Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, with government funding set to expire tomorrow, the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution yesterday to fund the government through December 20. It is now up to the Senate to pass the continuing resolution without much fuss and send it to the President's desk before the deadline.
As the Republican leader and I work to set the time for that vote, we must look ahead. The continuing resolution will give appropriators additional time to get a bipartisan appropriations process back on track before the end of the year. The Senate has been able to process several noncontroversial appropriations bills, bipartisan, but several more can't move forward until the Democrats and the Republicans both all agree on the allocations. You can't do it with one party. That leads to trouble. In recent days, we have made some progress, and I hope the talks between both sets of appropriators--House and Senate, Democratic and Republican--will continue in good faith and in earnest after we finish the continuing resolution.
At the same time, there are several very important issues the Democrats are trying to address in the continuing resolution that the Senate Republicans refuse to address. Most notably, the Republicans objected to restoring expired funding for the minority- serving institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities, Tribal colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander- serving institutions, and predominantly Black institutions.
These are ladders up. Such a high percentage of people of color-- people in minority groups--use these colleges to create great lives for themselves. They work hard, and they study. There are no alternatives for them other than these institutions. To hold the money back, which is what the other side is doing, is so wrong. It is so unfair.
The Democrats will not stop fighting the fight to help these institutions, and we are committed to securing this funding in any way we can. These are American dream institutions. If you believe in the American dream, you shouldn't be holding this money back. Turkey and Syria
Mr. President, on Syria, the Defense Intelligence Agency--it is like the CIA, but it is for the Defense Department; it is very well respected and very nonpartisan and is great in many ways--released a new assessment yesterday that confirms, unfortunately, many of our worst fears. If people haven't seen this assessment, it is really important. I would urge people to look at it.
What did the assessment indicate?
President Trump's own Defense Department wrote that President Trump, by his precipitously withdrawing our troops from northern Syria, has given ISIS a lifeline.
In the chaos that has followed Erdogan's military offensive--an offensive, unfortunately, that President Trump green-lit, much to the consternation of people on both sides of the aisle--ISIS has had room to rebuild. Not only did the assessment suggest that the Islamic State is ``postured to withstand'' the recent death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but it concluded that the Islamic State ``exploited the Turkish incursion and subsequent drawdown of U.S. troops to reconstitute capabilities and resources within Syria and''--my emphasis but their words--``strengthen its ability to plan attacks abroad.''
By President Trump's giving in to Erdogan, ISIS has been able to ``strengthen its ability to plan attacks abroad.'' Every American should hear that. Let me repeat. Because President Trump abruptly withdrew U.S. troops from northern Syria, ISIS has been able to strengthen its ability to plan attacks abroad. That is not an assessment from some outside group or agency; that is the assessment of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is part of the Pentagon. The Trump administration needs to get a handle on this situation fast.
Despite this new damning assessment, we still have no idea what the President plans to do to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS. President Trump has welcomed President Erdogan to the White House, but he hasn't produced a plan to defeat ISIS. This is an administration run amuck. This is security. This is vital to America. There is no plan about ISIS, but there is the greeting of Erdogan--a dictator whose desire to go after ISIS isn't close to ours. He would much rather go after the Kurds--our main protector from ISIS other than the United States itself.
Meanwhile, there are now reports that Russian forces have taken control of the former U.S. military base in northern Syria. The pictures of Russia's entering that deserted base because American soldiers were told they had to leave by the President is not a picture Americans want to see. It is incredible. The President continues to demonstrate an uncanny ability to get steamrolled by autocrats like Erdogan and like Putin without getting a thing in return.
It has been nearly 2 months since the President announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and we still don't know what comes next. We all know that a small band of terrorists far away is more than capable of inflicting great damage on our shores, and the intelligence assessments have now confirmed that ISIS has been able to strengthen its ability to do just that.
President Trump, what is your plan to defeat ISIS and protect the United States? National Defense Authorization Act
Mr. President, on the NDAA, the Defense authorization bill, the annual Defense bill, which passed this Chamber months ago, has been stalled in the process of reconciling the Senate's version with the House's version.
One of the snags, it now appears, is the Republican leader's unwillingness to include a strong package of sanctions directed at any foreign nation that should try to interfere in our elections. That is right. One of the reasons the national defense bill has not been sent to the President's desk is because Majority Leader McConnell and his Republican colleagues do not want to include a strong deterrent to interfering in American elections.
Earlier this month, all leading U.S. national security officials-- Attorney General Barr, Secretary of Defense Esper, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security McAleenan, Acting Director of National Intelligence Maguire, FBI Director Wray, and U.S. Cyber Command Commander Nakasone-- released a statement that read the following:
Our adversaries want to undermine our democratic institutions, influence public sentiment and affect government policies. Russia, China, Iran, and other foreign malicious actors all will seek to interfere in the voting process or influence voter perceptions.
Those are not my words. They are from the leaders of this administration, including the Secretaries of Defense and State and the head of the NSA.
We know that Putin interfered in the 2016 elections. We know he is trying to do it again. That is clear. We need to send an unmistakable message to President Putin and other foreign actors--China and Iran-- that we will not tolerate any interference in our elections.
Unfortunately, Leader McConnell seems to have missed that memo. How he could ignore a statement by the leaders of the administration he supports is beyond me. The Republican leader has repeatedly downplayed the threat to our democracy from foreign actors like President Putin. He has repeatedly blocked commonsense, bipartisan legislation to protect our elections and is now blocking the inclusion of tough, mandatory sanctions on Russia or on any other foreign country that seeks to interfere in our elections.
I hope, for the sake of the Defense bill and for the sake of our elections, the Republican leader will relent and allow a package of tough sanctions to be included.
Unfortunately, election security is not the only issue holding up the Defense bill. The Republican leader is blocking many other important provisions.
The Democrats want to extend family leave benefits to all Federal employees. The majority leader and the Republicans are blocking that. This is a new world. Family leave is necessary to everyone. Here we have a chance to do it for Federal workers, and our Republican friends are saying no.
The Democrats want to clean up our communities and military installations that have been poisoned by PFAS and other contaminants, but the majority leader and our friends, the Republicans here in the Senate, are blocking that.
The Democrats want to send a signal to the Trump administration that it does not have a blank check to wage a war and that only Congress can approve major military operations. Majority Leader McConnell and the Republicans are blocking that as well.
There are hosts of important issues that are holding up the final passage of the national defense bill. These are just a few of them. I strongly urge my Republican friends and, especially, Republican Leader McConnell to work with us to address these provisions. The Democrats want to see that this bill gets done and that it gets done in a way that safeguards our elections, our troops, our communities, and advances America's interests around the globe.
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