Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as we are all aware, the Trump administration's border policy has resulted in thousands of families having been separated at the border over the past few months. Despite the administration's recent executive order, thousands of young children remain separated from their parents in cities across the country, across America. According to the New York Times, right now, there are 2,053 children who are stuck in limbo, waiting for various Federal agencies to reunite them with their families.

Some of the most basic questions about their whereabouts and the whereabouts of their families are unknown to Federal officials. Of the thousands of children having been taken away from their parents since the President's family separation policy went into effect, only about 500 children in CBP's custody have been reunited with their families. That is not good enough. Who will be held accountable if these children are not returned to their parents? Some of these children are even too young to know their names.

This unprecedented situation demands a Federal point person to manage the family reunification process and ensure it is resolved as quickly and transparently as possible. Multiple agencies have jurisdiction, including the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice. We need someone in power to work across Federal agencies, cut through the bureaucracy, and lead the accurate, humane, and timely reunification of every child who has been separated by President Trump's policies.

I urge President Trump to appoint a family reunification czar to manage this process.

The administration needs to bring in an experienced and competent person to impose order on the chaos that the President's decision has caused--someone to be accountable so that this doesn't go on for months or longer with different agencies pointing fingers at each other while children languish alone in detention. When multiple Federal agencies are involved in responding to a crisis, the response is often cumbersome and slow. Each agency has its different track, its different goals, its different paths. Without someone in the White House to bring order and have them work in sync, all too often, nothing happens.

A czar--this is a good czar, not a bad czar--would help to avoid the situation whereby the agencies would be at cross purposes and paralysis and inaction would result. We did this when Ebola occurred. There were many agencies involved when we were worried about the national threat of Ebola. President Obama wisely appointed a czar--I believe it was Ron Klain. It worked, and the Ebola fear that we all had--thank God--didn't materialize. The same can happen here in the sense that a czar could help solve the problem.

It is agonizing--so agonizing--to see young children, with anguished looks on their faces, being separated from their parents. This crisis demands a timely and efficient response. A family reunification czar would help get the job done. It is not a political situation whereby it is ideological. It is, simply, getting the bureaucracies to work. China

Mr. President, on China, this morning, the New York Times reported that in several industrial cities in China's interior, Chinese manufacturers have been using incredibly dangerous chemicals known as CFCs, which destroy the planet's ozone layer and are explicitly banned by an international agreement from the 1980s. The CFCs are more dangerous to our atmosphere even than CO2, even than methane. That is why the world came together in a rare moment and successfully, for a long time, banned these CFCs.

Now it seems that this is not occurring in China, and it comes as no surprise. China cracks down so effectively on free speech, so one wonders why the state is unable to crack down on the use of environmentally toxic chemicals that have been banned for over 30 years. It took China's Government a matter of days to block online access to HBO after John Oliver poked fun at President Xi on the network. Yet, when it comes to the use of toxic chemicals that are banned by international agreements, China's government can't get its act together? Please. It is a metaphor. What is happening with CFCs is a metaphor for so many of China's policies, most especially for its trade policy.

Many question if China will ever moderate its self-interested, mercantilist behavior and join the community of nations in fair trade by lowering trade barriers, by abiding by international trade rules, and by ending its practice of intellectual property theft. Well, this news shows that when push comes to shove, China always does what is best for China--short-term profit for China--without regard to the well-being of its neighbors or the strictures of international agreements. Whether it is lead in our children's toys, cadmium in exported fish, or CFCs in the atmosphere, time and again, China flouts and skirts international laws, agreements, and vital environmental standards in ferocious pursuit of its economic interests.

We should not be accommodating when it comes to trade with China. We cannot appeal to its better angels and hope for the best--at least with President Xi in charge. We must recognize that China's government will not retreat from its fundamentally self-interested posture until and unless we force it to, through tough penalties for misbehavior and strong incentives to abide by free-market principles.

(Mrs. Ernst assumed the Chair.) Healthcare

Madam President, on healthcare, last week insurers in Indiana and in the Presiding Officer's State of Iowa requested an increase in 2019 rates. The addition of Indiana and Iowa asking for increasing rates adds to the growing list of States--including Virginia, Maryland, New York, and Oregon--that have raised rates as a result of Republican healthcare policies.

The CEO of one of the largest insurers in Indiana, Celtic, said insurers could have potentially lowered rates in 2019 if the Trump administration had not attempted to sow mass uncertainty and undermine the market.

Let me repeat that. The CEO of one of the largest insurers in Indiana said that health insurance costs could have gone down if not for President Trump and Congressional Republicans. He went on to say that the rate increases were also a result of the uncertainty caused by the Republicans' repeal of the coverage requirement and the Trump administration's expansion of short-term junk insurance plans.

Think about it for a moment. Middle-class families in Indiana could have saved on their healthcare next year if President Trump, aided and abetted by Republicans here in the Senate, hadn't sabotaged the system. If the Republicans and President Trump would have simply left our healthcare system alone, things would have been so much better. So many people in so many of our States will pay far more in premium increases than they will get benefits from a tax cut--particularly if you are middle-class and not rich. Is that right? Does that put more money in people's pockets? No. Does that get the economy going? Absolutely not.

Sadly, because of a political vendetta against the Affordable Care Act, Republicans have undermined our healthcare system at every turn. They don't have an answer as to what to do. They don't have a new system to put in place. They have tried that for a year and a half, and they haven't gotten anywhere. They just want to sabotage the existing law and make it worse for average Americans because they are so fixated on killing the ACA bill, even though they have nothing to put in its place, and American families are paying the price in the form of higher premiums, higher out-of-pocket costs, and more expensive prescription drugs. Civil Discourse

Finally, Madam President, a word on a different subject. Here in the Senate we disagree with one another frequently and often fervently. I certainly do. Many of us disagree with the policies of the current administration. In a country as large and diverse as ours, politics has always been a noisy, raucous affair--probably even more so today. That is OK, but we all have to remember to treat our fellow Americans--all of our fellow Americans--with the kind of civility and respect that we expect will be afforded to us.

I strongly disagree with those who advocate harassing folks if they don't agree with you. If you disagree with something or someone, stand up and make your voice heard. Explain why you think they are wrong and why you are right. Make the argument. Protest peacefully. If you disagree with a politician, organize your fellow citizens to action and vote them out of office, but no one should call for the harassment of political opponents. That is not right. That is not American.

Now, I understand those who look at the conduct of this President--a man who habitually engages in bullying, name-calling, slander, and pure nastiness for its own sake--and think: We have to fight fire with fire. I know I felt those emotions myself. I think we all do. I understand those who are outraged at the hypocrisy of this President when he complains about bullying, harassment, or nastiness when it is used against him or his allies, and he uses it as a regular tool almost every day. I am outraged by the double standard that we seem to let this President get away with. But the President's tactics and behavior should never be emulated. They should be repudiated by organized, well- informed, and passionate advocacy. As Michelle Obama, a person who represents the same kind of fineness that we have always had in America, in complete contrast to the coarseness of this President, said: ``When they go low, we go high.'' That is a contrast of civility, honor, and decency to President Trump's coarseness and meanness. It is a contrast that will serve those of us who oppose what the President does so well.

To opponents of the President's policies, the best way to limit what he can do, to show that America is not as coarse, as mean, as hypocritical as his behavior suggests, the best solution is to win elections. That is a far more productive way to channel the legitimate frustrations with this President's policies than harassing members of his administration.

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