Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2014 -- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

BORDER CRISIS

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the ongoing humanitarian crisis at our Nation's southern border demands a solution. It really just boggles the mind that the President of the United States would rather fund raise in Hollywood than work with members of his own party to forge a legislative response to this tragic situation and to do something to prevent more young people from making the perilous and potentially life-threatening journey across the desert.

The President initially laid out reforms that, while modest, represented a step in the right direction. But evidently the politicos who increasingly have the President's ear these days couldn't go along with that, so the President stopped defending his own policy reforms. Instead, he demanded a blank check that would literally preserve the status quo, a blank check he knew wouldn't fix the problem, a blank check he knew couldn't pass Congress, and a blank check he knew members of his own party in Congress didn't even support.

Faced with a national crisis, he listened once again to his most partisan instincts instead of uniting Congress around a common solution so he could lay blame for that crisis on somebody else. Apparently no crisis is too big to be trumped by politics in the Obama White House. It is exasperating for those of us who want to work toward bipartisan solutions; it is confusing, I am sure, to the Democrats who share our desire to get something accomplished; and it is emboldening to Democrats who don't, including the Senate Democratic leadership.

When faced with a crisis, a President's job is to show Presidential leadership and to get his party on board with the reforms necessary to address it. Scuttling reform and prolonging the crisis is not part of the job description.

So what I am suggesting, Mr. President, is that you spend a little more time actually doing the job you were elected to do. Press ``pause'' on the nonstop photo-ops and start demonstrating some real leadership instead. The barbecue joints and the pool halls will still be there after we solve this problem.

Mr. President, it is a dangerous journey to the border. Children are suffering at the hands of some seriously bad actors down there. News reports suggest you even knew about this long before it started making national news. You could have intervened before this turned into a full-blown humanitarian crisis, but you didn't. You could have worked with us to get a bipartisan solution. You didn't.

Mr. President, you have a special responsibility to help us end this crisis in a humane and appropriate way. Congress cannot do it without your leadership or your engagement. It is literally impossible to do this without you. So pick up the phone you keep telling us about and call us. Call your fellow Democrats and lobby them to get on board. Work with us, and let's address this crisis.

FOREIGN POLICY

Recently I expressed deep concern that the President pursued a foreign policy based on withdrawing from America's forward presence and alliance commitments, hollowing out our Nation's conventional military forces, placing an overreliance upon personal diplomacy and international organizations, and literally abandoning the war on terror. I believe this will leave his successor to deal with a more dangerous world and with fewer tools to meet the threats.

Later this morning several Members of Congress charged with leading national security committees and policymaking will meet with the President to discuss national security. I don't expect the President to brief us on his plan for rebuilding the military, especially in a way that would allow us to meet our commitments in Europe and the Middle East or that would allow for an effective strategic pivot to Asia, nor do I expect the President to lay out for us his plans to provide the intelligence community with all the tools it will need to deal with the threat of international terrorism from Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups over the next decade. Those are strategic threats best addressed by integrating all the tools of our Nation's power, and, candidly, it would require the President to revisit the policy stances he took as a candidate back in 2008.

I do hope that at a minimum the President will discuss two near-term issues:

First, I hope he will explain his plan or efforts to assist the Israelis in demilitarizing Gaza and ensuring that Hamas is not left with the ability to launch indirect fire attacks against the civilian populace or to infiltrate Israel through tunnels. In coordination with Israel, we can assist the Palestinian Authority with any programs to assume responsibility for monitoring those access points into Gaza.

Absent any active efforts by the administration, I would at least like assurances that the President is not working to impose a cease-fire upon Israel that is harmful to the objectives of the current military campaign.

Second, earlier this month a group of Republican Senators wrote to the President imploring him to craft a plan for containing the threat posed to Iraq and Jordan by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Specifically, we asked the President to deploy an assessment team to Jordan to develop a plan to prevent the spread of ISIL in a way that threatened our ally Jordan.

Although Ambassador Susan Rice responded to our letter, her letter did not address how the administration intends to combat ISIL. Instead, Ambassador Rice renewed the administration's request for a new counterterrorism partnership fund. To this point, the administration has failed to provide the Congress with any plan for how this new counterterrorism fund would assist our ally, further our own interests, or train and equip a moderate opposition within Syria. That would be a good starting point for today's discussion with the President.

OPIATE ADDICTION IMPACTS

Prescription drug and heroin abuse have risen to epidemic levels in my home State of Kentucky. More Kentuckians now lose their lives to drug overdose--largely driven by painkillers--than to car crashes. It is a huge problem.

Earlier this year I convened a listening session in the Commonwealth to hear from those closest to the problem, from professionals across the medical, public health, and law enforcement spheres, as well as a brave young man who managed to break his heroin addiction after watching his own friends overdose. We discussed the extent of the problem, and one issue in particular that grabbed my attention was the increasing number of infants being born in Kentucky dependent on opiates. Researchers estimate that more than one baby

every hour--one baby every hour--is now born dependent on drugs and suffering from withdrawal--a number that has increased in my home State by more than 3,000 percent since the year 2000. We have gone from 29 infants identified as suffering from drug withdrawal annually to more than 950. Experts believe there are even more cases that go unreported. This is heartbreaking. I say this especially as a father of three daughters. These children are the most innocent members of our society. We have to protect them.

Thankfully, the Commonwealth is taking this problem seriously. Both the Kentucky Perinatal Association and the Kentucky Perinatal Quality Initiative Collaborative have made as their primary focus reducing the number of infants born dependent on opiates and other drugs. I certainly commend their efforts, but there is more we can do at the Federal level.

Maternal addiction and infant opiate dependency are epidemics that can best be overcome by effective coordination between stakeholders at the State and Federal levels.

One bill that was recently introduced in the House, the CRIB Act, would help address the need for greater coordination between doctors, nurses, hospitals, and governments at the State and Federal level. I commend the sponsors of that legislation for their leadership.

Today in the Senate I will introduce the Protecting Our Infants Act, which seeks to address not only infants suffering from opiate withdrawal but maternal opiate addiction as well. It would help identify and disseminate recommendations for preventing and treating maternal addiction so that we can reduce the number of infants born dependent on opiates and other drugs.

My bill would also promote recommendations as to how to pinpoint those babies suffering from withdrawal and how best to treat them. Because I have heard from so many experts in Kentucky on the need for more research into infant withdrawal and its long-term effects, my bill would shine a light on those areas as well.

The Protecting Our Infants Act would also encourage the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work with States to improve the availability and quality of data so that they can respond more effectively to this public health crisis.

My legislation is certainly no silver bullet, but it is a step in the right direction, and it would help ensure that our public health system is better equipped to treat opiate addiction in mothers and in their newborn children. Together we can overcome this tragic problem. I am going to remain focused on it until we do.

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska.

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