you avoiding those union dues for this time? are you helping your people monetarily and that would be my question, thank you. >> guest: thank you for that question. thank you for calling me a young lady. of course, we're not receiving dues when our members are not being paid. we don't have the resources to help our members financially. some unions have a strike fund but since federal employees are barred by law from ever going on strike and of course we would never call a strike we don't have those resources to help people out. i don't think none of our members who are being affected by the shutdown have savings. some do. what we -- >> we break away from the end of this portion of this morning's

washington journal and the life to the four of the u.s. senate on the agenda today is passing a bill that would provide military aid to israel and put new sections on syrian. democrats are blocking the bill and others. they say and do not provide funding to the reopen the federal government. live coverage now of the u.s. senate here on the. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. o god our father, we thank you for setting eternity in our hearts. you are the ultimate source of

peace and knowledge, presiding over our universe with the majesty of your power. today we present ourselves to you with the humble request that you would move mightily in the hearts of our legislators. lord, lead them toward the path of unity, empowering them to accomplish your work on earth. god, we thank you for the freedoms that you have given us and ask that through our senators these liberties will flourish. and, lord, please bring an end to this partial government shutdown.

woe pray in your mighty 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: the majority leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: although three-quarters of the government is funded and fully operational, important federal functions continue to be unduly affected and hundreds of thousands of federal workers have now missed paychecks. by now everyone in america understands the basic faultlines of this disagreement. the speaker of the house has decided that opposing president trump comes before the security of our borders. the president trump has asked for a reasonable, new investment -- $5.7 billion, one .1 of

federal spending for the same kind of border security that prominent democrats actually used to brag about supporting. for the very same kind of reinforcement steel fencing that the obama administration bragged about building, for precisely the kinds of barriers that the men and women of law enforcement there on the ground insist are vital for their mission. so, mr. president, it's for precisely the same kind of physical border security in which a number of my democratic colleagues here in the senate were perfectly happy to invest billions of dollars just as recently as last congress. the 2017 funding measure that passed the senate with 47 democratic votes included upgraded border fencing. that was in 2017. just this past congress, last year.

and 40 democrats voted for the bipartisan spending deal that we cleared just this past march. it included more than m.d. 1.5 -- for than $1.5 billion for border. another $1 .6 billion was approved for border security in a bipartisan vote last june. ten of 15 committee democrats voted to report the final package to the full senate. that's billions of dollars for physical border security winning democratic votes just last year. well, mr. president, that was before we had a new speaker of the house. that was before speaker pelosi and her far-left base decided that the politics of obstruction would come before commonsense policymaking. here's how serious the speaker is about ending the impasse and getting the government reopened. she now proudly boasts that she

would allow exactly $1 -- $1 for border barriers. so, mr. president, there was bipartisan support in the congress with billions of dollars of physical barriers at the border before representative pelosi was speaker. till now, congress democrats support just one dollar -- one dollar -- for border barriers since she became speaker. so you have to ask yourself, what's the reason? earlier this month speaker pelosi declared that the concept of any physical wall on our southern barrier was, quote, an immorality -- an immorality. a wall? a wall is an immorality? that's what speaker pelosi said. look, that's not a serious

statement. it would be a laugh-out-loud material if hundreds of thousands of federal workers were going without pay because the speaker has decided this absurdity is now her party's official position. immoral? was it immoral for democrats to vote for the secure fence act in 2006? was it immoral for president obama's administration to proudly build the same kind of steel slat barriers that president trump now wants more of? is speaker pelosi calling sitting democrats immoral because they voted to invest billions in border security over the past few years alone? i'd like to see how this new philosophical opposition to the existence of walls plays out in practice. shouldn't the speaker introduce a bill to destroy the walls and fencing that already exists? -- if they're immoral.

or maybe this actually isn't a new principle stand by democrats. maybe this is all one big political game. no negotiations no collaboration political game playing. consider the latest tactic from my democratic colleagues. they've said the president just needs to drop his request and agree to the democrats' plan to reopen the government, and then -- and then they'll talk about border security. except they couldn't even keep up that act either. when president trump and speaker pelosi met last week, the president put the question to her directly, if the government were reopened, would democrats, after 30 days, then compromise and agree to more border security? no -- no, said speaker pelosi, they would not. so here we are, mr. president, day 24 because the speaker of

the house has decided that enforcing our own laws is now immoral. because she's decided its better to prolong this partial shutdown than invest more than one dollar in something that both parties agreed was a good idea until about five minutes ago. funding that obama administration border experts continue to argue is a good idea, an essential idea. right here in the senate, i'm sorry to say my democratic colleagues seem to have just fallton in line. -- fallen in line. based on their actions, my colleagues across the aisle seem to agree. it's better for federal workers

to keep going without pay than to invest one 1/1,000th of border funding that they repeatedly voted to fund in just the past few years. i have a hard time believing that every one of my democratic colleagues really stands with speaker pelosi on this. hard to believe. hard to believe senate democrats now agree they are own recent votes on border security were actually immoral, that it would be better to keep the government shut down than invest 1/ 1/1,000th in border funding that the obama administration bragged about funding. so it is particularly hard for me to believe that my colleagues from maryland and virginia who are very understandably concerned about the circumstances of the federal workforce would rather echo speaker pelosi's fringe position

-- rather echo speaker pelosi's fringe position than work with the white house to find a real compromise and reopen the government. so what's happening here is the federal workers are paying for this far-left ideological crusade. lots of american families are facing great uncertainty because senate democrats apparently agree that the same kinds of reasonable investments they happily supported last year and the year before have now become completely immoral this year simply because speaker pelosi certainly now says they're immoral. so, mr. president, that isn't

really what has happened. it isn't what's happened. enforcing our laws has not become unethical overnight. physical barriers at the border that democrats used to support in past congresses and in the obama administration have not somehow become radical right-wing positions. fences still work. border security still matters. american families still deserve safety. reality is still reality. and when democrats are ready to reaccept these realities, they can negotiate seriously with the white house and bring an end to this impasse.

mr. president, i move to proceed to s. 1. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed motion to 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. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, here we are, january 14, 24 days ago of border security funding and 25% of our government lapsed democrats refuse to come to the negotiating table with a legitimate offer that would end this partial government shutdown and provide vital funding for border security measures. their negligence has harmed 800,000 federal workers who are not being paid while this standoff continues. and it has completely stalled the work here in the senate because the minority leader, the senator from new york, has

gotten his colleagues to fall in line to block the legislation that's currently on the floor that would offer aid and comfort to our friends and allies in the middle east, countries like israel and jordan. so it's completely stalled our work here in the senate as well. and, sadly, their efforts have sought to make border security more of a political football than the national security issue that it is. what i find so cynical is the fact that democrats have drawn a line in the sand over something that they have largely supported in the past. for example, in 2006 we passed the secure fence act. this legislation called for more than 800 miles of fencing along the u.s.-mexico border, and it authorized additional layered security that we keep discussing things like vehicle barriers, sensor technology, cameras, and lighting.

that bill passed by 80-19. 80-19, exactly the same kind of border security measures we're talking about today that democrats have shut down 25% of the government over. 80-19. barack obama, chuck schumer, hillary clinton, all supported the secure fence act. yet this is somehow their opposition to president trump and anything and everything that he wants has somehow become an article of faith for the radical left. a few years later, in 2013, the senate, with democrats holding the majority, voted on the border security economic opportunity and immigration modernization act, sometimes known as the gang of eight comprehensive immigration bill. and that bill, among other things, provided funding for infrastructure, that is

barriers along the border, as well as personnel, the types of things we continue to advocate for today. in total, that bill appropriated $46 billion for border security. so the democrats -- senator schumer, speaker pelosi -- shut down the government over $5 billion the president requested for border security, yet democrats, every single one in 2013 voted for $46 billion for border security. well, today they turn their nose up at the president's request for $5.7 billion, and it makes no sense whatsoever. unless you look through the lens of partisan political gamesmanship, because rational actors, reasonable people trying to find a solution could easily come up with a solution based on this history.

it wouldn't take 24 days. it wouldn't take 24 hours. maybe 24 minutes to come up with a bipartisan, bicameral solution that the president would sign. so what are we talking about? well, we're talking about the same thing we talked about back in 2006 and in 2014. we're talking about infrastructure. the president likes to call it a wall. other people call it a fence, but it includes things like vehicle barriers along the arizona-mexico border. this is exactly the sorts of things we talked about and voted for in 2006 and 2013. the majority of democrats supported those measures in the past, yet today they seem proud of what they have wrought, which is one quarter of our federal government being held hostage over the same exact measures. their continued intransigence and refusal to get serious about

negotiating shows one of two things. either their party has completely flipped their position on commonsense border security measures or they simply refuse to work with the president because they loathe him. either way they should be ashamed. they should be embarrassed. but they're not. while democrats continue to sit on their hands, the president has said he will consider declaring a national emergency left with few other options. in order to provide funds for border security. i don't believe declaring a national emergency is either necessary or productive, although i do support the president's request for $5.7 billion for border security. one of the most fundamental constitutional responsibilities of congress is to provide funding for our government. it's our job. it's our job, not the president's job.

this standoff should be resolved as all other funding disagreements have been in the past where everybody comes to the table with a serious offer and everybody negotiates in good faith. in a democracy, nobody gets a hundred percent of what they want. i support the president's effort to secure our borders, period, full stop. but i also believe taking a step like declaring a national emergency and diverting disaster relief to border security would seriously hurt those who are still recovering from the impact of natural disasters, like hurricane harvey. this storm that hit my state was the largest rain event in american history. more than 50 inches of rain fell in parts of houston over about five days. it destroyed homes and businesses and communities and though a great deal of progress has been made, we're still healing. last year congress and the president worked very hard to

secure nearly $90 billion in disaster relief for the people of texas and the other states and territories impacted by the devastating hurricanes and wildfires during that time period. an effort, by the way, that the administration strongly supported. in texas that money was needed to both support recovery and rebuilding efforts as well as fund projects that would mitigate future flooding from hurricanes. hurricane harvey isn't the first hurricane we've sustained and it won't be the last, and we need to get ready for the next one. diverting those funds away to support border security would be a major step backwards and could further harm the victims of hurricane harvey. so what democrats by their intransigents have forced the president into doing is looking for other options like taking money from disaster relief to fund border security. but the fact is, we need to do both. we can't rob peter to pay paul. we need to do both.

i've been grateful for president trump's continued support of my state as well as other states affected by natural disasters. and it's critical that every dollar of the money supporting hurricane harvey recovery is preserved to finish the job. and that's true. i know we all feel that way about natural disasters that have hit our state. sometimes, mr. president, the senate has referred to as the greatest deliberative body in the world. at times like this when senators -- senator leadership like senator schumer and miss pelosi refuse to negotiate with the president, i wonder -- and the senate is actually blocked by senate democrats from proceeding to consider important foreign affairs legislation, i wonder if we could still look ourselves in the mirror and call ourselves the world's greatest deliberative body. but historically we've been able to reach a consensus on very tough issues, far more

controversial than this because we all believe that american interests should come first and our constituents should come first and we are here to serve their interests, not merely to play political games and score political points. so it's time for our democratic friends to come back to the negotiating table so we can finally end this unnecessary and harmful shutdown and hopefully in the process, the 800,000 federal workers that missed their first paycheck last friday can get paid during this next pay period. and we can reopen the federal government so we can serve the interests of the american people as we should have done 24 days ago. mr. president, i yield the floor. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: and i further ask unanimous consent that douglas madonna, a congressional fellow in my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of this year. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent this the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, as the government shutdown enters its fourth unfortunate week, it's effects are widespread and worsening. as of friday, 800,000 public servants are without pay. tomorrow roughly 41,000 active duty coast guard members won't get their paychecks. by the end of the week, our federal courts will start running out of operating funds.

farmers, small businesses remain unable to access loans and assistance. some working families are unable to access home loans. food safety inspecting -- inspections are curtailed. airport terminals are closing amidst widespread staffing shortages add t.s.a.. the trump shutdown is even affecting the opioid crisis. the d.a. is in charge of approving a critical daily medication used by doctors in the recovery and treatment of opioid addiction. as long as the d.e.a. is shut down, that's not happening. it's all the more shameful because the trump shutdown is a completely manufactured crisis, manufactured by donald trump. the only reason the government is shut down right now is that president trump reversed positions the day before the government funding ran out, bewildering senate democrats and republicans who were assured he'd sign a a stopgap bill to

fund the government. now, leader mcconnell is trying to blame the current speaker of the house. he is way out to lunch on that one. we're here because the president reversed himself and the last speaker of the house failed to use his responsibility to put the senate-passed bill on the floor. this house has voted to reopen the government. it's the senate that hasn't done it because leader mcconnell won't bring the bill to the floor. president trump has stubborning refused to negotiate or soften his position from the get-go. democratic leaders and staff have been over to the white house over and over again to urge the president to open the government while we negotiate over border security. we're each for border security. there are different ways to do it, but everyone wants it. but why shut down the government while we're negotiating that? but every time we've asked that of the president, he's been intransigent and uncompromising. he refuses to back down from his

position that the price to reopen the government is $5.7 billion of taxpayer money for a wall he promised mexico would pay for. i want to remind all my republican colleagues and the american people, democrats only want to reopen the government. we've offered a proposal that would separate the government shutdown from our disagreements over border security. the house has passed six bills to reopen the government, each of which was drafted and approved by senate republicans. let me emphasize the point -- the democratic proposal to reopen the government is to pass the republicans' government funding bill. democrats are not deed manning any added policy -- democrats are not demanding any add policies, no nothing. the bills are noncontroversial. leader mcconnell has voted for each of them and according to a

quinnipiac poll that just came out, the american people support our plan by an overwhelming majority -- 63% to 30%ment, a healthy minority of republicans are for the plan. 39% are for the idea while only 52% are opened. so even republicans are moving to the position, open the government. then debate border security. president trump started this shutdown. he is the person continuing it. it's irresponsible of him to do it. make no mistake, democrats are happy to negotiate about the best way to secure our border, but we need to open the government first. the fact that president trump refuses to consider our proposal means that he's holding the government and the american people hostage as a political tactic. to president trump, innocent, hardworking americans are no

more than bargaining chips. he'll bluesster, mislead -- he'll bluster, mislead, storm out of meetings until he gets what he wants is how he thinks. that's not how our system of government works. we don't -- we can't govern by temper tantrum. no president has done it. if we do not reject government by extortion now, what is to prevent the same thing from happening over and over again under this president? what'll he do when the debt ceiling is needed to be renewed? before the christmas holiday, we had a solution in sight. we believed the president would support a true compromise to end the shutdown. at the last minute he reversed himself and said no. and now he is continuing the shutdown. and it's clear that the president doesn't want to end the shutdown, at least not yet. he's flatly refused our proposal to reopen the government while we negotiate on border security. he's contradict $his own

deputies, the vice president, the chief of staff it after they made offers to democrats. just this morning he refused to consider one of his closest allies, senator graham's proposal to open the government temporarily while we negotiate border security. how many more reasonable offers can the president reject? how much more suffering must the president cause before leader mcconnell realizes it's time to move ahead without him? it seems clear to nearly everybody but leader mcconnell that congress needs to move forward without the president. at every juncture, the president has been the obstacle to progress. we need intervention. it's time for congress to fulfill our constitutional duty to govern, even without the president. it's time for leader mcconnell to realize he has 9 power to break this impasse. passing the house legislation to reopen the government,

legislation his party already supports, legislation that leader mcconnell has voted for and bragged about. the president is unwilling to move the ball forward, so congress must. i urge my friend, leader mcconnell, to allow a vote on the house-passed legislation to reopen the government. it seems to be the only way out right now. now, on another matter, russia sanctions, before the end of last year, the trump administration moved to relax sanctions on three companies owned and controlled by sanction-russia oligarchy pascha. an overwhelming majority of the last congress supported additional cents per gallons on russia as a response to president putin's maligned activities particularly in the ukraine. oleg deripaska and a umin of companies he controlled were placed under u.s. sanctions because mr. deripaska was

effectively acting as an agent of putin's interests abroad. leveraging the wealth he had accrued through the control of these companies. in my view, the trump administration's plan to provide sanctions relief to these companies is deeply flawed and wrong. first, it fails to sufficiently limit mr. deripaska's control and influence of these companies. even though this plan brings deripaska's 70 interest down from 70% to 45%, the terms allow for other russian shareholders with family and business ties to deripaska to maintain shareholder interests. his ex-wife and father-in-law will still own a combined 7% in the company. and a sanctioned russian bank is acquiring more shares. even with the 45% he probably control, many american companies are c.e.o.'s controlled with far

less. but with these additional people owning shares, there is no doubt that he continues to control the country. second, it must not be forgot than mr. deripaska is wrapped up in special counsel mueller's investigation and has deep ties to paul manafort. there should not be sanctions relief for president putin's trusted agent before the conclusion of special counsel's mueller's investigation. just days ago it was revealed that former campaign chairman paul manafort provided trump campaign polling data to a close associate of mr. deripaska. we don't know what mr. mueller knows and the timing -- and a a time when these things are coming forward to undo the sanctions, very suspect. lastly, removing sanctions on these companies will benefit president putin's government and economy. since the export of metal such

as alou number isality key revenue generator for a country that needs revenues. at a time when russia has failed to curtail its hostile actions against our nation and allies, this is is not the moment to give up a source of leverage over the russian government. tomorrow the senate will take up a motion to disapprove the treasury department's proposal. i strongly believe the senate should vote to disapprove and in a short time i'll be sending a letter to every single one of my senate colleagues -- democrat, republican, independent -- to urge them to block this misguided effort by the trump administration and keep those very needed sanctions in place. i yield the floor. mr. leahy: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, it's interesting ... we've entered the 24th day of the trump shutdown.

that means for 24 days hundreds of thousands of federal workers have lived with the uncertainty of when they will get their next paycheck. tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of private contractors know they'll never be paid. and for 24 days, a nine federal departments, dozens of agencies have been closed for business. they've withheld vital services to millions of americans. i'd point out the millions of americans who are not receiving these services, they pay taxes to have these services. it's now become the longest government shutdown in history. taxpayers have lost billions of dollars. the country has lost billions of dollars. the united states should be considered the most powerful

country in the world, but the rest of the world sees our government as being held hostage to the whims of an undispalestinianed president who -- of an undispalestinianed president who is -- an undisdisciplined president. as people are home with -- ask people who are at home what this means to them, whether they are republican or democrat, that the president seems not to care that the food and drug administration has stopped inequitiing seafood, fruits and vegetables. many americans are at the risk of eating tainted food and feeding their families with tainted food.

he seems not to care that the environmental protection agency has stopped inspections of chemical factories, water treatment plants, other industrial sites, leaving our country vulnerable to dangerous pollutants seeping into the air we breathe and water we drink. ask any parent how they might feel about their child going to school drinking water that's tainted with chemicals solely is because we've closed down it the agency that's supposed to inspect those chemicals. he seems not to care that over 800,000 dedicated federal workers have gone without a paycheck this month. the result across this nation, hundreds of thousands of families are wondering how to pay their bills and put food on the table. it doesn't make any difference whether they're republicans or democrats or independents.

they're hardworking americans. just a few days ago the president's own chief economic advisor went on national television and said furloughed workers were better off under the shutdown because they don't have to use their vacation days at the time they're being forced to take. does he actually know what he said? can you even believe such arrogant, out-of-touch dismissal of hardworking americans the president's economic advisor is going to get paid. he doesn't have to worry, but this cavalier way of treating hardworking, honest americans is indefensible. i hear from vermonters every day about the impact the shutdown is

having on their lives. none of these vermonters, republican and democrat alike, are better off. let me give you an example. the other day, i heard from a single mother who works at the department of homeland security in vermont. she has been working without pay since december 22 when the trump shutdown began. it's taken a toll. i remember -- remember, this woman works for homeland security. she writes i love my job and country. i do have a child to feed and bills to pay. i have been working a second job to get some money coming in, but when you're working full time and you have a family to care for, there are only so many extra hours you can work. especially if you're not getting a paycheck for some of the work you're doing. i heard from a mother.

she is worried about her daughter. her daughter works for the u.s. institute for peace. she has been furloughed. she just missed her first paycheck. she is unable to pay her bills, her student loans. now, her daughter dedicates her life to combating terrorism. now she is not only not able to do her job, she is getting into financial trouble. she is worried and her mother is worried as any mother would be but she does not have the financial resources to help her daughter. and then there is the story of anthony marcelli, a t.s.a. agent who works at the burlington, vermont, airport. i see him often as i fly back and forth. the local paper recently reported he was forced to start

a go fund me page to raise money to help his family pay the bills during the shutdown. his wife is also a t.s.a. agent. they are both working without pay during the shutdown. it's a double hit. and they have two children to support. he points out that almost everyone seems to understand except the president. mr. marcelli says to see a zero balance in your bank account really hurts. some of us live paycheck to paycheck. today would be payday and no money's coming in. another vermonter called in who also works for the department of homeland security in vermont. he says he has a month's worth of money available in his account and then he runs out of

money entirely. he has a mortgage to pay. bills are piling up. he's scared. he works for the department of homeland security. he says he wants to keep his job, but the shutdown is unreasonable. he says he certainly does not feel valued at all by the president and this white house. he points out that while the president says he wants border protection, he has been withholding the pay from the people who protect our borders, including this vermonter, and i couldn't agree with him more. now, last week the senate and house passed a bill to ensure all federal workers will get backpay as soon as the shutdown is over. i was assured the president would sign that bill. it's the least he could do considering he is the one that caused this mess.

while this bill offers assurances to federal employees that they will eventually get their paycheck, it does absolutely nothing to help them now. it does not help the people who are calling my office, the t.s.a. agents, the d.h.s. employees, or the state department employees because their bills are due now. this is not a case of, oh, don't worry about it, someday you'll get a check. the bill is due now. and the president has threatened that his trump shutdown could last months or years. this is untenable. now, the president says it's about border security. you could have fooled me. the examples i just talked about, i could give so many more, but these all involve dedicated federal employees who are working to keep this country safe. they are proud of the work they

do to keep measure safe. they are proud of the service they perform for their country. they are all caught in the crosshairs of the trump shutdown. because the trump shutdown is not about border security. it's about fulfilling a cynical campaign rally chant the president made to excite his base, even giving his word that mexico would pay for the wall, knowing even as he said it that would never happen. but congress is a co-equal branch of government. we are not in the business of throwing taxpayer dollars around to build monuments to presidential ego, presidents of any party. the $5.7 billion wall he wants to build, everyone knows it's a waste of taxpayer money. everybody knows it won't address immigration challenges in this

country. the president has manufactured a sense of urgency on the southern border solely to generate support for his ridiculous wall. the president makes to excite his base by spawg about invasion of illegal immigrants, but that's not the reality. apprehensions at the southwest border have dropped 75% since 2000. more people are here in this country illegally because they have overstayed their visas, not because they snuck across the border. now, madam president, every member of this senate, both parties, we support border security, but i would argue we need to invest in smart border

security, not spend billions of taxpayer dollars on a 30-foot wall that determined people can go over or through or under. the president is now asserting that democrats are for open borders. that's nonsense. in the fiscal year 2018, democrats supported $21.1 billion in direct appropriations for border security, immigration enforcement that followed a similar amount in fiscal year 2017. this funding supports investments at both our northern and southern borders to help stop the flow of dangerous drugs that opioids and fentanyl and methamphetamine. it targets money to where it's

needed. it pays for 19,500 border patrol agents nationwide, including roughly 16,500 on our southern border. it pays for 23,500 customs officers at points of entry, including 6,815 assigned to southwest border ports of entry. in fact, with democratic support, the number of agents and officers we have are at record highs, even though illegal border crossings are at the lowest level we have seen since 1971. last year, democrats and republicans came together and agreed upon $1.7 billion in targeted border security

investments. over a billion dollars to be used between points of entry for improved facilities, tactical communication, additional air assistance, ground detection systems, tactical aerospace, republicans and democrats working together. it also included $580 million to secure the ports of entry, increase funds for intelligence capabilities at the national titling center, to detect illicit contraband, opioid testing equipment. another $16 billion to help detect the root causes for migration from central america. these are investments that republicans and democrats came

together. we all agree on them. it's how you protect our borders. it's more complex but it's more effective than building a 30-foot wall. a 30-foot wall would not begin to do what this does. so the shutdown is not about border security. let's just be honest. it's about the president's own ego. it has to end. now, we're going to be voting in a few minutes on another bill here. it's one the republican leader keeps bringing up, s. 1. at a time when people are desperate and they are out of work here in america, we bring up this bill which has nothing to do with funding the government or border security. rather than voting on the appropriations bills that would put americans back to work, s. 1

authorized more than $800 million this year alone for israeli defense contractors as part of $38 billion for israel over the next ten years. it is money that will put israelis to work. it will pay for them to go to work, and that's fine, but couldn't we take time first to put americans back to work? it also includes a boycott to investment sanctions legislation. this is an open violation to our first amendment. it would give up federal authority over matters of foreign policy to our state and local governments. i might not like a boycott, but the right to boycott is fundamental. just pick up any one of our books about the u.s. civil rights movement and wonder if

martin luther king and others would have been successful if they had not been allowed to have boycotts. it's not up to the government to pick and choose which boycotts citizens should support or oppose. now, we have bills supported by republicans and democrats alike that could reopen the government. that should be our focus. we could talk about quitting jobs in israel another time, but let's create jobs in america. let's reopen -- let's reopen our government. i call on my friends, the republicans, to stand up to the president, put a stop to this madness. otherwise the shutdown is not

just the president's fault. republicans here in the senate, it's their fault, too. i implore senator mcconnell bring up h.r. 21 and h.j. res. 1 and send them to the president and let democrats and republicans join together in voting for it. we could pass it with a veto-proof majority. congress is a co-equal branch of government. we should not be intimidated by any president of any party. we should start acting like a co-equal branch of government. frankly, we have 800,000 in this country that would be paid for their work immediately if we started acting like we are supposed to as a co-equal branch of government, and hundreds of thousands of others who need to

work, contractors and all. let's stand up for americans. we have the money for border security, but let's stand up for americans. let's put them to work. let's let them get paid for what they're doing. these are our neighbors. these are people i see in the grocery store in vermont when i'm home on weekends. they're the people i see coming out of church on sunday. these are the people i see when i'm walking down the street. when i pick up my newspapers. these are good, hardworking people, the ones i've talked to, i have no idea whether they're republicans or democrats. all i know is they want to do their work for this country. they support this country. they want to help this country be secure. they can't understand why a temper tantrum at the white house would allow their paychecks to be stopped.

madam president, i yield the floor. i don't see somebody seeking recognition, so i will suggest the absence of a quorum and the time be equally divided. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i would ask consent that the quorum call be

dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: thank you, thank you, madam president. day 23. for 23 days we've had a partial shutdown of the federal government. it's now the longest shutdown in our history. that's not a proud record. federal government workers have gone a pay period now without getting their paychecks. those who have been working having picked up their pay stubs, and their pay stubs show zero. those that are furloughed have not received a paycheck. i think the american public would be outraged to think that we are asking our dedicated federal workers, our front line of public service to work and not get paid. that's not what this country stands for. it has an effect on their work. it's difficult to show up every day and do your work and mission

for the public and be worried about how you're going to have money to make your monthly mortgage payment or to pay for your children's needs or to meet your medical needs or your family's food needs. these are real decisions that government workers must make. many are falling in default. the largest number of federal workers live paycheck to paycheck. in other words, they can't make it without their income coming in. that's a fact of life for american workers. and yet, government's in a partial shutdown. so, madam president, i ask why? what is the disagreement that we have here that we don't keep government open? why are we holding -- or why is the president holding the american people hostage to his

agenda? i say that because the house of representatives passed over to us a bill that will pass the appropriations for six appropriations bills, opening up most of those agencies -- all except for one -- that come under homeland security, those would be opened up that are not in any disagreement. the appropriations specifics were agreed to by the senate in four of those six bills. the last two were passed out of the appropriations committee 31-0 and 30-1. so under republican leadership in a bipartisan manner, we've already approved these six appropriations bill. so why don't we act? i asked the distinguished majority leader for us to consider that bill, and he

objected. quite frankly, i don't understand why. because if we bring it up for a vote, we will pass it by overwhelming numbers and government will open for those agencies that are under those appropriations. then my colleague, senator van hollen, asked unanimous consent that we bring up a continuing resolution for homeland security which passed this body in late december by unanimous vote. so we have government open and then we negotiate the border security issues, because we agree on border security for this country. we disagree with wasting money for a wall that won't keep us safe. in fact, those that have been involved in negotiating with border security in the senate have been arguing for spending more money for technology and personnel, but not for a wall. that's what we should be doing.

so i'm asked by some people, can you negotiate a compromise? it's hard to negotiate a compromise with the president while he's holding america hostage. it's hard to negotiate with the president when he undermines his own negotiators every time we get close to an agreement. it makes no sense at all for government to be shuttered while we debate these issues. all we are hurting are our government workers, our constituents, and our economy. so today i met with government workers at b.w.i., baltimore-washington international airport. i met with people who represent the workers that are working for our airline safety or passenger safety in our flights. these are people who do safety inspections.

these are people who do t.s.a., who screen us as we get on to the planes. these are people that are traffic controllers to make sure that our air is safe. these are professionals who are showing up and working every day right now because that's their professional responsibility, to keep us safe. and they acknowledge that they're distracted. they're distracted because they don't know how they're going to pail their bills. they're distracted because they dough know when ner going to get a paycheck for working. they are distracted because they don't know whether to find other employment in order to pay their bills. they don't have the full complement in because there are some that are out on furlough. some safety inspectors aren't there. how do they carry out their mission unless we have the full team in place? half of our federal workers of the 800,000, approximately half are furloughed without pay,

meaning critical mission on behalf of the american public is not being done, whether it's food safety, whether it's approving a loan so that a person can buy a home, or whether it's a small business owner who needs help from the small business administration, who can't get that help, can't close on a loan, can't do what they need to do, can't run their business. so it's not only 800,000 -- 800,000 workers that are not working or working without pay. it's also those businesses that depend upon it. because when you look at the small businesses around federal facilities, with so many of the workers not being there and others not having money to pay -- they're not using the services, these businesses are losing customers, are laying off people. it's not hypothetical. we know of specific companies

that have shuttered as a result of the federal government shutdown. we know of nonprofits that had to lay off workers because their contracts with government agencies expired. so today at b.w.i., baltimore-washington international airport, i heard from, directly from the individuals. each one had a story to tell about how they're really fighting to make sure that airline safety issues are maintained and the challenges that they're facing, et cetera. but they told pretty direct stories. there's a worker there who told me the situation where he had to try to explain to his young daughter why he could not pay the fee so she could continue in a dance class. didn't have the money. it broke his heart. these are affecting real people. last friday, along with senator van hollen, we met with a group of federal, of government

workers. we had a chance to talk to them. they were from different agencies. one is from the justice department. he is an excepted employee so he's there doing his work trying to keep us safe. but he says the necessary investigative work that should have been done so that he could get his job done to keep us safe was not done because the investigative work, the person doing it was on furlough as a result of the government shutdown. why should the justice department be in shutdown? why? they're not part of the border security debate. and yet, they are. we had another of our government workers show up and say that that person could not settle on a home. they have a contract to settle on a new home, starting a new home, starting their family. the reason they can't settle? they require them to bring in their two most recent pay stubs

showing their income is what they say their income is. the problem is their most recent pay stub -- and they have it -- shows zero as income. they no longer qualify for their mortgage. these are real live people, 800,000. and yet this shutdown continues. it's dangerous, it's irresponsible, it's wrong. and we have the votes in this chamber to change it tonight. i hope that leader mcconnell will bring up the two bills that passed the house of representatives. we have already acted on those bills in the previous congress. let us open government. it makes no sense whatsoever. the congress is a coequal branch of government. we know that the president,

what he's doing is wrong. each of us know that in our hearts. we know that he has shut down government. for no legitimate reason. we can debate the issues with government open. and prevent the loss to individual families and to our economy. we're a coequal branch of government and we should act. let us vote on opening government. and quite frankly, madam president, i would hope we would have the votes that would show the president that we would override any veto he may impose. that's our responsibility as a coequal, independent branch of government. let us exercise our responsibilities and let us take action tonight. this shutdown needs to end. it needs to end now.

so i urge my colleagues to bring up this legislation. let's pass it. let's show that we can exercise our responsibility. we recognize the president is wrong. but we have a responsibility to do what's right. and this is what we have done in the past. with that, madam president, i see that my colleague from maryland is on the floor. the two of us have been pretty active over the weekend talking with federal workers. i want to explain to the people of maryland, we're going to do everything in our power to open up government. we're prepared to take all steps necessary to get government open. we know that people are hurting. we know that people are worried. this is irresponsible. it's costly. and it needs to end. and president trump, i would hope he would end this.

if he doesn't, we as a coequal branch of government should take the necessary actions to open government. i urge the republican leader to bring these bills to the floor. we are for border security. we're not for wasting money on a wall. we are for negotiating, let congress determine where money should be spent, not the president. let us all work together for the safety of our nation and for the protection of our workforce. with that i yield the floor. mr. van hollen: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, madam president. first i want to thank my colleague from maryland, senator cardin, for his steadfast efforts to bring this shameful shutdown to an end. he and i have met with federal employees all over the state of maryland to bring their stories here to the floor of the senate.

and while they are under incredible hardship and incredible duress, the first thing they tell us at every meeting is that they want to get back to work for the american people, to do their job for the american people. these are civil servants. these are public servants. and they want to get back to helping the country. so to my friend and partner and colleague, senator cardin, i want to thank him for all his efforts in this shameful episode of our history. madam president, president trump often falsely boasts that he has accomplished what no other president in american history has been able to do. well, this time he has succeeded. this time he's succeeded in closing down the federal government for a longer period than any other president in the united states history.

24 days and counting. president trump said just a few weeks ago that he would be, quote, proud, proud to shut down the government if he didn't get his way. but president trump should know that reaching this historic milestone is nothing to be proud of. it's unnecessary and it's shameful and every day that goes by we see mounting harm around the country both in terms of members of the public who are denied important services, denied important health protections, and, of course, federal employees and federal contractors who are either going without pay -- all the federal employees are going without pay and federal contractors have been laid off in many cases. madam president, every day that this shameful shutdown goes on,

our colleagues on the republican side and the republican leader have to own up to their share of the responsibility. and every day that goes on where we do not have a chance to vote on the two house bills that are on the senate calendar which we could take up this afternoon, every day that we do not vote on those bills which have had bipartisan support here in the united states senate, the senate is an accomplice in the shutdown, and those who prevent us from turning the keys to reopen the government are complicit in the harm that is increasing every day around the country. on friday, madam president, 800,000 federal employees began

to get pay stubs that showed zero pay. i have one in my hand from somebody who's an air traffic controller. if you look at the little area that says net pay, it has a big goose egg, zero. and among these 800,000 federal employees, of course, are hundreds of thousands of people like the folks at t.s.a., like the folks along the border who are working every day but in the mail or in their electronic pay stub, they get zero for their pay. and, of course, there are hundreds of thousands more who are being furloughed who want to get out and do their work for the american people, and they are being locked out of their jobs. now, i've been talking to many of my constituents over the last

several weeks, and i've shared many of their stories here on the floor of the senate. they talk passionately and personally about how they want to get back to work and also how they worry about their ability to provide for their families. i met with edward last week. he works at the census bureau. he's the only person in his family to go to college. he is very proud to be a civil servant and wants to do his job. he owns a home and his mortgage payments are coming due every month like millions of americans. and while those mortgage payments are coming in, his paycheck is not. and he told me he's very worried that he will soon miss a payment. it's important to understand,

madam president, that the harm from this shutdown is not just felt in the washington metropolitan area. of course, americans around the country are losing access to services, and it's a fact that 80% of the people that work for the federal government live outside the washington metropolitan area. t.s.a. officials at airports throughout the country are just one example. it's also important to recognize about 30% of the federal workforce are people who previously served our country in uniform. they were in the military. and that means that as a result of the shutdown, 250,000 americans -- in fact, a little more than that who served our country in the military are also suffering and going without pay.

one of those veterans is somebody i spoke to last week, an air force veteran. works at the office of personnel management. he told me he was worried that he wasn't going to be able to pay his electric bill on time. he told me he had contacted the electric company and said, look, i'm not going to be able to pay you this month because i'm not going to get a check. can you just hold off, can you defer my bill. and they told him sorry, that really wasn't their responsibility. and it really is our responsibility here in the united states senate and of course the president of the united states who said he was proud to shut down the government. i would like the president to come visit maryland and look at

that air force vet who now works as a civil servant and tell that air force vet that he's proud to be shutting down the government. there are other veterans around the country, as i said, the harm from this is not confined to the washington metropolitan area. toby hawk served our country in the air force. and continues to serve as an air traffic controller in illinois. his son and daughter-in-law are about to deploy overseas, and toby and his wife are going to care for their two and a half-year-old daughter, their granddaughter, the children's daughter, during this deployment. toby says the continued lack of pay adds stress to their already hectic jobs, and this is something i heard from other veterans and air traffic controllers and others going

without pay throughout the state of maryland. in fact, we know from a lot of the federal employees who work in law enforcement that the impact on their jobs is hurting our national security. just reading from an article here, "the washington post." shutdown threatens national security, f.b.i. agents' group warns. it goes on a group representing f.b.i. acts warned thursday that the partial government shutdown is threatening national security as thousands of law enforcement professionals working without pay grow anxious that personal financial hardships may jeopardize their security clearances and as furloughs of their support staff slows investigations. madam president, i spoke to a federal law enforcement officer

just last week, and he made exactly the point made by others in this article, which is that his entire support team has been furloughed. these are the folks who crack down d.n.a. analysis. these are the people who do the investigations. and when they're furloughed and when they're not on the job, it puts their colleagues who are on the job in the f.b.i. or other federal law enforcement missions at greater risk. and it puts the public at risk to the extent that those f.b.i. agents are not able to fully do their job. now, the harm is spreading. we know that a lot of federal contractors, including a lot of small business folks who do work with the federal government, have had to lay off people.

i know that because in my state of maryland, a small outfit that contracts with the federal government to help seniors find work just had to lay off 173 employees last week. that was the senior service america. that's the name of the organization. they do great work, but they just had to send pink slips to 173 people saying at least for now you're out of work and you're out of a paycheck. but again, this is something we're seeing and witnessing around the country. there is a business in denver, colorado, sky blue builders. they had to stop work on several projects they were doing. the federal contractor jobs for federal construction projects. the g.s.a., the general services administration, put their projects on hold. and a 50-person company had to

lay off eight car -- eight carpenters and a superintendent because of the shutdown. they will need to lay off more in the days ahead if the shutdown continues. so every day that goes on we see a mushrooming effect in terms of the damage and harm being done throughout the country. and a lot of the folks who work for these small business contractors, small business federal government contractors, are already getting low-wage paychecks, and now they're out of income altogether. one of those workers is lyla johnson. she is a janitor at the department of agriculture. so she works for a company, and that company contracts with the department of agriculture to provide janitorial services. lyla is 71 years old.

she has bills coming due for her rent, her credit card, and her car. and here's how she's described the impact of the shutdown. quote, i don't have enough from my retirement and my social security to make ends meet. everything is just piling up on me, and i don't know how i'm going to have the money to pay these bills. end of quote. now, i don't know how many of my colleagues saw president trump the other day. he sort of waved off reporters when they asked him about the harm being done as a result of the shutdown. the president said he can relate. quote, he can relate to these people who are just one paycheck away from not being able to make a mortgage or not being able to make a medical co-payment. he said, i can relate. i'm sure that people that are on the receiving end will make adjustments. they always do.

end of quote. give knee break. you know, the president clearly doesn't realize that 40% of our fellow americans cannot pull together even $400 for an emergency. he do rely and live paycheck to paycheck. now, i know if the president of the united states -- and you've grown up with the background of prism that he has -- of privilege that he has, you really have not experienced that kind of hardship. and between trump tower and the white house and mar-a-lago, it's pretty clear the president hasn't a clue about what our fellow americans are experiencing in this shutdown. and because all of these federal employees are unable to do their jobs -- in many cases for the country -- and because those small business contractors are not able to do theirs, you are

seeing every day the growing harmful impact of the shutdown in terms of denial of important services and protections for the american people. we know now that the f.d.a. is no longer conducting their routine food safety inspections. we know the e.p.a. has halted inspections of major polluters, including chemical factories. he we know that 100,000 100,000affordable contracts. we have seen trash and waste piling up at our national parks and despite the efforts of the administration to hide a lot of these impacts, the result has been a disaster. at joshua tree national park, we

saw motorists cut down several of the iconic joshua trees so they could drive in areas of the park where vans are banned. just one example among many. and so why is this happening? well, it's because the president says if he doesn't get his way, if he doesn't get his way entirely, he's going to be proud -- that's his word, not mine -- proud to shut down the government. mr. president, i can tell you what it's not about. it's not about the need for strong border security. we need secure borders. and i think senators both sides of the aisle here know that over the years we've worked on a bipartisan basis to do that, and

we certainly can continue to work on a bipartisan basis to do it going forward. but i know senators on both sides of the aisle recognize that wasting taxpayer dollars on a 2,000-mile-long wall is not the answer. i mean, for goodness sakes, the president's own acting chief of staff, a former colleague of mine in in the house, mick mulvaney, said a couple years ago that it was, quote, childlike to believe that building that 2,000-mile wall was going to actually provide the kind of security we need. we need a multilayered approach. yes, there are others along the border where we need barriers, fences, walls, call them what you want. they're already there. they were there before president trump was elected president. and what was the president's

budget request this year for this part of the homeland security budget? what was his request in the official document that he sent for this fiscal year? he asked for $1.6 billion. and that's what the senate appropriations committee voted for on a bipartisan basis, $1.6 billion. it was only in december when all of a sudden you had the right-wing talk show hosts going 24/7 spinning the president up that haul of a sudden he said, oh, boy, i guess i didn't really mean what i asked for. i need something else. and then to justify the $5.7 billion, he did this national address the other night. what was the very first thing example he gave for why we needed this border wall? , the very first example he gave was to interdict and stop the flow of drugs across the

southern border. the first item he mentioned in the speech, he focused on it, and by focusing on that, he demonstrated the argument against spending all this money on a 2,000-mile border wall because, as everybody knows, including his department of homeland security, to the extent we have drugs coming across the southern border -- and this is a big issue -- they're actually coming through the legal points of entry. so building a wall on all sides of the legal points of entry won't do a thing. and we all know here that hon a bipartisan basis we've looked for new technologies and new investments to better detect drugs that are flowing through those legal ports of entry. and, my goodness, we can

certainly talk about further steps that can be taken. but the leadoff point in the president's speech just showed his ignorance about the overall issue on how we need effective border security. so we should not be spending what will ultimately be $30 billion on a 2,000-mile wall that the president said mexico was going to pay for. and make no mistake, we're talking about $30 billion. because the president may ask for one amount this year -- it started at $1 .6 billion. that was his initial request. now it's $5.7 billion. but now he's going to threaten to shut down the government every year if he doesn't get his $30 billion -- which mexico was going to pay for. now, i know he's doing all sorts of dances saying, that's not what i meant. but that's what he told the country. since we're talking about border security, let's talk about some

of the men and women who right now today as we gather here are defending that border. they're providing border protection. and i'll tell you what. the folks at customs and border protection, they've had enough. the customs and border protection officers are suing the united states. they're suing the president because of this shutdown and demanding that they get paid for the work they're doing. i know the president likes to talk about the good work a lot of those men and women do at customs and border protection. and they had do do good work. they are now seeing the president and the united states government because they're out there providing border security and they are now getting big goose eggs, big zeros for net pay for the work that they are doing.

now, mr. president, i know that members of this body are not, quote, proud of this shutdown, as the president of the united states is. he said he was proud. he hasn't said otherwise. although he started pointing fingers now at everybody else. he said he was going to take responsibility, he'd be proud to, if he didn't get his way. but every day that goes by in the senate that we don't take action, which is within our power to take, this senate becomes an accomplice in president trump's government shutdown. and that's why, together with my colleagues, we're going to continue to press the senate and the senate republican leader to take up the bills, the two house bills that are on the senate calendar that are the keys to

reopening the government. the house of representatives, on their very first day of the new congress, said our priority is reopening the government, and they did. they passed those two bills. i've had them on the floor before, and i'm going to just show them again because they're still on the calendar. they haven't disappeared. they're still right there. one is house j. res. 1. it is a very simple bill, a bill that would reopen the department of homeland security through february 8. it is identical with respect to the department of homeland security as what this senate did by a voice vote before christmas. identical. it says, let's reopen the department of homeland security at current funding levels while we discuss the best and most effective way to provide border security. that bill is on the senate

calendar. last week standing right here i asked for unanimous consent to take it up and vote on it right away. the senate republican leader denied that request. just last week, standing right over there, senator cardin brought up the other bill that's on the senate calendar that was passed by the house, to reopen eight of the nine departments of the u.s. government that are closed and have nothing to do with homeland security or the wall, nothing to do with it. that bill is right here, h.r. 21. h.r. 21, right here. and senator cardin asked for the senate to vote on it. again, blocked by the republican leader on behalf of the caucus. and as many of us have discussed, the great irony here is that these are pieces of legislation that have bipartisan support in the united states senate. as i said, the bill to reopen

the department of homeland security through february 8 while we work on the best and most effective way to provide border security is something we passed by voice vote. the republican colleagues thought it was a good idea about five weeks ago. don't know why it's not a good idea to do the same thing today. the other bill, which contains the funding levels through the remainder of this fiscal year for the other eight of the nine federal departments that are currently closed, also had broad bipartisan support. one of them -- one of the parts of that bill dealing with the department of agriculture, the treasury department, the interior department, the department of transportation, and the department of housing and urban development, passed this senate by a vote of 92-6.

92-6 because the house of representatives said, you know what? we like the funding levels that the house put together, but let's send the senate a bill that was already supported by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the united states senate, 92-6. and this bill, h.r. 21, contains those senate funding levels voted on 92-6 to tree open all those departments. -- to reopen all those departments. this bill also includes measures that were overwhelmingly passed in the senate appropriations committee. one measure was adopted in the senate appropriations committee by a vote of 31-0. republicans and democrats. republicans and democrats voting for it. that's in the bill the house sent over. the other bills relating to the department of commerce and the department of justice passed the

senate appropriations committee hon a vote of 30-1. so in this package that the house sent you you have bills that passed the senate appropriations committee by 30-0, 30-1, and the floor of the united states senate by a vote of 92-6. and so it's a very simple question, mr. president -- why is it that the republican leader refuses to allow this body to vote on measures that have already had overwhelming support in this body? and would reopen the government today. and the answer we get is, well, you know what? the president of the united states says he won't support it. well, you know what? we are an independent branch of government. we are a coequal branch of government, although these days i begin to wonder if we've relegated ourselves to the very bottom of the totem pole here. there's no excuse not to vote.

92-6. that's a veto-proof majority. let the president veto it. has to come back here. 92-6. i'll tell you, the fact the others passed 30-0 and 31-0 -- 31-0 and 30-1, that's a strong indicator of their support. so let's not go out and hide out, mr. president. let do our job in the united states senate. and if the president wants to veto it, let him do it. that's how the system works. but nobody here should be hiding from accountability to their constituents because the republican leader refuses to hold a vote today on what the senate has supported overwhelmingly in weeks past. now, i -- i do want to thank my colleagues for a measure that we

passed last week. passed it on friday. thursday or friday. the senate passed a provision that was introduced by senator cardin and myself and many other senators and had some bipartisan support and cosponsorship and strong bipartisanship here on the floor, which was we said that federal employees should not in the end of the day be the ones who have to bear the entire burden of this shutdown they had nothing to do with. and so we passed legislation to make sure that when this shutdown is over, federal employees will be made whole in terms of their pay. and that then passed the house and it's on the way -- the president was on the way, the president before the weekend. we were told, senator -- the republican senate leader said

that the president said he was going to sign it. of course, that's what the president said about the bill that passed the united states senate before christmas to provide stopgap funding. so we'll see. i hope that's the case because federal employees at the end of the day should not be the ones that are penalized and never made whole. but, mr. president, it doesn't address the problem before us right now, which is while those federal employees, hundreds of thousands of them are not working, they are not there to provide important services for the american people. and the harm done from the denial of those services is growing every day. and of course it doesn't help those hundreds of thousands of federal employees -- in fact, 800,000 federal employees who are not getting paid now but have their bills coming through the door every day.

and that creates great farm because when they can't pay the bills, their creditors come after them. and even though whenever this shutdown ends, whenever it may be they may get backpay, it's going to be very hard for them to get back their credit rating. it's going to be very hard to undo the damage that is being done to them by their inability to pay their bills because of our inability to vote on two house measures that the senate has already supported on a bipartisan basis. and so it doesn't solve that very, very real problem, which is growing every day. and i know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are hearing more and more from their constituents, hearing from their federal employees who are going without pay, hearing from small business contractors who had their contracts cut and are at risk of going belly up.

from those small contract employees who live paycheck to paycheck. and from the american people who are being denied services on a growing basis. so let's open the government. vote on these two bills that would accomplish that. we can do it tonight, right now, as soon as the republican leader comes in. i can assure you that my colleagues and i will continue to ask consent to bring up those bills. we're going to continue to move to bring up those bills because they are the one thing before the senate right now that we could vote on that would at least demonstrate that we in the united states senate are doing our job. and it's the president's job to decide whether he thinks it's a good idea or not, and if it's a bad idea, he could vote it, and

then it comes back to us, but let's do our job here. let's not contract out our constitutional responsibilities to the president of the united states. that's not how it's supposed to work. and we need to do our job. let's end the shutdown. let's reopen the government. we can have a conversation on the most effective way to provide border security, but for goodness sakes, let's release the hostages here. let's release the eight of the nine federal departments that have nothing to do with homeland security or the wall. let's release the 800,000 federal employees who are not getting paid. let's release all of the small businesses that do contract work with the federal government, many of whom are at risk of going belly up. let's release the federal contract employees who are now

being told not to come to work because the contract is not into effect during the shutdown. let's release all of those hostages that have nothing to do with the political dispute here. and nobody should be proud of the shutdown. and so i say to the president of the united states let's not take pride in being the president of the united states who is now -- who has now overseen the longest shutdown in american history. that is not a first that any president should be proud of, and it's not something that this senate should be complicit in. let's reopen the government. let's vote on the house bills. thank you, mr. president. i yield my time.

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

the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin is recognized. mr. johnson: i ask the quorum be

vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. quorum call: 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. signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to s. 1, an act to make improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions, and to authorize the appropriation of funds to israel to reauthorize the united

states-jordan defense cooperation act of 2015, and to halt the wholesale slaughter of the syrian people, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 43. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: i enter a motion to reconsider the vote. the presiding officer: the motion is entered.

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington is recognized. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak o.a.s. if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor this evening to urge my republican colleagues to do the right thing and stand with us to reopen the government and end this completely unnecessary and really absurd crisis. mr. president, president trump's latest government shutdown is now the longest one in american history. 24 days of workers not sure when their next paycheck will come. 24 days of economic impacts on communities all over this country. 24 days of slowdowns at our

airports. 24 days of small business owners waiting on loans. 24 days of trash piling up and irreparable damage being done at our national parks. 24 days of dysfunction. 24 days of chaos. 24 days of government simply not working at its most basic duties, not being allowed to work by its own leaders. 24 dayy after story here in the united states of america that would embarrass citizens of far less developed nations. one woman from seattle, a federal employee that has been there 25 years, wrote that the stress of not knowing how she will manage her bills is causing her sleepless nights. she is worried about her credit score taking a hit if she can't pay her bills on time, and she is trying to balance all that while helping take care of her father who is a navy veteran suffering from a progressive

neurological disease. another man wrote to me, not a federal employee with but he ans wife own a small business frequented by people who are. he told me the shutdown has brought his business to a halt, and he's not sure how much longer he can make it work. a u.s. forest service worker wrote to me saying he's pretty sure he can weather the shutdown financially, but he's very scared for his co-workers who cannot, and he's worried about the deeper damage now being done to its restoration work that's supposed to be happening in the olympic national forest. mr. president, i know every one of my colleagues is getting letters like this, hundreds and thousands of them. they need to read some of those letters, and i would challenge them and anyone who doubts the sincerity and fear so many americans are feeling right now. sit down. hear from your constituents who are being impacted face to face. this past weekend when it became clear the senate would not get a chance to vote on reopening the

government, i flew home to washington state. i walked through security lines on my way out and thanked the men and women of t.s.a. who are working to protect us, not knowing when they're going to get paid. and when i got to the airport in seattle, i sat down with people who had tears in their eyes who were describing their fear over the uncertainty this trump shutdown has caused. i talked to an air traffic controller who worked overtime during the busy holiday season and who worries about the added stress and distractions on top of an already very tough job. i heard from a coast guard spouse who talked about friends in a similar situation returning christmas presents to pay bills. story after story, workers with their families and small business owners and many more. this is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities. mr. president, i ask for order

in the senate. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senate will be in order. please take your conversations off the floor. mrs. murray: mr. president, this is about individuals and their stories, but it is also rippling across communities. right now, in my home state of washington, paychecks are frozen for nearly 13,000 workers. they are workers who are not going out and spending money at local businesses the way they usually do. they are at risk of missing their rent payment or their mortgage payment or their car payment or their phone bill or their credit card bills. and they may know they will get their payback eventually when this shutdown finally ends, but that's not going to cover late fees or interest fees, and it won't compensate them for the emotional anguish and deep uncertainty. and, mr. president, that's just

those 13,000 workers and their families. millions of people in my home state, like every state, are affected by work that is not happening or at risk of being cut off. routine inspections on washington state ferries, an accident investigation report concerning a deadly train accident, decision-making on the ongoing hanford nuclear site process. applications for financial student aid and food safety inspections. emergency supplies for hungry families. assistance for domestic violence survivors and crime victims. the government can't even pay its bills. just this morning, i saw the headline, and i quote, layoff hit two space companies. one of those is in my home state. tethers unlimited says it will lay off 20% of its employees because it hasn't been paid for its government work during this shutdown. this is absurd.

therethis is no way for a county like ours to run. it is shameful. and once again, this has got to end because those that i just talked about are just a few of the stories, they are a few of the impacts. there are so many more big ones, small ones, narrow ones, broad ones. from individual workers and their families who are being impacted in unique and specific ways to entire industries and regions that are being harmed. this is not a theoretical issue. it's not just a debate here in d.c. this is very real for millions and millions of people, and that number grows with every passing day. so i and other democrats are going to keep making sure these stories aren't forgotten or pushed aside. we are glad to be joined by a growing number of republicans who are also hearing from their constituents and who know this shutdown simply cannot be justified and it cannot be explained. and we're going to keep this pressure up, we're not going to

stop until president trump agrees to end this crisis or until republican leaders in the senate finally decide to stand up to him and work with us to end it for him. mr. president, let me close with this final point. although no shutdown is good, this one is particularly obscene and particularly unnecessary. democrats and republicans right here in this senate voted unanimously just a few weeks ago to keep government open without any funding for president trump's wall, and the house voted to do the same. whatever one thinks about using american taxpayer dollars to pay for president trump's wall -- a wall, i will remind us, that he promised mexico would pay for -- there is absolutely no reason to keep this government shut down e have that debate. all that does is hurt people and hurt communities and hurt our

country, for absolutely no reason at all. trump and some of his republican allies may see this as a political fight they somehow need to win, but i see this as a fight for the people we represent, for a government that functions, and for a country that we all know can do better than this. this is about whether we send the alarming message that president trump can make outlandish demands, throw a tantrum, not care how much instability he causes or how many people he hurts, and get away with it, or if instead we make clear here in this senate that his bad behavior will not be rewarded. tantrums and dysfunctional governing are not the path to success. so, mr. president, i call on republican leaders to allow a vote on the bill the house passed. allow a vote to reopen the government. that bill would pass overwhelmingly just like it did last month. let's send a message to president trump that the people

who sent us here want this dysfunction to end. let's end this trump shutdown and let's get back to work then to fix the problems that created it, and let's get our country back on track. thank you, mr. president, and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president, i rise to follow my colleague from washington and talk about the effects of the shutdown. if i'm really fast on a given day, i kind of have a mind meld with her. i have a little bit of a mind meld now because i want to talk about the effects on american national security. i was on the floor last week talking about the effects on federal employees, so many of whom live in virginia. i had a roundtable on friday in alexandria where they came out and talked about having to reschedule medical appointments, worrying about missing their mortgage payments, withdrawing moneys from the i.r.a. and having to pay a penalty to do it to cover their bills. they all shared these federal employees how passionate they are about serving the public.

that's all they want to do, and they shared the hardships that are visited upon themselves and their families by not getting a paycheck. i heard another different story today, not about the federal employees. a dentist in alexandria shared with our office how many of her patients are canceling their appointments. people don't have co-pays. people are worried about whether they will have co-pays. so they are canceling and postponing. so now it's not just the federal employees, but it's also the small business woman who runs a medical practice is seeing the effect of it. i want to talk about something different tonight. i want to talk about national security. i want to do that because the president tweeted out something interesting on saturday. he said that his whole motive for the shutdown was because i promised safety and security for the american people. that was the quote. i promised safety and security for the american people. i want to take the floor and say this shutdown is actually hurting the safety and security of the american people, and i

want to go over this in some detail. of the 450,000 federal employees who are working without pay, more than 150,000 of them are in charge of keeping america safe. so arguably, the most punished group of federal employees in this shutdown are those charged with keeping us safe. mr. president, you're a veteran. you served in the military. a third of federal employees are veterans, so it's not just people whose current job is keeping america safe, but one-third of federal employees are veterans. veterans are very affected by this. just kind of run through some of the examples of the 450,000 americans working without pay. and we had representation from a number of these agencies before us at the roundtable last week. 41,000 of those working without

pay now deep into the third week are federal law enforcement and correctional officers. 2,600 a.t.f. agents. nearly 17,000 bureau of prisons, correctional officers. more than 13,000 f.b.i. agents. 3,600 marshals. 4,400 d.e.a. agents. i had an experience last year that was very vivid to me. i visited a federal prison in petersburg, virginia. i had the chance to really eyeball the challenges that our prison guards deal with because the staffing ratios are such that one guard, especially on an evening shift, is responsible for a wing of the prison where there may be 100 to 150 inmates. it is a very tough situation from a security standpoint, because if there were to be a problem in one of the rooms and a guard goes into the room and there is 25 people in the room -- and that was not uncommon -- while tending to a problem, others could overpower that one guard, and on the

entire wing there is just one. this is a very, very difficult job. and the notion that now they are deep into week three, these corrections agents, and they are not being paid is just shocking. i have a letter sitting on my desk from federal prison guards at a federal prison facility in southwest virginia imploring us to reopen government because their job is toe difficult that it just compounds when they're not being paid. d.e.a. agents, u.s. marshals, f.b.i. agents, a.t.f. agents. when the president gave his speech last week, he talked a lot about the challenges at the border are largely challenges about drugs and the interdiction of drugs. if that is your worry, mr. president, why would you not be paying a.t.f., d.e.a., u.s. marshals, f.b.i. agents? if that is your worry, the safety and security of the american people, why are these people the ones that you want to

punish? you make us less safe by doing so. all of these people are hardworking public safety professionals, but they are human. when they are on a job, they are focused on keeping it safe, but they're human, and there are going to be issues rattling around in their brain just like all of us have issues rattling around in our brain during the day. do you really want our d.e.a. agents and the a.t.f. and the u.s. marshals, do you really want them having about 10% of their mind mad that they're not getting paid and another 20% of their mind worried about making the mortgage payment or rescheduling the kids' orthodontist appointment? it would be unrealistic to expect these people to wall that off completely, even when they are at work. why are we subjecting them to this? it makes us less safe. 14,000 of those that are working without pay are air traffic controllers. many of them are not just walking, because of other job shortages in the profession, are

working tremendous amounts of i'm. now, if you were to ask me, who would be a public safety professional that i would most like not to be mad, most like not to be distracted, most like not to be diverted and thinking about something else, it would have to be an air traffic controller. the last thing i would want is somebody who flies a lot -- and so many americans do -- is to think that my air traffic controllers are sitting in the tower -- i -- last friday, i came back and i tendered about 100 pay stubs from air traffic controllers. most of them had their name in zero. they had just gotten these pay stubs. one had one penny. somebody had 4,175 cents. you get that in the -- had had $41.75. you get that in the mail, you're a professional, in the tower trying to do your job, but that is going to be working on you. and thinking about what that means for the tuition check that gets written in the middle of january for your kid who is going through the spring

semester or the visa bill that is the biggest one of the year because of the christmas purchases on it or the heating bill that is the biggest one of the year because this is the cold time of the year, i don't want air traffic controllers' minds filled with anxiety and anger because they got a pay stub that said one penny on it. 88% of the d.h.s. security employees are furloughed. 54,000 borders and customs protection agents. the d.h.s. cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency. if the issue is security at the border, what possibly would be the reason why we wouldn't take up the bill that's at the senate desk to fund that function at least through february 8 so that we could find a legitimate compromise on border security and immigration reform? if the president is worried, as he said, about the safety and

security of the american people, why would you punish the very people who are at the front lines providing that safety and security of our border? the f.d.a. is having to recall furloughed employees to ensure public health because of the prolonged state of the shutdown. in its third week, idz forced the f.d.a. to suspend a large portion of food safety inspections. now again, with flus and viruses and all kinds of challenges and recalls of lettuce or recalls of other unhealthy foods, this is an important part of keeping america safe and secure. and what possibly can be gained first from furloughing and sending them home or then bringing them back and not paying them? the transportation security administration, there was news about this today, because of the pain of having to work without pay, there's been a spike in people calling in ill.

that's leading to longer lines at dulles, longer lines at hartsfield in atlanta, longer lines at the miami international airport. and that is likely to continue. we all know the hassle of any line at the t.s.a. we don't like but we also want the t.s.a. to be able to do their job and stop people from getting on the planes if they have weapons or there is some other issue. there was a story from yesterday about somebody being able to get through a t.s.a. line carrying a weapon that could be attributed to the staffing shortages and the challenges that we're putting them under. again, if this president wants to care about the safety and security of american personnel, why punish t.s.a. agents? today there was an announcement that t.s.a. announced that they will reallocate screening officers on a national basis to meet staffing shortages that cannot be addressed locally. now not only will federal workers be unpaid, not only

will they be unpaid but they will be forced to relocate to do work to cover staffing shortages elsewhere. my colleague from virginia is here, and i want to cede the time to him. but, mr. president, you understand the point that i make. the first job of any of us in public life at whatever level -- local, state, federal disshes to protect -- federal -- is to protect the safety and security of the american people. there is absolutely no reason if that is our goal to take so many dedicated public safety professionals and mess up their lives so bad by not paying them and put them in a situation where they have to call in sick, they have to worry about medical appointments or their kids. that is not conducive to american security and safety. we should reopen government, get these folks back to work. now that the senate has passed a backpay bill, i would also point out we will pay these people. wouldn't we rather pay them to serve citizens rather than pay

them and lock them out? we do not allow federal workers to strike, but there should be an equivalent. we will not lock them out. we're now locking them out even though we will still strike a backpaycheck to them. wouldn't we rather they be providing safety and security services to their fellow citizens? with that, mr. president, i appreciate the opportunity to address the issue, and i yield the floor to my colleague. mr. warner: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, let me pick up where my friend, the senator from virginia, left off. we're now in the history books. the longest shutdown in american history, on this president's watch. a president who a few weeks back said he would be proud to own this government shutdown. a president who in the lead-up said, gosh, don't those democrats know that most of the

folks who aren't going to get paid or democrats, which was frankly one of the most insulting comments any elected official in my political lifetime has ever made. i wish that the president or somebody from his white house had been with senator kaine and i when we sat down with federal workers from virginia last friday. senator kaine may have already mentioned a couple of these stories. i'm going to l briefly recap a couple of them. one, the number of federal employees who came and sat with us who said they were in federal service because they thought that it was national service. many of them former veterans who felt they had an obligation to continue to serve our nation, to protect it. there was one lady who worked at a small agency that investigates chemical spill, and there had been a chemical spill in houston the week before, she felt her

job was to get out there and investigate that spill. a young man who served in the military now was supposed to be approving the safety of helicopters that were supposed to be deployed to iraq. this guy's not able to do his job, and who's going to watch out for the safety of those helicopters? what about the needs for those helicopters that may be for troops in harm's way? the story of one worker who said she had a little, but she could get through her savings. but what she's going to have to do, she went into her ira, draws down that money, and as senator kaine mentioned, she'll get repaid but even if she gets repaid she will not get repaid the tax penalty for her early withdrawal from her ira. another employee who was able, again, i think got a couple

thousand dollars advance on a credit card. but even when he's repaired in terms of back pay, that won't make up for the fees and interest that's charged on the credit card bill. if the senator from virginia already recounted this story, my apologize to the presiding officer, a young couple, both federal employees, who brought their seven-week-old baby to this meeting, who said they wanted to bring this small bundle of joy because they had the unthinkable happen. when they tried to get their daughter put on their federal health care insurance, whoever was supposed to send in the form had been furloughed. so when they took their daughter to the doctor and the doctor prescribed medicine, the drugstore couldn't pay the bill because the folks didn't have their insurance.

they had done nothing wrong. in this case it didn't end up in a tragedy. the insurance company with additional documentation, put the child on the insurance plan and this family was able to get the medicine for their child. but no parent who would earn the right to have their kid covered by health insurance should have this kind of action interfere in their life. rand i did hear a -- and i did hear a bit, senator kaine mentioned, we had air traffic controllers who brought their checks. it added insult to injury to have a check that said zero on it. better not to send them a check. senator kaine mentioned do you really want, in the air crowded airspace over dulles, your air traffic controller spending 30% of his time figuring out how he's going to pay the mortgage or his kids' tuition. you want 100% of that federal

employee's focus on landing that plane safely. 800,000 federal workers, about half of them furloughed, half of them working not just full-time, but in some cases overtime. with another colleague earlier today, we met some folks working in a federal penitentiary. a lot of workers weren't showing up to work not because they were upset or because they wanted to rightly protest. they couldn't afford the gas because they lived two hours away from the federal penitentiary. we've got a president who's willing to go to the border, go on tv but not willing to sit down with any of this workforce. and that is embarrassing and, frankly, disgraceful. but you're saying this is only about federal workers, that would be bad enough. what about the contractors, many of which even though there

is a group of us trying to put legislation in place, even if we reopen government, many of these contractors will never be made whole. we've had in our state a number of small businesses, one veteran-owned business with nine employees, she had to shut down last week because she couldn't meet her payroll. will that small business be able to reopen? i don't know. we in virginia are blessed with incredible national parks. national parks around the area where senator kaine lives in richmond. what happens if you're at the camp ground around the shenandoah national park? at a restaurant around petersburg battlefield. those small businesses will never see that income come back in. we've got a very flourishing craft brewery industry in virginia, as i know in new

mexico and i imagine even alaska. well, port city brewing, based in virginia, can't bring a couple of new brews to market because a.t.f. workers are furloughed. there's already been mention of the growing lines of t.s.a. at the airports, and the fact that farmers who are waiting to see whether the president's support checks are going to come in, they're not going to come in right now. you've got bad trade policy reinforced with bad business practices while the government is shut down. as a matter of fact, look at this at a more macro level, what is the cost -- what does it cost the taxpayer? the cost has already exceeded $3.6 billion. why in good gracious' name at least just vote on what the house has already voted on,

what 96 senators voted on in the middle of december. we want to continue to litigate how we can better protect our border security, count me in. i'm in favor of additional resources for border security. i'm sure we can find a way to get to yes. but why hold 800,000 federal workers, hundreds of thousands of contractors and for that matter the whole country hostage. my friend, the senator from new mexico is here. i'm only going to take one more moment. but my career, i spent longer in business than i have in government. and most of my career in business was about trying to do deals. i was a venture capitalist which is all about doing deals. i was an entrepreneur. subsequent to that i was governor of a state that had a two to one republican legislature. if i was going to get anything done as governor, i had to find common ground with the

legislature of a different ground. i'm proud to say we did find common ground. virginia got independently recognized as best managed state and best state for business. i've had a little experience doing deals, and i will wager this, mr. president. that when this shutdown comes to a conclusion, that business schools and management consultants will write case studies about how not to negotiate based on donald trump's activities. donald trump, who sold himself to the american people as the ultimate dealmaker has, i think, in the last 24 and even days before that violated every cardinal rule of how to get a deal done. let me briefly go through this. the first thing you learn in business if you're trying to do a deal, even if you've got a little slight advantage, you

try to make it at least appear that it's a win-win circumstance for both sides. there's been nothing out of this white house that has been in any effort towards those who don't agree with the president, any sense of a wig-win. it's -- a win-win. it's been all about my way or the highway. that's not the wait you practice business. the second rule of business is if you have got somebody negotiating on your behalf, you back up your negotiators. you don't cut their knees off. this president has humiliated not only the majority leader of the senate who had the misfortune of taking and accepting the president's word and having the senate vote 96-2 on a plan that he thought the president was going to sign and then had his knees cut off. a few days later after that, you had the vice president come to the, come here to congress, offer a plan as at least a starting point. and i don't even think he got

back gown -- downtown before the president of the united states cut off the vice president's negotiating skills. in the last few days, at least based on reporting, a friend of all of ours, the president was supposed to listen to, senator graham from south carolina has been shot down as well. rule number two, don't kneecap your negotiators. rule number three, realize no matter how important the deal is, there's always going to be another deal. got to leave something on the table. this president has so broken faith with folks in his own party, folks on our side of the aisle. how can this individual think he's going to have any credibility regardless of how we resolve this issue on any going-forward basis to be a strong negotiator. rule number four, have somebody that's willing to speak truth to

power. unfortunately, this administration, any independent voice has quit, been fired, or if they then quit, as the case with the secretary of defense, the president changes the terms and said he fired him after all. and finally, management 101. if you're asking your workforce to go through tough times, show a little empathy. i've never seen a leader in our country in my time in politics ever be more disrespectful of a federal workforce, a federal workforce that over the last decade in both party -- and both parties have done this -- whenever we've gone to the well to try to cut programs, the part of the programs we always cut are what we call in washington discretionary. that means the folks who live on -- work on food stamps, national parks, the folks who live at -- who work at t.s.a., the folks who work on the coast guard. yet, there's been zero empathy

from this white house for those workers who all of us have spoken about, who are asked to do more, who aren't getting paid or asked to work overtime. we are a better country than this. so the president who got -- said he was dealmaker supreme i think will be -- go down at least in modern management history and will be studied but not studied on how you get a deal done but frankly on how not to get a deal done. so i think it is incumbent upon us here in the united states senate to do our job. we do not have to ask permission from this president to reopen this government, to pass legislation that could override his veto, should he choose to, to make sure the 96 senators who voted in favor of keeping the government open in december would have a chance to reaffirm that vote on a forward-going basis. mr. president, i appreciate the time to go to the floor. i'm going to hand off to my friend, the senator from new mexico.

it's my hope we don't make further history this week and we find some way in this next day or so to get this government reopened so we can get this federal workforce back to work. thank you, mr. president. mr. udall: the presidin -- mr. udall: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. mr. udall: thank you for the recognition. let me say to senator warner, my good friend from virginia who has an incredible empathy for the federal workforce. we have the same thing in new mexico. it is really -- and our good friend senator bennet here from colorado, we have federal employees throughout this nation that really give the extra bit. they go the extra mile. so i'm going to talk a lot about that the same way senator warner is and with the same kind of passion he has. you know, today senator warner, is day 24 of the trump shutdown.

federal government employees are furloughed and others aren't working -- others are working. they're working but they did not get their paychecks. federal contractors have already received stop work orders. not only are they not getting paid but they will never receive backpay for work lost. this trump shutdown is now the longest shutdown in u.s. history. history will show this shutdown to be a political and financial fiasco of the president's making. as you can see from this map published by "the new york times" and i'm sure our presiding officer will see, this map here shows as you get more green on this map, you're hurt more about this shutdown and can

see that alaska, maryland, virginia, new mexico, montana, colorado, there are a lot of states that are really, really hurt. we have a large workforce and some of the federal agencies that are currently shut down, including the department of interior, the homeland security department, and the department of agriculture. my staff estimates conservatively that we have at least 10,800 federal employees affected not counting law enforcement. we are a small state. this has a big impact. and there are not good estimates of the impact on many new mexicans employed by or under contract with federal contractors. federal employees are true public servants who often forego jobs that pay more because they believe in public service. these men and women have

families. some don't have much in the way of savings. some live paycheck to paycheck. like the border patrol agent from las cruces in southern new mexico who worked focus toms and border protection for 18 years. he tells me and i quote here, i live paycheck to paycheck. if i don't get paid the money that i earn, i'm not going to make it. and he puts that in caps. i'm not going to make it. creditors are not for giving any debt -- are not forgiving any debts. i'm asking you to please try and help me and all federal workers get paid. i feel stressed and helpless. please help. this is from a border patrol agent, the folks that we rely on to actually keep our nation safe, which the president claims is his aim. this agent is hurting. the president is devastating

these agents and their families. while border patrol agents may or may not support a wall, they do not support going unpaid for the difficult and dangerous work they do in service to our nation. in service to keeping our border safe and the president's which we all know this is the president's claimed goal. the president's unconvincing claim that he can, quote, relate to federal workers not getting paid was belied by his completely out-of-touch statement that he can, quote, make adjustments and be just fine. this president cannot relate to the professional support employee in the las cruces f.b.i. office whose mortgage company, gas company, credit card companies are giving her no leeway making no adjustments while she goes without pay. she says she is, quote, a real

human being who is being held hostage. she worked for the f.b.i. for 21 years but she will probably leave federal service early so that she has the financial security she needs to pay her bills. she and the other 800,000 federal workers are being held hostage by a president who is willing to wreck american families for his vanity wall. an occupational therapist with the indian health services at the gallon center in new mexico tells me emphatically in all capital letters, i am not with the president on this issue. she is working hard providing needed services to native communities but providing for herself and with no pay, she is beyond stretched. she was helping her son pay off

college loans. she's had to tell him she can't help right now. she has an elderly mother she visits in las cruces. she can't plan a trip now. in fact, indian health service health care providers all over the country provide services essential to health and wellness of nearly 2.2 million american indians and alaska natives and over 800 hospitals and clinics in 37 states. these federal employees and medical professionals, including over 2,000 nurses, nearly as many doctors, pharmacists, dentists and physician assistants aren't getting paid. but they are forced to work without pay and there is no end in sight. federal contractors really feel the brunt of the shutdown. their contract payments are stopped. contractors have never received

backpayments after a government shutdown. we have a federal contractor in albuquerque, a. d.c. limited new mexico, a minority women-owned company that has 2,600 employees and contractors nationwide. with 330 employees in albuquerque. the company conducts background check investigations for, ironically enough, the department of homeland security and other federal agencies. this company's work has come to a complete stop and this slows down d.h.s.' ability to hire qualified employees inhibiting its mission to keep our borders and nation safe. this company is losing tens of thousands of dollars a day. this you can imagine really hurts my state.

and its loss in revenues translates directly to a loss in state tax revenue. the multiplier effect of the shutdown on new mexico and the nation will ripple throughout the economy. this privately-held company owned by new mexicans whose lineage in our state goes back more than 300 years is currently paying its employees even though its revenue has stopped. the owners are sacrificing to do so, but they can't continue through the months or even years the president says his shutdown could last. federal employees will not stay in their jobs without pay for months or years. they have to feed their families, pay their mortgage or their rent. last week the senate passed s.24 sponsored by 43 democrats and 1 republican by voice vote. the bill guarantees that furloughed federal workers would

be paid retroactively as soon as possible. this is the least congress can do for these workers. it does not resolve, however, the pain federal workers endure through a shutdown or a guarantee that their homes won't be at risk during a shutdown or guaranteed that food will be on their table or ensure that federal workers will stay in their jobs during a prolonged shutdown like the one this president foresees. the solution is to shut down the shutdown to do it now, to do it immediately. and this trump shutdown doesn't only affect federal employees and contractors. it affects the tens of thousands of americans who rely on government services or need approval for projects. a local 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 santa fe municipal airport. this 3,200 square foot 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. as we can see, this shutdown has real consequences for real people, especially for people like those unemployed construction workers in new mexico ready and eager to go to work but unable because of our president's inability to do his

job. the president's ridiculous claim that many federal employees are not getting paid support his shutdown has no basis in reality. the federal workers in new mexico who are furloughed or working without pay, the federal workers we have heard from do not support this shutdown. an employee with the department of interior in albuquerque writes, while i'm not sure how much good it would do, i e-mailed the white house to go on record that i am not one of the federal employees the president is touting as wanting to be out of work without a paycheck until he gets his wall. i just want to go on record that no federal employees do not want to stay out of work. we want to go back to work and get paid. this is not our fight, just his. a husband and wife from las cruces who both work for the environmental protection agency are also among the many federal

workers who did not support the trump shutdown. they have three children and they need their paychecks. they don't support trump's wall either. as e.p.a. engineers, they understand and oppose the environmental destruction it will cause. a scientist for the national aeronautics and space administration at the whites missile range in new mexico is one of the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are essential and working without pay. he's working 0 an critical space infrastructure and testing related to the space x launch scheduled for later this month. there's no good reason this important work is not being paid for right now. there's no good reason why any federal employee is not getting their salary today, no good reason federal contractors' contracts are not being honored. this federal shutdown hurts

american families across my state and the nation. it hurts our economy. one federal employee in new mexico wanted to tell their story but was banned by their employer on the ground it would represent illegal lobbying of congress. this is patently false. federal employees contacting their federal elected representatives about this shutdown and its impact on their work and lives is not prohibited lobbying. the trump administration has not only put these people out of work, it is now gagging them and denying them their free speech rights. i call upon the president to end this terrible shutdown. he should do so immediately. and, mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent 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. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i understand that h.r. 266 has been received from the house. and is at the desk. the presiding officer: the leader is correct. mr. mcconnell: i would ask for its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title for the first time. the clerk: h.r. 266, an act making apropositions for the department of the interior environment, and related agencies forbe the fiscal year ending september 30, 20s 19, and for other purposes. mr. mcconnell: i had cede for its second reading and object to nigh own request. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the built will receive its second reading on the next legislative day. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 17 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 17, congratulating the north dakota state university football

team for winning the 2018 national collegiate athletic association division i football championship subdivision title. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. had. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. tuesday, january 15. furthering that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. finally, that the senate recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for the weekly conference meetings. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the

remarks of our democratic colleagues. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. over the weekend, as us may have heard, our government set a new record. it wasn't for the number of roads being built or repaired in this country. it wasn't for higher graduation rates for kids in the united states of america. it wasn't for passing the most bills or investing the most dollars in our future. it wasn't for paying attention to the next generation of americans. it was for the longest shutdown in the history of the united states, a selfish act taken by

partisan politicians that is an embarrassment to our country and to our future. it's been 24 days. we have federal employees all over the state of colorado and i'm sure the state of the alaska, the state of the commonwealth of virginia, we heard before, who are out of work because of what washington has done to them. it is nothing that they have done. they have fulfilled their end of the bargain. but because we have a screw loose around here because we are the only modern industrialized country in the world who shuts its government down for politics

our allies don't shut their government down for politics. and our foes don't shut their government down for politics. no local government shuts its government down for politics. no school district shuts its government down for politics. no state would ever think of doing it. no elected official at any level of those governments would show their face in the grocery store on the weekend after they shut the government down. said sorry to the citizens of alamosa or sorry to the citizens of the durango or sorry to the parents in denver public schools, your kids can't come to school today because we're shutting the government down for politics. it is ridiculous! i met a traffic -- air traffic controller today, mr. president, who got her check on friday

after she worked through the entire holiday. she had a kid in -- i don't know how old he was, but a baby that had to be carried. she worked the entire holiday, separate from her family, got her check on friday. it was for 77 cents. the people might as well be standing outside lifting their middle finger at her. and at the t.s.a. workers who were there today at denver international airport making sure that we were safe, that the traveling public was safe and not getting paid, unlike the people here. -- during this shutdown. by the way, that airport, which

we're very proud of in denver and in colorado, denver international airport, that is the newest airport that has been built in the united states of america, and it was built almost a quarter of a century ago. because we're not making the investments that anybody else in the world is making. and as i said, mr. president, no other advanced country in the world shuts its government down for politics. i expect us to have disagreements. we should have disagreements. but we shouldn't shut the government down over these disagreements. 24 days. while we were shut down, other countries were actually investing in their futures. south korea in the last 24 days, mr. president, broke ground on

an expanded bulletin outside their capitol of seoul. canada, while we were shut down, announced support for a new five megawatt geothermal plant, the first of its kind in that country. india issued tenders to set up 7.5 gigawatts of new solar capacity. new zealand announced millions in new resources to improve the safety of rural highways. you should see our rural highways -- and it's not just this shutdown. it's a decade -- a decade of fiscal fights made in the name of fiscal responsibility that have put us in the first position since the vietnam war and before the vietnam war to see our unemployment rate falling and the deficit going up this same wrecking crew who

called barack obama a socialist and a bowl self-ic and was incapable of bringing themselves to help at a moment when our unemployment rate was at 10% and we were at the depths of the worst recession since the great depression, have now closed the government and given us a $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion deficit while the unemployment rate is falling and every one of them promised that these tax cuts would pay for themselves. god knows when they add it up what this shutdown is going to cost the american people. it's not saving them money. vietnam opened a new international airport to attract

tourists and boost the economy. singapore is proposing an underground master plan to maximize its urban space by moving things like data centers, utilities, and water reservoirs below ground. a new report showed that for the first time ever, germany drew more energy from renewable sources than coal in 2018. ireland, in contrast to what i was just saying about the united states of america, ended the year with a budget surplus, mr. president. imagine the flexibility it gives legislators and policymakers there to think about, what are we going to do with this surplus? how are we going to invest in the next generation? how are we going to shore up their equivalent of social security?

maybe we can have a real middle-class tax cut or lift some people out of poverty in our country. we can't ask those questions today. because of our fiscal imbalance and because the government of the united states is shut down. while we were shut down, other countries moved forward with a trade partnership that excludes the united states. once its fully in place, it will represent a trading block of nearly half a billion consumers. and our manufacturers should be selling -- that our manufacturers should be selling to, that our small businesses should be exporting to. not surprisely, mr. president, china has been extreme slit busy over the last 24 days while we have been shut down. while we have been shut down, mr. president, china landed a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon.

that has never happened before in human history. there was a time in our history -- you'll remember it, mr. president -- when the russians launched sputnik, that that caught our imagination. and john f. kennedy said, we are going to put a man on the moon within the decade. that's what he said. that's what we did, mr. president. now, because of the fecklessness of this congress, did you know that america cannot send an astronaut into space? -- without asking the russians for permission to ride on one of their rockets. a whole generation of americans that i was part of, mr. president, was inspired by the space mission that nasa led. unfortunately, in my case, it did not lead me to understand

anything about mattics or about science, but it inspired us as americans to have a big vision for what our country could to understand a for what our country could do in competition with our adversaries around the world. do you think the chinese are not observing what we're doing while they're putting a rocket, a spaceship on the dark side of the moon for the first time in human history? something they will always be able to claim, something we will never be able to claim. do you think the russians know that we can't put somebody up on the space station if we want to? that we have to wait for them to let us do it. just after they put that spaceship on the other side of

the moon, china announced that it's planning another mission to the moon by the end of the year and a mission to mars as early as 2020. it announced that it's planning to invest in 4,200 miles of new railway lines this year, including almost 2,000 miles of high-speed rail. do you know how many more that is than we have? 2,000. and that says nothing about the investments that they have already made. they began operating new high-speed rail lines in east china and northern china with initial speeds of 155 miles per hour while our government is closed. that's another plan, that's another set of tracks. china announced plans for a six gigawatt wind farm on the border with mongolia which, once

completed, would become the largest in the world. china continues its pursuit of a vast space-based communications network that will cover every inch of the earth. if we're not careful, if we're not careful, they are going to deploy 5-g a lot more quickly than we will. that's what the rest of the world is doing while we are shut down. and, mr. president, my view of this is that we don't need to wait for the president on this. that's what the majority leader keeps saying. mr. president, he keeps saying well, i can't pass something that the president will veto because it won't become law. i don't understand the logic of

that, speaking of math. we passed a bill in this senate, this republican-controlled senate. i think it was unanimously, to keep the government open. and that house of representatives -- so my math isn't that great. virtually unanimously. and the house of representatives passed a very similar bill to keep the government open. and in the middle of all this, in the midst of all this, president trump said i'm not going to accept that because i'm going to use this moment to extort congress for $5 billion for my wall. he said to the people he refers to as chuck and nancy, he said, he said give me the $5 billion.

and they said well, why don't you just open the government, because almost a unanimous senate has passed it and the house has passed it, and his answer was because i'll lose leverage. meaning i won't have the misery that i am creating for the federal work force. i won't have people who -- -- who can't pay for their mortgage, who can't pay for their early childhood education, who can't pay for their education. i won't have their misery to use to extort the members of congress into giving me $5 billion for my wall. notwithstanding the fact that he promised over and over and over again when he was running for president that mexico would pay for the wall.

that's not my talking point. that's not me coming out higher and being unfair and trying to exploit a weakness or a misstatement. i think it's fair to say almost all of his campaign was based on the idea that there was going to be a wall and that mexico was going to pay for the wall. he could not have been clearer about that. and now he's trying to shut the government down because he knows mexico won't pay for the wall, which the rest of us knew the whole time he was telling america untruths about it, and he's turned instead to the american taxpayer to say okay, i wasn't telling the truth about it then, but don't pay any attention to that. you now have to pay for the wall. and our first response to that is no. you haven't even spent the money that's been appropriated for the wall to date. he has not built an inch of the

wall. look it up. and the second problem is that anybody who has studied this question for any moment of time knows that his proposal is a waste of money for the united states. i'm not going to be lectured by anybody on the other side about the need for border security. i was part of the bank of eight that negotiated the immigration bill in 2013. that was a bill, mr. president, that had not $5 billion of border security in it, not $2.3 billion of border security in it, but $46 billion of border security. it got 68 votes here in the senate. never went to the house. never was allowed to have a vote because of the tyranny of the

so-called hastert rule, which requires people not to vote their conscience but to vote only along party and partisan lines. another disgraceful chapter in modern american political history. but that $46 billion in that bill doubled the number of border security agents at our border. it built 350 miles of what the president now refers to as steel slats as if he's invented that idea. it made sure that we could see every single inch of our border. the chinese are going to be able to see every single inch of the world. the least we can do is see every inch of our border. in that bill, we were able to do that. meanwhile, he tells his base and the people on fox news repeat it every single night that democrats are for open borders, democrats are for terrorists pouring in over the southern

border. mr. president, i have become convinced -- and i'm going to stop because my great colleague from new hampshire is here. i have become convinced that we have spent years working on immigration, years working on border security, years working with my most cherished republican colleagues on this issue in a bipartisan way, that the president doesn't want the wall. he wants the entertainment of the wall. he wants to rally his base around the wall. and meanwhile, he has taken the leading economy in the world, a country with the largest capacity for self-defense in human history, and he has shut its government down over a $5 billion phony wall.

and it is a disgrace. it's a disgrace for every hardworking federal worker and their families who depend on them who are out of work, who are being furloughed, who aren't being paid. it's a disgrace for every person who works at state and local government and in school districts all across this nation who would never think about shutting their government down for history, but who understand that what they possess as a civil servant is a sacred trust to their community and to the next generation of coloradans or folks from new hampshire or of americans or of alaskans. and we can't wait for the president -- and i'll finish with this -- because he either doesn't want the wall or he doesn't have the capacity to get to a solution to it. and so we have to do our work as senators.

and we have to vote to reopen the government. if that were put on the floor tomorrow, it would pass. and i'll bet you it would pass with a veto-proof majority. why? because everybody's constituents in this base would say are you out of your mind? don't come back here and have another town hall and explain why you shut the government down over politics. instead, democrats and republicans will come together in this chamber and set an example for the american people and say all is not lost. this exercise in a democratic republic is going to live to fight another day. we've come to our senses. we're not going to beat our own

constituents to death for the purpose of empty partisan slogans or ideas that aren't going to advance the interests of the next generation of americans. i worry every night that i'm here, mr. president, about how the next generation of americans, what kind of history they're going to write about what we did when it was our responsibility to make sure that we fulfilled our commitments to them. the same ones that generation after generation after generation of americans have fulfilled for people who came after them. that's what it means to be a citizen in a republic like ours. and we are violating every norm of that approach to the world. and allowing our competitors around the world to create advantage for themselves and potential liabilities for us.

we shouldn't let this thing go into the 25th day or the 26th day or the 27th day. we should end it now. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. hassan: mr. president, i rise today to join my democratic colleagues in sharing stories of what we are hearing from our constituents who are being impacted by this government shutdown, and i want to take a minute to thank my friend and colleague from colorado for his thoughtful and comprehensive and passionate remarks about where we are and why. this is a needless and terrible exercise in politics. and we need to reopen the government. mr. president, this senseless shutdown has been dragging on now for weeks, affecting vital

government services and leading -- leaving many federal workers without pay. and every day that passes without a resolution, hardworking people are dealing with greater uncertainty, and many are facing tough choices in order to protect their families and the way of life they have worked so hard to build. like many of my colleagues, i've heard from a number of people throughout my state who have been affected by this shutdown. on friday, i visited two nonprofits in new hampshire, the national soup kitchen and the community action partnership, what most of us know as c.a.p. of stratford county which provide vulnerable people with shelter, with food and support, but they are now in danger of being unable to provide services that are a critical part of our safety net. they also fear an increase in demand for those services because unpaid federal workers will be turning to them for help.

federal employees and others affected by the shutdown in new hampshire have also written to my office to describe the hardships they are facing and to urge us to reopen the government. one of those granite staters has been an air traffic controller for close to 19 years. sadly, on christmas eve, her mother passed away, leaving her with a terrible loss, but also with the stress and expenses of a funeral, all while having to work christmas eve and christmas day. on top of that, now she has not received a paycheck for that work. she wrote -- and here's her quote -- the government shutdown has been the last thing on my mind, but now the realization of not being able to pay my mortgage, credit cards from christmas time, and now this funeral is too much to bear. she put it simply, saying,

quote, my colleagues and i deserve better. i also heard from a granite stater who works for the i.r.s. he wrote to me saying that, quote, the prospect of not having a paycheck for an extended time is causing sleepless nights, and i'm recovering an extended bout of pneumonia that ended up putting me in the hospital right before christmas. he goes on, quote, my wife is worried about the bills for that. last night, i worked pushing out the car payment. today i applied for unemployment for the first time in 25 years. and talked to my mortgage company. he continued, quote, all this was under control a month ago, but now has me worried and is costing me charges and interest. he also detailed his concerns about a co-worker who is terrified of losing her home if

she is not able to pay her mortgage, and of another who is waiting to address a health issue until she has a paycheck again. he said of him and his fellow federal workers, quote, we are hardworking, dedicated employees. our jobs involve long hours, nights away from home, and risks to our health and safety. all i want is to do my job and be paid fairly for it. finally i heard from a granite stater whose husband is in the coast guard and recently relocated to new hampshire. she said, quote, to say this shutdown is impacting us is an understatement. she wrote that she and her husband recently relocated to new hampshire, and they spent every last penny purchasing a home in the state where they first met. she said, quote, we knew it was going to be tight with our two paychecks, but we would have enough to make ends meet.

that all changed after christmas, when we were informed that our president was prepared to shut down the government over a wall. since then she and her husband have watched, hoped, and prayed that funding would come because now they fear that they're going to have to call family members to beg, to borrow money to pay their mortgage and not go into default. and, mr. president, as bad as the direct impact of this situation is on federal workers and on some of our most vulnerable and on people in small businesses that rely on government services, the shutdown also has ripple effects on other people and businesses across our state. we must do better. the president's politically motivated crisis is devastating for too many hardworking families in new hampshire and across the country.

and they deserve better than being used as pawns for a campaign slogan created by president trump. it is time for these games to stop, for the president's shutdown to end, and for our government to reopen. we need a vote on the floor of the united states senate on the bipartisan bills that we already passed that would reopen this government with a veto-proof majority. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, mr. president. i rise tonight to speak about the shutdown, and i know the hour is late. i'll cut short my remarks. but we're now, as you've heard, and as many americans know, in day 24 of the

shutdown. this is a shutdown that the president a number of weeks ago said that he -- i'm not quoting him exactly, but he seemed to want to have a shutdown, and then he went forward and executed it. even after this body, the united states senate, voted to unanimously, just before christmas, to extend funding for the government until february so we could continue debates until then. but he chose to upend that, and now we have this shutdown lasting not just 24 days, but now the longest in american history, not a distinction any president or administration or congress, especially the majority here in the senate, should be proud of. and i think it's very clear that there's a way out of this. the way out of the this would not foreclose. it would enhance the chances that we could have a fulsome, thorough, policy h.r.

oriented -- policy-oriented debate on bored -- border security. we should enhance that, expand that to immigration issues and maybe come up with a bipartisan bill like we had in 2013 where 68 votes brought forward a bill out of the united states senate that had probably the best border security provisions in recent american history, had a pathway to citizenship, a long and arduous path but a pathway nonetheless, as well as guest worker provisions so that employers could have order and rules and certainty as to the workforce and immigration system. so we have a very much broken system that would have been five years at least into the fixing of or the repair of if we had passed that bill -- if the house had passed this bill i should say. 68 votes in the senate, died in the house and we haven't seen a

bill like that singers -- since, not any bill as can be be -- as comprehensive. i think there complicity in thee as well. we could pass a bill tonight, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon. we could pass it quickly because remember the first act of a democratic house, democratic majority house, the first act was to pass republican appropriations bill, bills that sailed through the united states senate, republican majority with little to no opposition. so that's where we find ourselves, with a way out of the predicament which i believe would not only open up the government which would be good for the whole country, both parties, all across the country, and especially the people most adversely affected.

but it would also isolate the issue. the president says that he wants to have changes made, and he has a different view than i do, but let's have weeks of debate on border security or everything else he wants to talk about. let's bring in the experts, have a dueling set of experts. see who the american people support. do they support one point of view that says we want border security? or do they support the other point of view that says that you want a wall or some steel barrier? and that's kind of choice. do you want real border security or do you want something else? but we should have a debate about that. if anything, the debate about the shutdown would be set aside because it would be over. the government would be open. naturally, the country, the press, the senate and the house would naturally focus then on issues of dispute. that would isolate the issue. but it's very difficult to

maintain an argument or a debate, a reasoned debate, a debate based upon facts and policy and law, and i hope the advice and consultation of border security experts, not just politicians -- we've got a lot of smart people in the congress but very few, if any of them are border security experts. let's listen to the experts and take testimony from them. that would be a way to isolate and focus on the issue instead of bringing misery to what is now hundreds of thousands of americans, soon to grow to millions, and then tens of millions because those who missed paychecks today are a very big number. that number will grow when it starts to affect government services, which i'll outline rather quickly because of hour.

but we've got a lot of working men and women in the country now working without pay or being furloughed, worrying about whether they can make a mortgage payment or put food on the table or pay their heating bill. they don't have a choice. they can't just say, well, sir, i can't pay the bill today because the government shut down, so just wait and you're going to be just fine. no, they have to pay the bill. thank god we passed legislation for back pay. but for some of these folks, back pay won't be enough because their credit will be adversely impacted. their credit might be destroyed even if they get the back pay. on friday 820,000 federal workers, including 14,000 in my home state of pennsylvania, missed a paycheck. more than 1,300 department of agriculture employees, 990 department of interior employees, 1,200 federal bureau of prisons employees, 775

f.a.a. and t.s.a. employees, 700 e.p.a. employees, as well as u.s. attorneys or assistant u.s. attorneys in different parts of pennsylvania. i will just share one part, a small part of a long constituent letter that i got from a constituent. this constituent said i am currently a furloughed united states -- u.s. state department employee and one of your constituents. i will soon miss a paycheck. and with car payments, student loan payments, et cetera, on the horizon, my family of five will likely suffer. beyond our personal hardship, this shutdown is both expensive and counter productive to border security. i couldn't agree more with that constituent. with the argument that that constituent makes. but what's even more compelling of course is not the argument about the policy debate here in

washington, the more compelling part of that of course is missing car payments, student loan payments, and a family of that size suffering. that is real life. that is not just a washington theoretical debate. that's real life for that family. how about farmers? these are people that are not federal government employees but they're affected by the fact that federal government employees are not at their desk or not in the field. farmers can't visit their local farm service agency office to get assistance. we have a new farm bill, one of the great bipartisan achievements. democrats and republicans, house and senate came together for a big farm bill. that's great, glad we got that done at the end of 2018. the bad news is some of that requires advice and consultation and engagement with farm service agency offices. they're not able to give that assistance. how about seniors who rely upon

transportation service and nutrition services provided by the enhanced mobility of seniors and individuals with disabilities program. and the commodity supplemental food program also known as the senior food box, are now at risk of being isolated. these seniors, i should say are now at risk of being isolated at home and without food. approximately 2,400 units of low-income housing -- housing -- in pennsylvania are in jeopardy because the department of housing and urban development won't be able to renew a contract. more than two-thirds of the people who receive this type of assistance are seniors and people with disabilities. the people who benefit from this type of housing assistance have average incomes of less than $13,000. two million pennsylvanians receiving food assistance, that's actually about 1.8 million but almost 2 million,

11.8 million pennsylvanians receive assistance through the snap program, supplemental nutrition assistance program. they may lose access if the shutdown drags on much longer. the administration said don't worry. everything is okay for february. that's in essence what the administration said. haven't given a definitive word about march. 1.8 million pennsylvanians, a shiewj share of them have a -- a huge share of them have a disability. a huge share of them are a child in a household who can't support themselves, they're children, they benefit as well. they're part of the 1.8. a lot of them of course are seniors who deserve this program because that's what we do in america. we try to help people who need food assistance. that's called being america, being a strong country that we are, showing how strong we are not just by virtue of our

military, our g.d.p. everyone knows that. no one comes close in the world. but we are also strong because we say we care about people with disabilities. we want to make sure if they need medicaid, they get that kind of health care. if they need food assistance, we're going to get that for them. we care about our seniors too because we're america and we're strong. and it's an american value. so these programs are important. so when they're shut down, that's not an american value being upheld. so when we talk about these programs, about food assistance, this is also real life. literally today or the day when you lose food assistance. or why should that assistance even be the subject of uncertainty? uncertainty because someone doesn't get their way on a policy matter here in washington? so i guess it's okay for any member of congress, because we're a coequal branch of government, it's not like the

president is higher than the congress. we're coequal. so i guess because the president wants to shut the government down to make a point about a policy matter, i guess that should be the option that any member of the house or the senate should exercise, so the next time it will be a member of congress. when you lose a battle on a policy matter or you don't propose the funding on time, which is what happened here -- they didn't ask for the money at the beginning of the year, so they tried to shoehorn it in at the end of the year. so i guess if you lose the policy debate or your bill doesn't pass, you vote to shut the government down. you take action to shut the government down like the president did. i don't think that's the way any party or any country should operate. 200,000 pennsylvanians may lose access to the women, infants and children's program which provides critical nutritional support to mothers and young children. 200,000. so there's the million.

there's the two million i talked about. 1.8 million people getting the benefits of the snap program, which by the way, helps all americans. people say what do you mean by that? well, it does. you spend a buck on snap, you get $1.80 back in economic activity because people have to eat and they tend to spend that money quickly. it helps everybody. so the snap program is not just a nice thing to do for people that have a disability or seniors or children, the snap program helps all of us because it helps stism late the -- helps stimulate the economy. even if you're disinterested in supporting this program but you're interested in your own economy, your own american economy growing, you should such port the snap program. it's also the right thing to do because it's a darn good program. but when you add 1.1 million people getting snap and then 200,000 people that benefit from the wick program, now you have over two million just in one

state. these programs aren't out of money this week or the month of january or the month of february. but we don't know about march yet. we have not gotten any guarantees about march. even if we got a guarantee about march, what about april? that is far if guaranteed. so that's what we're talking about here. why should these people have to wait? why should a farmer have to wait weeks or months to talk to a farm service agency office? why should a family who's got food insecurity as part of their lives, not getting something to eat because we're having a policy debate here, why shouldn't we give them the certainty that they vote for us to ensure? so it's unconscionable and unacceptable. i wish i could come up with better words than that because they're not at all adequate. but it is unconscionable that children and moms and hungry americans will suffer because of

this shutdown. the president says he's concerned about crime and the flow of dangerous drugs into the country. and i agree with him. a lot of americans do, of course. but the shutdown is significantly impairing the f.b.i. and the d.e.a.'s law enforcement efforts. these are part of the list of agents that are impacted. agents are still doing their work to keep the public safe. they're dedicated. they're going to do the work no matter what. but with many analysts on furlough, it's getting harder and harder to work effectively to keep the public safe. i want an f.b.i. that's got all of the resources they need. everybody on duty, everyone working. but if you only -- if the wib is undermined -- if the f.b.i. is undermined because of the shutdown, we are less safe. if the d.e.a., drug enforcement

agency, if that is undermined because of the shutdown, we are less safe. you don't have to be a law enforcement expert to say that. so it goes on from there, mr. president. i have more but i won't because of the hour. but i'll go back to the beginning. there are adverse impacts today with people not being paid as of friday. that alone is compelling and urgent and insulting, frankly, to us as americans and directly insulting to those families who don't deserve this. it's going to get a lot worse, though. that number is going to grow and grow if people, not just those who are directly affected with their paycheck and their livelihoods and their credit rating and all that, but it's also going to -- it's going to grow from there. it's going to affect people who depend upon the federal government for help when they're vulnerable, when they're hungry, when they want an answer to a question, when they want to close on a mortgage or do a long list of other things.

and for the life of me i don't understand why we would not pass a bill that is sitting in this chamber that we could pass to open eight of the nine agencies that are closed until the end of the fiscal year end september so the shutdown will be over for those eight agencies and then you would have one agency, homeland security, that we get short-term funding which would be another reason we could continue the debate, another way to focus attention on border security, whatever else anybody wants to talk about here. focus the attention on that issue. remove the issue that's in front of all of us which is the government, 25% of the government and a lot of it affecting a lot of people is closed, shuttered, not working, not effective, not delivering on results. so there's an easy solution here which not only does not foreclose the debate on border security, effective, expert --

expert recommended border security, but if anything, i think it enhances a possibility that there will be a more engaged debate on border security. and as i said, i hope it will grow to a larger immigration debate. so, mr. president, with that i will yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate the previous order, the senate

. >> is the government shutdown continues negotiations are at a standstill, but there are new reports this evening the white house is invited democrats to meet with president trump sometime this week this comes as the president continues to call for $5 billion of border wall funding while democratic leaders are urging the government to reopen before there are any negotiations on border security. looking at what senators have to say from earlier today on the senate floor. . >> although three quarters of the government is fully operational, important federal functions continue to be affected