they are in disaray. and in division. there have been weeks, indeed months, of difficult negotiations, and i am not here to blame my republican colleagues. i think they have worked, many of them, in good faith, and that's the reason that we have arrived at bipartisan agreements on the need for increases in defense spending, both military and nonmilitary; on the need for the children's health insurance program to be reauthorized along with community health centers, needs of veterans and pensions and disaster relief to aid the victims of the recent hurricanes irma and maria. and why we need also to prevent the mass, draconian deportation of 800,000 young people brought here at instan -- brought here s and children through no fault of their own. those bipartisan agreements on each of those issues can be turned into a package that can unite both sides of the aisle -- maybe not everyone, but a majority here and a majority in the house of representatives -- if they are simply put to a vote. we are here to vote on the substance.

it's complete disaray on the republican side. the bottom line is very simple -- our leader, our republican leader, has said that he will not negotiate until he knows where president trump stands. that's why negotiations haven't gotten anywhere. let me quote him. here's what the leader said just yesterday. i'm looking for something that president trump is going to support. and he has not yet indicated what measure he's willing to sign. he said, mitch mcconnell did, that he still has to, quote, figure out what the president is for. how can you negotiate when the president, who has to sign the legislation, is like a sphinx on is issue, or says one thing one day and one thing the next? so here's what we can do to solve the problem. we could solve it right now. the four leaders could sit down -- there's been a lot of discussion -- and come to an agreement and do what the president said at one point. send it to his desk and he'll sign t we could get that done before the deadline of tomorrow night expires. or we could give the president