Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution
61, providing for the consideration of H.R. 648 The Consolidated Appropriations Act of
2019 under a closed rule.
The rule provides one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking
member of the Committee on Appropriations.
It also provides consideration of H.J. Res 31 which makes further continuing appropriations
for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2019 under a closed rule.
The rule provides one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking
member of the Appropriations Committee.
Additionally, it extends same day authority for Appropriations measures through January
30 and suspension authority through February 1.
Mr. Speaker, we are on day 33 of the Trump Shutdown.
The longest government shutdown in American history.
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss a paycheck for the second time since
the President plunged us into this mess.
The very people who keep our nation safe, are struggling to put food on the table.
People like men and women in the Coast Guard, FBI agents, border patrol officers, and TSA
agents.
Makeshift food banks are being opened across the country to help these workers and their
families get by.
Right outside our nations capitol in Northern Virginia.
Some federal workers waited more than an hour recently at a local food bank.
Demand was so high that a tenth of the food was gone in the first five minutes.
Because of the President's shutdown, 15 million households could see a gap in their monthly
SNAP benefits that last more than 40 days, 4 million low income households could see
a gap that lasts more than 50 days, this program is their lifeline, Mr. Speaker.
These families don't have a plan B. Now I have given weekly end hunger now speeches
on this floor since February of 2013 and I have made it clear time and time again, that
hunger is not only unacceptable in this country, the richest country in the history of the
world, but it's a political condition.
We have the resources, we have what it takes, what we need to muster is the political will
to do something about it.
But here we are and as I said, it's embarrassing enough that the wealthiest nation on the planet
has an ongoing hunger crisis, but I never ever imagined that a President of the United
States would exacerbate it like this.
This is disgusting.
This is unacceptable.
This is unconscionable.
Let us be clear, it's the President bruised ego that keeps a quarter of our government
closed today.
Now his latest so called compromise proposal isn't really a compromise at all.
In fact, it brings new meaning to the word cruel.
Not only does it fail to provide a permanent solution to the dreamers or TPS recipients,
it only covers a fraction of eligible dreamers and it excludes TPS holders from Asia and
Africa.
And it rewrites the law for future DACA recipients, TPS holders, and asylum seekers that will
make it all but impossible for anyone to qualify.
These are the same old tired and extremist ideas, the President and his advisors floated
last year.
They were rejected by both the Republican controlled House and the Republican controlled
Senate.
This is not a compromise, this is going backwards.
Now if this administration wants to target refugees, people fleeing persecution, people
fleeing for their lives, if that's want they want to do?
Then at least they should have the guts to do it in an open hearing for the world to
see.
President Trump is treating this like some reality show.
He doesn't want to look bad in the right-wing press despite the fact that members of both
parties are refusing to fund his ineffective wall.
If the president really wants to reach a real compromise, he should log off Twitter and
actually sit down with us.
Be willing to actually negotiate.
No more storming out of the Situation Room.
No more of his my-way-or-highway approach.
Work with us for a change.
For whatever reason, Mr. Speaker, he has been unwilling to do that.
President Trump may not have the fortitude to get us out of the mess he created.
But this Majority does.
Instead of following the president, who got us into this mess, we have an opportunity
to lead.
Passing these bipartisan, bicameral bills is what leadership looks like.
Many of my Republican friends have asked to consider a plan that doesn't cede the House's
will by considering a Senate bill.
Well, today is their day because we are considering a bipartisan, bicameral compromise.
The six-bill package is the result of real negotiations between the Appropriations Committees
in the House and Senate.
It's a true compromise that would reopen the entire government apart from the Department
of Homeland Security.
In fact, these negotiated bills are exactly what my good friends on the other side of
the aisle have been asking us over the past week to take up.
I recognize that we don't have similar agreement on the Homeland Security measure included
here.
But this short-term CR would get our TSA agents paid while all parties get back to the negotiating
table.
The minibus includes $328 million in new dollars for border security that we know will actually
work.
The funding will increase infrastructure investments at our ports of entry; install new technology
that will scan for drugs, weapons and contraband; put in place new technology to detect unauthorized
crossings; and fund more immigration judges.
This is what smart security looks like in the 21st Century, MR.
Speaker.
Not some medieval wall.
These details have already been agreed to by Democrats and Republicans on both sides
of the Capitol.
This Majority is standing by our word.
I urge my Republican friends – take "yes" for an answer!
The president may be proud to have shut down this government, but this is nothing to be
proud of.
How can anybody be proud that 800,000 federal workers are about to miss a second paycheck.
That our TSA workers are calling in sick so they can work another job that actually pays
the bills.
Or that our economy is losing growth at twice the speed originally estimated?
I could go on and on, MR.
Speaker.
But I know each of our offices are getting these calls.
We are all hearing from struggling constituents.
Their message is the same: end this shutdown!
This doesn't seem to be a priority for President Trump.
He's out there tweeting about which player should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Give me a break.
Maybe he doesn't know what it's like in the real world.
After all, the president got his start through what he has called a "small loan" from
his father that reports now estimate could have totaled more than $60 million.
But families are struggling.
Left to wonder how they're going to afford food or medicine without a paycheck.
Enough of the games!
Congress has the power to end this shutdown.
I urge all my colleagues to vote yes on this rule and give the underlying legislation the
strong, veto-proof vote it deserves.
Let's finally turn the lights back on.
I reserve the balance of my time.
MR.
Speaker, I've heard my friends on the other side of the aisle rushing to congratulate
the president for his compromise plan.
Let me repeat: this is no compromise at all!
The Washington Post said simply, quote, "The proposal on DREAMers was whittled down to
the point where it only undoes the disaster Trump himself is orchestrating," end quote.
That would be like an arsonist offering you a fire extinguisher to put out the wildfire
thatthey created!
That's a compromise?
Are you kidding me?
I have an idea: Mr. President, stop causing disasters!
Congress should be more than a clean-up crew for your messes and failed policies.
And let me close with this, MR.
Speaker.
When I think of the best of the United States, I think of the Statue of Liberty.
It wasn't built from within our borders.
It was gifted to us by friends abroad, the French, to represent the freedom we stand
for.
To welcome all of those immigrants who come to this country - not to transport drugs or
crime as the president portrays, but to live a better life that they can only find here
in the United States.
When President Trump thinks about the best of America, he dreams about a concrete wall.
Something to prevent immigrants from coming here.
Something that offends our allies.
That would make our country - a global leader - turn away from the rest of the world.
And at a time when American leadership is badly needed.
On top of all of that, a wall will not work.
It would be ineffective!
If we built a 50-foot wall, someone would build a 51-foot ladder.
As I said, it is a medieval idea when we have better solutions here in the 21st Century.
Cameras, sensors, radar, and drones.
If anyone here doubts that they work, go visit the border as I have.
Democrats are for border security.
The minibus includes $328 million in new funding to help secure the border.
This is what professionals are asking us for.
A concrete wall is only being discussed as a viable option at the president's rallies
and in the right-wing media.
Here in the real world, hundreds of thousands of people are struggling.
They need us to reopen the government today.
Right now.
Not years from now as the president suggested.
These bipartisan, bicameral bills will get us there.
This continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland security will get us there.
Let's end this shutdown and reopen the government.
MR.
Speaker, I urge a yes on the previous question, this rule, and the underlying bills.
I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
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