the gallup poll today had him at a near record low of 37% popularity. even some of his base is losing faith. president trump you're not going to win this fight with the american people. every day it drags on, you are less popular, every day it drags on, people blame you and the republicans, not the democrats. you're not winning the fight. you may be in your own untruth bubble, but you're not winning the fight. everyone knows that, we certainly do. >> and now that from the senate yesterday. today the proposal for the treasury department to lift sanctions tied to a russian oligarch. they'll move to a final vote on the russian sanctions measure. now live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span2.

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. eternal savior, you have been with this nation from its birth. use our lawmakers to protect and preserve it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. give our senators kind hearts and humble spirits. help them to aspire to become instruments of your purposes. lord, guide them to find in each

problem and perplexity the prelude to greater understanding and usefulness. may they seek daily to maintain their ethical, moral, and spiritual fitness. and, lord, sustain those who are suffering most because of this partial government shutdown. we pray in your moly name. -- we pray in your holy 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.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of s.j. res. 2, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 13, s.j. res. 2, disaapproving the

president's proposal to take an action relating to the application of certain sanctions with respect to the russian federation. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 12:30 p.m. will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. mr. grassley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the time on the quorum call be equally divided between the two sides. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: one dollar -- one dollar. that's the amount that the speaker of the house recently said she'd be willing to invest in physical barriers at our southern border. one dollar.

well, talk about serious, good-faith negotiations, talk about taking border security seriously, the men and women on the ground have been unambiguous -- unambiguous -- about the crisis they're facing. the entry of criminal aliens and gang members in our country, the drugs that go on to infect our communities, the ongoing humanitarian crises that are fueled by our government's mixed something unless and our inability to enforce -- mixed signals and our inability to enforce our own laws. according to speaker pelosi, these issues are worth about 33 cents each. 33 cents. as we all know, that is because the speaker has recently defined a brand-new dogma for the democratic party.

actually enforcing our immigration laws with the help of physical barriers is, quote, an immorality, mr. president -- an immorality. now, that's quite the indictment of her fellow democrats' past positions. in recent years we've seen democrats vote for billions -- billions -- of dollars in physical walls and fencing. in recent years we've seen a democratic administration build the same steel barriers -- the very same steel barriers -- that this president now wants to expand. but these days it seems like democrats are happy to take their cues from the gentlelady from san francisco and her extreme fringe position that walls have now become immoral. really? yesterday president trump issued

yet another bipartisan invitation for members of congress to meet at the white house and actually negotiate. and yet again only republicans came to the table. for the american people who deserve both a functioning government as well as a secure border, that's really not a promising sign. for federal workers who are now stretching every dollar until democrats lose interest in dead-end political games, the speaker's punch line is not very entertaining. so for everyone's sake, i would hope our democratic colleagues will reverse course and work seriously with this thousands reach an agreement that can -- with this white house to reach an agreement that can become law and fulfill our promises to our country. in the meantime, as the white house has made clear just yesterday, cherry-picking

continuing resolutions that fail to address the border security crisis are not going to receive the president's signature -- not going to. the only way out of this impasse is a bipartisan agreement, and as the democratic leader and i have both states here on the floor, only an all-corners, bipartisan agreement will receive a vote here in the senate. now, mr. president, on another matter, before the senate today is a resolution from the democratic leader that would overrule career civil servants at the treasury department and fire from the hip on one of the top foreign policy concerns of the united states. this is the pending business. despite the fact the democratic leader had previously proclaimed that he would not let the senate address any business -- any considering during this partial government shutdown.

remember, that was the reason the democratic leader gave for leading a democratic filibuster of a bipartisan package that would have rearizona firmed our commitment top defend our allies in -- to reaffirm our commitment to defend our allies in israel, stand alongside jordan and unlock justice for the victims of assad's rogue regime. so on one day they insist we shouldn't do any business. on another, it's time to bring up an unrelated resolution of their own. at the end of the last congress, they said they'd support bipartisan legislation to shore up our allies in the middle east and deliver justice for victims of unspeakable violence in syria. now they're filibustering the bill and have voted against it three times -- three times against this important bill that benefits our allies, israel, jordan, and deals with the

victims of cruelty in syria. these twists and turns are pretty hard to follow. confusing. until you remember the one key too our democratic colleagues' thinking these days, political spite for the president comes first. ahead of everything else. you see, the administration isn't opposed to these bipartisan, urgent bills to back israel, jordan, and the syrian people. president trump, we expect, would sign these bills. we might actually make a law, which is what the people sent us here to do, presumably. so naturally, the democratic leader isn't interested. democrats in congress don't think working with the president to accomplish things suits their political brand these days. but the democratic leader's new

resolution that he has been happy to prioritize ahead of israel and the syrian people, it offers them a chance to make had a political splash. it overrules the careful actions of career civil servants at treasury and blows up a nuanced decision that the current law actually requires. current law actually requires what they did. supporting israel, not too interesting to my friends across the aisle, but picking a political fight with the president, boy, they are up for that one every day. this is the key to understanding this unusual moment, mr. president. this is the central principle. democrats have made a marketing decision to obstruct president trump at all costs, even if it hurts substantive priorities

they used to support. that's why we're in day 26 of this partial government shutdown with democrats refusing to even show up and negotiate on funds for border security which they used to brag about supporting. that's why senate democrats have decided that aid for israel and help for the people of syria are not worthy of this body's time but are happy to spend floor time trying to blow up a highly technical treasury department decision which current law actually requires. let me say that again. happy to spend floor time trying to blow up a highly technical treasury department decision which current law actually requires. political obstruction is their top priority. everything else follows from that.

now, on one final matter, even in the midst of this political climate, the president's nominee for attorney general delivered an impressive performance during the first day of his hearings before the judiciary committee. senators were reminded exactly why he won bipartisan admiration for this body back in 1991 and was confirmed as president bush 41's attorney general with no opposition, none. now as mr. barr himself acknowledged in his testimony yesterday, times have changed. but the core principles that our nation's attorney general must uphold haven't changed. as the nominee testified yesterday, the american people have to know that there are places in the government where the rule of law, the rule of law, not politics, holds sway. the department of justice must be such a place. those are the words, mr. president, of the right man

for this job. his testimony made clear what he sees as quick priorities for the department of justice. building on past progress and preventing violent crime, enforcing and improving our nation's immigration laws and protecting the integrity of our electoral system. he stated definitively where his loyalties lie. the rule of law, constitution, and the american people. that's how it should be. that is how it must be. and if you confirm me, he said, that is how it will be. experience, integrity, and total commitment. the president has made an outstanding choice. the judiciary committee continues its hearings today. i look forward to their continuing review of this nomination and then to it being reported here to the floor.

the american people deserve the very best. that is just what attorney general bill barr will be. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum? i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, i just heard leader mcconnell, my good

friend, rail on and on. first he doesn't agree with nancy pelosi on the wall. that's a surprise. second, he doesn't like the fact that we want to get a vote to open up the government before we move forward on s. 1. we know that. his arguments are getting kind of old and stale. i would say to the leader very simply, you may disagree with us open the government. open the government. you can do it, leader mcconnell. and all your blaming and flailing isn't going to open the government. we all know donald trump is the obstacle here. you know it, i know it, we all know it. and the only way to help all the folks who need help is to open the government. there are a good number of republicans on your side who have advocated that already. and to hold the government hostage, you are losing the argument. you are losing it with the

public. an overwhelming majority of americans think that the government should not be shut down over a wall. even a substantial number of people who support the wall say don't shut down the government to get the wall. we have problems on the border. a lot of americans don't think it's a crisis that the demand is hurting our economy and our government. so leader mcconnell, we know you disagree with leader pelosi and i on what should be border security. we know you think you should pass s. 1 before we open up the government. but, leader, you, you can open the government, and that's what the american people want, and i dare say that's what most of your colleagues want, at least if they talk to you privately. now, it seems every day that the trump shutdown drags on, we read another story about a new way it's hurting our economy.

800,000 public servants have been without pay, including thousands of veterans who work for the federal government. each one of those americans has a different story about how the shutdown is hurting them and their families. nine essential cabinet departments remain shuttered, and we're learning that the effects of the shutdown are even more widespread and continue to worsen. yesterday, president trump's own white house council of economic advisors doubled their projections of how much economic growth is being lost each week during the shutdown. let me repeat that. the trump administration's own economic advisors have just said that the trump shutdown will substantially hurt our economy. twice as much as they originally predicted. growth is down. economic and consumer confidence is down. billions of dollars have pulled out of our economy. and some of the leading financial leaders in the country are now saying we might even go

into contraction in the first part of this year if this shutdown continues. do you think, leader mcconnell, that's benefiting donald trump? do you think, leader mcconnell, that's benefiting the republican party, who americans know own the shutdown? no. so let's open the government and then debate our differences on border security and whatever else. why is our country suffering self-inflicted damage? because president trump is using the american government as leverage in an attempt to extract taxpayer money for a border wall he promised mexico would pay for. he says, you know, i hear rush limbaugh, sean hannity, he promised this in the campaign. no, he didn't. he promised a wall that mexico would pay for. he never said once that i can

recall in the campaign but if mexico doesn't pay for it, we'll pay for it. of course people voted for it. some, not that many. so this is ridiculous. the president makes a campaign promise. he twists the campaign promise around and now puts down the government to show he is keeping not the promise he made but a different one. it would sound ridiculous and absurd if it weren't a reality. the fact of the matter is eight cabinet departments not named homeland security have absolutely nothing, nothing to do with our disagreements over border security. that's why democrats have offered and continue to offer to reopen the government while we debate border security. again, three words for leader mcconnell. again, open the government. three words to my republican colleagues -- open the

government. three words to president trump -- open the government. then we can do all the discussion and debating as we're supposed to do on these issues where we don't agree. democrats have made entirely reasonable proposals. we proposed to pass to open the government by passing republican spending bills from the last congress so there would be no controversy. these are not bills the democrats put together. these are bills the republicans put together with some democratic input. leader mcconnell voted for every one of them, every one of them. and this idea that he won't move unless trump agrees, that may have made sense in the first week or two. it makes no sense now because president trump is adamant all over the lot and seems unwilling and unable to tie himself out of his own knots to get the

government open, so someone should step in. on our side, we're willing to step in. where's leader mcconnell? where are the republicans? the american people support passing our bills, the bills that we have asked unanimous consent for by wide margins, 2- 2-1, including nearly 40% of republicans. 40% of republicans support passing our bills and then debate. so, mr. president, even your prize base, a good chunk of it, about a third, is turning away from you on this issue. when will the president and my republican colleagues wake up to the hardship being inflicted on so many people across the country? it's time that the senate act on house-passed bills to open the government. the president we know is inflexible. he's proud, as he said, to have

shut down the government. he is amazingly -- i have never seen a president like this -- impervious to the pain and suffering of federal workers and the american people. he makes stuff up. oh, the federal workers want the wall. who? two people who are on fox news all the time or part of a border patrol unit. that's it. not the average unit. the president refused entreatise to open the government like democrats and republicans like my friend senator graham, one of the president's biggest allies here in this chamber. his deputies are hardly even empowered to negotiate with the hill since president trump retracts their offers almost as soon as they're made. everyone -- everyone -- can see how fruitless it is to try to negotiate with this president at the moment. my friend, leader mcconnell, is the one who can break the impasse. he's declared before that, quote, he's the guy that gets us out of shutdowns.

end quote. he was proud of that. i wish he was still proud of that. i think we're all railroad for that -- we're all ready for that leader mcconnell because so long as leader commonly hides behind the president and his strategy the senate will be unable to reopen the government. the longer leader mcconnell allows this to continue, the more he and republican senators will be tied to the president and the president's disgraceful tactic of government by extortion. russia -- last night the senate voted to proceed to the resolution to disapprove the treasury department's plans to relax sanctions on russia. 11 republicans -- i'm proud of that, proud of them -- joined with every democrat to advance the resolution which will face a cloture vote today. two or three more republican votes would ensure cloture is

invoked and the passage of the resolution achieved. so i'd like to make a direct appeal to my republican friends who are wondering about this. this resolution is about a very simple thing. do you believe america should take a tough line on putin or do you think we should go easy on putin and his cronies. from where i'm standing, that's an easy choice. the past half decade has seen putin expand his maligned activities around the world from invading the ukraine in georgia to annexing crimea, to propping up the assad regime to directing nerving agents on foreign soil. russian intelligence has tried to destabilize western democracies at every opportunity. france, england, many other european countries and most obviously here in the united states is proof positive. they go online, they try to sow

dissension here in america, this beautiful country. as leader mcconnell said yesterday, confusingly before voting against the resolution, quote, we have long seen vladimir putin for the k.g.b. thug that he is. those are strong words but accurate. in the face of this global assault on western democracies, of course we have seen that the trump administration has been shamefully and suspiciously weak on president putin. the president has avoided criticizing putin at every turn. when asked about president putin's brutal tactics against his opponents, president trump demurs. when this body near unanimously passed the russian sanction legislation, president trump contemplated vetoing it. when president putin told president trump he didn't interfere in our 2016 elections, the president reportedly said, i believe you.

last weekend we learned that president trump has expressed a desire to withdraw from nato this summer -- this past summer is when he expressed the desire. that's putin's dream. putin's dream. all the advice of our military and diplomatic leaders were against it. somehow the president wants to do it. and who benefits the most? putin. who loses the most? the west. and now with this proposed sanctions relief, we have another example of president trump trying to lighten the burden on putin's oligarchs. we should not allow it. for a very long time the republican party predicated its foreign policy on taking a tougher line against russia and putin. in so many campaigns for president, we democrats were accused of not being tough enough on the russians.

i have always felt we've got to be tough on the russians, but it seems that acquiescence to the president, a fear of breaking with the president has held back too many of my republican colleagues from supporting this resolution. the resolution, just to repeat, is sort of -- i know treasury made an effort, although i don't have much faith in the strength. i think the secretary of the treasury is an intelligent man but he never stands up to trump, and i don't have any faith in his strengthing in standing up this time. so if trump wanted a weakened resolution because maybe putin or the russians wanted it, that's what we've got here. 45% control -- 45% ownership which is what this does takes deripaska out of this. forget it.

and then add to his 45% the 7% the in-laws own, the large percentage that russian banks controlled by putin own. the control is just as tight as it was before. the people who who were put in charge have close relationships with russia. this is not a strong resolution. it's slightly less than a joke. slightly less than a joke. so i hope some of our colleagues will come around. this is all about america, the west, the stability of our nation. and if putin thinks he can manipulate our country and manipulate the president and too many of my colleagues who have always been sphrong -- strong against russia go along, what's he going to do next? what's he going to ask president trump to do next, and what will president trump do? i yield the floor.

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. thune: mr. president, to quote the great yogi berra, it's deja vu all over again. it's the 26th day of the shutdown and for the 26th day in a row democrats are refusing to seriously engage with the president to get the government reopen. democrats have spent a lot of time talking about their desire to get the hundreds of thousands of furloughed government workers back to work but their actions contradict their words. the only way for the government to reopen is for both sides to come to the table and compromise. the democrats are absolutely refusing to consider any concession. their position is my way or the highway. fortunately that's not the way things work in the real world. when you have two groups with diametrically opposed positions, both sides have to give a little if they're ever

going to get anything done. the white house has a strongly held position on this issue. but it has also made it clear that it's willing to be flexible and to negotiate with democrats. the democrats don't share that willingness. and their refusal to negotiate is victimizing the very workers that they claim they want to protect. senate democrats latest attempt to distract from democrats' refusal to negotiate is to push for votes on house-passed legislation on reopening the government. but as democrats know very well, these votes would be meaningless because this is not legislation that the president is going to sign. indeed, before christmas the democratic leader here in the senate stated, and i quote, the president must publicly support and say he will sign an agreement before it gets a vote in either chamber. end quote. that from the democratic leader as recently as just a few weeks ago. well, there's no point in

spending time taking up a bill that hasn't received agreement from all parties. we know that, mr. president, and the democrats know that as well. but apparently they're unwilling to flip-flop on this issue if they think -- i should say they are willing to flip-flop on this issue if they think it will suit their political purposes. kind of like they were for a border fence before they were against it. that's right, in 2006 the democratic leader and the ranking member of the senate judiciary committee voted for legislation to authorize a border fence. they were joined in that vote by then-senator biden, then-senator clinton, and then-senator obama. in 2013 every senate democrat -- every senate democrat supported legislation requiring the completion of a 700-mile fence along our southern border. in 2009 the democratic leader praised border fencing as a border security accomplishment. so what's changed,

mr. president? the need to secure our borders hasn't changed. the eeffectiveness of barriers hasn't changed. that's been well documented. house majority leader steny hoyer was asked about the democrats' flip-flop, whether there is any real difference between what they supported previously and what they're opposing now. here's what he said, quote, quo i don't have an answer that i think is a really good answer, end quote. that's an honest reply, mr. president. democrats don't have a good answer because there is no real difference between what they supported a few years ago and what they're opposing now. democrats have flip-flopped on this issue because they're afraid to oppose the radical far left wing of their party. and because they're committed to obstructing this president no matter what, this -- their refusal to play ball wouldn't be a problem but every single day they refuse to negotiate in

serious negotiations as of today families aren't getting paid, national priorities aren't getting funded and important border security is being postponed. that's where we are. mr. president, i urge my colleagues to rethink their obstruction and to work with the president to get the government reopened and federal workers back to work and funding for that critical and important priority of ensuring that we have a secure southern border. mr. president, this friday as they do every year, individuals from every corner of the united states will come to washington, d.c. to participate in the national march for life. as usual south dakotans will be among them. tens of thousands of individuals will march from the national mall to the supreme court to bear witness to a simple truth. that unborn babies are human beings and that they deserve to be protected. mr. president, it can be easy sometimes for human beings to turn their backs on injustice,

maybe because we don't want to get involved or reluctant to speak out. and it is particularly easy to turn our backs in the case of abortion because the injustice of abortion is hidden. it happens out of the public view behind closed doors. but we must not forget that every day in the united states unborn babies are being killed. the centers for disease control and prevention which compiles data on the number of u.s. abortion reports there were more than 638,000 legal abortions in 2015. 638,000. that's roughly equivalent to three-quarters of the population in south dakota. that is an incredible number of lives lost. an incredible amount of joy lost, an incredible amount of love lost. and it's all too easy to forget

because we don't see it happen. mr. president, we can't forget. we can't forget injustice. we can't let fear or discomfort stop us from speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves. unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of men and women and young people around this country who are committed to speaking up for the unborn and who travel to washington, d.c. every year to remind us of the truth about abortion, to remind us that abortion is the destruction of an innocent human life, that every abortion kills an innocent human being with their, her own d.n.a. and her own distinct identity. mr. president, i can think of few greater things than to defend the defenseless, to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. and i'm grateful for all those

who will march through the streets of washington, d.c. on friday to speak up for the innocent unborn. i thank them for reminding us of this great injustice and i join them in praying that one day every child will be safe from he abortion. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. a senator: mr. president, this coming friday tens of thousands of americans will take to the snowy streets of washington, d.c. to exercise their fundamental rights on behalf of millions of others who cannot. mr. lee: they'll come from every state in the iewn, including the state of -- in the union, including the state of utah to march to the united states supreme court. they will be marching down constitution avenue in the name of justice and in defense of the innocent. the march for life is a spectacular tradition in

american politics, a mass demonstration of joy. despite its size and the diversity of its participants, sometimes north of 100,000 souls born and unborn, the march is typically ignored by the mainstream media. the marchers also know that the supreme court, rightly, is not supposed to be swayed by public opinion one way or another. and yet they march. january, after january, after january -- cheerfully, prayerfully, happily, peacefully, bundled up against the cold with babies in their strollers and wearing smiles on their faces. i've been, and i can confirm, that march for life is the happiest protest you'll ever see. they march, not principally, in outrage over the lives lost to the scourge of abortion, but an abiding hope for the lives yet

to be saved. the march for life is often seen as the pro-life movement's response to the supreme court's 1973 decision in roe v. wade. in truth, it is a continuation of the march of human dignity and equality that has efined -- defined american history since we first declared, quote, that all men are created equal that they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. that among those are life -- close quote. yes, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. raised from the crib on the declaration of independence, americans are sometimes take its losty and inspiring -- lofty and inspiring words for granted. but these truths, however self-evident, remain as revolutionary today as they were when they were penned in 1776. from the dawn of time, powerful men have dehumanized women, the

poor, the sick, the disabled, the young and the old, those who thought differently, looked differently, loved differently, or worshiped differently. whether enforced by travel taboos, corrupted by science or judicial fiat, these experiments in dehumanization are the darkest chapters in human history, including the original sin of our republic -- the monstrous evil of slavery. the story of american history is the story of our nation standing up to oppression, of our coming to the defense of the vulnerable in our laws and with our very lives. from independence hall to the bill of rights, from the abolition of slavery to universal suffrage, to the civil rights movement, to the triumph over naziism, fascism, and communism, the american people have fought through prejudice and pride to assert and to defend the equal dignity of

every single member of a human family. for all the powerful forces arrayed against it, the right to life remains a part of who we are, a common heritage and, i believe history will prove, a common destiny. that is precisely why the march grows every single year, not only here in washington but in solidarity marches in state capitals all around the country. in salt lake city on friday, utah will host its annual march for life at the utah state capitol building. the same group of people will also be organizing their annual diaper drive for the pregnancy resource center, a nonprofit organization that provides free health care services to pregnant mothers in need. they know that to love is to serve and to be pro-life is to be pro-every life and not just

some lives. our duty to justice and equality extends beyond the unborn child in the womb. it extends to her mother and to her father, to her siblings and their friends, her neighborhood, her church, and her school, her whole life. abortion is evil, but so is indifference. human dignity impels us to transcend both, not merely by changing laws but by changing hearts, starting, of course, with our own. it is not enough, mr. president, to restore a legal regime of life. we must also endeavor to forge a new culture of life that's broader and that runs deeper than the law. those of us who call ourselves pro-life have a particular duty to exercise the very right we fight to win back for the unborn

the right to live, the right to grow, to strive every day to become more fully the person god made us to be. a culture of life can be built only one hopeful soul at a time, one by one. we have a long way to go, of course, but the work is well under way. to see what it looks like, stop by the march. the struggle for life is just the latest battle in america's long, noble crusade for justice, for equality, for freedom and liberty, and, of course, for dignity. it is another fight worth having, another fight most worthy of our heritage, another fight worthy of our children. one day soon, mr. president, we're going to win this fight. we're going to win this fight,

too, just as we have won others. until that day, america will continue to march. i yield the floor. mr. president, i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: i ask unanimous consent that the calling of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president -- and i welcome the distinguished presiding officer -- he's probably presided before, but this is the first time i've been on the floor and seen him presiding. i become him here to the senate. mr. president, for 26 days, president trump has held funding for our federal government hostage. he's used as leverage to force congress to provide $5.7 billion

for an ill-conceived, expensive, and totally ineffective wall on the southern border. we knew this was coming because for months during the campaign, he riled up his base with chants of "build the wall, build the wall." he invented a crisis at the southern border and then told supporters that only he could solve it and he gave his word over and over again that mexico would pay for the wall. so american taxpayers would not have to. that was over two years ago, and i think he's feeling pressure now as he shutters himself in the white house. having failed to convince both republicans and democrats in congress that a campaign slogan was actually good policy, having failed, as we all knew, to convince mexico to pay for the wall, he turns to a going to

tactic he seems to have mastered -- bullying. he has shut down the government of the most powerful nation in the world, making us the laughingstock around the rest of the world, and he says he'll keep us shut down until he gets what he wants. it's the height of irresponsibility. it certainly destroys our effectiveness in other parts of the world. he's the president of this country, and we all, democrats and republicans, accept he is the president. but it also means he's supposed to lead the nation, not run it into the ground like so many of his businesses where he had to declare bankruptcy. but he sits in the white house tweeting and watching television all day, ignores the damaging effect his actions are having on millions of americans of whatever political persuasion around the country. as the shutdown not only hurts

our federal workers, it's hurting america's economy. the president's own chair of the white house council of economic advisors estimates that gross domestic product will slow by .1% for every two weeks the government is shut down, and today there are reports that even this estimate is too low and the impact could be .1% for every week the government is shuttered. now, those are -- those are numbers that -- leet me tell you a story. let me give you an example. small businesses employ more than 59 million people in this country. small businesses in this country are one of the main drivers of economic growth, but every day the government is closed is a day small businesses can't get

small business administration-backed loans to invest and grow their companies. last week i heard from a woman who runs a small sign company in essex junction, vermont -- it is in the county outside of burlington, vermont, a beautiful, beautiful community. but it survives by small businesses that expand. and she's trying to grow her business. she's trying to acquire another one. but the s.b.a. -- she can't bring the sale to finality during the shutdown. so, as a result, the seller is threatening to just move on. he can't get an answer from the s.b.a.. of course, that would throw her expansion plans into jeopardy.

now, we have many excellent craft breweries in vermont. they bring in a lot of revenue. they hire a lot of people. they're a key part of our tourism. and i heard from one of the head brewers, from one of these major craft breweries. he depends upon the alcohol, tobacco, tax, and trade bureau to approve his license applications, formulas, even the labels he puts on his beer. well, he's been brewing the beer. it's ready to be labeled. the office is closed due to the government shutdown. it's not processing applications. he wrote, i'm one of the millions of voters whose livelihood depends on the government operating. every day that passes without the alcohol, tobacco, tax, and trade bureau up and running is

another potential day of lost sales. and farmers across this country and in vermont are also feeling the pain of the shutdown. just a few weeks ago we passed a bipartisan farm bill. i was one of the conferees on that. i praised senator pat roberts, republican from kansas, and debbie stabenow, democrat from michigan. they put together in bipartisan bill, and the president took credit when he signed it. well, the thing is, it's a five-year farm bill, and now the president right after signing the farm bill has shut the u.s. department of agriculture field offices that help farmers implement the law. farmers need information now, as the new planting and growing

season looms. the -- how are the laws going to affect their planting? if you are a he a farmer in the midwest and preparing your crops, you can't say, well, you know, we can wait a few months, maybe pass the growing season, find out what the rules are going and then we'll plant. no, you have to make that decision now. it also means that farmers can't apply for much-needed loans. and they need these loans because you have the drop in commodity prices that were brought on by the president's tariffs. and he's hit many farmers' hard. they need loans to help pay their bills. many banks aren't willing to lend to them, so they have to rely on the department of agriculture as the lender of last resort. guess what happens in these multiple whammies? the offices that offer these

loans are closed due to the shutdown. they need the loans because of the president's tariffs, and the president's shutdown closes the offices that could give them the loans. then the farmers that have better credit, many of their loans are also delayed by the shutdown, since the lenders are unable to confirm that the farmer has other outstanding loans from the usda, something where they could just connect to the usda office to ask, but it's closed. just this week at the farm bureau convention, the president loudly proclaimed how he is providing assistance to the market facilitation program to have farmers mitigate the financial losses caused by the trump tariffs. but as of december 28, there is no one left in the usda county offices to process any new applications for these much-needed payments.

i recently heard from a dairy farmer, what we call the northeast kingdom of vermont. she milks 80 cows. she is proud of her operation. she has been hit hard by the president's trade policies that have led to retaliatory tariffs against u.s. dairy exports, and she is now behind on her electric bill. the electric company has threatened to turn off the power to her home, to her barn, to her milk parlor, to her milking machines. she received one installment from the market facilitation program to help mitigate the effects of the trump tariffs, but she hasn't received the second installment because of the trump shutdown. the second installment is needed to help her pay her bills. she says she will be in much better shape with the new dairy margin coverage program with the new farm bill.

again i applaud senator pat roberts and senator debbie stabenow for ushering that through with an almost unanimous vote. but unfortunately, no work is being done to get the program up and running because of the government shutdown. she is frustrated. she is worried about her future. she is looking for help. she is an honest, hardworking person, and she is stymied. i don't blame her. implementation of the farm bill which i spent more than a year working on. i was in the committee conference. i worked hard on that to deliver for vermont, our nation's farmers on a wide range of key priorities, especially our struggling dairy farmers. it's now on hold during the shutdown with nearly every usda agent furloughed. the president has said shutting down the government, paralyzing our country is necessary to address a growing crisis at our

southern border. the only crisis we have in our country right now is the one caused by the trump shutdown. the crisis we face at not our southern border but at kitchen tables and family farms, small businesses across the country, as families shurt by the trump shutdown try to figure out how to make ends meet. the president tries to say there are hoards of illegal immigrants rushing across our borders, but the majority of people apprehended at our borders today are families, women, and children, fleeing violence in their own country. they deserve our compassion, not vitriol. many people in this country illegally as a result of visa overstays. more people as a result of visa overstays than from illegal border crossings. this law does nothing to address that, to address our complex

immigration issues, we need comprehensive legislation based on facts, not bumper sticker slogans. we all support strong border security. every democrat and republican does. by working on a bipartisan basis in the last fiscal year, democrats and republicans supported $21.1 billion for border security and immigration on a similar investment we made in 2017. i know that as vice chairman of the appropriations committee, we invested in our ports of entry, including the purchase of nonintrusive inspection equipment to detect illegal, detect illicit contraband. we invested in aircraft to monitor our border from above, quickly respond to emergencies. we invested in video surveillance systems, radar systems to detect movement in remote locations. these are solutions that work. these are smart uses of taxpayers' dollars.

a 30-foot wall that mexico won't pay for is not a good solution. so the shutdown is not about border security. if this was about border security, we would do it today. the trump shutdown is when the president tried to distract america from his failures as a leader and show up the support of his base is shameful. it is clear president trump will not do the right thing on his own, so it's time for senate republicans to step up. just yesterday morning, democrats asked unanimous consent to take up two bills to get this government back open. a six-bill minibus has bipartisan support, including four bills that passed the republican-controlled senate 96-2. virtually every republican voted for it. and a continuing resolution for the homeland security department through february 8, even though virtually every republican has voted for this, the republican leader objected to going

forward. if they continue to object to reopening the government, the shutdown is as much on them as it is on the president. we have bipartisan bills before us that could reopen the government. we could vote on them today. it passed with veto-proof margins. leader mcconnell, bring up these bills. let's vote to end this national nightmare. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, madam president. i woman to the floor today with a number of my colleagues on this 26th day of this deeply damaging and completely unnecessary trump shutdown. we are here today to lift up the voices and stories of the people who are being hurt by president trump and his senate republican allies and to once again call on

republican leaders here in the senate to finally allow a vote and work with us to end this manufactured crisis, because while president trump is very focused on his political game, actual people, their families, their communities, are paying the price. people we represent, moms and dads, workers, small business owners, people who did not do anything wrong, who just want to do work, do their job, serve their communities, all of them have been pulled into president trump's chaos and dysfunction, and it needs to end. so, madam president, i am very proud to kick off another effort here in the senate by those who want to make sure that president trump and senate republican leaders don't forget who this is about and understand who is being impacted by their refusal to act. now, i want to start with a few

from my home state of washington where there are nearly 13,000 workers who have been caught up in this trump shutdown. lauren, a furloughed f.a.a. employee who shared her story with me through my website. she told me she supports her family with one income, and now that paycheck has been frozen. she said she has been losing sleep trying to figure out how to cut her own expenses and pay her bills since the federal government isn't meeting its obligation and paying her. i heard from adam, also from my home state, who is buying his first home with his fiancee. what should be a very exciting time is now filled with unnecessary stress because federal loans through usda and f.h.a. are held up. as if closing a home isn't stressful enough, now they don't know when or even if a loan is going to come through. as adam described to me, home buyers are now caught in the

middle, and that is just wrong. madam president, one federal employee i met with while i was home last week is a scientist at one of the impacted agencies, and he told me about the stress that he and his family have endured since the start of the shutdown, having to cover their child care expenses and mortgage while he is not being paid, expenses that total up to 1,700 each month. right now he said he is able to tap into his family's emergency fund to make ends meet, but he doesn't think they can hang on much longer. and i am not the only one, by the way, who is hearing from people in washington state about how president trump's unnecessary shutdown is impacting their lives. these stories are everywhere. earlier this week, the wife of a furloughed t.s.a. employee with a 6-year-old daughter told "the seattle times" about how the shutdown has thrown her family into an economic tailspin. their family is currently living off of money she makes from

babysitting. and with the help from her retired father who has taken now a minimum wage job to help with the family's finances, and she worries how they are ever going to make it if this shutdown stays happening. madam president, this is just a small number of the countless stories coming out of my state and from around the country about how president trump's reckless government shutdown is hurting real people. there are people in every one of our states in the country. there are people on every side of the border debate. they are people who heard president trump say he would be, quote, proud to shut down the government. they are people who simply do not understand why they are being asked to bear the burden to pay the price because president trump and republican leaders here in the senate have boxed themselves into a political corner, and they are people who are getting angrier and angrier, more and more desperate with every day that goes by and who are going to make their voices heard and

fighting -- and we are going to make their voices heard. we are fighting by their side to end this shutdown. so, madam president, i'm going to keep making sure they have a voice in the united states senate. i'm proud to be with a number of my democratic colleagues today. we are going to lift up their stories until president trump and republicans here in the senate agree to end this crisis they started. thank you. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. ms. harris: thank you. we are now 26 days into the longest government shutdown in american history. 800,000 workers, 800,000 americans are going without pay. half of them are working anyway. now, let's be very clear about how we got into this mess. the senate, the united states senate unanimously passed a bill to open the government right

before the holidays. the vote was 100-0. there was such june lance on this floor that literally members of the united states senate were singing christmas carols. yet, two weeks ago, the house then passed a bill to reopen the government, doing its job. they sent six bills over to the united states senate. this body needs to hold a vote on that legislation and send it to the president and ask him to sign it, because the real obstacle to ending this shutdown is in the white house. the president is holding the american people hostage over his vanity project on the southern border and peddling propaganda to distract from a crisis of his own making. the president has said, quote, most of the workers not getting paid are democrats, as if that's

true or as if that should matter. he has said that many of the people that we're talking about agree with what we're doing. it has been said that the workers have said, quote, stay out until you get the funding for the wall. well, that's contrary to what we have been hearing and what i have been hearing. last week, for example, i heard from a woman by the name of tricia. tricia and her husband are both air traffic controllers with nearly 40 years of federal service combined. tricia's husband served in the navy. he now has to work long hours of overtime to compensate for the workers who are absent because they have been furloughed. and he's not being paid. tricia's job was deemed nonessential, so she is also not being paid. neither parent in this family is being paid. they have three young children. and this is on top of the fact

that tricia and her family have already endured hardship these past few months as victims of the thomas fire. as she wrote me, quote, on december 5 of last year, our home was completely destroyed in the thomas fire, and we have used every resource available to us to work towards rebuilding our home. while their home is being rebuilt, tricia's family moved into a rental home and they are currently evacuated from that rental home due to the flood and mudslide risks that are currently an issue in california. tricia said we have small children that we are most concerned about with the uncertainty of our careers as federal employees and the incredibly long road ahead in rebuilding our home, but most importantly our livelihood. we will continue, she writes, to stand with our natca brothers

and sisters in ensuring the safety of the national airspace system, tricia wrote, but without support staff working, it is a daunting task. tricia's message is one of nearly 20,000 phone calls, e-mails, and letters my office has received since the shutdown started 26 days ago. all pleading with us to reopen the united states government. they are two of the 42,300 workers currently furloughed in california. i don't know which of them are democrats or republicans, and it doesn't matter. what matters is the people being hurt and the critical government functions that are going undone. they are the t.s.a. agents who protect our flights and the air traffic controllers who help land our planes. they're park rangers and f.b.i. agents and coast guard members.

they inspect our food and provide loans to our farmers. they conduct lifesaving research. and right now they're being told to pay their bills by baby-sitting or selling their belongings on craigs list. madam president, these americans need their government to do its job. they don't need a wall. they need a paycheck. congress is a coequal branch of government. we don't need a permission slip before we can vote on a bill. so on behalf of tricia and hundreds of thousands of americans like her, let's take up the legislation that we already approved. let's send it to the president, and let's end this pointless shutdown as soon as possible, right away, now. i yield back my time.

mr. cardin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i want to thank senator murray and senator harris and my colleagues that are on the floor to point out that we are now in day 26 of this outrageous and dangerous partial shutdown that was totally avoidable, caused by one person: president trump, and now assisted by the republican leadership in this body by not allowing the united states senate, the coequal branch of government, to take up legislation that would reopen government, that has previously passed this body, and would clearly pass on a vote if the majority leader would allow us to have that vote. we could then open government. the unanimous consent request that i offered yesterday with my colleague from maryland, senator van hollen, would allow the appropriations bill that have nothing to do with this

current dispute by the president to be fully functionable and then having a continuing resolution for the department of homeland security. we can then work as we should work to deal with border security and immigration issues. but the majority leader objected to the senate taking up that legislation, and the shutdown continues. 800,000-plus of our citizens who work for the federal government are being denied the ability to either get a paycheck for the work that they're doing or being furloughed without pay. in each one of those cases, there is hardship and having impact. it goes well beyond just the 800,000. there are businesses in baltimore that are wondering whether they can keep their doors open because they depend upon federal workers coming in and using their services, whether it's a laundry or cleaner, whether it's a

restaurant, whether it's a supply store. they know that their sales depend upon people having checks to pay their bills, and the federal workforce does not. so it's affecting secondary employment. there have been a lot of layoffs by those that depend upon the contract service of the federal government. so there are many individual stories, and senator van hollen and i have traveled throughout our state meeting with government workers. we've heard accounts of one person who was supposed to close on a new home, their first home. they're not going to be able to do that because they don't have a paycheck that shows wages necessary in order to support the mortgage because their most recent paycheck is zero. we've heard from a person who was in my office, who is an air traffic controller, husband is also an air traffic controller, and they're responsible for relatives that are dependent on them. one needs a medical procedure.

they're not going to be able to move it forward with that medical procedure because they don't have the out-of-pocket costs that are necessary to pay for that. and the list goes on and on and on of individual hardships, people wondering whether their credit scores are going to be affected, which could affect their employment because they're going to be late in paying their mortgage payments. and that's assuming they get a paycheck in the next couple of months, because then their house could well be foreclosed. i could put a face on each one of these 800,000, but let me just share an account by lamar cobb, transportation security officer at b.w.i. airport. i was there earlier this week meeting with government workers that are keeping our airports and our air traffic safe. these are dedicated people who are working without pay. he came forward. one of the reporters there asked

to give individual hardship that you confronted. he claims he has a ten-year-old daughter whom he describes as his heart and pride and joy. he had to take her out of cheer leading because he cannot pay for it while he works at b.w.i. without receiving a paycheck. then he said something which i think really hits us all. he said at the press conference, i'm quoting, he said it may not seem like the end of the world, but to a ten-year-old it's pretty close. these are the circumstances we're putting our fellow citizens in by saying work without pay or furlough without pay. it makes no sense at all. it's well past time that we should never have had the shutdown. we can end it now by the senate carrying out its constitutional responsibility as a coequal branch of government. let's vote on the legislation that can reopen government. let's do what we're responsible to do.

let's end this shutdown. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: madam president, i rise to address the trump shutdown and the real consequences that occur when 800,000 federal workers, including nearly 3,000 wisconsinites, are furloughed or forced to work without pay. the president said this week that his administration is setting records.

and it's true that he now holds the record for the longest government shutdown in our nation's history. but every day it continues, the trump shutdown is causing real pain for hardworking people in my state. i recently read the heartbreaking story of mallory lorridge. mallory lives in river falls, wisconsin, and works for the department of interior. on friday mallory, along with thousands of other federal workers, did not receive a paycheck. mallory has type 1 diabetes. without her paycheck, she can't afford her $300 co-pay to get the insulin she needs to manage her diabetes and stay alive. mallory said she is rationing the two vials of insulin she has left. her blood sugar rose to a high

level last week, but she said she felt forced to ignore it. instead she said i just went to bed and hoped i would wake up. think about that for a minute. because president trump and republicans in congress refuse to support bipartisan legislation to end this shutdown and reopen the government, mallory can't afford to get the insulin she needs to live. the house has done their job and passed bipartisan legislation to end the shutdown. now it is time for senate majority leader mcconnell to stop blocking a vote in the senate so that we can fund the government. we are at 26 days into the trump shutdown, and it's not just hurting federal workers and contractors, it's also hurting small businesses and

entrepreneurs across the country. in wisconsin, we make things: cheese, brats and, yes, beer. milwaukee is often called brew city. but thanks to the government shutdown, there are craft brewers across our state who can't make or sell new beer. russ klish is the president of lake front brewery in milwaukee. lake front has been making beer in wisconsin for more than 30 years. the alcohol and tobacco tax and trade bureau approves licenses for new beers and new breweries as well as labels for beers that are sent out of state. the agency is not currently serving craft brew due to the shutdown. lake front brewery has plans to introduce a brand-new beer in mid-february, but those plans are now on hold.

this government shutdown threatens to cut their beer sales and hurt their ability to grow their business and support the economy. and other breweries across wisconsin are impacted as well. one brewery company opened their doors just last november but they can't get approval to start making and selling their new beer until the government reopens. new made-in-wisconsin beer is on hold until we reopen the government. president trump and majority leader mcconnell can and should end this shutdown today and ensure that federal workers like mallory can finally get paid and small business owners like russ can ceem -- keep growing their businesses. we should vote in the senate today on house-passed legislation, and the president should sign it so we can finally end this useless shutdown that's

preventing our country from moving forward. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: madam president, i join my colleagues this morning to share the stories of the people in new hampshire who are currently enduring hardships because of this trump shutdown, a shutdown which has been termed by a number of my colleagues as the longest government shutdown in u.s. history. i have here a picture of andrei from dairy, new hampshire. andrei and his wife maria and their three beautiful children. andrei is an air traffic controller working at boston terminal radar approach control facility in merrimack, new hampshire. it sounds like it would be in boston, but it's not. it's in new hampshire where we have hundreds of air traffic controllers and f.a.a.

personnel. andrei works at the center to keep the airways safe for passengers who are flying over the granite state. he also represents and talks to a number of other air traffic controllers in the new england region to hear what they have to say. and what he's hearing right now regarding the shutdown, andrei writes air traffic controllers have remained on the job, dedicated to the safety of every flight. but we don't know when we'll receive our next paycheck. my colleagues and i have suffered the sudden loss of our income due to the government shutdown. it's going to be hard for me to meet all of my financial obligations. end quote. you know, what i'm most impressed with by the federal workers who i met with is their dedication to their jobs. all of those air traffic controllers who understand the

safety of the skies in the united states depends on them, and they're there. they're not getting paid. they're experiencing hardships like andre is talking about, but they are there doing everything they can to make sure that the american public can fly safely. in addition to andre's story, i've heard from nearly 100 other air traffic controllers in new hampshire, all calling for an end to the shutdown. controllers who are protecting our safety and who are working without pay. i want to read an excerpt from a letter that i received from jamie in auburn, new hampshire, because i think it so exemplifies where we are and how the american people are feeling about this government shutdown. jamie says, and i quote,, dear senator shaheen, there are many stories to be told regarding the effects of the government shutdown on federal employees. the stress of financial

uncertainty, the inability to take necessary time from work to care for our families, and the continued degradation of f.a.a. resources. these are but a few examples shared amongst us. but there is something that tears at the very fabric of who we are. we take deep pride in serving our country, providing the safe et cetera and most ee -- safest and most efficient air traffic control in the world. we do so with the deep understanding of the trust bestowed on us by the american people. to be used as pawns in a political chess match not only disrespects us as dedicated federal employees, but it serves to weaken our democracy. a government that must hold hostage the livelihood of its citizens is the very definition of a failed democracy, and

sadly, that's what president donald trump is doing. he is holding hostage hundreds of thousands of federal workers and he is being enabled in this effort by the republican leadership in this senate who is unwilling to bring forward the bills that would open the government today because we could pass them today. now, these are just two examples that i think articulate the very real impact that this shutdown is having on many very hardworking americans and their families. i ask unanimous consent, madam president, to enter into the record these letters that i received from air traffic controllers. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. shaheen: now, i know that every member of the senate has heard from constituents who are facing significant hardships as a result of the shutdown. i know that every member wants the shutdown to end. unfortunately, president trump doesn't seem to want this

shutdown to end. the house has already passed appropriations bills that would reopen government. this appropriations legislation is not partisan. in fact, there are bills that have already had bipartisan support in the senate. so i urge president trump, majority leader mcconnell to take up these bills and reopen the government. i believe we should reopen our government. let's do our job so the rest of america can do theirs. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that democrats control the time until 12:00 p.m. with senators permitted to speak for up to three minutes each and the republicans control the time up until 12:30. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. menendez: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey.

mr. menendez: i rise to give voice to the 5,000 federal employees across new jersey. make no mistake, this shutdown is the result of a presidential temper tantrum. democrats have voted for border security funding, for new technology to scan vehicles for drugs, for new drones to detect unauthorized crossings. if president trump is holding 800,000 federal workers hostage all because he wants $5.7 billion for a border wall that he promised mexico would pay for. we've long known that something is broken inside this president that makes him incapable of caring about anyone other than himself many clearly, he does not see federal workers as real people with real bills to pay. people like emily of basking

ridge, new jersey. she has worked at the field office for 18 years and she assisted in emergency efforts to deliver clean drinking water to puerto rico and the virgin islands after hurricane maria. she said i took an oath of office to, she writes. i want to continue to serve this great nation. i saved up to contribute to an i.r.a. this year and to start saving for a down payment on a home. but those funds will now be used to help me pay rent and other bills push pg my financial and life goals further out of reach. i urge the president and congress to put us back to work so we can continue to serve the american people. in recent days i heard from coast guard members, t.s.a. agents, i.r.s. workers, patriots who built their careers out of serving their fellow americans. their work is important and they

deserve to be paid. if president trump wants to discuss issues like border security and comprehensive immigration reform, then he should end the shutdown, reopen all of those elements of the government that have nothing to do with his desired bored -- border wall, release the hostages and open the government. if he continues to bury his head in the sand, then it's time for the senate to act. we would likely pass legislation to reopen the government with a veto-proof majority if only the majority leader would hold the vote. let's do the right thing for federal employees like emily. let's vote and end this shutdown now. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. ms. cortez masto: madam president, on friday the day that thousands of nevadans

federal workers missed their first paycheck of the trump shutdown, i was in reno meeting with 2,000 federal workers and families. these hardworking nevadans who serve the united states people in the coast guard, u.s. geological survey, u.s. department of agriculture, u.s. forest surface, -- service, and as government contractors told me their fears of the president's decision to hold our government hostage. these nevadans shared how their finances and whole lives have been thrown into chaos as a result of the shutdown. person after person told me without the promise of a paycheck, they are struggling to pay their mortgage or rent, keep up with their other bills even put food on the table for their families. some are cashing out their savings while others are taking

out high pay day loans. it is not just federal workers who are suffering. entire families have had the rug pulled out from under them because of this reckless shutdown. while i was in reno, i had the opportunity to meet brianna, and she talked to me about her family. she is a stay-at-home mom, she has two beautiful daughters, as you can see, and her husband works in the coast guard. he is a coast guardman. right now he is reporting to work without pay for the duration of this shutdown. brianna said that without their sole source of income, they would struggle to make ends meet. they are deciding whether to pull their daughter out of school and move in with their parents until the shutdown is over. madam president, that's outrageous. i can't tell you how many letters and e-mails i've also received in the office. this one from a veteran in reno. he said, i applaud you for

standing up to trump and not wasting taxpayer money on a stupid wall he promised mexico would pay for. however, as a federal employee, who is also a disabled vet, i'm asking that you support legislation to ensure that we do not lose pay and benefits because of this shutdown. we are currently scheduled to receive our normal pay on december 31, but after that, we have no more checks coming until the shutdown is over. despite what others on the hill have said, many federal employees depend on those checks and face real economic impacts when the government shuts down. she are tired as being demonized by the right as para sites, and it is -- the federal government is the largest employer of veterans and we continue supporting our country throughout our federal service. madam president, no family or individual in the united states of america should have their

life upended like this. so we would ask that the federal government reopen and that the majority leader bring the -- the bill to the floor so that we can open this government on behalf of federal workers, not only in nevada but across the country. and i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i join my colleagues today in calling for a simple, commonsense solution to one of the most vexing unnecessary and avoidable crises in recent history. the present paralysis of agencies, essential governmental function, is intolerable and unacceptable.

it is shameful and embarrassing to every member of this body. but it should be most shameful and embarrassing to the chief executive of the united states who is singularly responsible for it by insisting on a wall and using it as a condition for reopening the government. president trump is single-handedly blocking progress toward providing the american people with the service and the essential public functions they need and deserve. the impact is on the consumers of those functions. we are all consumers. we all fly and we depend on the air controllers and the t.s.a. we all eat food. we depend on inspections by the f.d.a. we all consume drugs and so the

approvals of essential pharmaceutical medicines are vital to all of us. and we all need and deserve the protection provided by the united states coast guard whose brave men and women who are receiving no pay, none. many of those 800,000 workers going without pay are also working without pay, and i have sponsored a measure that will enable them to avoid foreclosures and repossession of their cars and other financial crises through a measure similar to the service members relief act. i sponsored and supported calls for providing them with unemployment compensation.

the ones who work need that compensation and the benefit to put food on the table and make sure they stay in their homes. these 800,000 workers are experiencing real pain. they are real people with real lives going through financial hardships and on monday i met with many of them at bradley international airport in windsor. i heard them share their personal stories about how the shutdown is causing them real harm, and i heard also about their dedication to doing their job and about how the air controllers -- the presiding officer: time has expired. mr. blumenthal: are overtired and need that help. if i may ask for one minute. the presiding officer: is there

objection? mrs. murray: i respect the rights of the senator. we have a number of senators. if you could finish quickly. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: this is adrian, one of those workers who is a behavior detection officer, has done it for more than a decade. he is one of the workers going without pay. he told me, and i will leave you with this thought, we have no income, we're bleeding money, just day-to-day things, food, i still have to pay the bills. so do all of those 800,000 workers. i yield the floor. mr. leahy: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: let me tell you about the shutdown. this couple live in mo nchester,

vermont. this is kelly with their very pretty little daughter. glenville meat. we have the most craft breweries. they bring people to vermont from all over the country and business has been good. kelly and her husband ricky have been planning an expansion. recently they were approved for a $1.3 million for a small business loan. they were going to move to a bigger facility, double their production, hiring additional people, bought additional supplies in anticipation of it. but what's happened? that loan from the s.b.a. is now on hold because of the trump shutdown. it's not clear if it will ever come through. instead of expanding, they have to use their own money, they have to use their stockpiles of meat. they had to take out a loan to

make payroll. they are really hurting, but they told me one thing. even in this difficult time, they said they are more concerned for people who have lost paychecks, lifesaving benefits with others in the industry have been harder hit. it's a sense of community and empathy. madam president, i wish president trump had that same sense of empathy in caring that they do. you know, we've got to end this shutdown. i call on the majority leader, the republican leader, bring up the bills we already passed by an overwhelming majority. it would reopen this government. democrats and republicans have voted for t. all we need is for the republican lead toar bring them up. -- leader to bring them up. stop the shutdown. let people go back to business. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. a senator: thank you, madam president. i rise today to talk about a new

mexico family who is severely impacted by the shutdown. mr. udall: i think there are probably hundreds of thousands of families like this across the country. this is leah, her husband irvy and their sons eeon and zachary all from carlsbad, new mexico. zachary, their youngest in the middle had a brain tumor and has undergone two surgeries. zachary is now disabled and requires constant care. irvy, his stepfather reduced his work by 75% as a day care teacher to take care of zachary. leah's paycheck is a -- as a public nurse goes to their high insurance cost, medical bills. the family moved back in together to save expenses. their older son ian is now the main provider for the family. ian works for the department of

interior and has been furloughed for 26 days and has now missed a paycheck. the family is scared to death ian will miss another check and another check. they simply cannot make it without ian being paid. the family has made tremendous sacrifices as a family. they can make no more adjustments as the president callously advised. this trump shutdown must end now. the president and senate majority must do the right thing for the ornales family and hundreds of thousands of families across the nation and open our government now. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: madam president, as my colleagues have said, it has now been 26 days since president trump shut the government down, began holding federal workers and their families hostage to force

funding for an expensive, ineffective, and unpopular border wall. that's 26 days working without pay for hundreds of t.s.a., customs and border patrol officers in my state of michigan and across the country. that's 26 days of our federal workers wondering how they'll pay their mortgage and keep the lights on. that's 26 days of grocery stores, restaurants, other local businesses watching their sales dry up. this shutdown is also hard on michigan's farmers, including jessica youngblood who i want to take a moment to talk about. she and her husband, david, who is a veteran are raising their three young children on their farm in macomb, county. like many farmers jessica is also a small business owner. the youngbloods are launching a winery. for three years they poured all their time, they poured all their money into their 25 acres

of wine grapes. i've had the opportunity to walk with jessica and with her children through the rows of grapevines. and i've seen how hard they are working as a family every single day. this year they finally had grapes to harvest so they could launch their small business. they plan to open their winery on their farm and start selling the wine on memorial day weekend. unfortunately, the government shutdown threw a huge roadblock in front of this home-grown michigan business. the tax and trade bureau at the department of treasury approves their labels when they're open. jessica needs to bottle her wine in march but that can't happen without labels being approved and printed. as jessica said, we are 100% dependent on the grapes we grow on our family farm. we are farmers. we need the government to open so we can run our business.

it's time to end this shutdown that jessica and her family benefit from all of their hard work. so i would say, mr. president, leader mcconnell, open the government so the youngblood family can open their small business. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: thank you. approximately 35,000 veterans work for the federal government. this hardship of this shutdown on these men and women are multifolded. first of all, furloughed veterans who are federal workers are missing paychecks. they're having a hard time paying their mortgages and paying their bills overall. veterans with v.a. guaranteed home loans are at risk of being evicted by mortgage companies because they can't make their payments. veterans are not getting the benefits that they have earned from several departments other than the v.a. for instance, native american

veterans who already face unique challenges with health care are unable to rely on the indian health service to provide their health care because it's closed down. homeless veterans who rely on the department of housing and urban development, housing vouchers are not going out because of the shutdown. and that is not all. other benefits and protections are at risk. the v.a. is currently implementing major reform bills, like the appeals modernization act and v.a. mission act to roll out these new initiatives, the federal register must public new rules and regulations. well guess what? the federal register isn't operational because of the shutdown. so these implementation of these wide sweeping bipartisan v.a. reforms is shut down. on top of this, we know that those stationed at the borders and airports many of whom are veterans among those hurting and the most because of this president's shutdown. and there are many more veterans who are suffering.

colin from billings wrote me and said i'm a federal employee and i'm a veteran. he goes on to say this standoff is creating great stress to me and my family. he goes on to say his wife is pregnant, has a 2-year-old son. he has no paycheck. he spent his career in public service. after he got out of the service, he could have made a lot more money in the private sector. unfortunately because of the fact that the president and leader mcconnell will not bring the bills to the floor, we're in a shutdown. this is the human cost of the president's shutdown. men and women volunteer to serve our nation, put themselves in harm's way and they return continuing serving our nation as a civilian. is this how the president says thank you? puts them out of a job, out of a paycheck, out of the benefits they've earned. he belittles the financial hardship that his actions are causing and turns their service in the military and as a villains into a political football. the president has turned his back on the veterans of this nation. it's time to put these men and women back to work. i call and will continue to call

for the majority to put an end to this real crisis because they can and reopen the government. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from virgini mr. kaine: i stand to tell the story of adishya and her son who came to a federal employee roundtable i did last friday morning. i told stories on the floor about virginians who are affected personally, worrying about missing mortgage payments, having to reschedule medical appointments, having to draw money out of an i.r.a. and pay a tax penalty because of the shutdown. i thought it was interesting she came in and talked a little bit about her own anxiety and the anxiety of everybody she works with. what she really wanted to talk about is how the shutdown hurts the american public. she works for probably the smallest agency in the federal government, the chemical safety board. 40 employees, a budget of 11 or

$12 million. this is a small agency and they have one job, investigate chemical spills. not to find fault, not to help a lawyer. investigate chemical spills so they can determine what went wrong to prevent future chemical spills that are going to hurt americans. because of the shutdown, she and her colleagues, the 40, are not doing that job. president trump treated last -- tweeted last weekend that the reason he's forcing the shutdown is he promised to protect the safety and security of the american public. he's hurting the safety and security of the american people. she said that during the shutdown, there's been a major chemical spill in houston, texas. normally the investigators would be on it immediately to do the investigation, to give recommendations to reduce the risk of a spill at that facility or any others. but because of the shutdown,

vadishya and her staff are not investigating. how does this protect the safety and security of the american people by leaving a major chemical spill with potentially life-threatening consequences uninvestigated, unresponded to? this president's claim that he's helping the safety and security of the american people is a flat out lie. you are hurting the security of the american people when you disable people like vadishya and her colleagues from investigating chemical spills, from interdicting drugs if you're a coast guard or d.e.a. agent, from doing law enforcement investigations if you're an f.b.i. agent. the president is hurting the security of this country. it's time to reopen government and put the security of americans first. with that i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: thank you. i have a simple request for my

republican colleagues and that is open the government. open the government. there are too many people suffering for too long for this to go on any further. one of those people is named scott picaleeb. he works in hawaii and -- lives in hawaii and works for the geological service and has had a rough few months. in october his husband jay went into the hospital for a routine surgery that went horribly wrong. he went in to cardiac arrest and was in an induced coma for several days. he had to be flown to another island to receive the care that was necessary. scott and jay spent all of their savings to get through this ordeal. after paying for medicine, hotels, airfare, they were living paycheck to paycheck but now because of this government shutdown, scott's paycheck reads zero. he doesn't know how he's going to buy gas to take his husband to the doctor or how they're going to pay the bills that are due. scott is making impossible

choices between buying the prescription drugs he needs and the ones that his husband needs. all this pain and suffering is because the senate will not vote to reopen the government. and so i ask my republican friends to call for a vote and if the president vetoes the bill, let's act like a separate coequal branch of government and override that veto. that's our prerogative in the united states senate. that's our obligation in the united states senate, to do what's best for the nation, for the health and safety and economic security of all of our constituents. let's reopen the government. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: madam president, we've heard from a number of our colleagues today about personal stories that are happening to real live people in their home states who are facing a paycheck they have not received and fear about what they're going to do in the coming days. we have a responsibility.

and i think i speak on behalf of republicans and democrats both here. we need to open government. we have disagreements all the time in congress over different issues. certainly we cannot put these people's lives at risk and leave them as pawns out in our states. open up government and then have a discussion about the issues that we disagree on. i know the senator from minnesota expected to be here but i also see the senator from georgia on the floor who would like to speak. i would like to ask unanimous consent that the senator from georgia is allowed to speak and the senator from minnesota when she returns. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. isakson: i thank the senator from washington very much for her courtesy. i will be brief and very succinct. i will be responding to some of the things that senator schatz from hawaii has said and some of the others on the floor. i'm going to respond to myself. i made a speech yesterday about 2:30. i talked about the frustration i have and most georgians have

about the government shutdown, to talk about who's losing. we're losing. the government losees more money than it makes any other time. shutting down is a losing proposition all the way around. we're not doing anything to solve the problem. i have a solution i'm going to propose specifically right now. and i'm not going to put my name on it to be the lead name. i don't care who gets the credit. i'm ready for some solutions. and i want to talk to you about some very serious things right now and difficult things. but we're in a serious, difficult problem. we need serious -- we have serious problems. we need serious people to solve them. mr. president, in the united states, our airport, port, highways, every way you cross the border to come into the united states of america we charge fees for all kinds of things and have for years. and we have funds. people from across -- come across our borders all the time. people in