Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, over the weekend, President Trump launched a series of insults at Democratic congresswomen, suggesting they ``go back'' to the countries they came from, despite the fact that three of the four were born in the United States and that citizenship in America, by birth or naturalization, is inherently equal and has been for centuries.

These lawmakers are women of color. Telling them to ``go back'' to their countries is one of the oldest and crudest tropes to malign nonwhite Americans. The President's comments drip with racism.

We don't know why the President woke up on Saturday and made these comments--perhaps to distract from his administration's barbaric immigration policy, which rips children away from their parents, even little children; perhaps to distract from the humanitarian crisis he has exacerbated at our border and perhaps to detract from his planned but not really executed deportation raids, which many in his own bureaucracy do not want to carry out and feel are difficult to carry out in a fair way because they can't be done fairly. Perhaps it is even to distract from his administration's attempt to dismantle our healthcare system through the courts. Maybe the President just feels comfortable stoking racial divisions in this country. Maybe that is his milieu. After all, this is part of a pattern of behavior that began with the birther treatment of President Obama and his characterization of Mexicans in his announcement speech, continued with his attack on an American-born judge of Mexican descent, his proposed Muslim ban, his response to Charlottesville, and includes comments about Caribbean and African nations that cannot be repeated here on the floor of the Senate.

Whatever the reason, whatever the motivation, the President's comments demand condemnation from all corners of the political spectrum--all corners. It has become frightfully common for many of my Republican colleagues to let these moments sail by without saying even a word.

Republican leadership especially rarely criticizes the President directly, even in a situation like this that so clearly merits it. I am left to wonder if the silence of many Republicans in the wake of President Trump's xenophobic tweets is out of embarrassment or agreement--embarrassment or agreement. Both are inexcusable.

Some of my Republican colleagues are hoping that the President realizes the error of his ways and disavows or deletes his tweets from yesterday. But the President just walked out of the White House a few hours ago and doubled down on his racist comments.

My Republican friends, he is not backing off. Where are you when something this serious, this bigoted, this un-American, happens? If you are saying to yourselves ``Well, he got us our big tax cut; well, he's taking regulations off big corporations; well, he pulled out of the Paris Accords, so we have to go along with this racism,'' you are making a deal with the devil. It is so wrong, so wrong.

The President of the United States is supposed to bring this country together. It is clear this President will not, doesn't want to, and revels in dividing us. No American President has done this. No American President has resorted to open and bold-faced bigotry so often. His goal--President Trump's goal--sadly is not to unite but to divide. That is how he has climbed the ladder politically, and it is just awful.

It is incumbent on all of us, Democrat and Republican, to call him out when he does this and remind the President and the country what America truly stands for. Anything short of that is insufficient and is un-American.

It could be argued that Republicans who fail to do so because of shame, because they are afraid of offending the President's supporters, because they are afraid of the President, or worse, because they agree with the President--those who fail to condemn the President are fellow travelers on the President's racist road, whatever their motivation.

Speaker Pelosi has said that the House will introduce a resolution denouncing the President's comments. Our intention is to do the same in the Senate. We will see how many Republicans will sign on.

Mr. President, on another matter, last Friday, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, I am happy to say that the House reauthorized the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund and made it virtually permanent.

I want to thank all of my colleagues in the House. Above all, I want to commend the first responders for their advocacy and support of this legislation. The first responders are the heroes of this story. They are the Washingtons and the Madisons and the Monroes of the 21st century, the great Americans--each in their own modest way. Not only did they rush to the towers on that fateful day, risking their lives to save others, but then, when the illnesses started coming upon them, even though many of them were sick, they came to Washington and fought tirelessly for their brothers and sisters who might get sick in the future. Zadroga and Feal, Pfeiffer and Alvarez--these are the names of American heroes. They represent the greatness of America. We should honor them now by passing the House bill to reauthorize the Victim Compensation Fund as soon as possible--no more delays, no strings attached, no waiting for some other must-pass vehicle to attach it to. The bill passed the House with such overwhelmingly bipartisan support that it deserves a clean vote in the Senate.

I say to my friend, Republican Leader McConnell: If it is good enough for Leader McCarthy and Whip Scalise, who voted for it, surely it is good enough for the Republican leader in the Senate.

Only 12 voted against it. So many very conservative Republicans--many tea party Republicans--voted for the bill in the House. That bill is the bill that should be brought to the floor, brought here quickly. It will pass overwhelmingly and could be on the President's desk, certainly in the next week.

If Leader McConnell would put this bill on the floor this week, it would pass this week. It would go to the President's desk this week. It would be signed into law this week, and we could put this issue to rest this week, once and for all.

We can't put the illnesses to rest. Those first responders, many of whom have gotten ill, too many of whom have passed away, and many more of whom have these illnesses in their bodies but they don't even know it yet--they could then do their job of helping heal their fellow first responders and helping heal themselves and looking after their families. They wouldn't have to keep coming here.

We need to move this bill quickly. I urge Leader McConnell, once again, to put the bill on the floor, honor those brave first responders who are no different from our soldiers and our Armed Forces who rushed to danger and risked their lives for us and our freedom. Put it on the floor, and we can get this done. We can get it done this week.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, first, let me thank my friend from Missouri for what he and Senator Stabenow are trying to do on mental health. I know some States were included and other States were not, so I support that aspect of what he was talking about.

2020 Census

Madam President, later today, President Trump will give a news conference in the Rose Garden about his attempts to create an Executive order to add citizenship questions to the 2020 census. That is outrageous. It is outrageous substantively, and it is outrageous because this President has so little respect for the rule of law. He thinks he can just issue Executive orders and go around the Congress, go around established law, and try to bully the courts. I believe he will be thwarted by the courts, and this will be a real test of John Roberts and the Supreme Court, whether they stand for the rule of law or are always looking for an excuse to move the country rightward. We will see.

Today, the Trump administration has provided no legitimate legal rationale for adding this question to the census. Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that Justice Department lawyers ``resigned from the lawsuit out of ethical concerns and a belief that the suit was unwinnable.''

Well, we all know what is going on. The Trump administration doesn't have a legitimate legal rationale. The true motivation was even clear before the papers of that deceased designer of this question came to light. The true rationale is blatantly political and self-serving. President Trump wants to include the citizenship question to intimidate minorities--particularly Latinos--from answering the census so that it undercuts those communities and Republicans can redraw congressional districts to their advantage.

The Census Bureau itself determined weeks ago that including such a question would result in a significant undercount. That alone is enough for disqualification. That is not what the Constitution says-- manipulate the census so you don't get an accurate count. The President knows this. Yet he continues to pursue a cynical idea--typical of the President--cynical and against minorities, with no respect for the rule of law, mores, and values that made this country great. Day by day, he destroys them. Day by day.

The President's action is nothing more than a naked political power grab, which is one of the few things he is good at as President. It shows once again just how little respect the President has for our democracy. It is also one prong in the Trump administration's multifaceted attack on communities of color. They are doing another one today in addition to this, which I will speak about in a minute.

Let's not forget that the census is a constitutional mandate. It has been conducted impartially by Democratic and Republican administrations alike since 1790. It should be beyond the reach of partisan politics. But this President has such disdain for constitutional law norms and the rule of law that he will try anything to set the rules to his advantage, even if it means circumventing Congress and circumventing the courts. This is what dictators do in banana republics. They try to change the rules to consolidate political power no matter what their constitutions and rule of law say. The President is moving us in that direction, and our Republican colleagues are supine. They say nothing. Many of them know what he is doing is wrong, and knees clatter because they are too afraid to tell the President he is wrong.

The American people should be outraged about this. Republican Senators should be outraged about this, but, like so many other instances in which the President subverts our Democratic norms, the silence from Republicans in Congress has been deafening and degrading to the very fabric of this wonderful democracy that the President day by day tries--usually unsuccessfully, thank God--to undo.

Madam President, on the ICE raids, last night the New York Times reported another thing President Trump was trying to do--ordering ICE to resume plans to carry out nasty deportation raids over the weekend. His plan will tear families apart and disrupt immigrant communities across America, including immigrants here legally and those in the process of legally applying for asylum. Cruelty. Cruelty seems to be the point of these raids. This is not an effort to root out dangerous individuals. This is an act of brutish force designed to spread fear in the immigrant community. Steve Miller whispers in the President's ear: Treat them cruelly. Make them afraid, and maybe they will not come.

They are going to come. The dangers in their home countries are much worse. What would any citizen do in America or any other place in the world if a gang came to you and said: I am going to rape your daughter unless you do what I want; I am going to kill your son; I am going to burn your House--you would flee.

These are not criminals. They are people trying to preserve their families, their children, their lives. Yet the President--egged on by some of the rightwing news media--tries to make Americans believe they are all criminals. Sure, if one of these folks is a bank robber or a burglar or hurts somebody, they should be out--one, two, three.

If they are simply trying to escape brutality, we still should have rule of law, but they should be treated with some decency, honor, and humanity. That has been the American tradition for some 200-odd years.

The President's policy is not only cruel--that is the worst of it-- but it is brainless. When it comes to intelligently using our immigration resources, the administration should focus on the small minority that are actually criminals, not families and not 10-year- olds.

These raids will not make America safer. They will not solve our immigration challenges for the reasons I mentioned. They will, instead, terrorize innocent families and rip children away from their parents. I warn President Trump, the pictures of these raids aren't going to be pretty. Average Americans who may agree with him on many issues will be appalled.

President Trump, you are going to have to back off from this cruel policy because the American people are a lot better than you. They will see the pictures. What are they going to do with a father driving his child to school? Will they stop the car, pull the father out? They have done that. Will they let the 8-year-old sit in the car traumatized? They have done that.

President Trump, mark my words, there will be a huge backlash against this. The American people are not cruel like you in this regard.

I would plead with the President to call off these raids. We Democrats have proposed real solutions to the same migration problems that will stop the influx or greatly reduce the influx at the border. We would simply say: Let these would-be immigrants from Nicaragua and El Salvador and Honduras apply for asylum and beef up the number of immigration judges so they can get an adjudication quickly. If they are turned down, they can't come. Tough luck. If they get asylum, they should be welcomed here as America has always welcomed people, as that great Lady in the Harbor of the city I come from has done for centuries. That is the solution.

We should also help these countries go after the gangs that are making the people flee. Go after MS-13 down there. Go after the drug dealers. Go after the coyotes. It was working in the last few months of the Obama administration and even the first few months of the Trump administration, until the President rescinded the policy because he got mad at somebody, which is typical of how he operates. That is what we should do.

Until then, when these folks get to the border, I call on the President to work with us to put an end to the cruelty that the migrants are being shown when they come into U.S. custody. They are a small percentage of the people in this country. It is not a large number in terms of our total population.

Another round of reports this week describes the horrid conditions endured by migrant children at our border. Facilities built for no more than 100 people are now housing up to 700 children. Many have nothing to sleep on, no change of clothes, and sometimes not enough food. These are reports from the President's own executive agencies, not from someone outside. In Arizona, these kids are reportedly being abused. CBP agents use racist slurs, deprive them of sleeping mats and, in one case, according to the report, potentially assaulted a 15-year-old girl. It is barbaric. It is not American.

We need to put an end to this behavior now. We have just passed a supplemental appropriations bill to provide more resources to improve conditions and speed the asylum process, but it didn't go far enough. That is why, later today, I will join with my colleagues Senators Merkley and Feinstein to introduce the Stop Cruelty to Migrant Children Act. This new legislation would establish mandatory standards for the appropriate and humane treatment of children. It would make it easier for children to be connected with sponsors and legal counsel, and it would, once and for all, end the inhumane practice of separating families, pulling children--even little children--away from their parents. Democrats have been fighting for these provisions for months. We were able to secure some of them in the last border supplemental, but unfortunately our Republican colleagues blocked many additional provisions from going into the bill. This new legislation marks a clear bright line of what is left to be done. Now the only question that looms is, Will Leader McConnell finally stand up for the children and work with us to pass these new standards into law?

I want to thank Senators Merkley and Feinstein for working on this very important bill. It is a necessary step to restoring America's moral credibility. A nation as powerful as ours has no need or right to treat the weak and suffering this way. We can deal with our immigration issues with dignity, common sense, and rule of law. The bill is how we get that done.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, a new report from NBC News last night detailed the inhumane treatment of migrant children at the Arizona border stations: allegations of sexual assault, retaliation by Customs and Border Protection officers, overcrowding, lack of showers, lack of clean clothes, and lack of space to sleep. The accounts made by dozens of children at these facilities are horrifying and are completely unacceptable.

In the wake of several similar reports about the treatment of migrants by CBP officers in Texas, in the wake of revelations of secret Facebook groups where Border Patrol officers joke about the horrid treatment of migrants, it is abundantly clear that there is a toxic culture at Border Patrol that can only be changed--only be changed--by the immediate firing and replacing of top leadership at the Agency. CBP needs to clean house. The top people at CBP ought to be fired now.

In just a few days on the job, Mark Morgan, the Acting Commissioner, has already shown himself to be far too callous about the way in which children and their families are treated. We need committed law enforcement professionals to take over the CBP, particularly those who have training and expertise in working with vulnerable populations.

There are rumors that Mr. Morgan was chosen because he is a tough guy--a tough guy--on kids. But he is a tough guy who will tolerate an out-of-control culture in many parts of the CBP.

It is a perfectly wrong choice for what is going on there. I will say this to President Trump. He is not going to help you. Whatever Americans' views are on immigration, they don't like pictures of little children in squalid and awful conditions, whoever they are.

The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, who oversees CBP, needs to take this matter into his own hands. He has shown far more balance, far more expertise, and far more ability to talk about the truth--not some ideology--than Morgan or some of the others. He should take this matter into his own hands and pursue changes to the Agency that go beyond mere investigations and reports.

CBP needs a real change in personnel and in leadership, and it needs it now. The reports by NBC News and many others are a stain on this great Nation. We are not perfect. We are a lot better than most everyone else. But in the past, when there was a problem, we didn't revel in it; we tried to solve it. We cannot allow what is happening at the border to continue.

Mr. President, on another matter, a few weeks ago, it was reported that the author of a blatantly, virulently anti-Semitic cartoon depicting the Rothschilds and Soros was invited--actually invited to a social media summit at the White House. Up until yesterday, when the White House was asked questions about why he was invited, there was no answer. Reportedly, some in the administration privately defended the invitation of this out-and-out bigot. Only last night when it all became public did the White House finally revoke the invitation. But it is an absolute disgrace that it was extended in the first place and that it took them long to rescind. And it is a disgrace that the White House has not rescinded the invitations for several other individuals planning to attend who have spewed hateful and bigoted views online.

The plain truth is this: This President and this administration are shockingly willing to provide succor to some of the most hateful ideologues, ideologies, and viewpoints. The President has promoted White supremacists on his Twitter feed while constantly criticizing social media platforms for removing hateful content. In doing so, he has defended people like Alex Jones and his detestable, conspiracy- ridden radio show.

The idea that everybody should be able to post on social media sites no matter how disgusting the content is wrong, in my view. When vicious, racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic hate speech is posted online, social media sites, as private companies, should be able to remove that content. But this President amazingly seems to believe that when offensive language is coming from a rightwing source and it is taken off social media sites, that is censorship. That is the message this social media summit seeks to advance, and it is un-American.

At the same time, we hear that the White House and congressional Republicans are all too eager to decry anti-Semitism when they perceive it from a political opponent on the left. Well, where are those folks when the White House does something like this? Where are they? It seems some of our friends on the other side of the aisle want to politicize the issue of anti-Semitism, which should be condemned when anybody talks about it, but unfortunately we heard silence from our Republican friends when this virulently anti-Semitic cartoonist was invited to the White House--not a peep. And what he did was despicable and reminiscent of what was done before dictatorships took over in Europe.

The White House was right to revoke the invitation. It never should have been issued in the first place. A social media summit designed to give support to the most radical viewpoints on social media should never have been planned by the White House in the first place. It should be obvious, but with this President, unfortunately, the obvious bears repeating: The President of the United States should appeal to the better angels of our nature and not provide support to the basest voices in our society. It is another reason this Presidency is just a disgrace--a disgrace in terms of American values, American morals, and American honesty.

Mr. President, now on election security, later this afternoon, Members from both sides of the aisle will take part in an all-Senate briefing on the threats faced by our elections in the 2020 campaign cycle. We are all no doubt aware of the general threat to our elections from foreign interference. It is crucial to hear from our law enforcement, defense, and intelligence communities about the specific nature of those threats and, just as important--probably more important--how we can counteract them and how we can prevent foreign interference in the 2020 election, which everybody, regardless of party--Democratic, Republican, liberal, or conservative--should be against. This is one of the things the Founding Fathers were most afraid of, that foreign powers would seek to

interfere in our elections. It didn't seem too much of a problem for decades and centuries, but it has now reared its ugly head--by the way, showing the amazing wisdom of the Washingtons and the Madisons and the Franklins and the Founding Fathers.

The briefing we are going to have should serve as a turning point for this Chamber. It should focus our attention and spark an urgent debate on how to protect our democracy from future attacks. The briefing this afternoon should be a springboard for action. So I was amazed to listen to Republican Leader McConnell this morning, who, before the briefing has even taken place, seems to be prejudging the results of the meeting, saying that another Washington intervention in this matter is misguided. I was amazed to hear Leader McConnell take credit for the election security funding which Democrats fought tooth and nail to include in the Appropriations bill and which was initially opposed by many of our Republican colleagues. They skip over the fact that Leader McConnell and Republicans are right now blocking our efforts to include additional resources this year.

Leader McConnell, if you are bragging about having put it in in 2016 and the FBI says the threat in 2020 will be greater, why aren't you letting us put more money in now? Why aren't you supporting that?

It makes no sense--a contradiction once again.

And here, amazingly enough, we hear Leader McConnell echoing President Trump blaming President Obama for the interference in the 2016 election--blaming President Obama. The Russians interfered. They certainly had conversations with the Trump administration. Donald Trump encouraged them to interfere, publicly. And now Leader McConnell has the temerity to blame President Obama? What a remarkable feat of revisionist history.

Let's be clear on two things. First, President Putin interfered in our elections, and he is to blame. Second, the Trump administration has not done enough to hold him and his oligarchs accountable. President Trump recently, when he met with President Putin, sort of made a joke of it. That is disgraceful. That is un-American. That is not defending the security of America.

Now, according to reports, we learn that the majority leader refused to work on a bipartisan basis to warn the public about Putin's interference in our elections in the midst of the 2016 election. And he blames President Obama when he was the one who didn't want to make it public? Give us a break.

We have a duty to the country to take this seriously and not whitewash the facts or prejudge the conclusions. This is about protecting the wellspring of our democracy--it is not political--and ensuring Americans have absolute faith that our elections will be free and fair.

It is unbelievable that in this Trump administration, unlike any other administration--Democratic or Republican--before it, interference in the election by a foreign power is made political. It is a disgrace.

I hope today's briefing provides Members with specific information about what the departments and agencies are doing to combat the threat to our elections and what we ought to do next. After it concludes, we cannot let this issue sit on the back burner. Democrats and Republicans alike must roll up their sleeves and get to work--the majority leader included.

Madam President, yesterday, I sent a letter to U.S. soccer that officially invited the U.S. women's soccer team to come to the Senate to celebrate their outstanding World Cup victory. Happily, I heard last night that Megan Rapinoe, one of the team's cocaptains and stars of the tournament, has accepted our invitation. I greatly look forward to scheduling a time when these inspiring women can come to the Nation's Capital.

What they have accomplished on and off the pitch is a credit to our Nation. Millions of young girls and young boys look up to these players. Millions of women, sports fans or not, admire the light they have shown on the disparities between the men's and women's game--part of a broader fight for equal treatment and fair pay in the workplace for all women.

I believe it would be a fitting tribute to this great women's soccer team to bring legislation to the Senate floor that would make it easier for women to get equal pay in the workplace. The House has already passed a bill to do just that. I call on Leader McConnell, again, to bring that bill to the floor of the Senate, particularly in light of the great victory of the women's team and the knowledge that they get paid much less than the men, even though they work just as hard and bring, at least in recent years, even greater glory to the United States.

Wouldn't it be great if we could pass that bill while the women's national team is visiting the Chamber? Wouldn't that send a powerful message of our commitment to rooting out discrimination everywhere?

I urge Leader McConnell to consider it. Right now that bill lies in Leader McConnell's all-too-full legislative graveyard. Perhaps this great victory might spring it free so that we could do something for women's equality.