve holland of florida and douglas nukema of new mexico. losing five children, such a devastating tragedy for the marksville community, you can hardly imagine the grief and shock gripping everyone who knew them, their neighbors, friends, family, fellow church members. part of descant said i cried so much this morning -- the pastor descant said i cried so much this morning that my tears felt

like lava. his granddaughters died. his wife is hospitalized. during a monday night vigil, the pastor spoke to the crowd over the p.a. system by phone from florida. he said i never knew a heart could break so much and still work. he also delivered an important reminder that even in the midst of such immense heartache and loss, quote, god will get the glory out of it. he added don't stop. keep praying. i know so many around louisiana and the country are doing just that. we're also praying for the full recovery of those injured, still hospitalized. karen, robin, amy and her 14-year-old son noah, aly and her 11-year-old daughter chelsea and two other children, nine-year-old trinity and

nine-year-old chance. we are sincerely grateful to the people in florida who assisted the victims and their families. the first responders and law enforcement, everyone at the hospital in north florida regional medical. to those around the country who have heard about this tragedy and donated money through go fund me, thank you for your generosity, support and prayers. to my fellow louisianans, i remind you of what scripture says in psalm 34. the lord is near to the brokenhearted. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. kennedy: i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kennedy: mr. president, i wanted to take a few minutes to join my colleague, senator cassidy, to talk about the unspeakable tragedy that happened last thursday. near gainesville, florida. a are large tractor-trailer crashed into a car, went into

on coming traffic and struck a church van that was bound for disney world. i wish i understood why bad things happen to good people. there were five kids, five youngsters from marksville, louisiana, who lost their lives in that terrible collision. joel cloud and jeremiah warren, each 14 years old. cara discant age 13. briana discant, age 10. and sierra borlon, 9 years old. these five youngsters were members of the united pentacostal church in marksville, louisiana.

five beautiful lives, full of potential gone before their time. it is heartbreaking, and there are simply no words. i'll say it again, i wish i understood why bad things happen to good people. i can't imagine any greater suffering than a parent being asked to bury a child. the love of a child is not like the love for a parent or a spouse or sibling. that is deep love. but as my late father used to tell me, he would say son,

you'll never ever understand love until you have a child. and i can't think of any greater suffering than asking a parent to bury his or her child. i want to tell each of these kids' families, the united pen cos tall church -- pentacostal church in marksville and the whole community in marksville and the parish that the entire state of louisiana grieves with you, and you are in our prayers. a marksville van was carrying some very precious cargo, mr. president. in total there were 12 passengers. three women, one of whom is pregnant, and nine children. there were survivors. thank you, lord. but many of the survivors were

gravely injured, and i pray that they all have a swift and full recovery. i also want to express my sympathies to the families of the two drivers who died in that accident, and i want to thank the first responders who put themselves at risk every day to try to save lives during these catastrophes. there are just no words to try to describe this tragic accident. it happened far too close to the holidays, but there's never a good time. i'm going to say it again, if i make it to heaven, the first question i'm going to ask is why bad things happen to good people. but for now, i just pray that these families will find the strength that they need to go on and that all the injured are

healed quickly. thank you, mr. president. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. kaine: i ask that it be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaine: thank you very much. mr. president, i rise together with a number of colleagues who will follow me tonight to talk about the need to end the trump shutdown and reopen the government of the greatest nation on earth. i'm glad to have so many colleagues here who will each share the stories that have been experienced by folks living in our states, a shutdown that is now 18 days and will soon become the longest shutdown in the history of the united states government. the shutdown is unnecessary, the shutdown is embarrassing, and the shutdown is painful.

it's unnecessary. why punish american workers? why punish american citizens? no patriotic leader in their right mind would want to do that. and the thing that's so troubling about this shutdown is the overwhelming majority of people who are affected are not connected to the dispute between congress and the president over immigration reform and border security. why should that dispute lead farmers to not able to reach their extension agents? why should that dispute lead small businesses to not get their small business business own application processed? why should a dispute about immigration block the courts of d.c. from issuing marriage licenses to people? the president praying for urging and then proud of a shutdown is hurting all kinds of people who are completely unconnected with

the issue of dispute between congress and the president. in that sense it's unnecessary. and, second, it's unnecessary because there are bills on the floor right now that would solve this, bills that are bipartisan, bills that have been supported, mr. president, by you and the other republican colleagues in the chamber a matter of a few weeks ago, and if we took action right now, we could stop the punishment. we could end the pain, the gratuitous pain that's affecting american families and workers. the shutdown is unnecessary. the shutdown is embarrassing. this is the united states of america. this is the greatest nation on earth. the fact that we are in an 18-day shutdown of critical components of our government where people are not getting paychecks and citizens are not being served is beneath what we should aspire to as americans and certainly as u.s. senators.

and, finally, mr. president, before i yield to my colleague from new hampshire, the shutdown is painful. there are statistics about the numbers affected by the shutdown, others may get into that, but i want to share stories, because virginians are reaching us to senator warner and i and sharing their stories. allen is a veteran and a federal civil servant in yorktown, virginia. he's been working without pay since the shutdown began and he wrote to us saying that his emergency savings are exhausted. he's behind on his bills and says the situation won't get any better as long as his agency is unfunded. i'll repeat that allen is a veteran who voluntarily served the military, this country, and this is how this president is treating him. joanna, is from wood bridge, virginia, she said she won't know what she'll do if she

doesn't get paid by the end of the month as her family, quote, can't afford to miss a single paycheck. she wroas that even a slight decrease, close quote, in her pay means her family cannot afford their rent. a family from culpepper wrote to me how they will feed their children and mortgage without being paid from the government. they say if this shutdown goes on for a month or more they will have to lose -- worry about losing their home. michael and chris, they are federal employees in annandale, they have two kids in college, they will miss the payments due, they are not sure if they will be able to make their mortgage payments. james is a furloughed federal employee from fredericksburg who says he's the sole breadwinner for his family and he tells me that a shutdown that goes into months would spell financial ruin for his family and for

others. a virginian from hey market -- haymarket said that she had to postpone a necessary medical procedure because their family could no loren cover the -- no longer cover the costs for copays. teresa is a federal employee from springfield, she is worried about paying her mortgage, utilities, food and more, but most of all she is worried about the heflt of her son tommy. tommy has a difficulty. she wroas, quote, because of his medical fragility, tommy must have numerous prescriptions. missing a single dose could land him in the i.c.u. president trump needs to stop holding federal employees hostage. when i start missing paychecks, tommy is possibly jeopardized in his own life. and, finally, john is a nasa contractor from virginia and his wife, who also works for the

same agency, they lost 100% of their household income since president trump's shutdown started. get this. their daughter living at home is a school teacher and it's their school teacher daughter who is helping pay for the parents' expenses during this shutdown. mr. president, the shutdown is unnecessary, the shutdown is embarrassing, the shutdown is painful. we need to enthe trump shutdown and -- end the trump shutdown and reopen the government. with that, i would like to yield the floor to my colleague from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: i'm pleased to join my colleague senator kaine, and my other to talk about this government shutdown that is wasteful, that is unnecessary,

and that is totally about politics. today is the 17th day since this partisan brinkmanship shut down nine out of 15 agencies that we depend on to protect our health and safety. we could reopen government's doors today if senate republicans take up the bills that were passed by the house, bills that were written and overwhelmingly approved by the republican-controlled senate just a few weeks ago. so if there is bipartisan and bicameral agreement on the appropriations bills, why has government shut down? well, sadly it's because the president wants to force american taxpayers to foot the bill for an ineffective and costly wall on the southern border, a wall that the president promised mexico would pay for and that is opposed by the majority of americans. meanwhile, the men and women who

work in agencies that protect the american people and who protect our borders are either not working or on the job but not getting paid. in total more than 380,000 federal employees have been furloughed and more than 450,000 are working without pay, and the effects of this shutdown affect the entire country, including new hampshire. because it's not just the thousands of federal workers who are affected by the shutdown, it's also harming millions of americans who depend an essential services provided by the affected agencies, peesm like those senator kaine described. -- people like those senator kaine described. last friday i had a chance to meet with farmers in new hampshire who are affected bawtion of the ongoing -- because of the ongoing closure of the department of agriculture's agencies, they are not receiving services and loans to prepare for spring planting

and so many dairy farmers who have been under extreme hardship anyway because of the tariffs with china and falling dairy prices talked about what the impact is on them. last year new hampshire dairy farmers lost $1 million because of the tariffs and our farmers tell me they are in danger of losing several million more this coming year, and so they can't afford to have another hit. and the fact that the dairy program, this new dairy safety net program which was passed in the farm bill, and congratulations to senator stabenow, ranking member of the agriculture committee, she and senator roberts did a great job in providing help for the first time for so many dairy farmers, but they can't benefit from that right now even though they are hurting because of the tariffs because the program is delayed in implementation, so they don't know how long they'll be able to hold on before they are able to get help.

furloughs have loss slowed work at the office of national drug control policy and the programs that it oversees that are integral to new hampshire's effort to fighting the deadly opioid epidemic. these are programs that everybody here who's getting ready to speak has -- sees the effects in their states because of the delays. last year new hampshire had the second highest rate of deaths due to opioid-related drug overdoses. and continued delays from the agency will pull the rug out from first responders who rely on resources and critical opioid response efforts. just as we're beginning to see some progress in fighting the opioid epidemic because of the work of congress we're seeing steps backward. and, of course, air traffic controllers. i visited last friday with new

hampshire's air traffic controllers to discuss how the shutdown is affecting their operations an safety at the airports. i received handwritten letters from the air traffic controllers who are opposed to the shutdown. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that these letters be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. . mrs. shaheen: air traffic controllers keep our air i -- airway safe, but as you know they are asked to work long shifts without knowing whether they will be paid for that work. one air traffic controller was recent transferred to the boston area, she is the sole provider to her mother, now she's paying not only her mortgage but her mortgage's mortgage and in a letter she addressed to my office she wrote, as a sole source of income to my household, the shutdown is detrimental. it created a substantial burden not just on me but on thousands

of federal employees that it's affecting. and, sadly the shutdown could affect the safety of air travel. not because our air traffic controllers aren't on the job. they are on the job. they are doing the work even though they are not being paid, but those who provide the administrative functions on the runway, those who fix equipment when it stops working, who are in control towers at the facilities won't be at work to support the air traffic controllers. when a runway goes dark, it goes unprepared. that jeopardizes the safety and efficiency of aviation operations. and then there are the impacts to those agencies that are funded by the commerce, justice, and science appropriations bill. and i understand this particularly well as the ranking member on the c.j.s. subcommittee of appropriations. i know what a devastating effect

this shutdown is having on these agencies. more than 31,000 law enforcement agents is the the department of justice, including agents within the f.b.i., drug enforcement administration, and the bureau of prisons, they are working for i.o.u.'s and we're hearing this directly in new hampshire where every member at the -- staff member in northern new hampshire are accepted, that means they are required to report for work and they are not being paid. and i'd like to read an excerpt from a letter i received from chris allen. chris is the president of the union there who represents 180 staff members. he highlights the kinds of choices that staff members are being forced to make. he says, and i quote, while some staff members can call and potentially have a mortgage or a car payment excuse if they are missing only one source of income, even buying simple

growersries or -- groceries or paying for child care becomes difficult for a family when all sources of income have stopped and they are required to continue working. again, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that chris' letter be included in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. . mrs. shaheen: because of the shutdown to the department of commerce, it is not that it be excluded from the aluminum steel and tariffs. it will increase economic uncertainty and the shutdown is preventing the department of commerce from assessing new antidumping cases that help ensure our companies are competing on a level playing field. and finally, the shutdown, like all shutdowns, is going to put a lasting burden on the economy. the 16-day shutdown in 2013 cost the government $2.5 billion in pay and benefits, and it lowered

fourth quarter gross domestic product for the country by about $3 billion in lost output. the 2018 trump shutdown has furloughed about 380,000 employees, nearly half of the number furloughed in 2013, so it's fair to say that the shutdown has already cost the government at least a billion dollars, and the number is growing every day. the toll the shutdown is taking on the american people was completely avoidable. that's what's so frustrating, and it's frustrating, i know, to everybody in this chamber. last week, the house passed legislation to reopen the government that's virtually identical to legislation that passed the senate or was reported by the appropriations committee with strong bipartisan margins. in fact, here, as we remember, is that continuing resolution to allow us to keep negotiating passed by a voice vote. so i urge senator mcconnell to

bring these bills to the floor. let president trump decide to sign them or not sign them. he can make that choice as president, but we are a separate branch of government, and it's up to us to make the determination to end this shutdown immediately and to do what is right for the american people. we need to ensure that all government employees affected by the shutdown receive the pay they deserve, and i know there is legislation led by senators cardin and collins to do that, and i urge congress to take up and pass this critical legislation as soon as possible. one of the most fundamental constitutional duties of congress is the appropriations process to supply annual funds for federal programs that support national defense, transportation, small businesses, food assistance for low-income families, research and development, and so much more, and right now by refusing to allow legislation to reopen

the government, this senate, this congress, is failing millions of americans who are suffering as a result. so i urge president trump, senator mcconnell, congressional republicans, to reopen the government, to allow americans to get back to work. thank you, mr. president. i yield to senator durbin. mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: let me thank the senator from new hampshire as well as the senator from virginia. my other colleagues who have gathered here. my trek each week to this desk starts in illinois, and it means that for a number of years, i have gone through the airports of the midwest, primarily in illinois and missouri, more than most. in fact, i probably know o'hare airport and every corner of it better than anyone who doesn't work there on a regular basis, and i know the people who work there, too.

at all the different levels. starting with 2001, we brought in the t.s.a. as a means of making certain that we would be safe in boarding airlines, that people would not bring guns or weapons or bombs onto planes. and these men and women, of course, get on our nerves once in a while as we have to open up the valise or piece of baggage or take off our shoes or forget there was a water bottle on board. it's a little frustrating. but i often think to myself they're doing their job, and thank goodness they are. if it weren't for the men and women of t.s.a. carefully screening passengers every single day, we would not be as safe nor would our families be as safe on these airplanes. 10:00 this morning i went up to o'hare. instead of heading to the gate to catch a plane, i had a press conference.

i brought four of these t.s.a. agents in to explain what has happened to them and what will happen this coming weekend, because you see this is shutdown weekend for these employees. president trump's shutdown of the federal government will mean that for the first time this coming weekend, these employees of the transportation security agency are not going to receive a paycheck. they show up for work every day. they have to. they're known as essential personnel, which means our government has decided we can't really function as a nation without them. and yet, our government has decided at least in the white house that as important as they may be, as essential as they may be, starting this weekend, they will work without pay. so i asked each of them -- i had not met them personally before, but i asked each of them to explain what is this going to mean to you and your family not getting a paycheck? and they really brought home to me what workers across america, not just federal employees, but

workers across america face every payday. they each said to me, senator, with only one exception, senator, we live paycheck to paycheck. and if we don't receive our paychecks, we've got to make some basic decisions. one young woman who had worked for 16 years for t.s.a. had said to me i live 39 miles away from o'hare. round trip 78 miles every single day. i make it because i need this job, and i need gasoline for my car to get here. and it costs me a lot of money each and every day and every week. i don't know what i'm going to do without the paycheck. another one talked about the fact that they are dealing with expenses we all face, whether it's mortgage or rent, and what it will mean to them if they can't make their mortgage payment. well, if you don't make your mortgage payment on time and time passes, it affects your credit rating. it could affect the interest rates you pay on your mortgage or whether you even have a

mortgage when it's all over. so for these people, it's a critical element. one woman brought up something which i'm sure many families, working families know instantly. she said, senator, if i can't get my paycheck, i can't pay the day care center that takes care of my kids while i come to work here every day. that's the reality of life for working families. so why in the world has president donald trump decided that in order to make his case to the american people, he is going to penalize these workers, many of whom are essential to america's security and safety? why did he do this? i would have to say with all due respect to president donald trump pick on somebody your own size. stop picking on people living paycheck to paycheck who are trying to serve this nation in important ways. and what we hear from the president, i just have to do it because i have got to have my wall. we remember the wall.

he talked about it incessantly in his campaign, the sea to shining sea concrete wall that was going to correct america and be paid for by the mexicans, remember that? well, here we are. we have given the president money over the last two years in his presidency to construct fences, barriers, where they are needed, not his almighty wall 2,000 miles long, but we have asked him to justify each year how he is going to spend this money, taxpayers' dollars, and whether it really is worthwhile. well, the president has decided he is impatient, he can't wait any longer. he has to have huge assumes of money, maybe even $5 billion dramatically increasing funding barriers at the border. he has to have it now and the only way to make his point is to shut down the government. i was at a meeting last week when the president said -- and make no mistake. i'm not talking about shutting down this government for a few days. i'm prepared, and i repeated it afterwards in front of the cameras, he said, donald trump

said i'm prepared to shut down this government for months, even years. now, this president is making history. no president in the history of this country has ever shut down his own government. we have elected men to lead and manage this government, and we understand that their responsibility is to keep the lights on and to make sure taxpayers' dollars are well spent, but this president doesn't understand that to be his responsibility, and a lot of innocent people are suffering. yesterday, i was at the department of agriculture research lab in peoria, illinois. it turns out it's the largest one. 200 researchers there. and you think to yourself, well, they're doing important research when it comes to agriculture. it turns out this lab has some of amazing history behind it. it was during world war ii at this lab where they discovered penicillin. it was at the peoria ag lab where they came up with penicillin that we could use for our troops who were being wounded in world war ii, saving countless lives in the process.

so they're pretty proud of that legacy, and they should be. do you know what they are working on now? the peoria ag lab is working on something called tunicimycin. i don't understand a lot about it, but here is what it gets down to. this element which occurs naturally in nature can boost the healing power of antibiotics that have been spent -- they no longer have an effect on people, but if tunicimycin is added, they can save lives. they may have done it again in peoria. first penicillin, now this. well, the lights have been turned off at the ag department of research laboratory in peoria. they have been turned off because of president trump's shutdown. and i met with one of the research team, and she had worked there for 15 years. she has a degree in chemistry. she's doing her best to do her job, but she is not going to get paid this weekend.

and i asked her what she was going to do as a result of it. she said i hoped that i might be able to apply for unemployment compensation, but, senator, the records that i need to produce for unemployment compensation are in that laboratory building, and i can't get in there. they have shut me out. so she can't even apply for unemployment compensation so her family can get by until this shutdown's over. why did we do this to her? why does this president want to impose this kind of shutdown and hardship on people who are doing worthy work at taxpayers' expense, for sure, but for the taxpayers of america? whether it's t.s.a. agents or it's people at the ag lab, these are good people who are dedicated to this government and have given their life and their life's work to this government. they deserve better treatment than this. let me close by saying a word about the border. the president says it's all about walls. well, it turns out there are things he hasn't shared with the

american people, and he is not likely to do it when he makes his presentation this evening. take a look here at the apprehensions at the border. these are the apprehensions being made by federal agencies of people trying to cross the border illegally. notice something? you may have noticed that in the year 2000, there were 1.6 million apprehensions. and then take a look at the year 2018. the apprehensions are down just slightly over 200,000, from 1.6 million to 200,000. we're going to be told we're facing a security crisis at the border. it turns out that we have fewer people seeking to cross the border illegally now than we have in 45 years, and the apprehensions of those people have gone down dramatically from 1.6 million to slightly over 200,000. and we have already dramatically increased the number of people in border patrol. meanwhile, let me add something that the president doesn't talk

about because it doesn't fit into his wall scenario. we are facing the worst drug epidemic in the history of the united states of america. it's opioids, heroin, and fentanyl, and fentanyl has now been identified by the c.d.c. as the deadliest narcotic on the streets of america. where is the fentanyl coming from? well, i can tell you where a large part of it is coming from. from china, through mexico. oh, they must be putting it into backpacks and jumping over the border. no, 85% of it is coming through ports of entry, places where vehicles and railroad cars go through now. so 85% of this deadly fentanyl is coming through ports of entry? what are we doing to stop it? let me tell you, we're not doing enough. 98% of the railroad cars that come into the united states are scanned, basic x-ray to find out what's inside that car. is it something that wasn't disclosed? but when it comes to cars and

trucks coming into this country, 17% are being scanned. fewer than one out of five of the cars and trucks coming into this country. ever wonder how the fentanyl is getting into this country and killing people in every town across the state of illinois and across america? it's coming in through ports of entry. if the president would stop preaching about his almighty wall and take a look at real border security, he would be doing what's necessary to stop this fentanyl and these drug coming into this country, and we're not doing enough. i'm for border security. make it smart. i'm not worried about a president keeping a campaign promise that didn't make sense from the start. i'm worried about keeping this border safe for our families across the entire nation. tonight let's make sure that the people who work at that border and work at t.s.a. and work for the federal government get back to work this week. that's priority number one. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: mr. president, i'm very proud to join with my

colleagues tonight. i want to thank the senator from virginia and the senator from new hampshire and other colleagues who are here to speak out and talk about common sense and what is happening and what we believe should be happening for the american people. in michigan we are building a new bridge, and canada is paying for it. that's the truth. canada is paying for a bridge in michigan. here in washington president trump is demanding walls that he is expecting american taxpayers to pay for, walls that the majority of experts, the majority of people do not believe will be effective in keeping us safe. meanwhile, in michigan hundreds of customs and border patrol officers who keep us safe every day are working without pay, and that's wrong.

the president says we need more security. i support strong border security, as my colleagues do. strong, effective border security. i also support economic security for hardworking michigan families. some federal employees in michigan, as other colleagues have spoken about, are wondering how they're going to support their families, pay their mortgages, keep the heat on without the paychecks that they're supposed to receive on friday. and president trump is talking about a humanitarian crisis. here is a humanitarian crisis -- 38 million people who depend on food assistance, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, to keep food on their tables now have to worry that it might suddenly be gone p. most of those americans are senior citizens, people with

disabilities, and children. this shutdown fight should not be about politics, but it is. it should be about people. what's happening here is about people. and the american people are losing. one issue we should be able to agree on is the border. we all support border security, and i can't say that enough, and my colleagues say that as well. i certainly know the importance of border security as a member from a border state. in fact, the state with the most active crossings at the northern border. the professionals on our northern border keep us safe every day, and they know what they need to do their jobs, and they will say, it is more resources for more staff. they need more people. and, above all, they need more technology. what they don't need is a

first-century solution to a 21st century problem. building a wall on our border is a little like providing the u.s. army swords and shields and expecting them to defend our nation today. unfortunately, this administration is more focused on the merits of concrete versus steel than actually protecting the american people in the a real and effective way. if our border is a national emergency right now, then why hasn't the president spent the hundreds of millions of dollars that we have already given him in the last year's budget? we already allocated dollars for border security, the majority of which has not been spent. we all agree that border security is a high priority, and we should also be able to agree that workers, people working

deserve to be paid. and they should be able to take care of their families. i've heard from michigan workers who can't pay their bills and are desperately seeking temporary jobs, families who've been left without health insurance, businesses who contract with the federal government who know that even if federal workers get paid back at the end of this, they won't. there are also thousands of small businesses that depend on spending by federal employees who remain open -- the dry cleaner, the neighborhood store, the local restaurant. this shutdown is also hurting american agriculture. my colleagues have talked about the fact that at the end of this last year, just a few weeks ago, we passed a strong, bipartisan farm bill to help farmers struggling with low prices, with growing trade concerns, and unpredictable weather to say the least.

during these difficult times, our farmers desperately need the predictability and confidence of a five-year farm bill. that's what senator roberts and i spoke about every day on the floor of the senate. we need to put in place a five-year farm bill with predictability for farmers in rural communities and families. however, the president has undermined the certainty that the farm bill provided by continuing this shutdown on the u.s. department of agriculture. every day that the usda is shut down is another day the improvements we made in the 2018 farm bill are delayed. local farm service offices all across michigan are closed. farmers can't apply for the loans they need as they look to next year. we have dairy farmers in very desperate situations. we dramatically increased support for them in the farm bill, a new dairy program, and

they need it now. they needed it yesterday. they needed it last week. important crop reports have been halted that farmers need to make decisions about upcoming planting seasons. what's the market? what's the prices? all kinds of technical information that they need to plan, to move forward. and, frankly, rural communities -- the usda rural development office is the economic development arm for every small town and every rural community in michigan. our rural homeowners can't receive the housing loans that they need to finance their homes and pay their morts. so many other ways -- pay their mortgages. so many other ways things have stopped. and we can't forget about our families on food assistance. 38 million people are able to put food on their table thanks to snap.

while we should certainly do everything we can to ensure that food assistance is available in the near-terming, our families deserve long-term certainty. especially considering, again, that nearly 70% of those on snap are seniors, are children, and people with disabilities. it's unconscionable to risk letting those most in need go to hungry because of the politics of a government shutdown. and beyond snap, school meals, support for w.i.c., a very important program for women, infants, and children, food for seniors -- all at risk if this continues to go on. due to the shutdown, local food banks are no longer receiving funds to distribute and to store food.

very, very real consequences going on, and we could go through every single department to speak about what is happening to real people and what will happen if this does not get resolved. we can disagree about a lot of things. we should be able to agree, though, that people keeping us safe every day should be paid, that federal workers should be able to pay their bills and take care of their families, that children, seniors, people with disabilities shouldn't have to worry about where they are next meal is coming from because of a government shutdown. it's time for the president to end this. it's very easy. the house and the senate now have both passed the appropriations bills on a bipartisan vote. at the end of the last year we passed it in the senate. it was just passed last week in the house. we can repass those bills. they should go to the president's desk and this

shutdown should end. he should sign the bipartisan appropriations bills and put the american people first. we can and will continue to debate what border security looks like, how can we be most effective at doing what we all want to see get done. but it's time to stop the shutdown and for the president to sign the appropriations bills that are bipartisan and make sure that the american people know he's on their side when it comes to what's happening in the country. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from from new mexico. mr. heinrich: mr. president, we are now in the third week of president trump's government shutdown. this is yet another manufactured, unnecessary, and

frankly irresponsible crisis from this president. and this one comes at a steep, steep cost for very real people. a government shutdown ripples throughout the entire economy. it shakes consumer confidence. it impacts hardworking families. and in my home state of new mexico, almost 6,000 federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay. many of whom were already living paycheck to paycheck before this president's shutdown. carol wrote to me, i feel i am being held hostage by my government, which i have always felt it was an honor to work for. carol is worried about how she and her coworkers are going to pay their mortgages, their car payments, if this shutdown continues. kathy from los lunas wrote to

me, i am a federal employees and i am dismayed this the president is holding us hostage. he needs to quit toying with our lives and all of the public that we support and serve and end this shutdown. it's hard to say it any better than that. and the shutdown's impacts hit far more than just our federal employees. hundreds of thousands of new mexicans rely on the federal agency that president trump refuses to reopen. during president trump's shutdown, our public lands have had to lock their gates or leave parks and facilities unstaffed. the impacts of reduced visitation, the challenges for furloughed public lands workers, and the costs of repairing the damage accrued during the shutdown will hurt communities across our state and many others. and in this era of increasingly

extreme and catastrophic wildfires, i'm particularly worried about the impact that a long, prolonged shutdown will have on our national forest. if i can has, a wildland firefighter from los cruses wrote to me, he says, if this shutdown is not resolved, it will impact my ability to provide for my family. now, nicholas deserves to be able to support his family, and our communities can't afford to wait for nicholas and his coworkers to do their essential work that keeps our forests healthy and prevents about more destructive wildfires. our state's farmers, rural communities are also facing increased uncertainty, and that's because president trump's shutdown has shuttered the department of agriculture, which funds agricultural loans and many economic development

programs in rural communities. and if the shutdown continues into next month, as president trump seems entirely willing to allow, the supplemental nutrition assistance program -- sometimes referred to as food stamps -- will run out of funding. that would mean millions of americans, including more than half a million in new mexico alone, would be left struggling to put food on the table. over the weekend, k.o.b., one of our local television stations in albuquerque, talked to newians who would be impacted by a lapse in food stamps funding. one man named steven said, all of us who use food stamps, we rely on it. that's how we eat. that's how we get our nutrition. he said that if he can't receive his support for food next month, he might have to take tout a loan and go -- take out a loan

and go into debt. almost is also home to many tribal nations who are disproportionally impacted by a lapse in federal funding and are now under distress to meet very basic needs in their communities. that includes things like law enforcement, education, housing, transportation. let me tell you just one example i heard from the mess can a layer a apache tribe in southern new mexico. mescaleras' land spares more than several hundred thousand square miles. the tribe's federally funded police force has been furloughed. think about what if moons for someone who needs help, someone who needs to report a crime, someone who needs medical attention. i need to remind us that this shutdown comes right after congress failed in december to reauthorize the violence against women act.

now, without this law and without funding, tribes are especially strained in addressing an epidemic of sexual violence that has been so acutely felt in their community. mescalera has seen all of thighs bureau of indian affairs social workers and victim specialists furloughed. that i

the president has said he would be proud to shut down our government and i.d. i have is a say there is nothing to be proud of about any of this. the president can the president must put an end to this shutdown. look, the way out of this is pretty straightforward. the votes are not there in either the house or the senate to make americans pay the bill

for president trump's wasteful border wall. signing a bipartisan government funding bill to reopen the government is the only responsible way forward. the only thing he's doing by refusing to back down is hurting americans, like the families i represent in new mexico, like the people who work along our southern border. they expect and deserve so much better than this irresponsible, this preventable shutdown. president trump has all the power to end this madness right now, and i will say this one last time. mr. president, if you are listening, listen to the american people. listen to the people that work for you and i and this entire nation that you are hurting. do the right thing and end this

now. a senator: mr. president, will the senator yield for a question? mr. heinrich: i would. mr. kaine: prior to senator markey, i wanted to ask this. if i heard correctly, you indicated that half a million new mexicans are currently participating in the snap program? mr. heinrich: that's correct. mr. kaine: what is the total population of new mexico? mr. heinrich: a little over 2 million people. mr. kaine: so nearly one-quarter of the state is participating in the food stamp program that is jeopardized by this shutdown. the senator from new mexico, are you aware that 95% of the employees of the agency that administers snap has been sent home and furloughed? are you aware of that? mr. heinrich: i was aware of that. mr. kaine: and that is causing problems not only for your half a million but for any new family that falls into hunger and needs to apply for snap every day. mr. heinrich: thank you. mr. kaine: thank you. i yield the floor to the senator

from massachusetts. markaz e taiba i thank the senator from virginia. i. mr. markey: i thank senator from virginia. i thank him for his leadership on this issue. just talking about snap, quite briefly, 50% of all children in the united states at some point in their thrive are going to be on snap, are going to need some help. -- to eat, to avoid hunger. we're playing games with the program that's central to the lives of millions of families across this country. and we're playing out this entire drama in an all-too familiar scene. for the third time in just two years of the trump presidency we are once more in the midst of a government shutdown. it is important to remember how we got here. in december the senate majority leader brought to the floor a temporary funding bill to keep the federal government open.

it passed this chamber unanimously. everyone, all 100 senators at the time agreed that at the very least it was important to keep the government open while we debate the issue of border security and immigration reform. so why on earth is the government shut down? well simply because president trump has decided to hold the government hostage because he didn't get funding for a costly, ineffective wall. shutting down the government over billions of dollars for a wall is like canceling the world series because your team didn't make it. at nearly three weeks into the trump shutdown, we can track and see the devastating effects of the president's hostage takers. 800,000 federal employees are going without pay. and the longer this goes on,

the more their worries mount. mortgages, student loan payments, car payments, heating bills, food on the table, president trump may operate from crisis to crisis, but countless american families are living paycheck to paycheck. i have heard from many of the individuals and families who are part of the approximately 7,800 federal workers across massachusetts, and they are rightfully anxious about how they will make ends meet. 22% of federal employees in massachusetts are veterans. 22%. so how does donald trump repay thousands of individuals who have served and sacrificed for their country? by not paying them. and let's be clear about who these workers are. they are janitors, cafeteria

workers, secretaries, security guards, work incorporated is the largest employer of individuals with disabilities in new england under the federal ability one program. it employs hundreds of individuals with significant disabilities who work across federal facilities in the region. but because of the trump shutdown, they aren't going to work. and if they are not working, they are not being paid. and they are not providing the critical services which are needed for families in new england and across the whole country. we've gone from mexico paying for the border wall to americans going without pay. that's how absurd the president is being in terms of who ultimately winds up paying the price for his campaign promises.

and what's more, the trump shutdown reaches beyond workers and empty paychecks. the shutdown of the environmental protection agency means almost all of the 561 employees in e.p.a. region one, which includes new england, have been furloughed. that has halted cleanup of rivers and other brownfields all across our region and endangers the water, the air, all of the work that's done to protect the 13 million people who live in new england. it means the federal investigation into the deadly september 13 natural gas explosions and fires in merrimack valley is suspended, and residents are left waiting for answers. the trump shutdown is shutting down justice for the residents of lawrence and andover and north andover because that

investigation is now suspended. and we are heading for absolute catastrophe if the shutdown stretches on much longer as millions of vulnerable low-income americans relying on a supplemental nutrition assistance program, or snap, may have had their benefits cut severely. that is going to put 764,000 of the poorest massachusetts residents at risk of hunger. president trump may think it's okay to furlough workers, but he can't furlough hunger. he can't furlough dirty drinking water. he can't furlough pipeline accidents. we need an open government to prevent these things from happening. in just a few hours we'll hear from the president. he will go on tv tonight and present a fear and hate-ridden case about a manufactured national security emergency at

our border. the irony is the longer that president trump extends this government shutdown, the more insecure and unsafe american families become because federal workers aren't there to protect them against the things that they work every day to ensure that each and every family in our country are spared the pain that otherwise would be inflicted. so the department of homeland security is one of the agencies that the president has shut down , an outsized number of transportation security agencies screeners and agents who screen and apprehend dangerous suspects at airports are calling in sick rather than work without pay. some have even quit. and sadly, our own american president is the architect of this crisis. the truth is that there are more americans today going without their paycheck than immigrants

who illegally cross the southern border in the past two years. trump has completely manufactured this emergency. but there is an impending one if this trump shutdown continues and americans are left without government services. so let's end this. to my republican colleagues, let's pass the bipartisan legislation to reopen the government. you supported it before. support it again. raise your voices. let's put people back to work and let's provide certainty for the american public. and once again i thank senator kaine, senator shaheen for your leadership in organizing this very important colloquy. and i yield back to the senator from virginia.

ms. hassan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. hassan: mr. president, i rise today to join my colleagues in calling for an end to this senseless government shutdown, and i too want to thank my friend and colleague from new hampshire as well as my friend from virginia for their leadership in bringing us together tonight to speak about the need to move forward and end this shutdown. mr. president, all across our country americans are feeling the impacts of the shutdown, and government services that people rely on have been put to a halt. in new hampshire, our farmers were relieved last month at the passage of the farm bill. now, thanks to the shutdown, they are again facing

uncertainty that they may not receive the financial assistance that they need to help them operate. our craft breweries which contribute to our economy are unable to move forward with new projects because the brewers can't get the projects approved through the alcohol and tobacco tax and trade bureau. at the white mountain national forest, some visitor services are closed. and at this amazingly beautiful natural resource, trash is piling up. additionally, the shutdown is creating safety concerns with regard to air travel. the airline pilots association international recently wrote to the president to say that the shutdown is -- and this is a quote -- adversely affecting the safety, security, and efficiency of our national airspace system. and we know that the shutdown is

impacting our federal workforce. these are law enforcement officers, border security agents, members of our coast guard, workers from our national park service, t.s.a. agents and so many other people who dedicate their lives to serving their fellow citizens. but because of the shutdown, many workers are scrambling to make ends meet. president trump has said that these workers can simply -- and again quote -- make adjustments , close quote, to stay financially secure. but in making such a claim, the president grossly ignores the reality that hardworking americans face. what an out-of-touch statement. one missed paycheck could be the difference between people being able to put food on the table or not, of making their monthly mortgage payments, of affording

their medications. and if as the president suggests, the shutdown drags on for months or even years, those hardships to our families and our economy will grow as paychecks continue to be delayed.it doesn't have to be t. mr. president, last week the house of representatives passed bills that have received substantial support from members of both parties in the senate and would reopen the government immediately. that included robust funding for border security, funding to support commonsense improvements, including better technology that border agents say that they need. unfortunately, the president is more focused on campaign slogans than on strengthening border security based on the facts on the ground. as a result, the president has created a crisis for families across the country, including

for the border protection agents and law enforcement officers whose duty it is to protect us. the fact is we can keep our country safe while also reopening our government. that's why leader mcconnell must bring the bipartisan bills that have passed the house to the senate floor and the president must sign them into law. in the meantime, i'm focused on ensuring that our federal workforce gets the pay that they deserve and that they have earned. that's why i have joined with a bipartisan group of colleagues on legislation to ensure that any government employee furloughed as a result of this shutdown, or any future ones, will be paid retroactively as soon as appropriations are restored. and that cosponsored operation that would fund coast guard operations during lapses in appropriations, including pay to members of the coast guard. mr. president, it is time for these games to end. we need to keep providing the

government services that americans rely on and the people who provide these services deserve stability not only for their own sake but for that of the people and country that he serve -- that they serve. more broadly, the american people deserve to know that our government can operate effectively without these constant games and irresponsible tactics from the president. let's move on from this shutdown and let's reopen our government. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. van hollen: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. president. first i want to thank my colleague from virginia, senator kaine, for bringing us together this evening on the floor of the senate to talk about the urgent need to end the government shutdown because the mounting toll it's taking on the american public and on federal employees who are going without paychecks at this very moment. and this is a shutdown that president trump said he would be proud to do, to put in place, but i think if he begins to look around and see the consequences, he's got to ask himself what he means by being proud because just yesterday i had a roundtable discussion with many federal workers in my state of maryland and i wish that

president trump had been there at the roundtable to hear what these public servants had to say. maybe if he had listened, he would know that a government shutdown is nothing anybody should be proud of. mr. president, i want to share some of the stories that my constituents shared with me yesterday, and i hope president trump is listening to all of us here this evening. tyra was one of the people who came yesterday. she works for the court services and offender supervision agency. she has to keep reporting to work every day but she's not getting a paycheck. tyra talked about the challenges of juggling the cost of medicine, food, and gas for her daily commute to a job where she's not getting paid right now. here's what she told me

yesterday. quote, i'm trying to figure out how to get my child lunch. that's what the shutdown means for tyra. now, i heard the president say the other day, and i'm quoting him, that i can relate and i'm sure that the people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. they always do. that's from the president of the united states saying he can relate to these hardworking federal employees who are now going without a paycheck. someone needs to tell the president that the united states -- in the united states of america 40% of our fellow citizens lack the $400 in their bank account that would be needed for an emergency.

and so what you're talking about skipping a pay period, you're talking about thousands of families -- thousands of families who are not going to be able to make ends meet. so mr. trump can hang out at trump tower and fly down to mara largo, but one thing he cannot do is relate to the people who are going without a paycheck right now but who have mounting bills that they have to pay. another individual who joined us yesterday was trish. trish is an aerospace engineer at nasa. trish is trying to buy a home but the shutdown is throwing a wrench in those plans because her mortgage company, not surprisingly, says that they need current pay stubs for her in order to close on her purchase. and what can she tell them?

she doesn't have any current pay stubs coming in so she may not be able to get that mortgage. mary works at the commodity futures trading commission, the cftc. she told us about the important work cftc does to safeguard the financial system against financial wrongdoing and fraud. she explained that because of this shutdown the cftc cannot pursue legal cases against bad actors who are defrauding american consumers. that they've had to ask the courts to suspend those cases. so i guess the shutdown is good, mr. president, for those who are trying to take advantage of our fellow citizens through various financial schemes. it's certainly not fair to those who are working hard and playing

by the rules and that want to do the public business like our federal employees. mary said that because of the shutdown she's had to make some difficult decisions in her own household. mary's mother was recently widowed and the shutdown is hurting her ability to help her mother make due during this tough time. you know, mr. president, before i had this forum with a thumb of federal employees who have been shut out of work, i visited prince george's county community college in maryland. it's a great community college. the president of that community college is dr. dukes. and as i was going to meet dr. dukes, i medical a mom -- i met a mom on the elevator, and the mom had been there to talk about her daughter who was

enrolled there, and it turned out that her mother is a federal employee who has been shut out of the department of commerce. and then i talked to dr. dukes, and the president of this great community college told me she's been getting phone calls all week -- all week from parents who have students enrolled at prince george's community college who are on a monthly installment payment plan and they are calling the president of this community college and saying, what are we going to be able to do? we're not going to be able to make our next payment on our student, on our child's community college tuition bill? and then just today i got a number of letters from air traffic controllers in maryland. they, like thousands of other

federal employees, are working every day right now but they are not getting paid for it, and tension is mounting, frustration is mounting, and the air traffic controllers, there are a lot of federal law enforcement officers, and there are the people at the border, border security. so, mr. president, you don't know how to relate to these fellow americans who are struggling because of your shutdown, and here in the united states senate our failure to take up the bills that have already passed the house and are sitting right here in the united states senate to reopen the government, our failure to do that is making this senate complicit in the trump shutdown. every day that goes by where we don't make our first order of business ending the shutdown makes the senate an accomplice

in the trump shutdown. the house made it its first order of business to say let's reopen government. they passed two bills. both bills that have overwhelming support for their components here in the united states senate. i've got the first bill they passed here in my hand, h.j. res. 1, says to open the department of onlyland security at current funding levels on january 8 while we look at the best way to look at border security. had is on the senate calendar. we could vote on this tonight. and the irony is this senate just before the break voted on exactly this measure. we voted on a bipartisan basis to open the homeland security didn't at -- at current levels through february 8. we've already done it. so why aren't we taking up this

bill this evening? the other bill that passed the senate i have in my hand is also on the senate calendar. this bill that passed the house on their opening day would open eight of the nine departments that are closed. so the first bill would open the department of homeland security while we negotiate through february 8. the other bill opens the other eight of nine federal departments that have been closed. here's the other kicker. the house did not adopt the house appropriations levels. the house looked at what the senate had passed on a bipartisan basis, either here on the senate floor nor the senate appropriations committee. they put the senate funding levels to open those eight departments through the entire fiscal year through september 30. and so, mr. president, we all have a very simple question. why is the majority leader -- why are republican colleagues not bringing up those house

bills that are sitting here right in the senate? we've already supported those bills on a bipartisan basis. we could pass those bills to reopen the government tonight, and there's no excuse for not doing it. and i'm going to close, mr. president, by the comments of one of the other individuals who joined me yesterday that the gathering. his name is otis johnson. he works here at the national gallery of art. his message to president trump was, quote, mr. president, if you really can relate to how the federal employee is feeling, you need to go ahead and open the government back up so our people who want to work can get back to work and handle america's business. mr. president, i wish president trump was listening to otis and

all the other hardworking federal employees that i met with yesterday. if he talked to them, he could hear their stories and he would know that they are suffering, as are the american people who every day are losing access to important services. so i want to again thank my colleague from virginia, senator kaine, and my other other colleagues, and i yield the floor. ms. klobuchar: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i come to the floor today to join my colleagues in voicing my sin cease hope -- sincere hope that the president will end this senseless, senseless shutdown. the american people are tired of our country being held hostage and our economy threatened. there are real consequences. i see it all the time. of course my state, unlike

senator van hollen's state of maryland or the state of virginia may not have as high a percentage of federal workers, but every worker that is hit by this, it is the same story. at our airport just this weekend i talked to countless t.s.a. officers and they said we will continue to do our job but now we're not going to get paid. you think about these people on the front line that are doing the work for our country that are keeping us safe that are not getting paid because of this senseless shutdown. you hear about the garbage piling up in our national parks. you hear about people having trouble paying their rent or mortgage. you look at the fears about airport security lines, so everyday americans are affected by this as well. other consequences of this shutdown are less visible but deeply painful for those affected. entrepreneurs who want to take their companies public but can't get approval by the s.e.c. you have rural home buyers who

can't get their mortgages backed by the agricultural department. you have farmers that can't access critical loans or information about how the department will implement the new farm bill. we were so proud to pass this new farm bill in this chamber on a bipartisan basis. and something the president took credit for, and now we can't even implement it and help our farmers as they approach growing season in the spring. they don't even know what's going to happen with the new provisions of this farm bill, especially the dairy farmers in minnesota that have been hit so hard by low prices and by the trade war that we're in. and so while this trade war is going on, we're going to also be able to now not be able to help them and deny them the help they need. vulnerable americans. funding for the supplemental nutrition assistance program which helps put food on the table for 38 million americans would be severely reduced or cut off altogether. the department of housing and urban development payments that maintain housing for three

million americans. it is time to put aside the political games and it's time to get in the real game, and that is in the lives of the american people to stop this shutdown. it means reopening our entire government so we can work on the issues that matter. this is a time in our country when we should not be governing from crisis. we should be governing from opportunity. after the downturn in the economy had stabilized, we should be working with the rest of the world, we should be selling our goods to market, we should be building the infrastructure in this country, we should be doing something about prescription drug prices, and we should be training our workers for the jobs that are available today and the jobs that will be available tomorrow. there are simple proposals out there. the senate sent the house of representatives legislation that passed through this body unanimously. not a single senator opposed it. yet the president suddenly changed course and once again insisted that he needs over $5 billion immediately.

the new house has now passed legislation to fund all shuttered agencies other than the department of homeland security through the end of the fiscal year. that includes the treasury department, the ag department, the interior department, government agencies that provide critical services. these noncontroversial bills were originally drafted and approved by the senate appropriations committee run by the republican party. none of this makes sense to me at all. the measures that have been passed by the house are sensible. they are ones that have been supported in the past by republicans over in this chamber. shutdowns are not good for the economy. the 2013 shutdown, i lived through that, was estimated to cost our economy over $20 billion. the president's own economic advisor, kevin haslett, has estimated this shutdown will shrink our economy by .17 every

two weeks. that is roughly $10 billion every single week. that is real money for real americans, so stop the games. shutting down the government should not be a negotiating tactic. if president trump were to agree to sign the bills that the house has now passed and every member of the senate supported last month, we would end this shutdown. instead, critical services and our economy are being threatened with poison pill partisanship. to my colleagues in the senate, i say this -- let's get this done. we owe it to the people that we were elected to serve. we owe it to the country. as one former congresswoman once said, america should be good as its promise. this is a promise we made to them when we were elected to do the best for them and to serve our country. let's get it done. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. bennet: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: i rise tonight to talk about the government shutdown. i thank my colleague from minnesota for her remarks. i remember the 2013 shutdown that she talked about. the reason that i remember that is while this place was shut down by the senator from texas, my state was under water with some of the worst floods that we had ever seen, and there were people at every level of government, the local level, county government, the state level, coming together to work with fema, coming together to work with religious organizations, coming together to work with ordinary people to

literally dig themselves out of the mud and the rocks that were the consequence of floods we had never seen before. and i had to stand there almost like a fool explaining that the federal government was shut down for politics. and here we are again. mr. president, for ten years, i have come to this floor and said over and over again that this place had become the land of flickering lights, the standard of success was only whether we kept the lights on for one more day or one more week. it had nothing to do with whether we were investing in the next generation of americans, had nothing to do with what america's place in the world was. and tonight, 18 days later, we're shut down. just like in minnesota, just like in new hampshire, people in colorado are suffering as a result of this. this shutdown is inflicting real harm on people who are federal

workers, who can't pay their mortgage, can't take care of their kids, can't hire a plumber. we heard today the e.p.a. is only getting paid half of their paycheck. you can't pay only half your mortgage. you can't go to the grocery store and pay only half your bill. we have farmers and ranchers all over the state of colorado who can't get operating loans from the f.s.a. to buy seed or fertilizer. we've had fema meetings canceled and critical projects delayed that were vital to our rebuilding after the 2013 flood. the last time there was a long shutdown like this, and after a terrible fire year in colorado, the forest service can't move forward with new projects to reduce wildfire risk in our community. rocky mountain national park is closed. why do the people of estes park have to bear the burden of the stupidity of this place? the inability to govern like

every other entity in america governs, where you could never shut down your local government, you could never shut down your school district, but for some reason you can do it over politics. in this case, why? over a pneumonic device that the trump campaign supplied to candidate trump. , the wall. and two things that weren't true. one, that mexico would pay for the wall. if he had fulfilled that promise, we wouldn't be here because there wouldn't be a need for $5 billion because the mexicans would pay for this wall. and that's what he said over and over and over again. and it was abjectly not true, just as it is not true that what's needed is the wall that he's proposed. we had a bill here in 2013 that 68 senators voted for. that bill had $46 billion for border security in it, 350 miles of fencing on the southern

border, internal security, fix our visa system, far more effective than the ineffective wall that the president is trying to build now. for $5 billion. he can't even spend the money. it's already been appropriated. and now he's shut the government down for $5 billion to keep a campaign promise that's not true. it wasn't true then, and it's not true now. this is ridiculous. this is ridiculous, mr. president. last week, china marked a new year by landing a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon. that's never happened before in human history. here in the united states while they were accomplishing that, we had a government shutdown. now, close observers might say -- and they would be

right -- that nasa -- which, by the way, is closed, marked new year's day by successfully flying the new horizons probe past an object four billion miles away. we should celebrate that achievement, but let's also remember that that mission was 18 years in the making, because people plan for the future, and american craft is literally on the outer edge of human discovery. and last week, we were shut down while the chinese landed their craft on the other side of the moon. do you know, mr. president, because of the fecklessness of people in this body, we can't even put an astronaut into space now? we have to call off the russians and ask them to put us on a rocket to take us up there. do you think our parents and grandparents would have stood for that? a unanimous vote in this chamber

and in the other chamber passed. we should reopen the government, mr. president. this is doing too much damage to the country. and the president should understand that part of his job of being president is keeping the government open, not sharing it when it's closed. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. jones: thank you, mr. president. first of all, let me say how much i appreciate my colleagues on the floor, particularly senator bennet's comments, and the passion that everyone has shown for the people in this country. and why we are here, why we are here for the people we represent, whether they voted for us or not, that's not the issue. we are here to represent all the people, and i really appreciate those incredible words from my

colleagues and particularly the passion showed by senator bennet. mr. president, i'm rising today to give my voice to the thousands of alabamians who are also suffering as a result of this government shutdown, and it's not just the folks that are employed but those that are affected by this shutdown with whatever means -- by whatever means necessary. they are people that are not employed by the government that are also affected. you know, in the midst of all the political posturing that we've seen, the costly government shutdown has hurt over 5,100 alabama workers, their families, and the people who rely on them to do their job. thousands more are contractors who won't get back pay. unlike the federal workers that traditionally get back pay, these contractors that are not working now because there is no work to be had with the federal government will not get back pay

from their employers. our coast guard employees who aren't paid through the department of defense and their budget that passed this year, the coast guard, they don't know whether their next paycheck will come or not. and by the way, it's the coast guard who is interdicting so much of the illegal drugs that are attempting to come into this country. it's not the southern border. it's the coast guard that we are putting at risk who is doing the best job of interdicting the illegal drugs that are attempting to come into this country. these folks pay the price of this shutdown. while this political drama that we have seen in washington, d.c. drags on and on and on on cable tv and on twitter and other social media platforms. these folks are hardworking alabamians who keep our airports safe, they protect our

communities, they monitor our prisons. we have three federal prisons in alabama, three of the workers in the aliceville prison were on cnn today talking about the effect on them and their community, their small community in aliceville, alabama. these are people who support our national defense, folks at redstone arsenal and on all the military bases in our state. they support the aerospace programs in our state. these are the folks that are getting hurt. many of these people are veterans who have gone on to serve their country a second time by working in federal service. most of these folks support strong border security. in fact, i would venture to guess all of them support strong border security. some will support the wall as the president has described it, but they don't agree, they don't support shutting down the

government of the united states of america in a way to just get that wall or that border security done. they do not support that at the expense of their communities and their families. over the past 18 days or so since the shortchanges i've heard from any n >> to call the office here in washington for mobile and montgomery - - montgomery and birmingham. one constituent is a small business owner in north alabama with 30 plus employees haveve continuous support for programs in over the past seven years that work has been delayed or stopped altogether. because if their work stops they will need jobs and they will start looking for other