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

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, government shutdowns are never justified, and I have opposed every one of them. This shutdown--the longest in our Nation's history--has caused real harm to 800,000 Federal employees and their families.

Just today, I heard from a Federal employee in Belfast, ME, who has worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 32 years. He has two children with type 1 diabetes, and with the soaring costs of insulin, he was beginning to worry about how he would be able to afford insulin for his children. He was concerned that a prolonged shutdown would have an adverse impact on his insurance coverage.

The shutdown has also hurt Americans' access to Federal Agencies and threatened housing assistance for low-income families, our seniors, and people with disabilities. It has harmed small businesses that have contracts with Federal Agencies for certain services but that have not been getting paid. Thus, their employees have been at risk of being laid off.

That is why I voted twice this week to end the shutdown and reopen the government. Although neither proposal received enough votes to pass, we saw glimmers of hope that have produced results. I note that after the failed votes, a bipartisan group of 16 Senators came to the floor, and each one of us indicated a willingness to compromise.

I am pleased that today there is real progress. The President and Senate Republicans and Democrats have come together and agreed to reopen government until February 15, while negotiations on border security issues continue. That is so important. As the Presiding Officer is chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of Homeland Security, I know she will be playing a key role in this area.

Let each of us on the Democratic side of the aisle, on the Republican side of the aisle, and in the administration pledge that we will negotiate in good faith and work to hammer out a compromise on border security so we will not face the same situation again on February 15.

I, for one, will keep working with my colleagues and with the White House to ensure that hundreds of thousands of hard-working, patriotic public servants will stay on the job; that this will not just be a temporary reprieve that will allow backpay to be made to them as early as the beginning of next week but rather that it will lead to a permanent solution so we can reopen government beyond February 15 and through the end of the fiscal year--that is, until September 30--and so that in the future, we can avoid ever resorting to the shutdown of government again. It is never good policy.

Let us work together over these next 3 weeks to come up with a compromise on border security, and let us show the American people that we can govern effectively.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

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