The system needs to include technology, whether it is unmanned ariel vehicles, ground sensors, aerostats that we saw high in the sky to try to protect our country against Transnational Criminal Organizations that exploit our porous border to import poison for our people, drugs, illegal drugs, that traffic in children or sex or other illicit purposes, or import their gang members into the United States only to wreak havoc on the communities here in the United States. And you know the object of most of the mayhem associated with that porous border are the immigrant communities in the United States. People act as if theres no negative downside to this porous border and illegal immigration. But i will tell you that frequently the devastation thats wreaked on americans, People Living here in the United States is in immigrant communities where these folks do most of their harm. So we are working very hard to try to come up with a solution here. Its frankly insulting that the democratic leader would try to jam this through and hold hostage all these other very Important Programs when were working in good faith to try to meet that march 5 deadline. I have every confidence we will. Every confidence we will. But its little more complicat complicated. The border that is. One of the things that secretary nielsen, the secretary of the department of homeland security, has pointed out is that because of a provision of u. S. Law, if you immigrate illegally into the United States from mexico, for example, the boarder patrol can offer you the opportunity to return back rather than process you for illegal immigration and later deport you. But not if you come from a no noncontiguous country like central america, guatemala, el salvador, for example, honduras. So what weve seen is thousands of people coming across our southern border exploiting that loophole in our law. Let me give you one example. I asked secretary nielsen the other day. I said, if theres a 17yearold man, you may call him a boy but no all practical purposes he is a man but hes not yet reached 18, and you know from his tatt tattoos frequently thats how gang members are identified by the Border Patrol and Law Enforcement official, from the tattoos that they bear that you know that theyre a member of the ms13 gang, one of the most violent gangs emanating from central america, actually los angeles as well but many of them have migrated back to central america. And many of them prey on children back there but come up here as part of the Drug Distribution network into the United States. If you know this is a member of ms13 but they are 17 years old, is there anything you can do under existing law to bar them from the country . She said no. Under the law theyre required to process that person because he is a minor technically, even though hes a man for all practical purposes. And then health and Human Services must then place him with a sponsor in the United States. Might be a relative. Doesnt have to be a relative. The Previous Administration didnt even vet those sponsors adequately. We dont know how many children who were placed with those sponsors may have been preyed upon, trafficked, recruited as gang members or otherwise abus abused. But this young man, 17 years old, member of ms13 would then be placed with a sponsor in the United States and be told if he had claimed asylum, to come back in a couple of years for your Court Hearing before an immigration judge. Senator lankford, i believe, stated that hundreds of thousands of people are backlogged for hearings before immigration judges. We need more immigration judges. But in the process, theyre told to show back up for a Court Hearing years in the future and only about 10 show up. 10 show up. I used to say this was sort of an intelligence test. Tongue in cheek. If you showed up, you flunked the intelligence test because what most people do is they exploit that vulnerability to simply melt into the Great American landscape and become a danger, frankly, to the communities where they that they ultimately settle in. So this is serious business. My constituents in texas, all 28 million of them, they want a compassionate solution for these Daca Recipients. I mentioned there are 124,000 of them that signed up and there are others that were eligible who did not sign up because theyre afraid of the government. They come from places where the government is their oppressor frequently so they have a hard time trusting government even when the government is trying to help them in the United States. But my constituents want a solution but they are sick and tired of the federal government failing to do its job on the border. An International Border is by definition a federal responsibility, but the taxpayers in texas are required to pick up the tab when the federal government doesnt live up to its responsibilities. And thats been the status quo for as long as i can remember. And its, frankly, galling to hear politicians here in washington say well, we need to do something to help immigrants, and im happy to do it as the occasion as the occasion rises where its appropriate, particularly like the Daca Recipients. Others i think need to be deported as soon as we can because frankly theyre a danger to the rest of the law abiding lawabiding communities here in the country. But its frustrating to hear people just talk about that one one of those two pillars that i mentioned earlier. They say yeah, were a nation of immigrants. We should welcome immigrants, but they dont want to do anything about our porous borders. They could care less about making sure we have enough Border Security to protect us from the drugs, the traffickers, and the violence that finds its way into communities all across our country. So heres the problem. Funding for the federal government expires at midnight tonight. And a partial Government Shutdown will occur if we dont pass a continuing resolution. Our colleagues in the house did their job. They passed a continuing resolution to keep the government up and running til february 16. Now, i really had a hard time believing what i heard my friend senator schumer say last night. He said we need to kill this continuing resolution because we need to pass another continuing resolution because continuing resolutions are bad for the military. Well, he lost me on that argument. Because it makes no sense. It is true that continuing resolutions are bad for the military. Thats why we need to get back into a regular appropriation process, but does he think a shutdown is good for the military . You think a shutdown is good for the nine million children who depend on the Childrens Health insurance program. I think hiez priorities are i think his priorities are completely out of whack. In my home state, to take one example, the Army Medical Command said that 2,539 civilian employees at joint base san antonio will be subject to furlough, representing 188 million in salaries. 12,000 texas guardsmen wont be able to drill either. Im aware of the presiding officers distinguished service in the guard. She knows what im talking about. They wont be able to train. They wont be able to prepare for deemployments to save to protect the homeland. And, of course, they wont get paid. Its estimated that 200,000 texans will be furloughed with a Government Shutdown. So its not just the folks who live in the d. C. Area here in washington, virginia, and maryland where we have a lot of government employees. People across the country will be negatively affected, too. Our democratic colleagues to hold the military funding and Childrens Health insurance hostage is a complete and shameless reversal of what they claimed in the past. Complete and shameless reversal. In 2013 the senior senator from illinois said that a shutdown is, quote, no way to run a country, close quote. He decried what he called political brinksmanship saying we need to stop manufacturing one crisis after the next. Well, i wish he and his colleagues would look in the mirror and listen to their own previous comments. America needs them to. The truth is, as the Senate Majority leader has said, our friends on the other side of the aisle do not oppose a single thing in the bill that the house passed yesterday. They dont oppose anything in the bill. The Senate Majority leader is right that this should be an easy yes vote for every senator in the chamber. The bill continues government funding, prevents a needless shutdown, and as i said, extends a key Health Insurance program for vulnerable children. How in the heck did we get here . How did the democrats decide that no was the right answer. Well, we worked hard last month and this month to determine long spending caps that would bring stability caps back to government funding. One of the biggest issues was to try to make sure we funded our military in a way that helped them prepare and get ready to fight our nations wars or better yet, to prevent future wars by demonstrating the kind of strength and leadership that people have come to expect if the United States military. But our democratic leadership made it clear they would stall a final agreement on those spending caps til this unrelated issue of deferred action for childhood arrivals weve been talking about, daca, which doesnt expire til march 5 and they were going to hold all the rest of that hostage until it was resolved. They made it clear they were willing to shut down vital programs for the rest of the country because we havent agreed on how to resolve that issue. But were working hard on it. I had another meeting here today on that. Ive actually had three meetings today on that topic. And were going to get it done before the deadline. And while that issue is important and affects roughly 690,000 people, our country is made up of over 320 Million People. People who pay taxes, people expect the federal government to work for them. They sure dont expect to be not paid or laid off or furloughed if youre a government employee. If youre a citizen expecting the government to provide some service but because the bills arent being paid because democrats have shutdown the government, youre being denied access to the services that you have a right to expect, too. Our democratic colleagues are engaged in a dangerous game of chicken. They could well crash the government just to appease extreme elements in their party. And all of it, every bit of it, is absolutely unnecessary. Lets call this what it is. Our colleagues playing favorites and turning their backs on military families and the security needs of the American People. I think after theyve had a good nights sleep last night, they probably woke up this morning think, what have we done, how do we get out of this . Thats why i know the president called senator schumer, the democratic leader, over to the white house earlier today. The report i got was senator schumer said lets have another shortterm continuing resolution maybe til next tuesday. Well, that wouldnt solve anything. That would make none of this better. It would just continue the chaos and leave all the things we need to settle unsettled. Well, the president did the right thing. He told him look, you go back and you talk to the speaker and the Senate Majority leader, and you guys work that out. This is what youre getting paid for. Get her done. Thats good advice. But the threat of a shutdown by the democratic leader and his colleagues ignores the overwhelming majority of this country that they suddenly feel are not as important as the few that theyre focused on, the Daca Recipients. All Senate FinanceCommittee Democrats voted for a fiveyear schip expansion extension in october. So theyve now actually voted against or threatening to vote against a program that Senate Democrats on the finance committee voted for. I guess in the immortal words of john kerry they were for it before they were against it. Have they forgotten that if democrats shut down the government, nearly nine million kids could lose their chip coverage . And why . Because we havent yet been able to come up with an agreement on something, an immigration issue. But our deadline isnt until march. Not today, not yesterday. Its march 5. We expect to get it done earlier. Have they forgotten the 78 of defense workers that could be furloughed . Laid off. Active duty troops as well as guard and reserve members would not get paid. In virginia, theres some 178,000 federal workers. In maryland there are over 145,000. I hope theyre on the phone calling their senators and their congress people. Those are two states that are both represented by members prepared to shut down the government tonight. In texas, as i said, there are some 200,000 federal employees, and all of them will be affected. And everybody else who depends on them to protect our state and our communities or to provide services that benefit everybody else, theyre going to be negatively impacted too. Paychecks could cease. Services will be disrupted all because of an unrelated immigration issue that wont get resolved if the government shuts down. Thats whats so maddening. Shutting down the government wont solve that problem. I think theyre out over their skis and theyre trying to figure out how do we get this thing back and save face in the process. Theyre realizing that this is a very bad judgment call and that their action was entirely disproportionate to resolving the issue they want to resolve, and one that were determined to resolve with them in due course. Lets recall that the 2013 shutdown resulted in the furlough of 850,000 employees and billions of dollars of lost economic productivity. So when the senior senator from california said yesterday that the results of a shutdown are extremely dire, she wasnt being hyperbolic. She wasnt exaggerating when she talked about the big risks that lie ahead if we dont act. Well, i pray that she and her democratic colleagues stop stalling, stop playing favorites, and stop daring us to engage in a game of chicken. Ill say it again one last time, madam president. We have been negotiating in good faith on a solution for the Daca Recipients, and we will continue to do so. But shutting down the government will not solve that problem, and millions of people, including our military, Law Enforcement, and Emergency Personnel could lose their paycheck if democrats follow through on their threat. So the time to stop playing games is now, and we urge them no, we implore them, do not shut down the government. I yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from arkansas. Mr. Boozman madam president , i rise today to express my support and highlight the importance of reauthorizing the Childrens Health insurance program, chip. It expired in september causing great concern and worry for families and providers who depend on this program to care for our nations neediest programs. Many states have been operating on reserve funds which will soon run out. Its time we provide the program with the necessary funding to take care of americas children. I know arkansas families who rely on the program to provide medical care for their children are pleased with the inclusion of a sixyear reauthorization for chip included in the legislation before this chamber. This would mark the longest extension for the Program Since its interception. I want to thank chairman hatch, the original author of chip, for his dedication to the health of our nations children and his bipartisan effort with Ranking Member wyden thats brought a fiveyear chip reauthorization out of the Senate FinanceCommittee Last fall. Approximately 50,000 children in arkansas and nearly nine million lowincome children nationwide receive health care through chip. Currently these children, their families and providers are living in a cloud of anxious uncertainty. Take, for instance, this story of a young arkansan. In little rock, a precious little girl marks the milestone of turning eight months old tomorrow in the care of arkansas Childrens Hospital fighting an infection. Shes been in the pediatric intensive care unit and other floors there since the day she turned two months old. Her mother and her four our children spends every hour she can at her daughters bedside. Every one of those hours and an hour spent away from the babys brothers and sisters, two and a half hours away in fort smith. Again, she has other children shes trying to take care of at the present time also. In addition to her medical condition, her mothers worried because her daughters care is covered by chip. As much as she looks forward to bringing her daughter home, this mother knows that even though supplies she needs to make that happen, tubes, medicine, fluids all of those are at risk without that coverage. This Story Highlights the reality so many families are currently facing. Failing to reauthorize this Important Program would have real direct and serious consequences. We must work to ensure these fami