Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015 - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first I want to compliment once again my colleague, the senior Senator from Maine. She is always looking for a compromise. She is always looking to try to work in a constructive way. While I don't appreciate the results she has asked for--which I will talk about in a second--I always appreciate her efforts.

We have a very simple position here. It is a position that is logical. It is a position that even Republicans, as Leader Reid has mentioned, have talked about: Pass a clean homeland security bill and then go to the floor and debate amendments. Debate the amendment of Senator Collins, debate the amendment of Senator Cruz, and debate any immigration amendments you want.

To repeat, we will not be held hostage. The American people don't want a gun to their head, particularly when it involves security, to debate immigration. We know that. We know what the junior Senator from Texas is doing. Everyone on the other side knows it; and, of course, we are not going to go along.

So my dear friend from Maine comes up with a new solution. It is still hostage taking because it is attached to funding the Homeland Security bill. We are now only debating the size of the ransom. We will not do it. We are not going to be pressured, be bullied into doing this or that immigration reform as a price to funding Homeland Security.

Homeland Security is too vital to America. It is too vital to our country. It is not the way legislating should work. My dear colleagues on the other side should have learned this lesson a year and a half ago when they threatened to shut down the government unless they got their way. No matter how deeply they feel about the substance, they lose.

The junior Senator from Texas is leading his Republican colleagues at best into a cul-de-sac and at worst over a cliff, and I don't think they want to follow. But the House is in a box and says: Show us the Senate won't pass the bill. Well, we won't. We are not into hostage taking, we are not into being bullied, and we are not into legislating with a gun to our heads. And my guess is the White House would not support anything like this either.

So I say to my dear Republican friends, go back to the drawing board. You control the Senate. You are in charge. It is your responsibility to find a way out of this. Our way is simple, as Leader Reid outlined. First, pass a clean Homeland Security bill to protect our security, and then place on the floor immigration. We welcome the debate. We welcome the debate on the amendment of Senator Cruz. We welcome debate on the amendment of Senator Collins--but not as a hostage taker. Again, all Senator Collins is doing is saying what the size of the ransom is, but we are still doing hostage taking.

I yield the floor.

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