Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20171221

Unwavering commitment to make sure that the special counsel cannot be fired, that this investigation cannot be a victim of political interference. The president has indicated that he is averse to hearing about russia or considering its threat to this country. That aversion certainly sets back his ability to defend this country against the russian threat through sanctions and other means and deterrence that will assure that russia is made to pay a price so they do not do it again. In conclusion, let me just say that aversion must be overcome. We need to send a signal, as we did by passing sanctions, that we will take action against russia to stop it from interfering again in this election, that we will make sure that russia is made to pay a price, and that our constituents know that we will insist on a fair and independent investigation without political interference, passing legislation that is bipartisan. It has been offered by republicans as well as democrats, including myself, and it should be moved through the Judiciary Committee and to the floor of this congress. That message is all the more important now as this investigation penetrates the white house for the first time in the flynn conviction. Coming closer to the oval office itself, a real and robust congressional investigation of those efforts through the Judiciary Committee as well as obstruction of justice continues to be necessary. But we should combine our efforts to make sure that Law Enforcement and the judicial process move forward without political interference that will undermine its credibility. Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown madam president , i ask the presiding officer does the gentleman have a microphone . Mr. Brown thank you, madam president. It took West Virginia wisdom to know that. Thank you. Unanimous consent i ask unanimous consent that following my remarks the floor will yield to senators johnson and markey by u. C. Request. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, madam president. I want to thank my colleagues nor warner and senator blumenthal for their words on the floor. Senator warners words yesterday especially defending special Counsel Robert Mueller and his leadership on the Senate Intelligence Committee Russia investigation. Senator warner is right we must protect the indeath of the integrity of the Just Department s independent investigation. Ohios Ukrainian Community knows the impact of unchecked russian aggression in russias efforts to undermine democracy around the world. Getting to the bottom of russian interference and protesting protecting our future elections are critical. My priority is getting to the bottom of what happened so that our democratic process is upheld and so we can move forward with the business we were sent here to do. Creating jobs, impacts combatting the Opioid Crisis that i will speak about in a moment, helping middleclass families. Efforts to delay that conclusion or interfere in the investigation i believe will not be tolerated by senators in either party. Thanks to senator warner for making that clear. Thanks to my colleagues in both parties who take this seriously. All of us have had serious conversations with members of both parties to discuss what all this means. And thank you for all of us working to get our own independent Senate Investigation completed. Its important we make clear to the American People that this is not a partisan issue. Its about the integrity of our elections. Its about protecting our country from foreign powers. Any attempt to discredit Robert Mueller and his investigation to turn it into a partisan issue makes us less safe as a nation. Lets let the Justice Department and the special counsel do their jobs. Lets get back to doing ours. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown thank you. As we await senator markey and senator johnsons remarks, i want to set the stage for the reason for this, as we will see. The c. D. C. Released a new report last night, the centers for Disease Control out of atlanta, released a news report, a new report last night showing a massive increase in the number of americans dying of Drug Overdoses. My state is second to the presiding officers state, as the secondhighest rate of deaths per capita in the country. My state, unfortunately, for far too many people in ohio, more people die in ohio from opioid overdose than any other state in the country. Families, theyre torn apart. Children lose parents. Parents lose sons. Parents lose daughters. The c. D. Pins much of the blame for this epidemic on this relatively new deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. Deadly fentanyl overdoses doubled in one year. This drug is 50 times stronger than heroin. Senator capito knows that. Senator johnson, senator markey, all of us, this whole senate is aware of that. This drug is being illegally trafficked into this country from mexico and china. We have a bill that we should pass today to help put a stop to this, the interdict act. I want to thank senator markey for his leadership on this bill. Also my fellow ohioan, senator portman, for his support. Weve been working on a number of issues, senator portman and i across party lines for months and months and months. The interdict act would provide more resources to customs and Border Protection agents to screen packages effectively and safely to stop fentanyl whenever possible at the border before it reaches akron, before it reaches toledo or dayton or smaller cities, chillicothe, and zanesville. This has the support of major Law Enforcement organizations including sheriffs and police officers. Our Law Enforcement officials better than anybody see the devastation that fentanyl causes our community. They know the risks their officers face dealing with this deadly substance. Thats why this bill needs to pass into law. Just this week the national f. O. P. , the fraternal Law Enforcement officers association, the Police Assisted Addiction recovery initiative, a recent phenomenon americans are dying in record numbers. Life expectancy in our country, i believe for the first time in the lifetimes of any of us, Life Expectancy in this country actually dropped last year. Think about that, madam president. We have made progress, as i mentioned in this body, i wear a pin on my lapel. Its the picture of a canary in a bird cage. Mine workers in ohio and elsewhere would take a canary down to the mines. If the canary died, the mine worker was on his own. He had no union Strong Enough or government that cared enough to help him. In those days people lived 45 years on the average, a child born in the United States in 1900. Today we live 30 years longer for a whole host of Public Health reasons, from medicare to medicaid to safe drinking laws to clean air, to minimum wage, to workers, all the things that we do. The first time i believe in our lifetimes when Life Expectancy actually dropped. And thats because of Drug Overdose for the second year in a row. In large part because of these overdose deaths. Why shouldnt we take steps today to stop this . We can do this by putting the interdict act on the president s desk immediately giving Law Enforcement the tools they need to keep fentanyl out of the country and off our streets. A senator would the gentleman yield . I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Markey and i thank the gentleman for talking about this very important issue. Fentanyl is the killer which is descending upon every Single Community in the United States. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. Fentanyl is the godzilla of opioids. Senator brown represents ohio. I represent massachusetts. The fentanyl epidemic has a bulls eye on ohio and a bulls eye on massachusetts. The deaths from fentanyl are skyrocketing. In 2016 upwards of 70 to 75 of all of the opioid deaths in massachusetts were because of fentanyl. Fentanyl was found in the blood system of those people who died. In 2000, people died in massachusetts last year from overdoses, but threequarters of them had fentanyl, meaning that if the epidemic was hitting the rest of the country at the same rate that it was hitting massachusetts, 75,000 people would have died last year with fentanyl in their blood system. So last night the centers for Disease Control and prevention released shocking new numbers on Drug Overdose deaths in the United States. These numbers show that a spike in deaths caused by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Here are the number numbers. This is nationwide. More than 42,000 americans died from an opioid overdose last year. That is a 27 increase over the number of americans that died from an opioid overdose in 2015. Got that number . Went up 27 in 2015 to 2016. Of the 42,000 lives lost to opioids last year, nearly half of them nationwide, just over 19,000, can be directly attributed to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. The number is much higher in massachusetts. Fentanyl is overrunning our communities, laying waste to them. Theres no easy solution. But we know that we must staunch the flow of this drug before we lose an entire generation to this terrible killer. And that is why i introduced with senator brown, senator rubio, legislation to help those on the front lines stop this deadly drug from ever getting into our communities. The bill is called the interdict act, and it provides badly needed hightech equipment and other scientific resources to u. S. Customs and Border Protection to catch illicit fentanyl being trafficked into the United States mainly from china and mexico. When u. S. Customers and Border Protection detects a suspicious package or substance, it has had very good success identifying an illicit drug like fentanyls, with the help of hightech, handheld chemical screening devices and using these devices customs and Border Protection agents can quickly detect, identify and seize illicit drugs like fentanyl on the spot. Those rapid results provide Vital Information for Border Agents to continue their investigation and, if appropriate, proceed with seizure and arrest. And whats more, these devices and their ability to immediately identify fentanyl and other hazardous illicit substances also serve to safeguard the health and wellbeing of customs and Border Protection agents so that theyre not accidentally exposed to fentanyl. The agents, thats what these devices help to make possible. So we introduced the interdict act, Sherrod Brown from ohio, the presiding Senate President today, senator rubio, and weve added another 16 senators from both sides of the aisle. I would be glad to yield. Mr. Brown thank you, senator markey. I wanted to enter into the record, madam president , three letters that are dated yesterday and today. Actually one is from the National Fraternal order of police signed by chuck canter bury in support of this bill with their passionate reasons for why it matters and the second is from the federal Law Enforcement Agency Signed by mr. Stokes, who is a longtime friend of mine, and a third letter from the recovery initiated police addicted initiated police all making endorsements for this bill. I think its clear why this bill is so important. I think this bill got maybe two or three negative votes in the house of representatives. There is no organization that i know of that opposes it. I hear from people in my state consistently about how important this is from Police Organizations to parents to deputy sheriffs. Theres no reason we shouldnt be able to do this before we go home for christmas. Theres a lot of things we should be able to do before christmas, including the Childrens Health Insurance Program. But this is one we know we can. There seems to be no substantive disagreement from any large number of groups of individuals that i can see. I hope we can move forward with this in the next few minutes. Mr. Markey will the gentleman yield . I thank the senator. Can i list the names of the organizations that support the bill to police can interdict and sop stop fentanyl. It is the federal Law Enforcement officers association, its the National Border control counsel, its the Police Assisted Addiction recovery initiative, the National Sheriffs association, the National Tactical officers association, the National Association of Police Organizations, the National Narcotics association, the american legion, International Union of police, International Chiefs association, the major county sheriffs of america and the Massachusetts Coalition of police. So its pretty much every single Law Enforcement agency, all levels in the country, say to please give this tool to us now so we can detect this incredible killer in our country. Three former commissioners of the United States customs and bored Border Protection support the interdict act. President trumps nominee to head the agency, kevin mcalean testify its that he supports getting more of these hightech scanners into the hands of cups tomorrows customs and border patrol. Despite working for months with Senate Leadership to try to secure authorization for funding, we cant seem to get this over the finish line so that in the new year they have these devices. The way it works, you put a device up next to a package it will tell you if its got fentanyl or not. Right now many Law Enforcement agencies wont even allow one of their police dogs to sniff for fentanyl because it will kill the police dog. Thats how dangerous it is. Thats why these Electronic Devices are so important. It ensures that we have minimized the exposure of our officers to these substances and at the same time dramatically increase the likelihood that we are going to identify the fentanyl in a package and, as a result, to deter these people from china or from mexico who bring it into our country and are killing us by the thousands. At 42,000 deaths next year, it is approxiamting the total deaths in vietnam, thats just one year 42,000 people. One year. Thats a terrorist attack of a magnitude on our own streets that is unimaginable and with these devices we dont completely solve the problem, but we put more weapons in the hands of our Law Enforcement officials, detection devices that can minimize the likelihood that these terrible people from china, from mexico principally can bring this stuff into our country. So this is a huge issue, it goes right to the heart of other seriousness of dealing with this issue, and my only hope is that we have an ability here to be able it to move this thing forward in a way that lets the American People say we understand the issues you want us to work on. We understand death. And the Opioid Crisis is at the top of the list. It is indiscriminate. It affects potentially every family. No one is immune to addiction. It could hit any family at name and fentanyl is the ultimate killer. Mr. Brown madam president , i thank senator markey and hope we can work things out with senator johnson on this issue. I would like to ask unanimous consent to put the following remarks in a different place in the record, madam president. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you. Yesterday a bunch much members of congress with health care paid for by taxpayers went to the white house and celebrated a handout for corporations sends jobs overseas, companies that shut down in mansfield, zanesville, lima and and moved overseas. And this is im still incredulous about this. Families in this country at the same time in this state of virginia, just a few miles from here, are getting letters in the mail saying their kids are about to be kicked off of their Health Insurance through something that was bipartisan and never interrupted for 20 years since chairman hatch and senator rockefeller and senator kennedy wrote this bill to create chip, and a number of us worked on it in the house of representatives because congress hasnt done its job. Think about that, madam president. Because congress hasnt done its job. Were about to go home for christmas, most of us, and those who dont celebrate christmas are about to go home for the holidays and celebrate the new year. My grandchildren are coming up and another one from the virgin islands, were going home. But members of congress who get good Health Insurance paid for by taxpayers are willing to leave here and not reauthorize, not continue the Childrens Health Insurance Program. And to make it worse, several states, including virginia, ohio is in a little better position because theres a little more money left over to take care of this. Letters are going out to state after state to parents saying, sorry, the Health Insurance for your children is going to expire. The Health Insurance for your children will no longer be there. Imagine youre a parent and you get this letter. Youre vaguely aware that congress is fighting for something, youre vaguely aware that a bunch of politicianings who politicians are just going to turn their backs on you. You dont really think about that. All you know is you tear open this envelope and you find out you start reading this letter and you see, oh, my gosh, the insurance overwhelmingly these parents are working making 8, 10, 15 an hour. They are not working at a job where insurance is provided as part of the compensation that your employers paying you, so thats why the Childrens Health Insurance Program is so important. A new report from the Georgetown University center for children and families report that 1. 9 million children could lose coverage in january. Almost all of them have a mother or father who will open a letter and see, oh, my gosh, the insurance for my daughter, for my son is about to expire. Thats 1. 9 million in january. Another one million will lose insurance by the end of february. Parents will panic, parents will be confused, parents, to be sure, will have their christmas ruined by this. Think about those families getting that letter. It should be a joyful time of year, spending time about the family, but imagine checking the mailbox thinking that it is a Christmas Card and finding that letter. Imagine telling your daughter, santa is not going to bring much this year, we wont have any presents under the tree, and then you have to look into your childrens eyes, you have to look into your sons eyes, you have to look into your daughters eyes, you hope they dont see the worry in your eyes, and now you wonder how you will afford to take her or him to the doctor if he or she gets sick. These are working parents who arent lucky enough to work for a employer who doesnt provide insurance. They are families who have special needs like this child. Crystal and her son noble this is oaivelly noble obviously noble. I met him and his mother and they came all the way from ohio to talk about what chip means to their family. Noble needs three daily therapy sessions and hormones to treat his condition. His medication costs about 1,500 a month. I talked to crystal this month, she and her family is scared about what will happen to them. They said that chip is the difference between living a middleclass lifestyle or living on the poverty line living a middleclass lifestyle or being part of the poverty line. Congress this week over the last several Weeks Congress was busy. Congress had the time to hand out massive tax cuts to the richest americans and the biggest corporations but didnt have time to help these families. Some of you may have been in this chamber a few nights ago when i pointed down the hall to senator mcconnells office, the Senate Republican leader, in describing the lobbyists that went in and out of his office to get the tax breaks, the lobbists from the oil industry, the lobbists walking out of the Leaders Office from the tobacco companies, the lobbists from the big drug companies, the lobbists from wall street going in and out of his office. You know, madam president , when you look down the hall at senator mcconnells office, you know who didnt come out, there was no lobbists for Childrens Health insurance. People like noble dont have lobbists. They are hoping to keep their head above water when their child needs Health Insurance. Chip doesnt have a lobbist. Chip has people like crystal who stands up for her family, who stands up for her children, but she cant come to washington full time. She came here with a delegation from nationwide Childrens Hospital in columbus. Congress had time to hand out these massive tax cuts but they dont have time they dont have time for noble lett. It is a disgrace. It is a program that is bipartisanned, it has always been bipartisan, it was voted out of committee bipartisan, but i guess the right crowd of lobbists havent visited senator mcconnell. We passed a bipartisan chip extension out of finance. Its ready to go. If Republican Leaders put it on the floor today, i assume it will pass with at least 90 votes. There is talk that the house is going to pass a threemonth chip extension. We have never done that. We extended chip one year, two years, three years. They are going to do a threemonth extension. Three months provides no certainty to the states that are running chip, it provides no certainty to crystal lett, it provides no certainty to anybody. States the presiding officers state of alabama are already taking steps to close down the program. I know senator strange doesnt want that to happen. I also know that the Senate Republicans need to talk to their leader to make this happen. States have to give families a heads up to they can do what they can. Maybe some of these parents can find an alternative source of coverage, maybe they will fit in one more doctors appointment before their coverage lapses. Think about that. You get this letter in the mail saying your insurance the insurance for your children is about to expire so what you do do you do . You start dialing the hospital and Doctors Office because you have chip coverage for another month or five weeks and you start to schedule any possible appointment you can, Christmas Season notwithstanding. This makes the situation more complicated. This body can pass massive permanent tax cuts, but they cant give families certainty i know the tax cuts were permanent for corporations, and i know theyre temporary for individual people in this country. Of course, this congress, this special interestcontrolled as it is, of course they take care of corporations first, but it would be nice if they gave some certainty to these childrens families. I want my colleagues to explain to the crystal letzs in your state, because every state has thousands and thousands of concerned parents that dont know what to do about the expiration of this. My state has 209,000 children who rely on this program. Senator hatch said last month were going to get it done. Now were hearing senator mcconnell is only going to let us vote on a threemonth extension. Only, mr. President , its about whose side are you on . Do we work for corporations that send our jobs overseas or do we work for families like crystal lett and her son noble . Do we work for families who might wake up on Christmas Morning without Health Insurance . I guess the answer is pretty clear. Most people in this body are working for large corporations that are getting huge tax cuts that send their jobs overseas, and theyre turning their backs on Christmas Morning on those families that need us to just simply do our jobs and pass this extension of the Childrens Health Insurance Program. Mr. President , i i note i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , yesterday, President Trump and Congressional Republicans went to the white house to celebrate the passage of tax legislation that was partisan, that was rammed through the Senate Earlier this week, without one public hearing. Now, debate on this senate bill, debate on this bill in the senate is over, but i think we must not lose sight of the impact this legislation will have on so many families and on our economy, because make no mistake, this tax bill is not tax reform. Instead of that, middleclass families and future generations to foot the bill for massive tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthy by adding over 1 trillion to the National Debt, this tax plan will undermine our ability to address so many of the real challenges that face this country and middleclass families in america. Indeed, republicans have already made clear that this tax bill is just step number one. What we have already heard from members of the house is that step number two is going to be next year, and that includes deep cuts to social security, to medicare, and to medicaid. They are saying were going to have to do that to address the deficits that have been made far worse by this bill. Now, meanwhile, the majoritys headlong rush to ram through this tax bill has meant they have jeopardized access to health care for tens of millions of americans. My colleague from ohio just talked about so many families in his state that are worried about losing the Childrens Health insurance. Were seeing that in New Hampshire as well and across this country. By considering only stopgap, shortterm reauthorizations of Critical Health care programs. Fear and uncertainty has been created for countless american families. Because the congress has failed to enact a longterm reauthorization of the Childrens Health Insurance Program, we have Health Coverage for nearly nine million children across the United States that is at risk. Congress has failed to enact a longterm reauthorization of the Community Health centers, which more than 25 million americans rely on for essential health care. And according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, the tax bills repeal of the individual mandate means that nearly 13 million fewer americans will have Health Coverage in the next year, and many millions more are going to pay increases in their rates. Now, in addition, the majority has also failed to enact a longterm reauthorization of the special Diabetes Program, and that is a devastating blow to nearly 1. 25 million americans who are living with type one diabetes. All of these programs have earned strong bipartisan support. Thats whats so hard to understand about this. All of these programs should have been fully reauthorized for the long term because i know my colleagues in the Senate Support these programs. But once and once again, we have missed a prime opportunity to address the Opioid Crisis. We desperately need a federal response to the Opioid Epidemic that includes robust, sustained resources that match the scale of this epidemic. Just this week, we learned from the centers for Disease Control and prevention, the c. D. C. , that because of soaring overdose mortality rates, Life Expectancy in the United States has declined for the second year in a row. For the First Time Since the early 1960s, we have seen the second year of decline in Life Expectancy because so many people are overdosing because of Substance Use disorders. 63,000 people died from overdoses in 2016. 63,000. If we were losing that many people to a war in the middle east, there would be an outcry in this country. I want to know where the outcry is, and when is this body going to act . On tuesday, the university of New Hampshire released a study that cited a fivefold increase over the past decade in our state of babies that were born addicted because of their parents Substance Use disorders. And yet, in the face of this uncontrolled national Public Health emergency, the majority has once again failed to find appropriate funding. And again, this is an issue that i know has bipartisan support. I have worked with my colleagues here on the other side of the aisle to try and address this issue. And yet, it has not been a priority, just like funding the Childrens Health insurance and the Community Health centers, and other health care initiatives, the special Diabetes Program have not been a priority for funding. This is an enormous lost opportunity. We could have written Bipartisan Legislation to address all of these issues, and we could have fully authorized in a timely manner Critical Health programs that tens of millions of americans rely on. We could have addressed the opioid emergency which is ravaging communities across this country. But instead, what did we get . We got a tax bill that makes a mockery of reform. It makes the tax code more complex, not less. It will grow the deficits and our National Debt, and instead of helping the middle class and reducing the complexity of our outdated tax code, it creates a bonanza of new loopholes for the large corporations and the wealthiest in this country. Now, the majority here in the senate had no problem coming up with 1. 5 trillion in unpaidfor tax cuts for the biggest corporations in this country, and in the final days before passing the tax bill, they had no problem creating a new 700 million loophole for oil and gas partnerships that will benefit oil giants like shell and valero. They had no problem creating a new loophole for wealthy individuals with large real estate holdings, a loophole thats been described as a jackpot for the trump family and for several members of congress. They had no problem retaining the carried interest loophole at a cost to the treasury of 20 billion. I remember during the campaign when candidate donald trump railed against the carried interest loophole as a giveaway to wall street that was unfair to american workers. Again and again, candidate trump promised to kill this loophole, but President Trump now enthusiastically supports keeping it in the tax bill. Well, yesterday at the white house, Republican Leaders and President Trump celebrated the tax bill, while at the same time many in the Majority Party insist that the federal government cant afford to help nine million children who depend on the chip program and tens of millions of working americans who rely on Community Health centers or the Affordable Care act for access to health care. Well, according to a study by the bipartisan joint committee on taxation released this week, by the time many of the provisions of this tax bill expire in 2027, large corporations and the wealthiest americans will continue to enjoy the massive permanent tax cuts because those cuts are not set to expire, but almost every income group below 75,000 will see tax increases by 2027. Make no mistake. This tax bill is a betrayal of middleclass americans, and it is especially a betrayal of tens of millions of americans who place their faith in who placed their faith in President Trump. This tax bill is also a case of sadly misplaced priorities. The majority in congress have been single mindedly focused on passing this bill at every step, adding more and more giveaways to large corporations instead of producing across the aisle to focus on the needs of the middle class. And meanwhile, they have shortchanged the Childrens Health Insurance Program, they have shortchanged Community Health centers, and they have shortchanged the special Diabetes Program. They have caused hospitals and clinics across my state and across america to begin the process of reducing their services. This really demonstrates a lack of understanding and a total disregard for the needs and priorities of so many americans. Well, yesterday, Republican Leaders and the president celebrated the passage of their misguided tax bill. But senators who care deeply about regular order and bipartisanship in this body are not celebrating. Americans concerned about our National Debt and our childrens future are not celebrating. Americans who see growing income equality as a threat to our democracy, a threat made far worse by this tax bill, theyre not celebrating either. And parents of the nine million children who rely on the Childrens Health Insurance Program, theyre dreading notifications from their states that their children will no longer have Health Insurance. These families arent celebrating during this Holiday Season either. Now, as i said earlier, the debate on this bill is over, but i intend to continue to speak out against this very damaging tax legislation, and i pledge to continue to speak out in support of the real needs of working people across america, including the need for Affordable Health care, and in the new year ahead, i certainly hope to be able to work with senators on both sides of the aisle to address these urgent needs. The American People deserve better than this legislation. They also deserve a senate that values bipartisanship, that values cooperation and compromise in the service of all americans, not just the largest corporations and the wealthiest in this country. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from utah is recognized. Mr. Hatch thank you. Mr. President , id like to take a moment to discuss the Childrens Health Insurance Program, or chip. As we all know, the authorization for chip expired at the end of september. Since that time, states have been utilizing their reserve funds in order to cover the Health Care Needs of kids, and for a number of states, those funds are due to run out in the near future. There have been a number of claims from our friends on the other side and some of our allies in the media, the republicans have ignored the chip program, or that we dont intend to reauthorize it or that we supposedly placed a higher priority on tax cuts for the rich than on providing for Health Insurance for needy children. Thats just ridiculous, and they know it. It gets a little old sometimes when the stupid politics are being played by the other side. I am both the original author of chip, and i currently chair the committee with jurisdiction over the program. Nobody should doubt my commitment to continuing the chip program. For two decades now, i have been a supporter of chip and have worked with members of both parties to keep it moving forward and functioning properly, even in times when my democratic colleagues have pursued a more divisive approach with the program. That commitment continues to this day. On october 4, the Senate Finance committee unanimously reported a bipartisan bill that would reauthorize chip for five years. In my screw, a longterm reauthorization is essential so that states including my home state of utah can plan well into the future and the families that benefit from chip can be sure that coverage for their needy children wont just disappear. It appears that the yearend continuing resolution could include a shortterm reauthorization for chip. Thats far from ideal and as the leading advocate for this program, i have no desire to see it become subject to repeated shortterm fixes and constantly looming deadlines. Mr. President , i intend to continue working with senator wyden and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both the senate and the house to enact the kids act in a fiscally responsible manner as soon as possible. Doing so is essential to providing certainty for families and states. I ask unanimous consent that the next portion of my remarks be placed in a separate part of the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Hatch thank you, mr. President. With this weeks passage of the tax cuts and jobs act, many throughout the country are rightly celebrating the first substantive reform of our nations tax code in more than three decades. While the popular narratives surrounding this bill has been that congress has moved quickly to pass this legislation, i dont think anyone who has worked on tax reform over the last several years would agree with that assessment. This weeks success was made possible by years of hard work and the efforts of countless policymakers, expert, advocates, and public servants. Over the last several years, ive come to the floor on many occasions to advocate for tax reform. And im grad today to be able to rise glad today to be able to rise and ak none the efforts of acknowledge the efforts of many people whose work made the historic occasion possible. First, id like to thank those members who went before us, former chairman kemp, grassley, and baucus, spent the better part of the decade laying the groundwork for this effort. I also want to thank senator wyden who along with chairman bachus worked with me on the finance committee over the past several weeks as we produced reports and options papers, convened bipartisan working groups and held more than 70 hearings to discuss tax policy. While i have been disappointed that my democratic colleagues have opted to not participate in this years efforts to produce this particular bill, they definitely contributed to this knowledge and policy base. We work base we worked from to put our legislation together. For years ive reiterated the importance of president ial leadership when it comes to tax reform. I am grateful that President Trump has been willing to engage with congress on this issue and to put some political skin into the game in order to move us forward. From the outset of this administration, secretary mnuchin and director cohn have been actively working to make this success a reality. I want to thank them for their engagement in this effort and the work they and their staffs have put in. From the treasury staff, id like to thank justin, dan, and jay mackey. From the staff of the National Economic council, i need to thank jeremy katz and sharon and from the white house thanks to mark short, amy slonger, andy konig, joseph lye and jim goyer. These staffers from the administration worked for the better part of a year with leaders from both chambers to produce this bill and get it over the finish line. Their success is shared with our colleagues over in the house led by chairman brady and speaker ryan. I thank my colleagues for their hard work and their willingness to find Common Ground when mean believed it was impossible to do so. From the ways and means staff, i want to thank david stuart, matt wittenger, allison, rick, and paul longlee. Paul oney with special thanks owed to the committee for tax staff. Brash angus, herring friedman, john seendel, victoria glover, john, rangdzy garton, aaron judge, donald schneider, daniel dubois, katherine chockmock and lauren pounds. From the speakers officer i want to thank jonathan burkes, austin, george kallis, Derek Dockery and josh altos and from the House Majority whips office i need to thank both marty riser and kelly hudak. Of course here in the senate weve been ably led by the majority leader. I want to thank senator mcconnell for his commitment to get this done and for his leadership throughout this entire endeavor. And from the leaders staff, i want to thank sharon, brendan dunford, antonio, hazen marshal, erica suarez, terry van doren, dawn stuart and jane lee. Joining senator mcconnell always has been our majority whip i thank senator cornyn for his efforts, shoring up support and addressing members concerns from the beginning of this process up until final passage of the conference report. From the whip staff i want to thank monica popp and sam beaver. Of course, when it came time to draft the senates tax reform legislation, most of the real work was done in the finance committee. The Committee Bill was truly a shared product that included the input and addressed the interests of every majority member on our dais. Without their work we wouldnt have had a bill and without their commitment seeing this through, we wouldnt have gotten to where we were. I want to thank senators grassley, crapo, robert, enzi, thune, burr, isakson, portman, toomey, heller, scott, and cassidy for the months of work that they put into producing and passing this legislation. I also need to thank their staffs who up until this week hadnt slept in months. My thanks also goes out to the tax staffers on the committee namely chris allen, joseph bodiker, chris conman, shay hawkins, randy hearn nan, monica mcgier, mike, zachary rudacel, andrew syracuse, derek therer and mark warren. Thanks to the committees legislative directors charles cogra, ken flanz, chris gillett, brad, amber hoffer, kurt kavarik, jess can mcbride, sarah paul, landon strocco, jay salsman, Steven Towson and christopher. When democrats signaled signaled their refusal to meet on tax reform, we knew we needed a well crafted budget resolution to get tax reform passed. I need to thank my good friend chairman enzi and the Budget Committee for their work which made a seemingly mundane and tedious process look easy. From the Budget Committee staff, i want to thank joe bri ni kle, jim, betsy, matt, paul, becky cole, eric yuleland, steve towson, jeremy, and thomas fuller. Once we had a resolution, we had to hold a markup. In the finance committee, that can be a challenging process, particularly on a bill this big and complex. Thankfully weve been ably served by a professional staff who helped us through that whole process, namely joshua, jewel harper, joe, mark blare, anthena, susannah, eliza smith, tim, and michael pinkerton. The joint committee on taxation was also critical throughout the Committee Process as well as when we moved the bill on to the floor. They worked countless hours doing work that often just made everybody made at one point or another. There is is an often thankless but really critical job. And im grateful for their dedication and ernestness, specifically i need to thank tom bartoll and his team for making sure both parties in the house and the senate were getting all of the information we needed. At times under challenging time constraints. Tom does a terrific job for the senate and i personally appreciate him and value him as a friend. After moving the mark through the committee, we relied on assistance from the Senate Legislative Councils Office counsels office to put together the legislative text. That was a critical step. We could not have done it without mark, jim francin and their team. As we began to prep the bill for the floor, we spent countless hours debating different provisions before the parliamentarian. This process can be difficult and i want to offer my thanks to our parliamentarians, elizabeth mcdon that and Elizabeth Macdonough and her team for the hours. As the bill neared its final phase, we were grateful to be able to work with senator murkowski on the second title of the bill. As we moved to conference committee, senator murkowskis counterparts in the house also played an instrumental role in helping finalize this legislation. And of course there are those who work hard to make sure things go smoothly here on the floor. I want to thank the majority floor staff for their assistance, particularly laura dove, robert duncan, and megan mercer. Like i said, mr. President , this has been a long process and throughout this entire venture, i have had the benefits of working with a skilled and committed staff. My staff have sacrificed time, energy, sleep, and in some cases likely their physical and Mental Health to the passage of this bill. It has been an incredible effort, and i need to thank all of them. I want to single out my chief tax counsel mike. We could not have done mark. We could not have done any of this without mark. And also thank jay who has been the tip of the sphere managing the outgoing issues with apparent ease. I also want to thank his assistant jason stigmire for helping keep jay from forgetting the important details, like remembering to eat lunch. I want to thank my entire tax staff jennifer, tony, christopher hanna, alex moony, eric olemman, marty, Preston Rutledge and nick wyatt. I need to thank the members of my senior team, matt, jennifer, chris armstrong, brian hickman, and shane warren. And thank you to my Communications Staff on the committee, katie, nicole hager and joshua bloom. I also want to thank a couple of former finance Committee Staff members, specifically chris campbell, my former staff director who helped set the stage for this entire effort and jim, my tax counsel who passed away last year much to the sorrow of all of us. He spent years working on tax reform and i know we all wish he could have been here to celebrate with us this week. From my personal office staff, i want to thank my legislative assistant James Williams and matt sagron, my chief of staff. There are many more people who deserve thanks this week, far too many to mention at this time. They are not forgotten, though, believe me. Weve done a good thing here this week, mr. President. This is truly a historic success. Some of our colleagues on the other side last night said that the American People will remember what happened here this week. To that all i can say is i hope they do. This new tax law will do a lot of good for a great number of people throughout our country and im hup balance humble to have been a part of the event and efforts of so many people who were willing to get this thing done for the American People. Im grateful to my staff. Im grateful to the staffs of other senators on the committee. Im grateful for everybody on the finance committee and for the efforts theyve put forward, the good efforts theyve put forward. And im really grateful that i serve in the United States senate, the greatest deliberative body in the world. And this is a perfect illustration of why. Im very grateful to be able to stand on this floor and show my complete devotion to this wonderful government, to both sides of the floor, to democrats and republicans alike, im grateful. Im grateful that we have this constitution to guide us. Im grateful that for the most part weve abided by it. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford maybe youve heard me discuss in public and in private conversations over the past year i believe the senate is moving gridlock from here on this capitol hill all across the city and across the nation. The reason for that is how we do nominations and the length of time on nominations. Heres how it works. As this body knows extremely well, we have over 1,000 nominees that come from the president. The first year of a new presidency, a vast amount of time is spent in getting those 1,000 people through the nomination process. Each one of those is selected by the white house. They do their own vetting and then they send them over to the senate. The senate has the constitutional responsibility for advice and consent. When they come to the senate theyll go through background checks and evaluations, conversations with staff on both sides of the aisle, then come to the committee. Theyll go through a Committee Process and a hearing. Theyre voted on in that time period and then they move to the floor. When they move to the floor for debate, typically for most of the years of the senate, they have already gone through the Committee Process. Every member of the senate has the opportunity to be able to take a look at their information and then they move through with a simple majority vote. Thats the way that its moved for most of the history of the senate. A few years ago, 20 or so, some individual senators started asking for cloture votes. Those cloture votes started to slow the process down on about three or four nominations a year. And then it became nine or so nominations a a year. And then it moved to as crazy of a number as 13 or so a year of the 1,000 or so moving through. That became such a nuisance that in 2013, my democratic colleagues called for something they call the Nuclear Option, to say well just take nominations not from 60 required to be able to get to cloture, but just to 51. Theres a lot of debate and internal conversation about that because republicans, quite frankly, were holding up 15 or so nominations a year in the cloture process. So there was a big debate about that. In the beginning of president obamas second term, republicans and democrats came together, and they changed the rules of the senate for two years. And said, okay, truce. The simple rule of the senate was for any cloture vote, if there was one called for, again typically youd never call for one, but if there was one called for it would be two hours of debate for a District Court judge, eight hours of debate for most nominees, and 30 hours of debate for Supreme Court, Circuit Court or cabinet level. Again even harry reid when he stood on the floor said this would be only, his words, extraordinary circumstances. You should ask for a cloture vote at all. But if they were asked for, it would be two hours, eight hours or 30 hours. Prior to that, all nominations were 30 hours of debate. Literally taking up an entire day to move one person, knowing that you have to move 1,000. Then a few months later after that, still in 2013, democrats still frustrated that republicans were calling on some cloture votes still, moved to have the Nuclear Option entirely in Just Transition all nominations except for Supreme Court to just 51. Now they had the rule of expediting 2 hours, 8 hours and 30 hours and the ability to move them all with just 51 votes. Quite frankly, if youre going to change the rule to 51 votes, you probably need to change the cloture rule as well. They just did it in reverse. Changed the rule for how many hours it would take and then later changed the rule for how many people it takes to go through the process. Now whats happened . Remember i argued that we had 13, 14, 15 people held up in cloture in a year. This year so far there have been 64 nominations held up in a cloture vote. That is 64 days in the senate we could do nothing else but sit here in waiting. Now it wasnt for debate. It may sound like its being held for 30 hours of debate during that time period. Debate normally didnt happen. Most of the time this chamber was just empty. It was just 340 hours were demanded to 30 hours were demanded to shut down the body as a whole, 64 in this year. What has brought us . Its brought us more animosity. Its brought us more division and more frustration. My democratic colleagues a few years ago were screaming that we should have the Nuclear Option because republicans were so irrational with 15 cloture votes. Weve watched 64 occur this year earlier this week i sat down with the rules committee and brought a very simple option to everyone. Democrats and republicans alike, and we had a great turnout to be able to just talk through the process. My simple presentation was lets take the rule that was agreed to in 2013, that harry reid and the democrats brought at the beginning of the second term of president obama and said lets have the rule for each nomination, two hours, eight hours, and thirty hours.  lets move back to the tradition that harry reid had. That was to say lets make cloture votes only extraordinary on a nomination if needed at all. But if they are, two hours, eight hours, or thirty hours. To do the exact same thing now is what was agreed on in 2013 and 2014. By the way, republicans joined with democrats during that time period and passed that new rule which would put us at disadvantage with 78 votes. I dont think its too much to ask, to say if were going to get the senate back to work again, lets actually get back to work again. Lets put us in a process that actually gets there. What happens in the meantime when that does not occur . Ill tell you what happens. In the meantime, weve got agencies all over this town that cant answer a question because the bureaucrats are waiting on a Senate Confirmed individual to be able to lead that, to be the secretary, under secretary, deputy secretary, whatever the task may be, the counsel for that particular agency. So they sit and wait. So our constituents that are trying to get a permit in certain places or trying to get an answer or trying to get disaster relief, all that they can say in the office is we cant do that until we get a Senate Confirmed position in this place, but we cant get Senate Confirmed positions in place until my democratic colleagues will actually allow individuals to actually come up and be debated on. What else happens . The other thing that happens is we cant do legislation in this body. We can only do nominations. With 1,000 different positions that are open typically they move through rather quickly and they move through the process. But when 64 days are held up just for that, during that time period you cant do anything else but sit and go through whats called the cloture 30 hours. You cant bring up other legislation. Then what happens . Well, then my democratic colleagues come to the floor and say we havent had a single debate in this body on chip. We havent had debate on infrastructure. We havent had debate on all these things. Why wont we move a bill on all these things . At the same time they know its because they blocked the floor to be able to move legislation because of continual cloture votes over and over and over. Its a bizarre game that doesnt lead to solutions. It leads to greater animosity. Its the same frustration that has existed for awhile. Its just getting louder. At some point we have to put in a process and say how do we get out of this . How do we fix this . I think the best way to be able to fix this is take a bipartisan solution that was agreed on to before when democrats were in the lead and to agree to it now and say thats going to be the permanent rule. Just to be able to move a set of ideas. In what is historically called the greatest deliberative body in the world wouldnt it be nice to get back to deliberating again, spending time on more legislation rather than more time arguing about why arent we debating it when everyone secretly knows the reason is because we cant get to the floor. I do grow tired. I grow tired of hearing all the political statements and accusations. Republicans hate children. They want to throw them out. They dont want them to have health care. They hate people of color. Theyre trying to exclude people from voting. Theyre trying to keep people from having tax. They only care about the wealthy. Its just over and over and over when at the same time the undercurrent is out there to block all legislation and to keep anything from being discussed on the floor. Its an interesting strategy to paint your ,quoteunquote, enemy, it doesnt help the country. Intentionally divisive without a solution. In 2001, the first year of a new president there were 51 nominations pending that first year. Theres an interesting thing in the senate rules. The wonderful rule 31 that no ones harder of that at the end of this year any nominations that are still out there can be automatically thrown back to the white house and they have to start all over again. They have to renominate, have to go through the whole process, have to go through committees. But at the end of the first year, president bush there were a 51 nominations sitting there at the end of this year, 49 of them this body said unanimous consent well hold them over. We dont have to send them all the way back to the president. In 2009, in president obamas first term, there were 72 votes. 64 of those, this body, every republican and democrat together just agreed lets leave them here. Lets not make them go through the whole process again. That would be absurd. As of now we have 122 pending at the end of President Trumps first year. Ill be interested to know when republicans give democrats unanimous consent to be able to maintain their nominations in the past, what happens now. Will this be yet another sign of just pure politics rather than actually helping the country get stuff done . I look forward to the day we can work through solutions, not just argue and banter back and forth on political statements. Were going to get stuff solved. Lets not pretend and play games and put each other down. Lets fix the rules in the Senate Whether it be budget rules that keep us from having real debate, the rules in the senate that keep us from actually working rather than allow us to actually do work. The rules of the senate and the process in the senate is determined by the senators. So we alone are to blame when the senates not working. Theres no finger pointing, theres no its that party. Theres no its that person. Its all of us. So my recommendation is simple. Lets fix it. Lets resolve the issue. Lets do the right thing the right way. With that, mr. President , i why of. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from colorado. Mr. Bennet this was not the topic of what i was going to talk about and ill come to that in a minute. While the senator from oklahoma was here i thought i would respond to what he was saying not on the merits of his particular proposal because i havent had a chance to study that yet. But to his plea that this place should start to work again, i couldnt agree more with that sentiment. The Founding Fathers were very deliberate people, and they understood that in an exercise in selfgovernment in the republic that they were establishing which subsequent generations of americans have made more democratic over time, that we would have disputes. People, you know, these days in our political system, and especially on the Cable Television at night, seem to be astounded that there are people that dont see the world they see the world. The founders knew that by definition if we were going to be a selfgoverning republic, we would have disagreements. And they set out to form an incredibly elegant mechanism to resolve those disputes. It was elegant on the outside of this chamber, freedom of assemble, freedom of religion, the right to vote. And it was eloquent on the inside of this chamber and generations of people that occupied this place understood that the way it was meant to work was not that you always got your way all the time. And that part of being here was not just to have disputes but to resolve disputes. And not even our disputes but disagreements that the country might have for legitimate reason and on average hope that we would move the country forward. And i quite agree that recently, certainly in the time that ive been here, weve been using this place simply to have disputes, not to resolve them. That may be okay if we were in north korea or in the soviet union, the old soviet union. It doesnt work in a democratic republic. And i want to finish a little bit of the history that my friend from oklahoma talked about. After the democrats invoked the Nuclear Option, which i have said before on this floor is the worst vote that i ever took as a senator, the nowmajority leader pocketed that precedent when we changed the rules in the middle and used it, used the Nuclear Option to change the rules so that now a person gets a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, not with 60 votes but with just 51 votes. And my issue with that is that now your party, mr. President , can advance people to the Supreme Court without any reasonable expectation that my party should take responsibility for it or vice versa. Instead of having potential nominees come here and say you should put me on the court because i can attract both democratic and republican votes because i have an open mind, i worry that were going to have people from both sides say were going to have a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees that says either we have to have the most conservative jurist in the country or the most liberal jurist in the country, depending on who it is. We have infected the Supreme Court with the partisanship of this body. So my hope is that we could actually come together on a set of rules changes that would recognize not just that this place may need to move a little faster in the 21st century but that we ought to be pushing people together to work in a bipartisan way on behalf of the country. So without passing on the merits of the proposal, i thank the senator for coming to the floor to talk about to put it in a vernacular how busted this place is. Mr. President , i want to now, if i could, i want to talk about the dreamers. I had the opportunity as i have from the time i was a School Superintendent in denver until now to spend time last weekend or the weekend before in alamosa, a small town in southern colorado with a group of dreamers. And these meetings are usually occasions for people to lay out their dreams for the future in america, the only country that they know and the only country that they love. This meeting was different, and it was like other meetings ive had recently because instead of the hope and selfconfidence that im so used to hearing from young people, what i heard was fear, anxiety, and pain. Everybody in the group that i met the other day came to this country as undocumented immigrants when they were children. Some just months old. None of them made the decision to come here. And they grew up here and they know no other country besides the United States of america. In 2012 they joined 800,000 dreamers who came forward across the country to share their information for temporary legal status under the daca program. Over the past five years, mr. President , many of these dreamers grew into young adults, finishing school, starting families, launching businesses. They went about their lives trusting that our government would keep its word and find a way for them to stay in the only country they know. Then in september President Trump rescinded daca throwing every one of their lives into chaos. During our meeting in alamosa, mr. President , not a Single Person could share their story without breaking into tears. One man, julio, told me about the iphone repair business he opened on main street. Like so many immigrants hes poured himself into that enterprise as an entrepreneur. Thanks to its efforts its not only turning a profit, its providing a service to the community, supporting his family. Now all of that is in jeopardy. As i say, julio toonts tell couldnt tell his story without starting to cry. When he turned to his Business Partner who is also there to help, his partner began crying, too. Versions of that played out agaiagain and again in our meets and the meetings ive been having here in d. C. As dreamers take the risk to travel to washington to share their story. Honest dream after honest dream being crushed by uncertainty. Young people trembling in fear. You know, you hear a lot around this place about how, oh, we dont have to act til the last moment. Oh, we dont have to act until march 5. Its not true. There are so many children and young people and young adults in my state that are losing their status as we sit here unable to accomplish something that everybody seems to say they want to accomplish. The president says he wants to accomplish it. The speaker says he wants to accomplish it. The senators on both sides say they want to accomplish it. We have created this crisis that President Trump set off when he rescinded daca. And this isnt just affecting dreamers, although that ought to be enough for us to do the job that were supposed to do for years. Farmers and ranchers have told us they need workers with clear legal status. Undocumented workers have told us they face exploitation without legal resource. Families have told us they fear being split apart and sent to places they hardly know. And today, this week those fears were confirmed again as we lost another father from colorado. Just last week we had a family torn apart in colorado, milassio. Came to america in 1998 as an undocumented immigrant. Undesolo is his last name. The last 19 years he paid taxes in america. Hes raised four children in america. Hes followed the rules. Then on friday he was deported. Now its unclear whether hell ever see his daughter walk across the stage for her College Graduation next spring at yale in new haven. Its unclear how hell be able to support his four kids because of the choices we have made in washington, the lives of everyone in that family have been spun into chaos like so many other families across the country. For years stories like this have demanded action. Thats why the senator from illinois whos here today, senator durbin, has led this charge for so many years standing on the floor with photos of the dreamers from his state and across the United States. Its the reason that i was so honored to have the chance to work with him and six others of our colleagues back in 2013, the socalled gang of eight, a group of four democrats and four republicans. I was just talking with my friend from oklahoma about how this place doesnt work. That was an instance when it worked. We came together to write a bipartisan proposal for Immigration Reform. And over the course of eight months, we worked through a process that i think would make every american proud for once in washington. Both sides sitting down to solve problems. And the result was a great piece of legislation. Our bill had more funding for border security, not just a wall but smart and effective border security. It had more funding for internal security. It had a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people who are here, including all of the dreamers. Part of that bill had the most progressive dream act that was ever written that got 68 votes on the floor of the senate. Not everyone got what they wanted as i just said to the senator from oklahoma in a different context. Its unreasonable to expect that here. Each side had to give but the result was a great vote that got almost 70 votes in the senate at a time when you cant pass anything through the senate. And for the first time in a generation, we had a real opportunity to resolve our differences on immigration. But as so often is the case in washington, politics got in the way. And the house Republican Leaders denied our bill, a simple upordown vote which would have passed. They prefer to keep immigration alive as a political weapon, to divide the American People and distract from the real challenges in our economy. By the way, the senator from illinois will remember this, we heard a lot of stretching this week about how much Economic Growth this tax bill was going to create. 6 here. 1 over there. The c. B. O. Estimate on the gang of eight immigration bill was by bringing people out of the shadows and putting them into the position to contribute legally to the economy, it would have added 3 Percentage Points to our g. D. P. , to our nations economy over the first ten years and five incremental points over the second ten years. That would have been a useful thing to do for our economy. But as a rut of what happened or didnt happen in the house, the rhetoric around immigration has just become more toxic, ever more dwielsive, ever divisive, ever more unrecognizable in america, a nation that has inarguably been made great by immigrants. As i said, there are a lot of economists that are awfully skeptical about the economic claims that have been made about this tax bill. And i think if you look at what happened in 2001 and 2003 when they tried to do it before, we all know how that story is going to end. But on the other hand, nearly every expert agrees that forcing out the dreamers would hurt our economy. The Cato Institute found that removing the dreamers would stunt Economic Growth by 280 billion. Another study found comprehensive Immigration Reform as i mentioned would grow the economy by 1. 5 trillion over ten years and support nearly a million new jobs. Despite these facts, theres been a lot of talk around here about how immigrants detract from america or how they somehow leech off the system and lack our values. Those claims are then used to justify actions like canceling daca. It would be hard for me to believe that anybody making a claim like that would have ever sat down with a dreamer. Daniela gomez castro came to colorado when she was just a year old. As a child daniela looked up to her grandmother, one of the few women doctors in her area, and dreamed of following her into medicine. She took classes in biology and excelled in other Public Schools graduating from Smoky Hill High School in 2015. To become a doctor she knew college was the next step. So she enrolled at the university of colorado denver as a premed major. She worked as a nurses assistant, restaurant hostess and student mentor to help cover tuition. Everything was on track. Then last year she learned that her legal status meant she couldnt get a medical license. After working so hard for so long, her dream is now frozen in place by forces in washington that are totally beyond her control. Today america, especially places like rural colorado, are desperate for physicians. The association of american medical colleges predicts that by 2030, well have a shortage of up to 100,000 doctors nationwide. As i said, were feeling that shortage right now in rural colorado. We dont have enough clinics and treatment centers, even as we face an epidemic of opioid addiction. Two of our counties dont have a single doctor. And a lot of our Rural Counties have no primary care doctor or nurse. Given that, it doesnt seem to me to make any sense that we should send daniela back to a place she doesnt remember, doesnt call her home, emily when we need her here. That obviously would be cruel but my point is, it would also be incredibly shortsighted. Apalanar garcia came here when he was a year old. His family made their way to greeley, colorado. He thrived in school and joined the junior rotc program where he excelled as a cadet. He relished the rotcs sensitive community, selfdiscipline and community. After graduating from high school he wanted to enlist in the United States marine corps. He filled out the paperwork and waited, but when the reply came, he was crushed becaus. Because of his legal status, the marines couldnt accept him. We should think of that. Of all the paths available to a bright young person like apalanar, he wanted to serve the country in uniform. You dont feel called to serve a place you dont consider home. Youre not called to serve a place where there are values you dont share, to defend a community that is not your own. His choice flies in the face of every specious attack weve heard against immigrants in this debate. He doesnt detract from america. Apalanar wants to defend america. Daniela wants to treat sick americans. Julio wants to create jobs for americans. They join 800,000 dreamers who for years have invested in america by paying taxes, starting businesses, serving their communities. And for years america has invested in them by educating them, by training them, and instilling them the confidence and love of country we hope for each new generation of americans. It is unimaginable now that we wouldnt find a way to resolve their status. And we cant avoid this any longer. The senate and the house are so good at putting off what they should have done last week or last month or last year. This is not one of those cases anymore, mr. President. Each day we do nothing, 112 people are deported. Over 12,000 people have been deported since september. Every one of these represent families torn apart, businesses that are shuttered, payrolls that arent made, educations interrupted, dreams shattered. Mr. President , in the end our most basic job is to look out for the next generation of americans. And instead of looking after them, we spent an entire year trampling over them. Lets review the record. With the dreamers weve ran somed their ransomed their future for publics. With the backtracking on climate change, we made their future more dangerous and costly. With the failure to reauthorize chip, we have jeopardized, among others, 90,000 kids in colorado who may Lose Health Care if we dont act. And now with the tax bill we have handed another 1. 4 trillion in debt whose futures were not investing in because we say we cant afford to do it. By rebuilding our roads, by improving our schools, or spurring innovation, instead we have taken a bet on trickledown economics at a time when we already have a substantial budget deficit. And thats what brings us here at at the end of the year, once again, not having done our work and passing something called a continuing res. Hiewtion, a resolution, a temporary budget that doesnt reflect the priorities of the American People. And in that mix the dreamers find themselves caught up in a political discussion without any assurance that it will be resolved. The good news is i know there are republican colleagues here as well as democrats who want a solution for the dreamers, and they see in these young people all the qualities we cherish as americans, family, community, and patriotism. I would just say as we get ready to leave here that i think we shouldnt leave here today. I think we should commit this this issue with our dreamers. This should be our number one priority together to figure out how to get this done so we dont have inadvertent casualties that occur. After a while, something inadvertent has to be add vert enter because advertent, it leads you to believe something should have happened. We need to stop the brinkmanship and bipartisanship and Work Together and know that the future will be here their future will be here in the United States where we need them and the only country that they know. With that, i thank my colleagues for their indulgence and yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin i thank my colleague from colorado. We have been engaged in this battle for the dreamers. He is a worthy ally. Hes always looking for a solution. Thank you for your continuing commitment to this cause. In the midst of the civil war president Abraham Lincoln was so frustrated with general mccullum, he wouldnt attack or do anything. He said, general mccullum, if youre not going to use your army, can i use it . Can i borrow your army . I say to the house, if youre not going to use your congress, can i borrow it . Can we have a debate over a real bill to solve a real problem . I think that might be a worthy thing for us to do. In fact, i think thats what were paid to do. Department we swear to uphold this constitution . Didnt we take this historic job on with the goal of making america a better place . So september 5, President Trump, along with attorney general sessions eliminated the daca pravment this is a program that program. This is a program that gave to almost 800,000 young people, brought to the United States when they were little kids, a chance to go to school, to work, to have a future in this country. They had to go through a criminal background check, turn over all their information, pay their taxes, all the above, and for two years they could operate in america. They werent citizens, but they were legally in america. And so on september 5, senator trump and attorney general sessions said, its over. As of march 5, 2018, no more. And then the president said, i challenge you, congress, do something about it. Pass a law. Thats about four months ago. What have we done in four months that affects the lives of 800,000 dacaprotected young people . Nothing. Nothing. Were not using this congress. General mccullum wasnt using the army. Isnt it time that we do something . Wouldnt the American People be so pleasantly surprised if we did something on a bipartisan basis that solved a problem in america. I know my republican colleagues are euphoric over the tax bill. Two out of threef americans arent three americans arent. They passed it on a strictly partisan basis. They had a right to do it that way. This cannot be done on a strictly partisan basis. You cant fix the immigration system unless both Political Parties are part of the solution. Im lucky, i care about this and i found republicans who care as much. Jeff flake of arizona announced his retirement. Im sorry to see him good. Hes a good wern person with good values. He sponsored the dream act that were talking about here. I didnt have to call him on the phone. I thanked him. He said its the right thing to do. Lindsey graham is my cosponsor, republican from south carolina, and Lisa Murkowski of alaska said it is the right thing to do to have these dreamers earn their way to citizenship. I thank them for that. We need eight more. If we have eight more, well have 12 republicans out of the 52 and well be ready to put 06 votes up 60 votes up. And request 60 votes you can get things done. What has happened . What opportunities have we head in the had in the almost four months since the president eliminated this program . Not one. Senator mcconnell said to senator flake when his vote on the tax bill was in doubt, i promise you that well bring this up in january this coming january. Well, i can tell you that i read the promise very closely, and there are a lot of contingencies on there. I hope that are senator mcconnell is going to give us our chance early in january to find out if we can come up with a bipartisan solution to this problem. And if you think that there arent other republicans who support this, 34 republicans in the house of representatives sent a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan and said, pass the dreamer legislation this year. 34 republicans. So were not alone. And they are not the only ones. 11 governors yesterday, republicans and democrats, sent a letter to Congress Calling on us to do this. The letter is signed by republican governors from nevada, massachusetts, vermont and utah and alaskas independent governor. Were hearing from the business community. They want this done. Theyve seen these dreamers. Theyve seen these young people. They believe in them. And they want us to do something to help them. Weve heard it from the labor organizations, weve heard it from the faith organizations. Across the board, 76 of the American People support what we are trying to do here. 76 . How many issues get 76 snrn the flag 76 . The flag. Not many others. Including trump voters. They think it is the right thing to do. When you come to know them and hear their story, you come to the conclusion, at least i do, for goodness sakes, these are extraordinary young people. They have survived and flourished in a country that doesnt recognize them as legal. They went to our schools, they pledged allegiance to our flag and sang the National Anthem and thats the country they know. Let me tell you about one before i turn the floor over to my colleague from maryland. This is miriam gonzalez. She is the 105th dreamer i have talked about on the floor. She was six when she came here and grew up in los angeles. She was a member of the bible club, chemistry club. She was an active volunteer in her community including assisting in teaching at the local elementary school. Valedictorian, accepted at ucla, majored in anthropology and minored if youre undocumented and go to college in america, you get no federal assistance, no pell grant, no federal loan, so you have to earn the money and work jobs to do it. She did. She held down the jobs necessary, taking Public Transportation two hours each way every school day. She was involved until student groups, mentored students at the high school and encouraged them to go to college. She continued to excel academically, made the deans honor role and awarded a honor roll and awarded a certificate. After graduation she went to work with teach for america. You know what that means . It means taking a job that doesnt pay hardly anything to teach in one of the moss challenging schools in america. She taught seventh and eighth grade students in l. A. She helps students that are having trouble with math and reading. Shes involved in the Schools Parent committee, trying to get the parents of these kids who need their helping hands to excel as well. Shes a fulltime graduate student at Loyola Mary Mount University pursuing a masters degree in education. Heres what she wrote to me. Every day for my two months as a teacher, my students asked me if i would be returning the next day, the next week, then the next month. I would reassure them i was there to stay. Eventually they began to trust me and believe i was going to be there to support them. Now the students believe i am there for them and truly care about helping them prepare to succeed academically. My students have made huge improvements academically. After hearing about the fate of daca shes talking about President Trumps abolishing daca after hearing about the fate of daca, my students were worried they would lose me. I will continue to assure them i am not going anywhere any time soon and i will fight to see them through the finish of the school year. What will happen to her if we dont do what were supposed to do, if we dont use this senate and that house to solve this problem . What will happen to her and her students . Are we so busy . Do you notice it on the floor . Are we so busy that we cant take up a piece of legislation here and debate it and pass it today. Before the end of the day were going to pass a measure to keep the government open and functioning for three or four weeks. Its something that may pass the house. Well find out later this afternoon. Im troubled by it. It doesnt have one word in it to deal with this challenge, and weve known it for four months that it was coming and we had to do it. I will vote no on that. Not because of the merits of the continuing resolution, but until we address this issue and take the time to use the senate and use the house to solve this problem, i am not going to be standing here and saying, im going home for christmas, i dont know whats going to happen to miriam. I dont know whats going to happen to 800,000 others. Get back to you later. Its time for us to know that the time is now for us to solve this problem. Mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Cardin mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Cardin mr. President , i want to thank senator durbin for his extraordinary leadership on this issue and so many others. The dreamers are part of this country. They are americas future. They are helping to build this great nation. And they need our attention now. The republicans control both the house, the senate, and the white house. One of the principal responsibilities is to pass a budget. Were now three months into the fiscal year and we dont have a budget and were talking about another continuing resolution. A couple of weeks ago we were told on the floor, give a couple of more weeks and well work out some of these issues. I agree with senator durbin, the time to act is now. We should not be going into recess without dealing with the flemings of our country problems of our country. We can deal with the budget problems and we certainly need to deal with the problems of the dreamers. Let me talk a little bit about the dreamers because they entered the United States before they were 16 years old. Thats required, before 2007. Under president obamas executive order, they are entitled to a twoyearrenewable work permit. They need to be enrolled in a school, be a High School Graduate or in the u. S. Military, and the United States today we have 800,000 registered under the dreamers. Ten,000 in my state of 10,000 in my state of maryland, contributing half ale billion dollars to maryland half a billion to maryland. They are the next generation of teachers, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs. They are going to help build america and they know no other country but the United States. That is their home. Our values, what makes america the great nation it is is that we are a welcoming country. Were a country in which people have come over the years to build this great nation. Thats americas strength. Are we going to turn our back now on the values that built this country . Are we going to rip families apart . Is that what america stands for . I find that hard to imagine. And would we do this to our own economy . Hurt ourselves as we are growing with their help . I have met with many dreamers. Not as many as senator durbin. I think he probably has the record. But ive met with a lot of dreamers in maryland. We had some dreamers in our Office Yesterday and one had tears in her eyes because she said, i have an Expiration Date on my back. She doesnt know whats going to happen when that date turns up. How would you like to live under that fear in the United States of america . Were not talking about some communist country. Were talking about america, where people are living in fear. Ive had several roundtable discussions with dreamers in maryland. I have had it in college park, ive had it in baltimore, other areas. Let me mention two of the dreamers i met with. Adam who originally was born in canada, his family grew up in pakistan. He came to the United States with his parents when he was very young. And becky who was born in peru, came with her parents here in the United States. I mention them collectively because they both attend College Park University of maryland. Our state allows the dreamers to deal with instate tuition so they can go to college and get the tools they need in order to succeed. They needed work permits because they had to work. Otherwise they would never have been able to get through school. They needed a drivers license. Adam explained to me they needed a drivers license to go to a Magnet School so he could advance his own education. That was all possible through president obamas executive order. And now all that has been put into doubt because of President Trumps announcements that the program will end. It puts their lives on hold, in fear, and they wonder if they need to go into the shadows in the United States of america. President trumps actions were wrong. We can correct that, and Congress Must act. And we must act now before we go home for the holidays. Mr. President , i want to talk about a Similar Group of people in our country, a large number in my state of maryland, those that are under temporary protective status. A similar situation. 430,000 people in america from el salvador, haiti, south sudan, syria, yemen. In maryland, 22,500, el salvador, honduras and haiti, from those three countries alone. 90 of the t. P. S. People in this country are from he will salve, honduras and hate. My own state represents 1. 2 billion of our gross domestic product. This is a very similar situation to the dreamers. They get a 6 to 18month extension. They have been here for decades because of the underlying conditions of the country in which they came from. These conditions still exist today. Ive been to central america. I can tell you its not safe for these people to be, to return to their activities. They have the same similar situation. They know no other country but america. If theyre required to go back to the country in which they were born, it will tear families apart and they have been disadvantaged by the president s actions where hes now threatening to end these programs. We need to act. We need to act in order to protect this group of citizens. I want to quote, i want to acknowledge my colleagues. Weve introduced legislation on this, s. 2144. It provides a pathway for citizenship for those in t. P. S. Status. Sponsored by senator van hollen, senator feinstein and others, the secure act. We should take that bill up and pass it. Yes, lets provide protection. Lets strengthen americans values. Lets do our work. Lets do it now. Lets do it before we go on recess. Its the right thing to do. Let me just conclude by quoting from becky again, one of the dreamers that i met with. She said the best present she ever got was on her 13th birthday when president obama executed the executive order that gave her legal status and hope here in america. Well, now we can give her even better present right now before we take recess for the christmas holiday. We can give her a present of Congress Acting to provide protection for the dreamers and for those who are on t. P. S. So they dont have to worry again. And they know they have a home here in america. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse thank you, mr. President. Im delighted to join my colleagues here in support of these kids who are known as dreamers or daca kids that came in under the statute or under president obamas program and who have lived here for many years in this country, passed all the requirements, met all the standards. These are good kids. Theres absolutely no reason for them to be the target of the kind of anxiety and fear that theyre being put through to score political points. It really doesnt make sense. By definition, these kids came to the United States of america under the age of 16. You cant even enforce a contract against a minor in this country. They do not have the legal capacity in most places to buy a sofa. And yet, were holding them to account for decisions that their parents made when they were small children. One of the Rhode Islanders who will be affected by this came to the United States when she was eight years old. Eight years old. Think of the kind of decisions that your eightyearold kids make or that you were making when you were eight years old. This is a very successful young lady who is now at the brown medical school. Shes going to make enormous contributions to our country. Tossing her out or putting her in peril makes no sense whatsoever, particularly when the original problem started because she was brought to our country by her parents when she was eight years old. Another Rhode Islander who contacted me came to the country when she was seven years old. Shes now a teacher in the middle school in central falls, rhode island. Central falls is a community that is emerging from bankruptcy. Its got its feet back under it now. It has a wonderful, exciting young mayor. Spirits are up. Things are going well. But its not easy to be a middle School Teacher anywhere. And to be a middle School Teacher in a small city thats come out of bankruptcy is not easy. This is a valuable person to rhode island. Losing her adds no value to anyone. Another person who contacted me came at ten months old. At ten months old, they barely even knew where they were. They came from portugal at ten months old. Now he has a College Degree in computer science. Hes ready to make his contribution to our country. Hes done everything right and has played by the rules, and we are loading him up with all this anxiety and peril because of a decision that his parents made when he was ten months old. You cant go out, as i said, and buy a sofa on the installment plan at eight years old, and yet were trying to penalize these kids. It makes no sense at all. It doesnt even make economic sense. The studies that ive seen show that disrupting the lives of these 800,000 dreamer kids, 90 more more than 90 of whom are in the workforce would reduce the u. S. Gross domestic product by 460 billion over the next decade. Theyre making a serious, serious contribution here. In rhode island, in my state, the delta is about 200 million in annual state g. D. P. Between having the dream act passed and losing the daca kids. We would stand to gain as much as 150 million in annual g. D. P. If the dream act passes and ending daca will result in an annual loss of 60 million to our g. D. P. So just in my small state theres 200 million in positive economic result annually from solving this problem in a way that is humane and consistent with the way we treat children in virtually every other element of the law. Sadly, a lot of this is twisted up in the continued fight over immigration which the senate really tried to solve. Im on the Judiciary Committee. Senator durbin was on the Judiciary Committee at the time. We, under chairman leahys leadership, went through hundreds of amendments. We took dozens of votes. Some 90 amendments were incorporated into the bill. And it came out of the Judiciary Committee by a bipartisan vote of 135. It came out of the senate it came on to the senate floor where there were amendments. There actually was some regular order. Hundreds of amendments were considered. And the final bill passed on june 27 by 6832. 6832. And then our Bipartisan Senate bill went over to the house where the speaker of the house refused to even bring it up. No hearing, no vote, no nothing. No nothing. Just froze it out. So theres a long history of why we are here today. But the price should not be paid by these kids. Not when the original problem was something that was done when they were children. Ten months old. President lincoln talked about the better angels of our nature. Lets show these kids the better angels of our nature. Lets do something decent, something bipartisan, something that is right. Lets do it soon. I yield the floor. Mrs. Murray mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from washington state. Mrs. Murray thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , over the years there have been a lot of tough debates on this senate floor from health care to tax reform. Theres no doubt that some days it feels impossible to get the majority of republicans on board with policies that truly help the families we represent. But there is one thing that unites not only a large bipartisan contingent in congress, but also the vast majority of American People. And that is finding a path forward for the estimated 800,000 young men and women whose lives are right now in limbo. 800,000 people, including nearly 17,000 men, women, and boys and girls from my home state of washington who shared their information, paid a large fee, and upheld their end of the bargain only to have President Trump rip the rug out from under them three months ago when he and attorney general Jeff Sessions announced the end of the daca program. Mr. President , this congress may not be able to change the trump administrations hateful