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

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as the dust settles from the longest shutdown in American history, we have work to do to get our country back on track. Hundreds of thousands of Federal workers who endured a month without compensation need to get their paychecks and backpay as soon as possible. So I have written a letter to President Trump urging him to expedite the delivery of those paychecks.

At the same time, we must be mindful of the hardships that persist for Federal contractors, who may not receive the backpay they have missed and who may have lost health insurance during the shutdown. We need to find a solution as well for those contractors. Senator Smith of Minnesota is working on that, and I hope we can do something to help them. It is of no fault of their own that they lost pay.

But there are some costs from the Trump shutdown that cannot be recouped. The CBO today released a report about the lasting damage that the Trump shutdown has done to the American economy. According to the CBO, the 5-week shutdown cost the U.S. economy $11 billion overall, including $3 billion in economic activity that can never be recovered.

Let me repeat that. The Trump shutdown has cost the U.S. economy $11 billion. What a devastating and pointless exercise this has been. If President Trump didn't appreciate the error of his ways already, his CBO ought to set him straight--no more shutdowns. They accomplish nothing. They only inflict pain and suffering on the country, our citizens, our economy, and our national security. That is a lesson we all must keep in mind.

The continuing resolution we passed on Friday only runs until February 15. In 3 weeks, we must pass additional appropriations to avoid another shutdown. Let the CBO report be a dire warning to President Trump and my Republican colleagues in the Senate against shutting down the government again.

Now, in these next 3 weeks, House and Senate appropriators named to the conference committee on Department of Homeland Security will endeavor to strike a bipartisan deal on border security. The good news is that we begin this process with plenty of common ground. Democrats and Republicans alike agree on the need for stronger border security. Though Democrats sharply disagree with the President on the need for an expensive and ineffective border wall, we agree on the need to strengthen our ports of entry, as well as the need to provide more drug inspection technology and humanitarian assistance. Since so many of the drugs come through the portals, a border wall will do no good at all, but strengthening those portals is vital.

Because we have set this up as a conference, Democratic and Republican leadership--House and Senate--will be involved, as well as the appropriators from those committees. Everyone has skin in the game. So in the next 3 weeks, the goal of the committee should be to find areas where we agree and work on them together.

In the past, when the President has stayed out of it, when the President has given Congress room, we have been repeatedly able to forge bipartisan agreements, including two budget agreements and the Russia sanctions. When the President injects maximalist partisan demands into the process, negotiations tend to fall apart. The President should allow the conference committee to proceed with good faith negotiations. I genuinely hope it will produce something that is good for the country and acceptable to both sides.

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