Government Shutdown

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEVIN of California. Madam Speaker, on my first day in office, I joined Democrats and Republicans in voting to reopen the government and end this senseless and now record shutdown.

And we have passed Republican legislation. Make no mistake: this is the same legislation that Senate Republicans supported just last month to fund the Federal Government, but instead of taking that legislation up for a vote, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have joined President Trump in what can be best described as a temper tantrum.

As the father of a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old, occasionally I know something about a temper tantrum.

Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans have joined President Trump in holding 800,000 Federal workers hostage over a demand for an ineffective, wasteful wall, a fifth century technology for a 21st century problem.

Don't get us wrong. Democrats continue to support strong, smart, effective border security solutions, including the following:

First, we support new drug, weapons, and contraband scanning technology at official ports of entry; installing new technology to eventually scan all commercial and passenger vehicles for illegal drugs and other contraband at our ports of entry. According to both CBP and DEA, 90 percent of heroin, 88 percent of cocaine, 87 percent of methamphetamine, and 80 percent of fentanyl being smuggled into the U.S. are seized at official ports of entry, not areas between the ports of entry, where President Trump wants to build his wasteful border wall.

Second, we support advanced technology to detect unauthorized crossings; cameras, sensors, and radar to spot moving people and objects in any weather or time of day that are mounted on towers and border patrol vehicles and on drones to surveil tough terrain.

Third, we support more customs personnel, filling the more than 3,000 vacancies for customs officers who facilitate trade and travel at our land, air, and sea ports of entry, inspect commercial and passenger vehicles for illegal drugs and other contraband, and ensure that travelers are vetted and screened before entering the United States.

Fourth, we support expanded port of entry infrastructure, building up our port of entry infrastructure to improve security and better facilitate trade and travel, ending the long delays for visitors and commercial shipments that cost our country billions in economic activity and thousands of jobs.

We support all these measures, and we have for some time, and we will continue to support these measures, but we will not waste billions of taxpayer dollars on an ineffective, expensive wall that can be tunneled under, climbed over, or cut through, a wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for.

A discussion about border security is no reason for President Trump to keep government shut down. Perhaps even more importantly, we cannot and must not allow this President or any President to hold our government and Federal workers hostage every time we have a disagreement.

Federal workers in the communities I serve in California are being directly hurt by this shutdown, just as they are being hurt all across this country.

I recently heard from a Fish and Wildlife Service employee whose coworkers don't know how they are going to pay their bills and make ends meet.

I heard from members of the Coast Guard. And, yes, the Coast Guard is being impacted by this shutdown, because they are funded through the Department of Homeland Security. I heard from the Coast Guard.

I heard from air traffic controllers, and they are being forced to work without pay, and this becomes a security issue.

If this President and Senate Republicans truly cared about security, they would want to fund the Coast Guard and they would want to fund air traffic controllers and they would want to fund TSA agents at our airports.

I have heard from veterans. I have a huge number of veterans in my district. One-third of the Federal workforce consists of veterans, both Federal employees and contractors, and they have been negatively impacted by this.

So, Mr. President, you claim to care about veterans. How can you allow this to continue to hundreds of thousands of veterans who have served our country and who are working without pay?

The solution that we Democrats support is simple. Let's reopen the government, and then we can talk about the best way to secure our border.

Earlier today, I was honored to join some of my freshmen colleagues in trying to deliver a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, simply asking him on behalf of the freshman class to end this shutdown. We couldn't find him, but we will keep at it.

We have got to get this government back open again. We have got to get people back to work.

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