Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019--Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, for Democrats, antipathy to the President is not the issue. The issue is antipathy to shutting down the government.

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Mr. KAINE. The issue isn't antipathy to the President. It is that Democrats don't believe in shutting down government.

I appreciate my colleague from South Dakota stating the issue the way he did at the beginning of his talk: Democrats will not engage in negotiations to reopen the government.

Let's be plain. Democrats think the Government of the United States should never close. Democrats think that using a shutdown as leverage to get something else is illegitimate and beneath the oath of office. The President, on the other hand, said that he is proud to shut government down and is willing to use the suffering of more than 800,000 employees and millions of American citizens to get his way.

The difference here is not on the immigration topics; there are differences that can be resolved. But the difference that is hard to resolve is a President and a party that believe in government shutdowns and a party that rejects the idea of government shutdowns.

I will state complete willingness to negotiate with this President and my colleagues over border security. We--8 Democrats, 8 Republicans--introduced a proposal in February with border security investments, protections for Dreamers; 46 out of 49 of Democrats supported a $25 billion border security investment, and only 8 of 51 Republicans did. The President blew up the deal.

So the issue is not about negotiation over border security. We have been a more reliable party in making border security investments than the majority party has been. The issue is this: Is it or is it not illegitimate to shut down the government of the greatest Nation on Earth and inflict needless pain on hundreds of thousands of workers and millions of citizens when you don't get your way? That is what is at stake.

Is the proposal that is on the table offered by the President a ``compromise''? If it were a compromise, the President would have talked to us about it. If it were a compromise, the majority would let us offer amendments about it. If it were a compromise, the majority would have had a hearing about it so that we could have asked questions about it.

Introducing a 1,200-page bill on Tuesday and calling a vote on Thursday and giving Democrats no opportunity to ask questions or propose amendments is not a compromise. It is my way or the highway. What we should be doing to show that we respect the President's proposal is referring it to the committee of origin, having committee hearings and markup next week, and putting it on the floor the following week. If the President means it as a compromise, he should allow the Democratic Party--minority here and majority in the House--to have an opportunity to shape it.

It is my hope that my Republican colleagues will vote to reopen government this afternoon, through February 8, so that we would use next week to have a committee process to consider the President's proposal and the following week consider it on the floor. These are important enough topics that it would seem giving it a 2-week review by committee and by Senators on the floor is not asking too much.

Briefly, before yielding to my colleague from Missouri, I will say that I just returned from Reagan National Airport, where I met with air traffic controllers, TSA agents, airline safety specialists who maintain the radar and other safety equipment at this and other airports. They talked about how this shutdown in which they are working but not being paid is starting to fray them as they are working overtime, as they are trying to get jobs when they are not working 10- hour shifts to try to cover the bills they have to cover for babysitters and rent and medical appointments. They are talking about the degradation of the safety of American air traffic because of air traffic controllers not being paid, TSA agents not being paid, airline safety specialists not being paid and, in some instances, furloughed. If nothing else, we should care about the safety of commercial aviation. That is one reason, among many, that we should end the shutdown.

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