Hes not a member of the u. S. Senate. And now Senate Democrats are reeling because the president has said while the government is shut down, hes not going to negotiate a change of our immigration laws that our democratic colleagues and frankly many republicans like me would like to see changed relative to the deferred action for childhood arrivals, or daca young adults. So it seems to me that our democratic colleagues have literally well, figuratively, lets say, shot themselves in the foot, reloaded, and shot themselves in the other foot. And now they expect President Trump to somehow rescue them out of this box canyon. I know im mixing my metaphors here, but this situation they find themselves in. They shut down the government, and now theyre hurting the very people that they shut down the government to help. Because there are no negotiations going on on a solution that we would all like to try to achieve. So this is really surreal. You know, the old saying, everybodys entitled to their opinion, but youre not entitled to your own facts. Facts are facts. Democrats voted to shut down the government because theyre inpatient to get a solution for these daca young adults. Now they have to blame somebody else because theyre unwilling to own up to their own responsibility. You know, growing up, my parents told me one of the most important things that i could do and my sister and brother could do is accept responsibility for our own mistakes. Not blame somebody else. Thats simply juvenile. We could work this out today. We could work this out now if our democratic colleagues would simply acknowledge that they themselves are the ones who shut down the government, they themselves have now caused negotiations for the solution they want to cease because the president rightly says why reward bad behavior by continuing the negotiations when they shut down the government . It is, as i said a moment ago, surreal. And there are casualties. There are casualities. Not just the daca kids, now young adults. And again, these were the children brought in by their parents without complying with our immigration laws. Being children, theyre not responsible. Theyre not culpable. The law doesnt hold them responsible, and we all agree they ought to get some relief, and wed like to be able to negotiate that, but we cant do that when the governments shut down as a result of their miscalculation. But the daca kids now young adults arent the only casualties here. Its our military, the National Guard cant train. Its the nine million children who are depending on an extension of the Childrens HealthInsurance Program which enjoys broad bipartisan support. I almost couldnt believe my ears. The democratic leader is a talented politician. Hes a very intelligent guy, and i enjoy working with him on occasion. But he simply has been driven into this untenable, unsustainable filibuster because he simply refused to say no to the most radical fringe of his Political Base. This isnt like him. This isnt my experience working with the senior senator from new york on a myriad of other things. But as democratic leader, he simply could not say no to this narrow fringe of his Political Base that insists that a solution today on the daca problem is more important than funding the military, paying our federal Law Enforcement officials or providing Health Insurance to nine million vulnerable children. Well, as people begin to realize this miscalculation, you start seeing it reflected in Public Opinion polls. Cnn has reported that only 34 of the people they polled said that this kind of miscalculation was justified. 34 . And i bet as people learn more, as they are personally affected more and more by this Government Shutdown now in day two, then theres going to be an even greater majority of people that said this just is not worth it. Why wont you take yes for an answer from republicans who want to work with our democratic colleagues . Why would you shoot yourself in one foot, reload, and shoot yourself in the other foot . Now i realize its hard for democratic colleagues to save face in this outcome, but sometimes in life you make mistakes and you cant blame it on anybody else, and you simply need to acknowledge your own responsibility and say you know what . I had the best of intentions, but i was wrong. I made a mistake. That could be liberating sometimes. But not in politics apparently and not on this topic. At least not yet. 1 00 this morning were going to have a vote. Now democrats filibustered a fourweek continuing resolution, but in an effort to provide them a facesaving way out of this dilemma of their own making, the majority leader has offered them a vote on a threeweek continuing resolution during which we will continue to work on this daca solution. And my guess is its going to pass, because there are a dozen or more democrats, 19 i understand were at one meeting, a bipartisan meeting just within the last well, since the government shut down, trying to figure out how can we help our leaders find their way out of this mess. And you know what . People who are on the ballot in 2018, which isnt that long from now, its a great way to run for reelection, isnt it . Yeah, i shut down the government. I hurt the military. I hurt vulnerable children, and i inconvenienced everybody, including the government workers who diligently come here to the capitol and across the country and perform their important work on a daily basis. Yeah, i basically made their lives worse. But, oh, by the way, elect me in 2018. What a great message that is. And there are members on that side of the aisle who are realizing, hey, this is going to hurt me personally. Forget your constituents. Forget the children. Forget the military. Theyre realizing, hey, this is going to make it harder for me to get reelected. And you know what . Ive now created an election issue on which i might lose. It might be the end of my political career. Well, i hate to think that that is the most important thing in peoples calculation here. I would hope that rather than their own personal politics they would be more interested in the other people they are hurting and the futility of the situation that they created. But i hope that i hope, maybe im naive. I dont think im naive but maybe i am. Maybe not enough Senate Democrats will reconsider what theyve done on the fourweek c. R. And they wont vote for a threeweek c. R. Even though the majority leader has moved their way to provide them a facesaving way to get out of this box. But i dont care what it is, whether its their own personal replying calculation, whether it is the realization that this is not worth the shutdown because republicans are willing to work with them to find a solution before the march 5 deadline for the Daca Recipients. Whatever the rationale, i hope there are enough democrats who will simply say to their leader, you know, you made a mistake. You miscalculated. This isnt about President Trump. President trump didnt shut down the government. He didnt vote to filibuster this continuing resolution. It was democratic members of the senate. And it was a mistake. Lets correct that mistake and lets move on. Lets do the right thing for our constituents. Lets do the right thing for our constituents who wear the uniform of the United States military. Lets do the right thing for veterans. Lets do the right thing for federal workers and the Law Enforcement agents who are simply being hurt needlessly, unnecessarily but callously by the shutdown. They may have forgotten about the hundreds and thousands of americans, including 200,000 texans who could be furloughed if this shutdown continues. I havent forgotten about them. Thats why i voted to keep the government up and running. But unfortunately, the American People lose out when their elected officials decide that their personal politics or their own political interests are more important than the people they have been sent here to represent. We talked about this all last week. We warned our colleagues on the other side the on the effects of a shutdown and urged them not to vote against funding the government. It wasnt just senate republicans. Our house colleagues did their duty on a bipartisan basis and sent us a fourweek continuing resolution. In the meantime, our democratic colleagues have heard from bipartisan groups of governors including seven democratic governors who said in effect, wait a minute, these children who depend on the Childrens HealthInsurance Program are Collateral Damage to your political fights in washington, d. C. Why hurt them . And they implored us to extend the Childrens HealthInsurance Program for nine million children across the country who rely upon it. And the answer so far is forget about it. We dont care. Thats our democratic colleagues who continue this shutdown for no good reason. And it really is a shame. Heres the other thing. Its been pointed out time and time again, but i think its worth repeating. There is nothing in this bill that Senate Democrats oppose. What theyre saying is theres not other things in the bill we want, and so were going to shut down the government. But it is bizarre in my experience in the senate to say im going to vote against a bill that i support. Whats that all about . Do they want to fund the government . I think they do if they could figure a way out of this conundrum. Thats not particularly controversial. Do they want to fund the military . I honestly believe our colleagues across the aisle want to support our military. Although its hard to tell when you see what theyve done here. But our military has broad bipartisan support generally. Do they want to reauthorize the Childrens Health program for six years . Well, that passed out of the Senate Finance committee on which i sit with broad bipartisan support, and its very popular not only to the governors who have to run the program, but also here in the congress. So why abandon all the things you support over an unrelated issue and one that we are in earnest willing to work with our democratic colleagues to solve . Why decide to be derelict in one of your most basic duties as elected federal official in order to hold hostage on congress and the country really on an unrelated issue that we are working on, we have been working on. But now as a result of their shutdown, we cant work on. Lets open the Government Back up. Lets get back to work and do our job on each of these issues. Of course the socalled daca issue is important. I have 124,000 Daca Recipients who signed up in good faith with the federal government, even though president obama overreached his authority, according to the courts, and now its our responsibility to clean up the mess that was created by this end run around the constitution and congress. We are we welcome that part of our responsibility. Its important to me personally. Like my friend, the senator from illinois, who has been a champion for many years for the dreamers. In other words, these are the same group of people who came here innocently with their parents who violated the law. But we dont hold children responsible for what their parents do. But sometimes they get caught up in the consequences, and thats whats happened here. But ive had a number of these current recipients of deferred action come visit me in my office. One young man was 22 years old. He told me hes really worried about his future, and he wants us to try to provide him a predictable future because he wants to make the most of himself. He wants to keep going to school. He wants to contribute to this country that he was p brought to by his parents. And he knows no other country really. Youd have to have at pretty hard heart not to be moved by the story that so many of these young people tell. And i dont believe anybody here wants to do them harm intentionally. But indeed the very people that our democratic colleagues said theyre shutting down the government for are the ones that are suffering and are being hurt because weve stopped negotiations because of this Government Shutdown. This is an issue that deserves its own separate, thoughtful consideration instead of being lumped into a manufactured tug of war over a noncontroversial funding measure. I know it sounds ridiculous when you say it aloud because now we cant probably resume negotiations on daca when were forced to negotiate to reopen our own government. What is really Pretty Amazing to watch is what the minority leader keeps trying to switch the blame to the president. There used to be a time when congress would jealously guard its authority under the constitution and tell the president , no matter whether its a republican or a democrat, that is a congressional prerogative. The constitution provides that authority to the senate and the house, not to the executive branch. That used to be the fights wed have with the executive branch. But now after the democratic leader has simply abdicated his responsibility and tries to blame the president for something he himself created, its turned that whole idea on its head. I for one am not willing to relinquish the Authority Given to the United States senate under the constitution, under the separation of powers. Im not willing to relinquish that to any president. I believe it would be wrong to just say whatever the president wants or says or negotiates, were going to rubber stamp. That would be an abdication of my responsibility to the 28 Million People i represent. Im not going to do that. We come from a big, diverse country of more than 320 Million People. The presiding officer proudly represents the people of the great state of alaska. Their interests and their concerns arent necessarily the same as every other state. They have unique concerns based on their history and culture and location in the world that are different than some of the other 49 states. And thats really the magic of the senate that each of us are here representing our constituents and our given states, and we have the responsibility of trying to build consensus and come up with solutions to problems. But i doubt the presiding officer came here just to be a rumper stamp for any president rubber stamp for any president. Knowing him as i do, im confident thats not the case and im not here to do that either. So to hear the democratic leader say he called this a trump shutdown. When the president didnt vote to filibuster this bill, when this is a congressional responsibility, not an executive branch responsibility, and to somehow then expect all of us to fall in line turns this whole idea of the separation of powers and our constitutional responsibility in the senate on its head. Well, as ive said before, our great country is a product among other things of two great inheritances that we are indeed a nation of immigrants all except a small fraction of the people who live in the United States now came from somewhere else at some point in their family history. My relatives immigrated from ireland in the 19th century, imeim told, following a potato famine. Others left their home country because of religious persecuti persecution. Others came because of their dire economic circumstances and they simply wanted a better life. They wanted a piece of the American Dream. So we all understand that in some ways the fact that we do hold out that promise of more opportunity, of the American Dream for people who come from diverse places around the world, we literally have been the beneficiary of the hard work, determination, intelligence, and resolve of those immigrants that have come here to make america a better place and to pursue their American Dream in the meantime. But the part that some people seem to have forgotten, the second great pillar of what has made America Great is the fact that we believe in the rule of law. We believe in the constitution. We believe in the people being the ultimate word on what the laws are, that the very legitimacy of our laws is derived from the consent of the government. Its not because of some great idea weve come up with here. Its because the American People have consented and given us the authority we need north to pass those laws and to govern our great country. So im all im hoping for that might come out of this mess we find ourselves in now is that somehow, some way working together in a bipartisan way which is the only way anything gets done around here, we can regain our lost legacy as a nation of laws and a nation of iimmigrants. Thats whats made our country so great, in my opinion. Well, one of our democratic colleagues an aide to one of our democratic colleagues was reportedly of saying im concerned we dont have an exit strategy. Well, i think the exit strategy is pretty straightforward, that at 1 00 a. M. Tonight, early tomorrow morning, theyre going to have a chance to vote to reopen the government for three weeks. Again, governing by continuing resolution is a lousy way to govern. Its a miserable way to govern. Its irresponsible but its better than a shutdown. So i hope our colleagues will take advantage of this opportunity, of the conciliatory gesture that the majority leader has made to shorten the length of the continuing resolution that they filibustered that resulted in the shutdown and that they will now vote for this threeweek continuing resolution during which we can reopen negotiations on the daca issue. It could be theres no guarantee, but it could be given three weeks more time. We could come up with a solution to all those issues and more. Disaster relief for puerto rico, for florida, for the virgin islands, for texas. Disaster relief for california and where the wildfires have devastated places out west