STRENGTHENING AMERICA'S SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST ACT OF 2019--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, Democrats continue to talk about the need to fully reopen the government, and I cannot agree with them more. It is time to end this partial shutdown and get the government fully operating again. But there is a problem. Democrats may talk a lot about the need to reopen the government, but they are not willing to do the work that would be required to actually get the government open.

In a divided government, negotiation and compromise are essential. If you want to get something done in a divided government, you have to compromise. But that doesn't seem to be something the Democrats understand. For Democrats, it is ``my way or the highway.'' They won't give an inch. They want their way, and they want their way only. All of us would like to get our proposals passed exactly as we want them, with no changes, but we all know that is unrealistic. If you want to get something done, you usually have to compromise.

The White House has a strongly held position but has also made it very clear that it is willing to be flexible and negotiate with Democrats, but the Democrats refuse to play ball, and they continue to hold parts of the Federal Government hostage.

We just heard our colleague from New York, the Democratic leader, suggest that it should be Republican leader Senator McConnell's job to solve this problem, but the fact is--and we all know this--the negotiation in this circumstance has to be between the President of the United States and the Democrats in the Senate and the House who have refused to budge on that position.

The Republican leader has made it very clear that as soon as the President is willing to sign something and the Democrats here are willing to produce enough votes to give us the 60 votes that are necessary to pass it in the Senate and the House, he will move a bill through the Senate that we can get to the President and end this shutdown, get the government open again, and fund border security, which is an important priority for our country and for our national security interests.

That is a position which, until recently, was also held by the Democrats. As recently as December, the Democratic leader indicated that to solve this budget stalemate, this impasse we seem to be having, we needed to have the support of the leaders in both the House and the Senate and the President before either Chamber should vote on legislation. He suggested that the President needed to come out publicly in support of it--in other words, to indicate he would sign any legislation that might move.

So that is where we are. It is not a function of the Republican leader's. The Republican leader is prepared to produce the votes that are necessary to pass legislation to reopen the government. It is entirely dependent upon the President of the United States, who must sign that bill into law, and the Democrats here in the Senate, who have to produce the requisite number of Democrats to get the 60 votes that are required to pass it in the Senate. That is where we are.

Frankly, right now, there isn't a negotiation going on. The Democrats' refusal to negotiate is victimizing the very workers they want to protect. The Federal workers who are struggling right now are struggling precisely because Democrats are refusing to work with this President, and that has a lot more to do with politics than it has to do with the issue itself.

Democrats need to negotiate with the White House to reopen the government, but they should also want to work with the White House on border security solutions. Border security is a national security imperative. No country can be secure if dangerous individuals can creep across its borders unchecked and unobserved, and Democrats used to understand this.

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 their 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. This legislation would have provided $46 billion for border security and $8 billion specifically for a physical barrier.

As recently as last year, nearly every Senate Democrat supported $25 billion in border security.

My point is that the Democrats in the Senate have in the past recognized the importance, No. 1, of securing the border and, No. 2, how important a physical barrier is as a part of the solution to securing our border--not entirely dependent upon a border wall but certainly a part of that solution, to include technological solutions, manpower, additional personnel, cameras, censors, all the modern technology that we have, but in certain places recognizing that the fence works. The fence has worked. There is already 700 miles of fence on the southern border.

I would point out that in 2009, the Senate Democratic leader said in a speech that ``any immigration solution must recognize that we must do as much as we can to gain control of our borders as soon as possible.'' That was in 2009 from the Senate Democratic leader. He went on to discuss, interestingly enough, progress that had been made on border security between 2005 and 2009, including ``construction of 630 miles of border fence that create a significant barrier to illegal immigration on our southern land border.'' That from the Democratic leader in 2009, again crediting the construction of 630 miles of border fence that creates a significant barrier to illegal immigration on our southern land border. In other words, in 2009, the Democratic leader not only didn't oppose border fences, he praised them.

The fact is, our border is not secure. Tens of thousands of individuals try to cross our southern border illegally each month. Illegal drugs flow into this country through ports of entry and other unsecured areas of the border. Federal agents have seen a 115-percent increase in the amount of fentanyl seized between ports of entry, and 90 percent of the heroin supply in this country flows across our southern border. There is human trafficking, weapons trafficking, and more.

We need better border security, including more barriers, technology, and personnel along our southern border. We don't know who is coming into our country and why. We need to ensure that we keep criminals, traffickers, terrorists, and dangerous goods out of this country.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer was asked about the Democrats' flip-flop on border security and whether there is any real difference between what they supported in the past and what they are opposing now. He said: ``I don't have an answer that I think is a really good answer.''

``I don't have an answer that I think is a really good answer.'' Well, Madam President, at least that is honest. Democrats don't have a good answer because there is no real difference between what they have supported in the past and what they are opposing right now.

Before Christmas, I came to the floor to talk about the divided government we would be dealing with in 2019 and 2020. I noted that divided government doesn't have to spell the doom of productivity. In fact, over the past 30-plus years, some of our greatest legislative achievements have been the product of divided government. But I also noted that in order for us to be productive in the 116th Congress, Democrats would have to decide to work with us. So far, they have decided not to.

In addition to refusing to negotiate on border security, Senate Democrats have also blocked the Senate from considering legislation to support Israel's security, strengthen our relationship with our Jordanian allies, and hold accountable individuals who participate in the atrocities of the Assad regime in Syria.

Despite our divided government, we can still accomplish important things for the American people, but it is going to require an about- face from Democrats, who have so far made the 116th Congress about partisanship and their hostility to this President.

It is time for Democrats to stop talking about reopening the government and to take steps that would actually do so by committing to real negotiations with the White House. Then and only then can we get past this impasse, get the government open and functioning, and address what is a critical and important national security imperative for our country, and that is ensuring that our southern border is secure.

It is not about Republicans in the Senate. It is about the President of the United States, for whom this is a huge priority, something he is passionate about doing and a commitment he made to the American people. And it is about the Democrats here in the Senate--and in the House but here in the Senate, where it takes 60 votes to pass anything--sitting down across the table from the President in good faith and dealing with what usually happens in circumstances like this, and that is to negotiate an agreement for both sides, give a little bit, have a little give-and-take.

As I mentioned, the President has been very flexible and very open to sitting down with Democrats. In the discussions I have been a part of, he has demonstrated his willingness to compromise. But I have yet to see a single step by the Democrats here in the Senate or in the House, in their leadership, a single move, a single inch of movement in the direction of trying to solve this problem. Instead, they seem bent on turning it into a political issue. That is not good for the American people. It is certainly not good for those employees who are struggling out there because they are not being paid and certainly not good for the crisis we face at our southern border and the security threat that poses for the American people.

I hope we will do better. We can do better, but it is going to require negotiation. It is going to require a willingness to sit down at the table in good faith and to get discussions going about how we solve this important problem.

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