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

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this afternoon Senate Democrats will have the opportunity to vote to reopen the government when the Senate takes up the President's compromise proposal. I hope they are as serious about ending the shutdown as they have claimed to be.

Unfortunately, they haven't looked too serious over the past month. Democratic leaders have spent a lot of time talking about ending the partial shutdown, but they have absolutely refused to engage in any genuine negotiations to reopen the government. Democrats don't seem to understand that when there is a disagreement, both sides have to give a little in order to get things resolved. If we are going to get the government reopened, then both Democrats and the President are going to have to compromise.

The President understands this. He has repeatedly made it clear that he is willing to negotiate. On Saturday, he put forward a genuine compromise--legislation that addresses his border security priorities and some of Democrats' most important immigration priorities.

Unfortunately, Democrats' reaction was less than promising. The Speaker of the House labeled the compromise a ``nonstarter'' before she had even seen it. But, of course, she offered no replacement.

President Trump offered a proposal that he believed would address some of the Democrats' concerns. If Democrats didn't like that proposal, then they could have offered an alternative--one that addressed their concerns and attempted to address some of the President's concerns. But so far, the only Democratic proposals have involved the President agreeing to all of the Democrats' demands in exchange for vague promises to address the security and humanitarian crisis at the border at some unspecified date in the future.

The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate may be persisting in their refusal to negotiate, but there are signs that rank-and-file Democrats are starting to get restless. More than one Democratic Member of Congress has noted, in the words of one House freshman, ``[A]m I willing to talk about more fencing and more drones and more technology and radar and border agents? Absolutely.''

Even the House majority leader sounded as though he was ready to break with Speaker Pelosi's obstruction, stating that Democrats are ``for border security'' and that ``physical barriers are part of the solution.'' That is from the House majority leader.

I hope that spirit of compromise continues to grow. In a couple of hours, Senate Democrats will have the chance to vote on the President's proposal. The bill before us would immediately--immediately--reopen the government. It would provide paychecks and backpay to Federal workers. It would provide needed disaster recovery funding. It would deliver all seven of the remaining 2019 appropriations bills, the product of bipartisan work in the House and in the Senate. It would tackle the security and humanitarian crisis at our border and address Democratic immigration priorities.

In fact, this bill contains a version of immigration legislation originally sponsored by the Democratic leader, the Democratic whip, and the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, among others.

The bill before us today is a genuine compromise. I hope at least some of my Democratic colleagues will see their way to supporting it because it is the only legislation we will be voting on today that can be signed into law, end the shutdown, reopen the government, make sure that Federal workers are getting paid, and address our crisis at the border.

Democrats' refusal to engage in serious negotiations has already cost Federal workers a paycheck and limited government services for literally tens of thousands of Americans. It is time for Democrats to stop putting their antipathy for the President above the needs of the American people. I hope we do that this afternoon. The time has come to make a deal, and we need Democrats at the table.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source