Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20180119

Quorum call a senator is the senate in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. A senator i ask the quorum call be suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune mr. President , today, as they do every year at this time, tens of thousands of americans from across the country, including from my home state in south dakota, will march from the National Mall to the United States Supreme Court to stand up for the right to life. The march is always inspiring. The huge crowds who come year after year, the commitment and enthusiasm of the participants. And most of all, mr. President , the young people teenagers, college students, young adults. Abortion has been an ugly scar on our nation for a long while now. But seeing all these young people at the march for life every year fills me with hope, because i know that these young people get it. They know that life matters, and theyre ready and willing to stand up and say that. Stand up for the hundreds of thousands of unborn americans who are killed every year i this country by abortion. Mr. President , this year i hope to see congress consider the paincapable unborn Child Protection act. This legislation would protect unborn children who have reached the age of 20 weeks. Thats five months of pregnancy from being killed by abortion. Right now, there are only seven countries in the world that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Seven countries in the world. And among those countries are china, north korea, and the United States of america. Id like to suggest, mr. President , that thats not the company that americans want to be keeping when it comes to protecting human rights. Mr. President , 63 of the American People support a ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and that doesnt surprise me. Take a look at a 5 month old unborn baby on an ultrasound. Its pretty darn obvious that thats a human being in there. And i think most people instinctively know that human beings, no matter how small they are, are worthy of protection. Mr. President , five months into a pregnancy, babies are doing a lot. Theyreucking their thumbs. Thre yawning and stretching. They are actively moving around. They are responding to nerves. And they feel and respond to pain. The Scientific Evidence on this point is clear. Five months into a pregnancy, unborn babies feel pain. And yet, mr. President , in our country, its legal to abort these babies. The procedures used to perform these abortions are so brutal and inhuman that its difficult to even talk about. Most americans would rightly shrink from treating an animal the way that we treat unborn human beings. Mr. President , every year there are hundreds of thousands of abortions in this country. Planned parenthood reports that it performed 321,384 abortions in 2016. That number is so large, its hard to fathom. To put that into some kind of perspective, thats equivalent to more than onethird of the population of my home state of south dakota. Unfortunately, the paincapable unborn Child Protection act would not eliminate all of these abortions, but, mr. President , it would make a difference and it would bring us one step closer to the day when every child born and unb is protected in law. To all those who are marching for life today, thank you for being here. Thank you for reminding all of us about an injustice that is all too easy for us to ignore. Thank you for standing up for all those babies. The fight may be long, but i know that at the end of the day, it is life that will win. Mr. President , i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Cardin i would ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Cardin mr. President , before coming to washington today, i went to annapolis. The maryland General Assembly is in session. I had a chance to meet with several of our regional delegations in the maryland General Assembly, with our senators, and with our members of the house. Obviously, the question that was asked the most is whats happening in regards to the federal government, whats happening in regards to the f. Y. 2018 budget . Will government be funded past midnight tonight . I must tell you, i was talking to both democratic and republican members of the maryland General Assembly, and there was a common concern, for you see the maryland General Assembly will shortly be receiving from Governor Hogan the f. Y. 2019 budget, the f. Y. 2019 budget. And a good part of any states budget is the is the federal funding programs, and the state of maryland and none of our local jurisdictions have the f. Y. 2018 budget let alone a blueprint for likely action by congress for the f. Y. 2019 budget. The budget should have been passed by october 1 of last year. Thats the beginning of the fiscal year. We have been operating under continuing resolutions during the entire part of this year. In fact, we have been operating on continuing resolutions for years, and its causing significant damage to this country. The republicans control the house, the senate, and the white house, and they cant pass a budget for our country. So when the Republican Leadership asked us in september of last year for a continuing resolution to have more time to negotiate a budget for f. Y. 2018, we had no choice but to go along with the continuing resolution to give more time. But then on three additional occasions, the Republican Leadership has come forward in saying we need additional time. I remember the debate we had in december before the holidays, and the leadership was very clear this would be the last continuing resolution that was going to be needed, they were close to working out deals, et cetera, only to find out today we are still no closer to getting it resolve and heres the tragedy. Our agencies cannot exist on continuing resolutions. They hit a point where they are no longer able to carry out their mission in the best interests of the American People. We heard that last night on the floor of the United States senate when the representative of the department of defense indicated that our nations preparedness, readiness cannot be maintained by a continuing resolution with last years budget. You see, a continuing resolution, it does not reflect our current priorities. Its where we were on the last time we passed a budget, which is over a year ago. And thats the Spending Priorities that an agency must comply with. Well, if youre in the department of defense, a lot has happened during that period of time. Look whats happening in north korea. Look whats happening with russia. Look whats happening around the world. Our department of defense needs to have a currentyear budget, not another continuing resolution. Weve got to reach this decision. So heres our concern. If we just continue to go along with these continuing resolutions, were going to hurt our National Security, were going to hurt our agencies ability to get their work done, and its going to cost the taxpayers of this country more money, and theyre not going to get the services that they need. So to me, there is an alternative for this date that we need to consider, and that is let us complete our work. Now, i know we have a deadline at midnight tonight. I know that the government will shut down unless we get something done. I must tell you we should make sure the government stays open. No one wins when there is a government shutdown. But were not doing anyone any favor if we dont commit ourselves to get the job done. What i would urge leader mcconnell0 to do so mcconnell to do, allow us to vote on a very shortterm continuing resolution and keep us here until we get the f. Y. 2018 complete. We know theres been reported conversations between the leadership in the Appropriations Committee and in the senate and theres a deal that can be made, but we have to have a deadline. Heres the danger of another longterm c. R. Without having that. Because we hear that there is a group in the house of representatives that is controlling the debate over there. They dont represent a majority in the house, far from it. They certainly dont represent the views of the majority of the United States senate or the American People, but unless we give a deadline now and get this done, were going to be faced with the same concerns a month from now and were not going to be able to get a budget done so that we can deal with the probms o this country. We should not have a shut down. All of us should be committed to pass a shortterm c. R. To keep us here and avoid a government shut down. Everyone loses on a shut down. Mr. President , i have the honor of representing one of the largest number of federal employees of any state in the country. Maryland is the proud home to many incredibly important facilities and installations and many talented federal workers who are on the front line of federal service and they work hard for the American People every single day. I am proud to represent them in the United States senate. Our federal workforce has already sacrificed on behalf of our budget. Theyve gone through too many c. R. Which compromise their ability to get the job done. Theyve gone through too many threats of sequestration, too many pay freezes or pay adjustments that are inadequate, additional costs for their pensions. They have contributed. What they expect from us is to keep the government open and get a budget so they can get their mission done. So for the fake of our federal workforce, lets keep the federal government open. Its a real hardship if we miss this deadline. It is not without costs. Let me make that clear to my colleagues. If theres a government shut down, hardworking federal workers arent going to get a paycheck, yet they still have to pay their mortgage and support their families. Those others there have to take unpaid leave. Those who depend on federal contracts to keep their businesses going will not that assurance and will be faced with the prospect of laying off workers, individuals who need Government Services will find it much more difficult, if not impossible, to be able to get those federal services, whether its tracking down a check that they desperately need, getting a type of assistance to process with the v. A. Or whether it is a matter of security and they need the contact of our government. All of that is going to be put at risk and the taxpayers of this country are left holding the bill. Weve gone through government shutdowns before and weve done analysis each time and every time it costs the taxpayers more. It costs the taxpayers more. So all of us who are concerned about fiscal responsibility, we need to find a path forward to make sure we dont shut down the federal government. It makes no sense. Ive introduced legislation that i would urge my colleagues to make sure we pass because you may be surprised to find out that if we miss the deadline and we go a few days and then we get it done that thoseederal workers who were put on furlough will not be paid for our negligence in keeping the federal government open. Thats not right. Every time we corrected that by legislation, but there shouldnt be that uncertainty on the federal workforce. I urge my colleagues, let us pass legislation. I have the support of over 20 of my colleagues who cosponsored this legislation to make sure that our federal workforce knows that they will receive their full compensation. Its also important in that we move forward on getting this budget done and getting work done because if we just take the house approach and we say, okay, everythings fine, well be back in 28 days and well see this movie again, weve got issues that cannot wait to be reel solved. We have to resolve issues. The one that has the most attention theres a lot of issues out there, but you one but one that hasnt gotten a lot has gotten a lot of attention is the dreamers. The president set a sixmonth deadline on the removal of the dreamers. We didnt have a problem until then. We needed to fix our immigration system, dont get me wrong, but we didnt have date on the back of individuals who know no other country but the unitedtates as to their shelf life here in the United States. We didnt have that until the president initiated this problem. So when the president did that in september, i applaud colleagues on both sides of the aisle, democrats and republicans, who said, let us come together and fix it in the legislation. I agree with that. We need that. We should have legislation so we can fix the dreamers so they can have a pathway to citizenship and they know that america is their home and that their future is here. That should be done. We had Bipartisan Legislation ready to go, ready to move forward on it, only to find out that while the president said he was for legislation, he then said, well, weve got to deal with other issues. I have this wall im concerned about. I have Border Security im worried about. So the Bipartisan Group work in good faith with the president and narrow the issues that need to be resolved to a view and they talk about Border Security, they talk about the issues concerning the family issues and family reunifications and dealing with the lottery system on visas for families with diversity and they reach a bipartisan agreement, as requested by the president , and they thought with the support of the president of the United States. Yes, it does protect the dreamers and it protects those in tempora protected status. Maryland has a large percentage of people from haiti and el salvador, everything thought we finally resolved this issue, we could go on to the next issue only to find that the president of the United States flipped his position on it. Now, mr. President , i want to be gauged with the president. As the majority leader says, he has to sign bills. I get it, but its tough to negotiate with someone who tells you one thing on one day and then does the exact opposite on the next day. We have our responsibility to act. We have a bill that is bipartisan and has a enough support and clearly pass the United States and the house of representatives and it protects the dreamers and protects those with t. P. S. Status and deal with Border Security. We need to the get that done now also. And we all know that we have Health Care Extenders that need to be completed in addition to chip. Chips very important to get done. It should be made permanent, i should tell you. We have Community Health centers and many other issues that need to be dealt with in this legislation. We have disaster relief. We talked about this many times. We come together as a nation to help though who have been distressed through natural disasters, the people of texas and of florida and puerto rico and those that have been affected by the wildfires. And then, of course to me, the issue i hear the most about, mr. President , is the opioid crisis. We need to make sure that the federal partnership is strong to deal with this natiol crisis. So what should we do . Well, let us Work Together. I must tell you, my constituents, your constituents are not interested in a blame game here. They are making had sure that they have a check to pay their mortgage payments. If they are in need of var services v. A. Services, they want to make sure those services are available to them, they want to make sure they are getting the best money for their tax dollar and they want the United States congress to work and resolve these issues. They expect us to pass a budget and deal with these issues and we have a game plan to get all of that done in a meter of days if we in a matter of days if we make the commitment to get that done. So thats why i have suggested to the majority leader, theres support here for us to stay and get the job done. Keep us in session, keep government open, and we will get the work done. Let us come together with a truly bipartisan budget that reflects the will of the American People and the input of all the members of the United States senate and the house of representatives. A budget that makes sense for our department of defense, makes sense for those doing the research at the National Institutes of health and keep our food safe at the f. D. A. , and those on the front lines of the Social Security administration handling t issues with our seniors. Lets give them the tools in a budget that makes sense for our country. Lets make sure that we pass these open issues that are urgent, some of which have been created by the president , such as the immigration issues. We have a path forward to resolve those issues now. Lets do that. If we do all of that, then we really are serving the interest of the American People. So i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, our first responsibility are to the people of this country. Lets not blame each other. Lets Stay Together and do something that we dont do enough of. Lets listen to each other. Lets get our work done, keep government open, and do whats right for the American People. With that, mr. President , i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll, please. Quorum call quorum call quorum call mr. Wyden mr. President. The presiding officer . Senator is recognized. Mr. Wyden i ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Wyden thank you, mr. President. Mr. President and colleagues, chairman hatch was on the floor a bit ago talking about the Childrens Health Insurance Program, and because his remarks greatly misleading, i thought it was important, having heard my good friend my longtime friend earlier. I thought it was important to come to the floor this afternoon and set the record straight about the Childrens Health Insurance Program. The fact is the chairman and i did negotiate an important Childrens Health Insurance Program extension back in september, bipartisan, and i put in a lot of time both inside this congress and outside the halls of congress in order to line up bipartisan support for that effort. And we did, in fact, in the finance committee have near unanimous bipartisan support. That was months and months ago. The fact is at that point the Childrens Health Insurance Program could have passed the congress win days, but unfortunately the republicans in the other body had some other ideas. From the moment the Senate Finance committee passed the bill in a bipartisan way, the kids became hostage to the republican political agenda. First the House Republicans tried to force ideological cuts in Important Health programs, including medicare, to allow this deal to go forward. Then they conditioned helping the vulnerable kids on kicking americans off their private health insurance. When that didnt work, they took yet another hostage, vaccines and preventivelth. For some reason the other body, the house, wanted to cut off programs that make americans healthier by preventing disease in the first place. For obvious reasons democrats werent willing to sacrifice that hostage either. Now, months after there was a bipartisan deal to finally give peace of mind to these parents and children, the House Republicans have taken yet another hostage. This time were talking about the proper functioning of the federal government. The republicans have been stumbling from one c. R. To another continuing resolution since they took power, sacrificing the readiness of the military, impeding the federal response to natural disasters, and handicapping rural hospitals that dont know when they are going to get paid for the care they provide. Were not going to sacrifice this hostage either. The minority leader, senator schumer, has made a goodfaith offer to give the senate a week to actually come to an agreement to keep the government functioning, a i think it makes sense because the cycle of destructive, nakedly political badfaith governing cannot continue. What you have is a display of the worst of american publics. The fact is the republicans control the white house, the senate, and the house of representatives. That means you get to set the agenda, you get to set the schedule, but Republican Leaders watched and did nothing as the deadline for chip funding passed in the fall. So what you had at the end of the year, mr. President , is this picture of how millions of American Kids were lower on the list of the republican priorities than borrowing 1. 5 trillion in order to give additional money to multinational corporations, the political donor class, and the multinational corporations were already awashed in cash. Since then theres been a near constant stream of republicans saying in print again and again they are all for the Childrens Health Insurance Program, by god,hey just want to take care of the kids. The fact is those republicans speaking out on television had months to act. They had almost a year. The program expired 111 days ago, and the finance committee passed a bipartisan bill which really kicked this all off. I felt very strongly about doing that. The chairman has a long history of working on it, and i wanted to make sure that we were coming right out of the box and getting a strong bipartisan bill knowing that perhaps the chairman of the committee would retire. So if there was an upordown vote on the Childrens Health program in the senate after we moved last fall, it would have got 80 votes, probably more, and probably 300 votes in the other body if that bipartisan measure that came out of the finance committee in the fall had had an upordown vote. The fact is the only reason that hasnt happened, mr. President , is the cynical political strategy that i have described that evolved over the months since the finance committee acted in a bipartisan way and has produced this crisis this body faces now. Even the president aarently in a moment of unsupervised socalled executive time said that the chip bill should move forward unobstructed. A few weeks ago, and i made a special push for this, because it was clear due to the unadvised changes that were part of the tax bill, that coverage would be more expensive in the private exchanges and chip would look like an even better investment than it already was. And as a result of that information we obtained, it in fact saves money to make the Childrens Health Insurance Program permanent, making it permanent, as amazing as it sounds is a better deal than a sixyear extension and less of an expense for the taxpayer. True fiscal conservatives, in my view, ought to be tripping over themselves in order to a pass in order to pass a permanent Childrens Health Insurance Program without preconditions, but yet at every turn in this program about the future of so many vulnerable kids nine million kids what we saw was not action but Republican Leaders taking yet another hostage. So i want to be clear, mr. President , i think what we have seen over the last few months is the exploitation of children by the governing party here in the nations capital. Its wrong. Its causing needless panic among millions of families caring for sick kids. This is a crisis made over the last few months by the governing party here in washington, and it ought to end here today with the governing party, the republicans releasing the hostage, passing, all of us together, a clean, very short spending bill that would allow this continuing resolution nonsense to end once and for all. And i believe it is in the countrys interest to have a permanent extension of the Childrens Health Insurance Program. Its an extension that saves the taxpayers money and, mr. President , what you do by making this Program Permanent is you give more youngsters in america the opportunity for Better Health which gives them more opportunity for them to achieve their full potential in the years ahead. And ill close with this, mr. President. More than anything else what i have tried to do is dedicate my time in Public Service to working in a bipartisan way on health care. Ive always felt that health care was the most important issue. I was director of the Senior Citizen for almost seven years. The group was called the gray panthers. I ran the legal aid office. I decided then that if you and your loved ones, my good friend, the president of the senate who worked with me and did such good work on the veterans bill, another important issue, i always felt that if you and your family didnt have their health, then Everything Else didnt matter. You couldnt go to the football game. You couldnt find a way to pick up a new skill and have some exciting job options in the future because if you didnt have your health, it went by the board. So everything ive tried to do in health care a. G. Ive tried to say ought to be bipartisan. And, you know what . Usually theres a set of options for finding common ground. So often, for example, i felt that my party was right about wanting to expand coverage because, if you dont get everybody covered, you have a lot of costshifting, not much prevention. And you thought republicans had some valid point well with respect to a role for the private sector. So when it became time to get the Childrens Health Insurance Program extended, get it extended and do it in a bipartisan way, i was very pleased to meet the chairman of our committee, my friend chairman hatch, in a bipartisan way for a longterm extension with additional funds. And that could have been done in the fall. And yet over the months since then, ive described all of the hurdles, all of the obstacles that republicans have put in front of making that bipartisan effort, which as i just indicated has gotten even more attractive with the new estimates that permanent extension saves money had the republicans have made it harder to take that bipartisan work that was part of what i have always thought was the way to do Bipartisan Health policy in the fall and make it law. Theres still time, mr. President , to do that. The way were going to do it is not through the kind of misleading statements that, unfortunately, we heard this morning on the floor. Were going to do it by working in a bipartisan fashion. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor and i would note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call mr. Sullivan mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from alaska. Mr. Sullivan mr. President , are we in a quorum cl . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Sullivan i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sullivan mr. President , every week i try to get down on the senate floor and talk about someone in my state who is making or who has made our state a better place for all of us. Its actually one of my favorite parts of the whole week. I know the pages really enjoy it. Its what i call our alaskan of the week, and its one of the most fulfilling things that i do. Now, no doubt many here in the chamber and the people watching from home and up in the gallery have seen pictures or Television Shows about alaska. Hopefully youve been up there. My state has captured the countrys image nation. We have long expanses of tundra ranges, glaciers, salmonfilled streerms. Sob everybody watching back home streams. So everybody watching back home come visit alaska. It will be a trip of a lifetime. A state is different from a community. A state is a place to go and a community is a place where people live, and it takes good and geniuseople to build generous people to build a community. Today i would like to honor someone who has been Building Community in alaska. His name is george brown, who with his wife peggy, ran one of the most popular diners, one of the most popular restaurants in anchorage since 1955. The lucky wishbone is that place that for decades people from all walks of life, veterans, politicians, oil workers, hospital employees, you name it, they came to the lucky wishbone, converged on this wonderful establishment in anchorage for some of the best Fried Chicken and best strawberry shakes ever. I know from firsthand experience, trust me. George brown was born in 1922. He joined the National Guard in. At 21, he had already risen to the rank of Master Sergeant when he qualified for officers candidate school, and then in 1973, he finished Flight School at luke field, arizona, as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. In that same year george met the love of his life, peggy, and married soon after. After he was married, george received orders to drive b24s across the him lay gentlemans hem lay gentlemans. He earned the distinguished flying cross an air medal for his bravery and service during world war ii. Incidentally, the late, great senator ted stevens from alaska, whose desk i occupy here on the floor, also flew the hump with the Army Air Corps during world war ii, and i know he was a friend of georges. So after the war, george and peggy and their two children made their way to alaska to forge a new life. Eventually that life found shape in a building that george built by hand in downtown anchorage, the lucky wishbone. Its doors opened on november 30, 1955, in a kind of living room for the community where you could also get great food was born in anchorage. Mr. President , as you know, most walls dont talk, but the walls of the lucky wishbone do talk. They are filled of pictures of chorage and its history. It tells the story of a Hard Scrabble territory, alaska, that fought for selfdetermination and gained citizenship and statehood in 1959. They tell the story of a town, anchorage, rebuilt after being hit by the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in north america, 9. 2 on richter scale. The walls tell the story of a state brimming with excitment when producedo bay prudo bay was discovered and tens of thousands of jobs were created. They tell the stories of the crash in the 1980s and the long and hard recovery and tell the story how a community and our citizens in alaska rely on each other. As all of this history was in the making, george and his wife peggy, who by then had four children and went to work every day, they knew their customers by name and they continued to make the best food in town. Sadly peggy died in 2011 after she and george celebrated of 67 years together. George continued to go to work every day. I saw him there, and he continued to fly his plane until he was 94 years old. A wonderful, gracious, tough, patriotic alaskan and a great american. Mr. President , george passed away earlier this week. An amazing life. He was 96 years old. He left behind his four children, patricia, court any, lots of courtny, lots of grand children and great grandchildren. The lucky wishbone, one of his many legacies will live on. The wishbone has been passed down to his daughter. Mr. President , i ask that my following comments appear in a separate part in the congressional record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sullivan mr. President , a few hours we are likely going to have a simple choice to make here on the senate floor, either pass the houses continuing resolution that passed yesterday to continue to fund our government and our military, and importantly, reauthorize the Childrens Health Insurance Program, chip, for six years or the vote will be to shut down the government shut down the federal government. But if youre watching the Senate Floor Debates from home or in the gallery about all of this, you might be a bit confused. Actually i was almost confused last night, particularly if youre listening to the minority leader and minority whips new talking points they were using last night in their remarks nn the past few day remarks and in the past few days. Let me give you a little background. The presiding officer, who has been are around the senate for some time i sit in that presiding officers chair a lot, in fact, the 11 00 a. M. Hour on wednesday and thudays, so i get to lten the majority and minority whip give their opening statements. A couple of times a week i watch it on cspan, like a lot, and you get to hear the different priorities of the different leaders of the party. Every day i hear this. I respect everybody. I respect our members on the other side of the aisle. We all have areas that we focus on, but i will tell you this, rebuilding the military, increasing military readiness, increasing defense funding has not been a key area of focus for the minority leader or the minority whip. Thats just a fact. Its not anything bad or good, its a different priority. I also sit, mr. President , on the Armed Services committee and the Veterans Affairs committee, and theres a lot that we focus on in those committees too, particularly Armed Services and a lot of us have been concerned about the dramatic cut in spending, 2010 to 2016, the military has been cut by 25 even though we had a dramatic increase in National Security challenges. Now, theres a Certain Group of senators, i would say its led by the senator of arizona, the chairman of the Armed Services committee, senator mccain, who focused on military issues, military readiness, increasing funding for the troops. Who really care about these issues, focused on this daily. I consider myself one of them. A lot of republicans, some democrats. But the members of this body know who that is. And we focus on this a lot. So imagine my surprise yesterday when and last night when the minority whip and the minority leader started with new talking points emphasizing that this impasse were getting ready to see here and the impending possible shutdown is all about their concerns about the military, their concerns about the military, how the c. R. Was going to hurt the military. Well, with all due respect, thats kind of the first time in three years here that i have harder the leadership of the other party really emphasize that issue. Again, i have a lot of respect for these men, but they just too talk about this issue but they just dont talk about this issue, they dont. But thats what they were doing. Thats the new talking point. This isnt about something else. Itsbout our troops. Well, i think the newest talking points are something thats trying to confuse the American People. Dont be confused by this. These are not the senators who come down every day and battle for more spending for our troops. These are not the senators who come down and care about readiness. The new up to thes are a little bit hard to swallow the new talking points are a little bit hard to swallow. What was also surprising last night is the new talking points, is how little the minority leader talked about the real issue. And it is a serious issue, that everybody in this body, everybody in this city necessary is the real issue. Here it is. The other side is saying, unless there is a deal on the daca issue, which is a serious issue, they will shut down the government. Thats the real issue. Theres no debating it. Its not about the minority leaders newfound concern about military readiness. Thats the issue that were debating. Now, i think its a serious issue. The dreamers i have a met with them. We have, you know, about 150 in alaska. I think we need to help those young men and women. Theyre great americans not americans yet, but theyre great young people. We also need to focus on border serity, immtion reform. I certainly want to help them. But heres a final point. What was missed last night is this talk about you heard the minority leader saying the c. R. Is going to be bad for the military, a continuing resolution is bad for the military. Again, newfound focus on the military. I hope he joins us as part of the number of senators who really care and focus on military readiness and defense spending every day, not just last night. But whats worse for the military, beyond a continuing resolution and a continuing resolution is bad. But whats worse, theres no doubt about it the deputy secretary of defense said it today dash is a shutdown of the ghast, is a shutdown of the government. That really, really hurts the military. So all i want to do is encourage my colleagues, lets not do that. Lets not do that. You will we will definitely be hurting the military then. Lets get back to work. Let fund the government. Lets pass this continuing resolution. Lets pass a reauthorization of chip, which a lot of mize colleagues have been saying we need to. I agree. Lets do it tonight. And lets find a resolution for the Border Security, daca, immigration issues that we can get to a bipartisan agreement on. But what we shouldnt be doing here is coming down with n talking points about how much the minority leader cares about military readiness, military funding when, to be truthful, thats the first ive heard in three years, an emphasis in that area. Lets fund the military, certainly. Lets fund our government. But lets not shut down the government tonight. Thats not going to help anyone. And its certainly, certainly not going to help our troops. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator montana. Mr. Tester i want to thank you, mr. President. Before i get into my prepared remarks, i just want to say that weve been at heart for 16 years. And the senator from alaska is correct. We dont need to rebuild our military. Theres no if, ands, or buts about it. Its not something that just came about last night. Its something we should have been doing with this budget that should have been passed to go into effect the end of september. And if you really want to talk about the hypocrisy of this body theres plenty of it the fact that weve got folks coming to the floor who havent set a peep about chip and it also, by the way, ran out of money tend of september and talk about how important it is for those kids and by the way, it is very important for those kids when it is the first time weve heard a peep out of there is interesting. But the fact is that we do need to come together. And we do need a longterm budget deal. And by the way, when im talking about long term, im not talking about years and years. Im talking about through the end of september of this year. Thats all we got to have. A budget deal to the end of september of this year, that addresses more than just chip. And chip is important. It need needs to address our military. It needs to address our southern Border Security. The chairman knows this. We Work Together on the appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security. He understands how important this is. Weve got to make sure our borders are secure. And weve got to make sure we have domestic programs that working families and businesses depend upon for this country like chip. Like funding Community Health centers, like making sure theres dollars there for rural ambulance services. And the list goes on and on. But weve had an incredible failure of leadership here. I think weve had three patches to this budget three of them. This was supposed to be done 111 days ago. 111 days ago we were supposed to have a budget that lasted for the fiscal year 2018. We were supposed to have a bill that kept the services for the u. S. Government open and operating so that montanans and meshes could have the certainty montanans and americans could have the certainty that they elected us to create. But for 111 days, the leadership on the other side of the aisle and i mean intentionally so, i believe have played politics and kicked the can down the road. This is not nuclear physics, folks. This i about funding our government. Its nhat tough. But weve hit deadline after deadline after deadline, and what weve been told is look, well extend it out another month or two and well get an agreement. Oh, well extend it out another month and get an agreement. At christmastime, i was willing to work here and get an agreement. This was a basic job we were elected for in this body. But on i believe december 19, once again, we kicked the can down the road and it was said, you know what, were going to have a deal by january 19. Well, guess what . January 19 and now were going to move the goalpost again. Each of those previous patches i voted for. Why . Because i believed them. I expected the leaders of this body to work in good faith and get the job done. I was wrong. Because for 111 days theyve refused to provide longterm funding for Community Health centers, for 111 days they have paid to pass a pail they have failed to pass a bill that secures our borders, theyve refused to reauthorize chip, for 111 days theyve failed to dot most basic and fundamental aspectf our job and that is pass a longterm budget that works for this countrynd works for my home state of montana. Now today were about nine hours before the government is set to run out of money. Folks on the other side of the aisle are pointing their finger over here and say, geez weve got to reauthorize chip. If we dont, all these kids well, guess what . That same argument could have been made six months ago wand as not. Weve got kids in montana and theyve been watching and those families have been watching and saying, why, why hasnt it already been done . Why are we already 111 days after the budget has been passed and we still have nothing . Theres a chip bill thats been sitting on the majority leaders desk for many a month to reauthorize chip. I believe it has 24 cosponsors on it. And now there are members of this body who are not even cosponsors of that bill who have found religion and come to the floor to impassion atly talk about chip and we havent heard crickets from them until the last day or two. To the folks who have been down here on the floor and on Cable Television talking about with a a Great Program chip is and it has been a Great Program; it is one of the first pieces of major legislation i voted 0en when i was in the Montana Senate where have you been . Why havent we had it on the floor and voted on it . It is important. Its pure hypocrisy. It is what the senator from alaska talked about, only on a different issue. This dysfunction and failure here is way, way, way too deep. This bill also fails to fund Community Health centers, and im going tell you, ive talked to the administrators of the Community Health centers, these folks are sweating bullets. Theyre afraid theyre going to have to close their facilities down. They provide primary health care to 100,000 folks. That might not sound like much, like many people, but in montana be, a state of just over 1 million folks, it is a big deal. These are essential facilities to our communities across montana. They provide basic help and they keep families alive. The folks that run these Community Health centers have told meifies face, if we dont get the funding, were going to have to close the doors. Its about 111 days and we should have had a budget to fund the Community Health centers and were Still Standing here today saying, guess what . We come back here in february, things going to be just fine, just like they said in december. I got news for you. Nothing is going to change between you mond a february. So lets get a long term budget deal today that addresses some of these issues. This bill also fails to make our borders secure. As i said earlier, the chairman of the body right now and i have worked on the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee that draft a bill that works, that invests in a wall where a wall makes sense and hires more border agents. That bill was never brought up to the full committee. Im sorry that never happened because it would have been great. And it is not included in the bill before us today. Time and time again over the last 403 b last four months,d bipartisan bills have piled up on leaderships desk. Rather than pass a longterm budget, a more fiscally responsible budget, the senate has just said, no, guess what . Well do it next month. And well do it the month after that. And well do it the month after that. It is time to stop putting the bandaid on our budget. Because in four weeks well be back here again if this passes, and itll be the same problems. When in fact we can solve them today and we need to solve them today. Enough is enough. Congress has three times passed shortterm stopgap crisis crisisfunding bills. These bills fail my constituents and waste taxpayer dollars. Enough is enough. Mr. President , people are tired of this. And i know theyre tired of it on the other side of the aisle because theyve told me. Theyve told me its time to do our job here. Theyre as frustrated as i am, theyre as frustrated as montanaians are, when i meet hem them in town halls and coffee shops. Montanans dont run their businesses like this and our government should not run like this. Especially especially after i hear promises to draining the swamp. This is exactly the opposite. Bringing this garbage bill to the floor is a dereliction of duty. It is incompetent and mostly it is a failure of leadership. It is a failure of vision. In any other business in this country, if managers acted like the leadership of this body, theyd lose their jobs. Its almost as if the majority had planned this all along. To get us to this point for political purposes. Well, guess what . We should not be here for political purposes. We should be here as americans doing our best to give people the certainty that they need. Rather than playing with a hot potato saying, you know what