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

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I am on leader time. Forced Family Separation

Mr. President, as the purposeful, cynical, and shameful humanitarian crisis of family separation at the border continues to unfold, the vast majority of Americans are looking to President Trump's administration, which started this practice, to end it.

The Associated Press recently reported that the Trump administration has been sending babies and young children to what they call tender age facilities. It is unconscionable--unconscionable--that the Government of the United States is warehousing babies and toddlers alone in an institutional setting.

The crisis was willfully and purposefully created by this President through his zero tolerance policy at the border. It can and should be ended by the same mechanism. With the simple flick of a pen, the President can end this policy. If the President wants to borrow my pen, he can have it. He can do it quickly and easily if he wants to. It is on his back.

The administration must end this gratuitously cruel and counterproductive policy that has brought such pain to innocent children and so much shame on this Nation. No law requires the separation of children from their families, no law says you must send babies to detention facilities, and no law is required to end it.

Nineteen Republicans in the Senate have already called on the Trump administration to reverse or suspend this policy administratively, without any congressional action. If our Republican colleagues and the Republican leadership in particular want to solve this problem, they ought to be directing their attention to the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, to the White House, because that is where it can get done, done well, and get done quickly. This is at the administration's doorstep to stop or sustain. This is President Trump's responsibility. He could fix it this morning if he actually wanted to fix it. Instead, he points fingers of blame, he prevaricates, and he makes things up because he doesn't even want to own this policy. He knows how unpopular it is with the American people, but at the same time, he sort of wants to tell his base: I am with you. I am with you.

It is awful.

There is this idea that Congress could step in and pass legislation to deal with family separation. That is highly, highly dubious and unlikely. When has this Congress ever successfully passed immigration legislation in the last few years? Never. It is an illusion. Color us dubious that Congress--the House and Senate, with Republican majorities and strong rightwing elements who hate any change in immigration--could successfully pass legislation. Here are the problems:

First, would Speaker Ryan agree to pass and put on the floor a narrow bill that just deals with this issue? Has he ever done that before? Never. Never. Even if the Senate passed something, in the House, it would be dragged into a morass.

Second, would the President sign something that--it was reported in the newspaper that Sarah Huckabee Sanders said he would not sign the bill that Senator Cruz is talking about. So what is the point? We want to solve this problem.

Third, will both Republican leaders, House and Senate, guarantee that a narrow bill will not have poison pill riders that are unacceptable to large percentages of this body added to any legislation?

Let's get those guarantees--no poison pill riders, Senate leadership and House leadership agree, and Speaker Ryan has the votes to pass something before we move on a legislative path, when there is such an easy alternative path available, which is the President taking his pen and undoing what he has done.

The bottom line, my colleagues, is that there is only one real solution, as much as we would dream for another; that is, for the President to solve this problem. The odds of any legislation being able to pass--without poison pill riders--the House and Senate and be signed by the President is just about zero, while the percentage that the President could solve this problem if he wants to is just about 100 percent.

I have to say one other thing. Ted Cruz--a leading anti-immigration advocate--must be feeling the heat. He has never been for modifying our immigration laws in any way that helps immigrants. Read some of his past statements.

I ask the question, Is something cynical going on with some people? They want to get this off their backs because they feel the heat, but they really don't want to solve the problem, because if they did, Senator Cruz and the others would do what 19 Republicans have correctly done: Ask the President to solve the problem himself. Trade

Mr. President, on a different subject entirely, our trade relationship with China. For too long, China has taken advantage of America's unwillingness to strongly confront its rapacious trade policies. For too long, China has dumped artificially cheap products into our markets, stolen the intellectual property of blue-chip American companies, and denied our most profitable companies access to its markets.

I am heartened that President Trump, after making a debacle of a deal on ZTE, has taken a tougher approach to China in recent days. His instincts to be tough on China are right on the money.

President Trump needs to stay strong. If he backs off at the first sign of trouble, after the first company calls to complain, after President Xi calls to complain, then China will know we are weak and unserious.

China is waiting to see if it can ride this out. We need to show China that America means business because the stakes are too high.

Business relocations to China have costs too many American jobs. The theft of our intellectual property has been called ``the greatest transfer of wealth in history'' by a four-star general and commander of U.S. Cyber Command. The lifeblood of the American economy is on the line. I urge President Trump to stay strong on China.

Don't mistake my support on this issue for what the President is doing with our allies. The tariffs leveled against Canada and our European allies are misguided and counterproductive. China is the real threat. And China should be the President's focus. Republican Tax Bill

Mr. President, 6 months ago today, the Republican majority jammed through a partisan tax bill that lavished tax cuts on big corporations and the wealthiest few. It is an appropriate time to look back on how the tax bill is fairing.

While the Republican leader, on a daily basis, celebrates vague statistics about business confidence, here are some cold, hard facts.

Since the beginning of 2018, corporations have announced plans to repurchase more than $475 billion in stock buybacks--a record pace. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor statistics report that real average hourly earnings have dropped by 0.1 percent.

According to a recent analysis by Just Capital, only 6 percent of the capital allocated by companies from the tax bill's savings has gone to employees, while nearly 60 percent has gone to shareholders.

Remember, President Trump promised that the Republican tax bill would give a $4,000 raise for the average American family. In reality, American families are not seeing close to that figure. A recent Washington Post headline sums it up best: ``The Republican tax bill's promises of higher wages and more jobs haven't materialized.''

The truth is, the tax law has failed to deliver for American workers and American families. Corporations are reaping record profits as a result of the tax bill and are refusing to pass much of those savings onto their workers. And whatever benefits American families are getting from the tax bill--if they are getting benefits at all--are starting to get wiped out by skyrocketing health care costs, the result of Republican sabotage.

All in all, that is why that today, 6 months since it passed, the Republicans' signature legislative accomplishment remains deeply unpopular.

Vote on Amendment No. 2943, as Modified

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