Floor Statements

Mr. President, as we continue discussions about another extension of government funding, Senate negotiators are working on a deal to lift the spending caps for both defense and urgent domestic priorities.

From the very beginning of the budget debate, Democrats have made our position in these negotiations very clear. We support an increase in funding for our military and our middle class. The two are not mutually exclusive. We don't want to do just one and leave the other behind. The sequester caps have arbitrarily imposed austerity on both sides of the ledger, defense and the nondefense programs that benefit middle-class people, such as education, infrastructure, and medical research. The caps have hamstrung the Pentagon's ability to make reliable investments, no doubt, but they have also cut support harshly and unintelligently from middle-class programs.

We ought to get out from sequestration entirely because our men and women in uniform deserve the resources they need to keep our country safe--as do our veterans waiting for better healthcare; as do young men and women, many of them veterans, seeking treatment for opioid addiction; as do rural families waiting for high-speed internet to connect themselves and their kids to the world; as do hard-working pensioners who forewent salary increases and bonuses to secure a pension that is now evaporating before their very eyes.

That is why Democrats have pushed consistently to increase funding to fight the scourge of opioids, to improve veterans healthcare, to build rural infrastructure, to shore up pensions, and to deal with childcare. These are the kinds of things we are pushing for in addition to, not to the exclusion of, increasing defense.

Some of our Republican colleagues, particularly in the House, think that only defense should get the help it needs, not the middle class. We Democrats have stood against that for years and will continue to stand against it.

House Republicans continue marching down a very partisan road, proposing a CRomnibus that will raise defense spending but leave everything else behind. As I have said many times before, a CRomnibus will not pass the Senate.

Speaker Ryan and House Republicans keep running into the same brick wall. When will House Republicans learn that they must chart a bipartisan course to get a bill through the Senate? I don't think a single Democrat--that I am aware of, at least--has been consulted on the Republican bill. It is done because Speaker Ryan is in a

pickle. How is he going to pass a bill with just Republican votes? It is not easy. So they come up with this distorted, unfair proposal-- unfair to so many people in the middle class who depend on our help.

Hopefully, House Republicans will change their tune, because even though a deal has eluded us for months, negotiators are now making significant progress. The Republican leader and I have been working together quite productively. Of course, there are still some outstanding issues to be resolved, but we are closer to an agreement than we have ever been.

I would like to express my appreciation to the Republican leader, in addition, for his invitation to address the McConnell Center next week in Louisville, which I have accepted.

As leaders, the two of us can work together to get things done around here, and the best opportunity to work together is the budget. It is an opportunity not just for us but for our country, not only to escape the terrible damage of sequestration but to condemn it to the past, and we should seize that opportunity.

Mr. President, now for a word on the Russia investigation, last night the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the contents of the Schiff memo. Now that the House Intelligence Committee has acted, President Trump should move--in conjunction with the DOJ and the FBI--and release the Schiff memo to the public. The American people deserve the chance to make their own judgment on the facts of this small piece of the broader case of Russia's interference in our election.

The President decided the public deserved to see the Nunes memo before he had even read it. So he ought to be just as eager for the American people to see this memo, which refutes--effectively, devastatingly--so much in the Nunes memo.

Given that the Schiff memo is based on the same underlying documents as the Republicans' partisan memo, there should be no question as to whether or not the President should approve its release. If he decides to keep the Democratic memo under wraps, the American people are going to be forced to wonder: What is the President trying to hide? What is he afraid of?

President Trump should release the Schiff memo--and quickly. It will illustrate what a sham the Nunes memo is. Then, we can all move on and, as some of my good Republican colleagues have had the courage to say-- not enough, but some: Let Mueller do his investigation unimpeded, and let's see where the results end up.

We need to move on. The Nunes memo is only the latest in a long line of distractions manufactured by the most extreme elements of the Republican Party and the conservative media to distract from the special counsel's investigation. It started with conspiracies about ``deep state'' leaks and unmasking requests, phone taps at Trump Tower, and Uranium One, and now it is this memo. They don't quit with all these conspiracy theories, with all these ridiculous fomentations. They don't quit, perhaps because they are afraid of what a real investigation, which Mueller is doing and will continue to do, will reveal.

What the American people want to know are three simple things: One, what did the Russians do to interfere in our elections; two, were there Americans involved in helping the Russians; and three, what are we doing to prevent the Russians from interfering in 2018 and beyond? To that point, Americans should be much more concerned about this administration's tepid response to Putin's interference in our election than about a memo of Republican talking points.

Any other administration, any other President, I believe, would have made punishing Putin and protecting our democracy a primary issue in the first term, but this President began his first year in office by downplaying Putin's involvement in the 2016 election, and then he repeatedly accepted Putin's words of denial over the consensus of the American intelligence community.

When the administration tried to wiggle out of existing sanctions against Russia, Congress overwhelmingly and almost unanimously passed legislation strengthening the existing sanctions and adding new ones to address the interference. We are still waiting for President Trump to implement the new round of sanctions. What is he waiting for? Why does he refuse to get tough with Putin? We look to the President of the United States to stand up for our democracy against all threats, but unfortunately and sadly--bad for America--President Trump has abdicated this responsibility when it comes to Putin.

I yield the floor.

I know my good friend from Illinois will have his usual thoughtful and articulate remarks to give.

Mr. President, first, it is always a pleasure to hear from my friend, the Senator from Utah, when I agree with him and even when I don't.

It is serious stuff.

Mr. President, we must pass another extension of government funding by this Thursday. There isn't much time to waste, and yet Speaker Ryan is again considering a CRomnibus--a short-term extension of funding for urgent domestic priorities but a long-term extension and a large increase in funding for defense--to placate the ultraconservatives in his caucus.

Of course, a CRomnibus is merely a ruse designed to slash funding for education, healthcare, infrastructure, and scientific research--all the things that many in the Freedom Caucus don't want the government to support. That is why 44 Senate Democrats warned our Republican colleagues in a letter last year that we wouldn't support a CRomnibus and that it could never pass the Senate.

We want to fund defense, absolutely, but we also want to fund programs that help the middle class, like education, like infrastructure, like scientific research. We are standing up and saying we must do both. That is how this body works. Different people have different views, and we compromise. Maybe there are some on my side who don't want to spend as much on defense as the Republican side does, but it is a compromise. I, for one, appreciate that we need robust defense spending.

Sending a CRomnibus to the Senate--one that just funded defense and cut programs crucial to the middle class--would be barreling head-first into a dead end. Speaker Ryan needs to do what is best for the country and work in a bipartisan way to fund the government, even if not every faction of his caucus will go along. If he lets the Freedom Caucus be the tail that wags the dog, there is no way we will reach an agreement that can pass the Senate, and it would jeopardize the positive discussions going on right now about the budget, disaster aid, immigration, and more.

Now, for a word on the Republican tax bill, even as corporations plow tens of billions of dollars into share-buybacks and stock-repurchasing programs, instead of raising wages or hiring more workers, President Trump and congressional Republicans are doing their best to portray their $1.5 trillion corporate giveaway as a boost to working Americans.

I am sure that President Trump's address in Ohio today will focus on the few companies that have given bonuses, but I wonder how many of those bonuses delivered around Christmas were annual and would have been given anyway. I wonder how many of those bonuses were linked to the tax bill in corporate press releases to curry favor with the President, even though they would have been given anyway.

I bet President Trump will not mention a thing about the slew of layoffs and stock buybacks in the wake of the bill. I bet he will not dare mention that 80 percent of the benefits of this bill went to the top 1 percent and that the middle class should have gotten a lot more than they are getting. We all know that corporations have spent billions enriching their shareholders,

while the middle class is waiting for the trickle-down effects that may never come.

Imagine if all the money that went into tax breaks for corporations and the superrich went to the middle class instead. If that were the case, then President Trump would actually have something to boast about in Ohio today.

This weekend Speaker Ryan showed just how far Republicans will strain credulity to claim their tax bill helps working Americans. He tweeted: ``A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week . . . she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year.''

Someone must have told him how out of touch that was because Speaker Ryan soon deleted the tweet. As high school secretaries get $1.50 a week in savings, the wealthiest 0.1 percent of Americans are getting an average of about $3,000 a week--high school secretary, $1.50; top 0.1 percent, $3,000 a week. Because of the tax bill, the Lancaster secretary may well be able to afford a membership to a big-box store, but the top 0.1 percent can now afford a new Bentley. Is that fair? Is that right? Is that what the American people wanted? No way. No way.

All the propaganda and millions of dollars of ads from the Koch brothers and all these other rich people--the handful of rich people who have so much say on the Republican side--all the ads they will pay for will not make up for that fact, and the American people see it.

The fundamental unfairness at the center of the Republican tax bill is this. Corporations and the superrich are having a bonanza while American workers are left with paltry savings. Considering the Republicans spent $1.5 trillion in Federal resources to pass their tax bill, the middle class should have gotten a whole lot more--a lot more than $1.50 a week.

When President Trump takes the stump in Ohio, we can expect to hear a lot of talk about how his tax bill is helping American workers, but every American should know that the reality is different.

Mr. President, on Friday, the Trump administration declassified and released the contents of the deceptive Nunes memo. It is the latest distraction concocted by Republicans to protect the President of their party from the conclusions of a truly independent investigation. Shamefully, it is the latest abuse in a long line of partisan broadsides against the FBI, the Nation's premier law enforcement agency. These attacks erode faith in the rule of law.

At least the American people can now see the Nunes memo for what it truly is: an impotent document of GOP talking points. Far from being the smoking gun that many Republicans, rightwing media outlets, and Russia-linked bots claimed it would be, the Nunes memo just blows smoke. It is full of misleading conclusions based on innuendo.

What it does confirm does not vindicate the President or prove bias at the Department of Justice. It confirms that the Steele dossier was not the catalyst for the Russia investigation, debunking a favorite rightwing talking point. Let that sink in. The FBI was concerned about Trump campaign advisers linked to Putin's spy services before--let me repeat, before--the Steele dossier existed. This idea that the Steele dossier created all this is just plain wrong, and even their own memo admits it.

The Nunes memo also confirms that a three-judge panel, on multiple occasions, thought it was in the best interest of our national security to monitor a Trump campaign adviser for his troubling links with the Kremlin.

Seeing as House Republicans saw fit to release the contents of their partisan memo, they should certainly support the release of the memo prepared by Ranking Member Schiff. If House Republicans had any semblance of fairness, they would vote to release the Schiff memo. It is based on the same underlying documents. If it was all right to release the Republican memo on these documents, it should be all right to release a Democratic memo based on the same documents.

Meanwhile, President Trump still refuses to implement the sanctions that passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress. I have to say, if President Trump and his allies spent half the time standing up to Putin as they do attacking our own FBI, we might actually get somewhere with Putin. But the administration seems to fear doing anything to upset him. The American people ask: Why? Why is Donald Trump so afraid to upset Mr. Putin?

What are they so afraid of? It is inexplicable to me that the President of the United States and his allies are far more concerned with attacking American law enforcement agencies than standing up to Russia. President Putin interfered with our sacred democratic process. The very process we exalt--correctly so--in our schools and teach our children is so wonderful, Putin is trying to make a sham of. He is trying to interfere with it. We hardly hear a peep out of President Trump and so many Republicans on this side of the aisle who used to go after Putin, to their credit, regularly.

We have an investigation into the matter of Putin's engagement in our elections by one of the most trusted and nonpartisan civil servants in Washington, but because that investigation might include some wrongdoing by the President or his close associates, too many Republicans in Congress and, of course, the conservative media have turned on the FBI rather than on Putin.

It is far more than disquieting. It is the worst place that partisan politics can go. The vital interests of our Nation are being subverted to the benefit of a foreign hostile power. A Congressman says that we are witnessing a ``coup'' on the House floor. A Senator floats the possibility of ``secret societies.'' The Speaker of the House suggests a ``cleanse'' of the FBI.

For partisan reasons, the President and his allies in Congress are systematically trying to weaken America's faith in the rule of law, and to a large extent, sadly, the leaders of the Republican Party have been silent.

A few notable exceptions, including my dear friend Senator John McCain, are speaking out about the real threat here--not the FBI, not our career law enforcement officials, not Special Counsel Mueller but President Putin and his war on democratic societies and democracy in general.

We desperately need more of our Republican friends to stand up and speak out, particularly the Republican leadership, because their silence is rapidly becoming complicit in the denigration of our Republic--something that is happening, unfortunately, before our very eyes.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, tonight the President will address a joint session of Congress in his first official State of the Union. I want to talk about what I expect the President to say and also what I suspect he will not.

The President will be eager to defend the accomplishments of his nascent administration and take credit for a healthy American economy, pointing to low unemployment, job growth, and a soaring stock market, but the truth is, these trends were present before Donald Trump took office. President Trump was handed an already healthy economy by his predecessor. Like many things in his life, he inherited the healthy economy.

Here are two words we will not hear President Trump say tonight about the

economy--thanks, Obama--because much of the growth in 2017 was created by President Obama's policies and, by many measures, the growth under President Obama was better than under President Trump.

Under President Obama, employment was driven from over 10 percent down into the fours. The tightening of the labor market finally started to reverse the stagnancy of median income. The stock market President Trump often touts on Twitter was booming under President Obama as well.

In President Trump's first year, the economy created 2.06 million jobs. That is less than the 2.24 million jobs created in 2016, the last year of Obama's term.

Again, President Trump, President Obama created more jobs in the last year of his term than you created in the first year of yours. So if you are going to pat yourself on the back, give a shout out to Barack Obama because he did even better than you in job creation.

In 2017, under President Trump, average monthly job growth was lower than in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011, all under President Obama.

Again, President Trump, job growth in the first year of your term was less than in each of the last 6 years of President Obama's term.

How about the stock market. In the first 6 months of 2017, the percentage growth of the S&P 500 was lower than during the first 6 months of President Obama's term. In the first year of the Trump Presidency, the percentage growth of the Dow was lower than during the first year of President Obama.

So, again, here are two words we would like President Trump to say tonight about the economy: Thanks, Obama. We may never hear President Trump say those words, but he ought to.

I also expect the President to speak about bipartisanship. President Trump understands there is a very low bar when it comes to the topic. His first year in office has been so divisive, even a mere appeal to bipartisanship sounds like progress, but the proof will be in the pudding. Will President Trump pursue real bipartisanship through his actions or will he fall back on empty rhetoric? When it comes to bipartisanship, President Trump has to walk the walk, not just talk the talk intermittently. Mr. President, when it comes to bipartisanship, actions speak a whole lot louder than words.

I would remind President Trump that this has been one of the most partisan administrations many of us have ever worked with. I have worked under President Reagan, President H.W. Bush, and President W. Bush--all Republicans. All of them were legions more bipartisan than President Trump's first year.

What have we seen? An assembly line of partisan CRAs designed not to need a single Democratic vote; a Supreme Court Justice picked by the hard-right Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society, no consultation, not a consensus nominee; a partisan healthcare bill that failed under reconciliation, specifically designed not to include Democrats; a partisan tax bill that ultimately passed, also under reconciliation--no consultation with Democrats, not a single Democratic vote.

The reason these don't get Democratic votes is President Trump and his administration don't talk to us. They don't ask us what we might suggest. They don't try to create a bipartisan meld which great Presidents have done from the time of George Washington; they just act in a narrow, partisan way, and the American people know it.

There has been hardly a shred of bipartisanship in the Trump era, despite our many appeals for it. The President and congressional Republicans seem to think that bipartisanship happens when one side puts together a bill, pounds the table, and demands the other side support the bill, with no negotiation, no compromise.

They are missing the step where they consult with the other side and work with the other side to earn their support. That is the hard work of legislating in our democracy, but this administration eschews hard work. The Republican majority and the White House have been content to craft legislation on their own, demand Democrats support it, and then label us obstructionists when, without consultation, without compromise, we don't. That dynamic is the root of the ineffectiveness and gridlock in Congress. I sincerely hope that changes.

If the President calls for bipartisanship tonight, I welcome it. But we eagerly await action, not just a sound bite in a speech. We await the honest debate, the good faith give-and-take, and the eventual compromise that are the actual hallmarks of bipartisanship. If those things arise, even though they haven't in the first year, Democrats will gladly work with our Republican colleagues and the White House to get things done for the middle class. But we need to see it to believe it. Mere words in a speech tonight will not create bipartisanship; actions will.

Finally, here is something that President Trump should discuss tonight: Russia sanctions. He ought to impose the sanctions, as Congress voted for in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion, or at least explain why he hasn't done so yet. We call on President Trump in the State of the Union to tell Americans that he will support the sanctions 90 percent of America supports or tell us why he will not.

Over a year ago, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russian President Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. Presidential election. That is a fact. That is a fact that is shocking. A hostile foreign power interfered with an American election and likely influenced it in measurable ways. The Founders of our country feared this very possibility. They knew that for a democracy to work, the election of the people's representatives must be free, fair, and legitimate, and that foreign powers, even back then, would try to corrupt the process. They wrote safeguards into the Constitution to protect it.

Last year, the American people were the victim of such an attack by an antagonistic foreign power: Russia. I call on President Trump tonight to use his State of the Union to tell Americans what he plans to do about Russian attacks on our democracy.

Implement sanctions, President Trump, or at the very least tell us why you haven't.

Today is the day the President is supposed to obey the sanctions issue Congress voted on overwhelmingly a while back. There is no subject more worthy of a thorough and unbiased investigation than the Russian interference in our elections. Yet the President and his allies have waged a scorched-earth campaign to discredit the investigation in any way possible--by assassinating the character of career civil servants, assailing the credibility of the media, attacking our own law enforcement agencies and officers, even denigrating the institutions of American Government.

The White House and congressional Republicans' attacks on Mueller and his investigation make you believe it was taking place in a banana republic, Erdogan's Turkey, or Putin's Russia, not in the United States of America. What has been done by House Republicans and gone along with by just about the whole Republican establishment is not worthy of this democracy. It makes us look like a banana republic, and it is shameful.

A different kind of President would be encouraging Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and shouting down those forces who tried to interfere with it. A different kind of President would want to know how precisely Russia meddled in our election and would have severely punished Putin for it to discourage him from ever trying it again.

Here we are, 180 days since the President signed the historic Russia sanctions bill passed by this body by a vote of 97 to 2, and he hasn't even implemented those sanctions. He is supposed to do it today, the day of the State of the Union.

Again, Mr. President, implement the sanctions tonight, or at least tell the American people why you are not, opening an invitation to Russia to do it again.

Why won't Donald Trump use the power given to him by a near-unanimous vote in Congress to hold Russia accountable?

The administration refused to implement secondary sanctions against the Russian defense and intelligence sectors. Last night, the administration released a mandated report of Russian

oligarchs that seems to match a list already put together by Forbes magazine. This is a reflection of the lack of seriousness with which they took up this task.

When it comes to sanctions, the White House has engaged in a dangerous Kabuki theater that tries to show strength when in fact there is none. These actions are not good enough. They are for show.

Why is the President so afraid to sanction Putin, his associates, or other corrupt Russian actors and officials? Why is President Trump giving Putin a free pass after he attacked our democracy? What is he so afraid of? The American people are asking that question, and they have their answers.

Only a year after a hostile foreign power shook the very bedrock of our democracy, any other President would spend his first State of the Union talking about efforts that were underway to punish the abuser and prevent such an attack from ever recurring. Why not this President?

If President Trump wishes to save his Presidency from the shame of having failed to address one of the gravest threats threatening our country, he will announce this evening in no uncertain terms that he is sanctioning President Putin. Any other President would have already made it their priority to take decisive action in their first year, but this President is paralyzed when it comes to Putin and his cronies in Russia.

Here are two words the President may not say tonight: ``Russia sanctions''--but he ought to.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak on leader time.

Mr. President, I know we have a vote coming up soon.

First, on the judge vote, today the Senate will vote on cloture on the nomination of David Stras for the Eighth Circuit in Minnesota. Senator Franken opposed this nomination and did not return his blue slip, but Senator Grassley scheduled the confirmation hearing and a markup anyway. It is my understanding that the new Senator from Minnesota, Ms. Smith, intends to vote against his nomination.

If Judge Stras is confirmed, it will mark the first time since 1982 that a circuit court nominee was confirmed without both home State Senators returning blue slips in support of a hearing. Democratic and Republican chairs have stuck to the blue slip rule, despite the tensions in this body. So this is a major step back--another way that the majority is slowly and inexorably gnawing away at the way this body works and making it more and more and more like the House of Representatives. It is not a legacy, if I were the leader or a Member of that party, that I would be proud of.

Republican Tax Bill

Mr. President, tomorrow President Trump will address the Nation in his first State of the Union. We all look forward to hearing what the President has to say. One thing we can expect is for the President to link any good piece of economic news to the Republican tax bill, as the majority leader does most days and did again today. Of course, the reality of the Republican tax bill is much different than the image painted by the leader's cherry-picked examples.

One of the real impacts of the tax bill has been massive giveaways to wealthy investors and corporate executives. The very wealthiest and the most powerful got the overwhelming majority of the breaks. As for individuals, some got increases, some stayed the same, and some will get a little bit.

Companies have announced multibillion-dollar stock-buyback repurchasing programs, which benefit wealthy shareholders, not workers. According to Morgan Stanley, ``83% of analysts indicated that companies would put gains from lower taxes to use for share buybacks, dividends, and mergers and acquisitions.'' So we will have less competition because this tax bill has given the big corporations money so they can buy other corporations and reduce competition.

Even though Republicans sold it as a job creator, there have been a slew of layoffs in this country just after the tax bill passed. Walmart, which made a big to-do of what it was doing for its workers, is shuttering 63 Sam's Club warehouses and laying off 1,000 workers at their headquarters. Macy's will cut 5,000 jobs. Carrier, a company the President promised to save, is still bleeding jobs. Kimberly-Clark will cut up to 5,500 jobs, and their chief financial officer said the savings from the Republican tax bill gave them the ``flexibility''--his word--to make these reductions. So the tax bill is actually leading to a whole lot of layoffs. We don't hear that from President Trump or our Republican colleagues, but it is true.

Another one of the real impacts of the tax bill will be felt on tax day, when the Nation's highest income earners, the top 1 percent, will get an average tax cut of roughly $50,000, while more than 9 million middle-class families will face a tax increase, according to the JCT and the Tax Policy Center.

It is true that bipartisan, deficit-neutral tax reform could have delivered more jobs and better pay for the middle class, but President Trump and congressional leaders opted for a partisan bill that rewarded their wealthy donors, big corporations, and the superrich, and it increased the deficit that our children and grandchildren will have to pay by $1.5 trillion. I don't expect the President or the Republican leader to mention these facts. I certainly don't think the President will mention them in the State of the Union. But Democrats will highlight them in days to come.

Issues Before the Senate

Now, Mr. President, when we passed the last extension of government funding, we gave ourselves a lengthy to-do list: Pass a budget, provide disaster aid, negotiate a healthcare package, and protect the Dreamers. We have been talking about these issues for months without resolution. Now is the time to start solving them. We have waited too long to fully fund our military. We have waited too long to dedicate more money to the opioid crisis, which is stealing 40,000 American lives a year. We have waited too long to improve veterans healthcare, which our veterans receive. Many are waiting in line still to get treatment. We waited too long to address failing pension plans, which are the safety net for so many teamsters, carpenters, miners, and people approaching retirement. We have waited too long to give the 800,000 Dreamers the peace of mind that they will not be deported by the only country they have known.

We need to address these issues soon--no more delay. We hope our moderate Senators will strive to find a narrow bill on DACA and border security that can actually pass. Expanding this beyond DACA and beyond border security, as the White House framework tries to do, will only delay a solution to this time-sensitive problem.

Now, my guest at tomorrow's State of the Union will highlight the urgency of a few issues I have just mentioned. Her name is Stephanie Keegan. She is from Putnam County, NY. Her son Daniel, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, died from an opioid overdose. At the time, Daniel was suffering from a severe case of PTSD. His nerves were shattered by war. He waited 16 months for treatment at the VA--16 months, after he served us so well. That is a shocking amount of time for a young man who bravely served his country to wait for his country to serve him. Daniel died 2 weeks before he was given his first appointment at the

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

Mr. President, there are now only 13 days remaining before the continuing resolution expires on February 8. In that short amount of time, we must seek a budget deal, an agreement on healthcare legislation, and a bipartisan bill to protect the Dreamers and provide for border security. All these items are important. All of them are urgent, and we are working hard to get them all done.

On the issue of immigration, the bipartisan group of moderate Senators should continue trying to find a consensus. I think that is an excellent idea. The White House, unfortunately, has proven unreliable and wildly unpredictable. Within the course of hours, they say different things. Every time the President moves forward on one thing, his staff pulls him back and undoes what he said. The action should be here in the Senate to find a narrow deal on DACA and border security.

Now, as we have found time and again, when we open up the negotiations to discussions of broad immigration reform, there is no end to what each party says could be on the table. Republicans want vast curtailment of legal immigration. Democrats want to discuss a pathway to citizenship for 11 million. That is a recipe for delay when we can't afford one. Some on the other side are insisting on expanding this beyond the DACA and border security issues. That will just delay. That will just make sure that things don't work.

My Republican colleagues, particularly the leader and his more moderate Members, should feel the pressure to get this done, or else this administration will start separating families, taking kids out of school, servicemembers out of our military, and workers out of our companies. They will rip them from the American fabric in which they are embedded. What a tragedy that would be.

So the clock is ticking on Dreamers, and we don't have time for extraneous issues that some on the right or the left might want to add that have nothing to do with DACA or border security. The clock is also ticking for pensioners, for victims of opioid addiction seeking treatment, and for our veterans seeking quality healthcare. We have other issues: rural infrastructure, childcare, things that Democrats want to get done in this deal. We have to get a budget deal and a DACA deal that can get 60 votes--13 days before Dreamers get a lot closer to deportation; 13 days to help our economy, our communities, and the middle class, who have been waiting for over a year for this Congress to do something for them, instead of just helping business interests.

I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Blumenthal), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Casey), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), and the Senator from Missouri (Mrs. McCaskill), are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, the government funding bill that passed on Monday left us--all of us--with 3 weeks to come to a resolution on legislation to protect the Dreamers. At the same time, we must work on legislation to improve American healthcare--I see the Senator from Washington State, who has been so vigilant in that area--and a budget agreement that supports our military and our middle class, delivering long-awaited funds--we Democrats will insist on these--for the opioid epidemic, veterans' healthcare, and pensions. We should feel an urgency about all of these issues and many more that we can make happen.

Leader McConnell's promise to take up immigration on February 8 should light a fire under everyone. The Republican leader and moderate Republicans bear a special responsibility to make sure these votes happen. All of those in the country who want to make sure the Dreamers get treated fairly should be focusing their attention on getting 60 votes on a resolution that is fair to the Dreamers.

The clock is ticking. If we don't solve this problem in 14 days, the Republicans are going to have to explain to Dreamers what their plan is to prevent them from being deported. When those horrible pictures of deportation occur--God forbid that they do, but if they do, it will clearly be on the delay, the obfuscation, and the lack of humanity that too many of our Republican colleagues are showing in this regard.

Every Democrat--all 49 of us--supports DACA. Many of my Republican colleagues do as well. We certainly can find a bill that gets 60 votes in the Senate, and that is where our focus is. I had a very good meeting with the Hispanic groups yesterday. Some of us had disagreements about what happened a few days before, but it was an amiable and fine meeting, and we all agreed that we were going to focus on getting the 60 votes. I hope people throughout the country of both parties, of all political persuasions--business, labor--will join us like a laser in appealing to and imploring more Republican Senators to join us so that we get 60 votes on a fair DACA bill.

We cannot let those who are anti-immigrant, who call giving the Dreamers hope ``amnesty,'' block us because then we will fail, and it will be on the other side of the aisle that made that happen.

Over the weekend--and I am very glad about this--a bipartisan group of moderate Senators from both parties came together in a very inspiring way. Their efforts led to the agreement between the majority leader and me that an immigration bill will receive fair

consideration in a few weeks. That is the first time we have ever heard that guarantee.

The same energy and spirit that the bipartisan group put into forging a compromise this weekend ought to be committed to finding a bill on DACA that will pass this body with 60 votes.

I support the bipartisan group. In fact, as some of our Members on the Democratic side had plans for it, I encourage them to join it and form it. I have had very good conversations with both leaders--Senator Manchin, a Democrat; Senator Collins, a Republican--and what they are doing is very good for the body. Speaking as Democratic leader, I encourage these kinds of groups to come forward.

I remember the old Senate. I remember that individual Senators were involved in negotiating very important and very difficult issues. It made the Senate a better place, it made the Members feel more fulfilled, and it made our ability to get things done much, much more likely.

Our task is different from the task last week. The Senate must find consensus. For that reason, we need to start from a new place. My negotiations with the President shouldn't dictate talks here on the Hill. That was then; this is now. It was a hope that last Friday the President would have reached out and supported something, that he wanted to get something that we wanted and he proclaimed to want too. It didn't happen. Now the group has to start in a new way, with no preconceptions, and come together and find a bill that can garner 60 votes. That is a job for these Senators who came together so well in the last few days.

Protecting the Dreamers is our moral obligation. The Senate is now in the spotlight. The eyes of the American people, who overwhelmingly sympathize with the Dreamers--90 percent, a majority of Republicans-- believe in these Dreamers. They don't go for these calls of amnesty. These people have worked hard. They have been trying so hard to be Americans. They came across the border when they were little, and now they are in our Armed Forces, they are in our factories, they are in our schools, and they are in our offices. To say that allowing them to become Americans is amnesty is nasty--nasty.

Protecting the Dreamers is our moral obligation. The Senate is in the spotlight. The eyes of the American people, who sympathize with the Dreamers--the vast majority of Republicans, as well as Democrats, sympathize with Dreamers, and all of their eyes are on us. We need to get the job done.

Mr. President, yesterday the Senate passed a continuing resolution to reopen the government and provide for a 6-year reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program. The majority leader and I were also able to agree on a path forward for the DACA legislation. The continuing resolution extends government funding until February 8.

If an agreement on DACA isn't reached by February 8, the Senate will immediately proceed to immigration under a neutral process that is fair to all sides. This is the first guarantee that the Republican majority will give the DACA bill a fair consideration and an up-or-down vote on the floor, and it means we can hopefully resolve the fate of the Dreamers much sooner than the March 5 deadline.

The Republican majority now has 16 days to work with us to write a bill that can get 60 votes and prevent the Dreamers from being deported. The clock is ticking. Sixteen days--that is not much time. They have to get moving. Leader McConnell, his Republican colleagues, and all of us should hear the countdown clock ticking to protect the 800,000 Dreamers from deportation. We can get it done. Every Democrat-- all 49 of us--supports DACA. Now the pressure is on Leader McConnell and the Republican moderate caucus to help find us a solution that protects the 800,000 Dreamers and can pass the Senate.

Over the weekend, a bipartisan group of Senate moderates came together and helped renew the urgency of the immigration debate. After talking with Senator Durbin, it is my understanding that this bipartisan group, which includes several Republican moderates, expressed a sincere desire to protect the Dreamers in the upcoming legislation--more so than before the weekend. Leader McConnell's promise to consider DACA legislation was made just as much to this bipartisan group as it was made to me. If he does not honor our agreement, it will be a breach of trust with not only the Democratic Senators but with several Members of his own party as well.

Democrats will continue to fight as hard as ever for the Dreamers, but I am more hopeful today than last week that we can assemble 60 votes for a DACA bill in the Senate, and we now have a real pathway to get such a bill through the Senate.

I am also very glad that a 6-year reauthorization of CHIP passed alongside yesterday's bill to reopen the government. It was a long time coming. Despite bipartisan majorities that support CHIP in both Houses, the Republican majority allowed CHIP to expire, leaving 9 million sick children in the lurch. That shameful wrong has been made right, but we should extend CHIP for an even longer period of time. The CBO projected that 10 years of CHIP or a permanent authorization would actually save the government $6 billion. How could that be? Because fewer children will go into the exchange and fewer will need subsidies because CHIP is an efficient, well-run, and successful program. So it is a no-brainer. We should make it happen.

Still, the Senate has 3 weeks in which to conclude a lot of work. A consensus has not yet been found on the budget, on healthcare legislation, on disaster aid, and, as I mentioned, on immigration. On each of these issues, the President has been either impossible to pin down or completely absent. This hooey that President Trump was involved in the negotiations--he was pretty invisible to me. President Trump's inability to negotiate with Congress is what caused the 3-day government shutdown from which we have just emerged. If we are going to get all of these things done, the Senate--the Senate--will have to work its will.

On the budget, we must lift the spending caps for defense and urgent

domestic priorities. Just as our military needs the resources it requires to do the tough job we ask of them, we have critical issues here at home.

It is equally crucial to us--not more, not less--that we deal with the opioid crisis, where so many men and women, young men and young women in the flower of their lives, are passing on because of addiction. There is not enough enforcement at the borders, particularly preventing the evil fentanyl from coming in, and not enough treatment, so that when a young person, whether it is a veteran or anybody else, has this horrible addiction, they get the treatment to overcome it.

Veterans. They have to wait so long in line, many of them with PTSD, for opioid treatment and treatment for other ailments. They shouldn't have to. They weren't waiting in line when they were in Afghanistan or Iraq fighting for us.

Pensions. The heartland of America for decades has been our industrial complexes, our industrial might in our States, our Central States. Every week, every month these men and women put money into their pension plans, and now, because of the vicissitudes of the stock market and management, that money ain't there. It is our job through the PBGC to give them the pensions they deserve. No one is going to get rich on a pension, but at least they can retire in a life with some dignity.

On top of that, we must get a healthcare package done. The bill as proposed by Bill Nelson and Susan Collins on reinsurance, the bill as proposed by Patty Murray and Lamar Alexander on CSRs, as well as community health centers, the extenders that help so many of our rural hospitals, and other healthcare issues have to get done.

We must pass a disaster relief package. Many of our States need help, just as New York needed help several years ago when we didn't get all the support we wanted from the very States that are now asking us for money.

And, of course, we must finally pass a bill to protect the Dreamers.

The American people are clamoring for our two parties to work together to get things done. After a year of partisanship and strife, during which the governing majority hardly attempted to compromise, we now must move forward in a bipartisan way if we are going to finish the task at hand on the budget, on healthcare, on disaster aid, and on

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

Thank you, Mr. President.

Today, we enter the third day of the Trump shutdown, the first ever real shutdown to occur when one party controls the entire legislative process. The Republican Party controls the House, the Senate, the Presidency, and yet they were unable to keep the government open for the American people.

Leader McConnell knows it takes 60 votes to win passage of a spending bill, and yet he moved forward with a last-minute extension that he knew lacked the votes. Both Democrats and Republicans voted against that bill.

The reason the Republican majority had such difficulty finding consensus is they could never get a firm grip on what the President of their party wanted to do. These days you never know whom to deal with when it comes to the Republicans. The Republican leaders told me to work out a deal with the White House. The White House said work it out with Republican leaders on the Hill. Separately, President Trump turned away from not one but two bipartisan compromises--each would have averted this shutdown, each would have led to a deal on the budget, healthcare, disaster aid, and things like opioids, veterans, pensions, and on immigration.

My recent offer to the President was a generous one. I put his signature campaign issue on the table in exchange for DACA and still he turned away. President Trump's unwillingness to compromise caused the Trump shutdown and brought us to this moment. The facts are well known.

Now I wish to update the Senate on where things stand after this weekend. Since our meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, the President and I have not spoken, and the White House refused to engage in negotiations over the weekend. The great deal-making President sat on the sidelines. Despite and because of this frustration, I have been having conversations with the Republican leader over the weekend about a path forward. After several discussions, offers, and counteroffers, the Republican leader and I have come to an arrangement.

We will vote today to reopen the government, to continue negotiating a global agreement, with the commitment that if an agreement isn't reached by February 8, the Senate will immediately proceed to consideration of legislation dealing with DACA. The process will be neutral and fair to all sides. We expect that a bipartisan bill on DACA will receive fair consideration and an up-or-down vote on the floor.

Now, it is a shame the American people and the Senate have had to endure such hand-wringing, finger-pointing stridency to secure a guarantee that we will finally move to address this urgent issue. It is something the majority could have avoided entirely, a concern the President could have obviated if he were only willing to take yes for an answer.

While this procedure will not satisfy everyone on both sides, it is a way forward. I am confident we can get the 60 votes in the Senate for a DACA bill, and now there is a real pathway to get a bill on the floor and through the Senate. It is a good solution, and I will vote for it.

I am incredibly grateful to the bipartisan group that has come together in recent days to renew the immigration debate with a sense of urgency. I believe this group has the potential to return the Senate to the kind of place it should be on the issue of immigration, a place for bipartisanship, a place for action, a place for achievement. The bipartisan group, in a very fine way, filled the glaring absence of the President in these talks.

I expect the majority leader to fulfill his commitment to the Senate, to me and to the bipartisan group and abide by this agreement. If he does not, of course--and I expect he will--he will have breached the trust of not only the Democratic Senators but Members of his own party as well.

Through these complicated and lengthy negotiations, Democrats have always sought to be reasonable, to act in good faith, and get something real done. Despite all of our entreaties, the President was obstinate. Despite bipartisan support for DACA, the Republican Party dithered.

The Senate has muddled along for too long, content to delay action on our most pressing challenges until the very last moment. That ends today. The Republican majority now has 17 days to prevent the Dreamers from being deported. We have a way to address the fate of the Dreamers starting right now, instead of waiting until March, with the minority and the moderate middle empowered to bring a bill to the floor instead of being held by the most strident anti-immigration voices in the Republican caucus.

We, on our side of the aisle, will continue to fight as strongly as we can for the Dreamers in the weeks ahead. I say to all Americans: Urge your Senators to vote yes on the bipartisan compromise when it comes forward. Write, tweet, email, phone, visit, do everything you can so we can finally pass this bill.

In a few hours, the government will reopen. We have a lot to do. The issue of the Dreamers demands resolution, a budget must be written, healthcare has to be addressed, relief provided to disaster-stricken parts of our country, pensions, opioids, veterans, and childcare--all have to be taken care of. The Trump shutdown will soon end, but the work must go on, and it will.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, before we call the roll, I ask unanimous consent that the Democratic whip be allowed to address the Chamber for 3 minutes, with the gracious approval of the majority leader.

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