Floor Statements

Madam President, now, President Trump is right about one thing. There is a crisis in America, and I want the President to know I agree with him, but I would note it is not fictitious hordes of illegal immigrants crashing into our southern border. That is nothing more than the imaginary invasion of a President obsessed with constructing a wasteful monument to himself; the obsession of a President who, long before the Trump shutdown, began resorting to misinformation and stoking fear among the American people for political gain.

There is a crisis in America, but it is not the crisis the President wants us to believe. It is a crisis at the kitchen table of Americans.

Hundreds of thousands of American families are preparing to miss their first paycheck through no fault of their own. These families are trying to figure out how they are going to make ends meet, how they will pay their mortgage or heating bills or, God forbid, whether they can afford both food for their table and medicine for their children next week. That is not fiction. That is a real choice in America today. That is the crisis in America.

These are the adjustments President Trump has glibly said our country's public servants are ``willing'' to make on behalf of his wasteful border wall; incidentally, a wall the President repeatedly promised--gave his word--that Mexico would pay for.

I have been privileged to be here for a long time, but in my 44 years in the U.S. Senate, I have never seen something so tone deaf from a President of the United States of either party. Even during his address to the Nation on Tuesday night--which was more of an exercise in data- distorting demagoguery than informing the American people--President Trump refused to acknowledge the real pain the Trump shutdown is causing.

Dozens of Vermonters have contacted my office to share how they are suffering under the Trump shutdown. These Vermonters are urging the President and my Republican colleagues in the Senate to stop playing politics with their lives and reopen the Federal Government. These are not just people who are Federal employees; these are people who have contracts with the Federal Government. These are people who have to rely on the Federal Government being open.

I will give you one example. Like many Americans affected by the Trump shutdown, one of the Vermonters who contacted my office is a veteran. He spent more than two decades serving his country in the Navy. He is now a Federal employee in charge of more than a dozen people who are coming to him with questions he cannot answer.

He writes:

I have run out of words to tell the 15 employees who work

for me when asked how they are supposed to provide food,

heat, and electricity for their families here in Vermont.

Keep in mind, the weather in Vermont is projected to drop well below zero this weekend with enough snow to close down all of Washington.

This Navy veteran continues:

We are real people, with real families, and real bills.

Creditors do not ``understand'' [as the President claimed

they would]. They want their money.

Try to explain to the bank why you cannot pay your mortgage this month. Go to the bank and say: Well, the President of the United States is throwing a tantrum, and he is holding my paycheck hostage. Try explaining that to the bank. Try explaining that to your children.

Another Vermonter wrote to me expressing concern for his 88-year-old aunt. She recently moved to a new nursing home to be closer to the family. Because the phones at the Treasury Department are going unanswered, approval for the transfer of his aunt's benefits from one facility to another has been delayed. Thankfully, we heard that the transfer had been approved just this morning, but that doesn't detract from the uncertainty and the anxiety caused for this family.

The new home allowed her to stay while we in Washington were sorting out this mess caused by President Trump, but the bills are piling up, and the delays are placing a burden on what is a small local nursing home that has to pay its bills, including when it is 5 below zero.

The Vermonter said in his letter: ``To be sure, we do not believe that capitulation to the Republican demand for the Wall is the answer; yet, the toll on the people of holding the government hostage to such outrageous demands must not be ignored.''

Finally, today, let me share the story of a Vermonter who wrote to me about her sister. Her sister joined the U.S. Forest Service. In the wake of the recent hurricanes and typhoons, she used a government credit card issued in her name, following orders to travel with the service to assist in the aftermath of these disasters. But now the bills for her official travel--travel she was ordered to take by the Federal Government--are due. Guess what. There is no one at the Forest Service to pay them. She is now stuck with more than $5,500 in government bills in her name for carrying out her duties for the Federal Government. Now she has to pay them or risk damaging her own financial record.

In her letter to me, she writes:

This, though, is one very small story in a flood of credit

disasters, unpaid mortgages, Christmas debts, anxieties, and

uncertainties among government employees affected by the

shutdown.

I'm writing you to suggest that this kind of government

shutdown should not be on the negotiation table, because it

holds out the possibility that the suffering of the American

people can be used as political leverage. There are other

ways.

I agree. This is just a handful of stories from my small State of Vermont. Think of the fear and anxiety today of American families as they sit around the kitchen table trying to figure out what to do when the check does not arrive tomorrow. Think about the impact this has on the talented young student who is thinking about taking a pay cut to work for their government out of a sense of duty. Think about the morale of the American people who serve this country when the President of the United States says that their livelihoods are worth risking over his border wall--and I say ``border wall'' on purpose. If this were about border security, the men and women who protect our borders and patrol our coastlines would be receiving their paychecks, not forced to be pawns in the President's political game.

Think about that. If this were really about border security, these people protecting us would be paid. The great irony of the Trump shutdown is that it has made our borders less safe, not more safe. Today, 88 percent of the Department of Homeland Security, including 54,000 Customs and Border Patrol agents are working without pay. At our airports, where the overwhelming majority of the ``suspected terrorists'' President Trump's wall is meant to stop are actually intercepted--keep that in mind. He keeps talking about all of the suspected terrorists. They are not coming across the border. They are being stopped at the airports. So what has happened at our airports? More than 51,000 TSA agents at our airports are working without pay. Morale is so low that many just stopped showing up for work, leading to longer wait times and straining security measures.

(Mr. SULLIVAN assumed the Chair.)

Take another area. More than 42,000 members of our Coast Guard--and the Coast Guard is an effective investment in securing our borders and stopping the flow of drugs. But 42,000 members of our Coast Guard are working without pay as I stand here today. The Coast Guard are deployed along the coasts of the distinguished Presiding Officer's State and are deployed in my State.

What does President Trump say to all of this? Nothing. It has been widely reported that instead of sitting down and negotiating with Democrats, President Trump simply stood up and walked out of the room like a bully yesterday, tweeting shortly afterwards, ``bye-bye.''

Does anybody think he hadn't planned to do this before he went there? This is what you do on so-called reality TV. Well, this is not reality TV; this is reality. He should try to act Presidential.

There is a real crisis in our country. It is a crisis at the kitchen table as families struggle over how they will make it through the next week. It is a crisis of morale as dedicated men and women who serve our country debate whether to stop serving our country and look instead for a career where they cannot be used as a political pawn. It is a crisis of confidence in the young men and women, doubting a career in public service, and it is a crisis of leadership when the President simply walks away so that he can send another tweet. This is a crisis created by one man, President Trump.

We have bipartisan bills before us that could reopen the government. We have passed them in this body before by an overwhelming veto-proof majority. Well, I would call upon our Republican leader to bring up these bipartisan bills to reopen the government. It

is time for Republicans and Democrats to join together to tell the President to put a stop to this self-inflicted wound on this great country, and he needs to hear it from both Democrats and Republicans. I implore Leader McConnell: Bring up H.R. 21 and H.J. Res. 1. Send them to the President. Send them to the President. Show the rest of the world that the United States is a great country and can act like a great country, not act like a pawn in a temper tantrum.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I just note parenthetically that virtually every Republican and every Democrat in this body has voted for the bills that would open the government. Every single Democrat in this body is willing--if the Republican leader would bring

those bills back up--to vote for them, and the government would open. So I hope the Republican leader will allow the government to open. There are a lot of people who need to go back to work, and I will speak about this later today. It is going to be 10, 15 below zero in my home State at one point this week, making it more urgent that we reopen the government. We also have government contractors who would like to get back to work.

Catholic Clergy Misconduct

Now let me speak about a different matter. I am going to speak as an individual more than as a Senator. My wife Marcelle and I, as Catholics, have shared the concern of many, whether Catholics or not, about the continued revelation of often gross misconduct on the part of some in the clergy and in the hierarchy of our church. We have seen this throughout the United States, including in our own State of Vermont.

I have rarely--rarely--spoken about religious issues in my capacity as a Senator, because I feel one's religion is private and certainly not political. However, I have spoken out about my concern and my dismay with what we have heard, and Marcelle shares those concerns with me.

I mention this because this past Sunday at mass at Holy Trinity Parish in the District of Columbia, we heard a sermon preached by Father Benjamin Hawley, a member of the Jesuits. When he finished his sermon, I will freely admit I wanted to stand up and applaud him. He spoke about what the church is finally doing in facing up to this, but then he spoke about how he was reacting and how one hopes we might react, what the reaction should be from the Pope straight down to every member of the clergy and every member of the laity. Except for some sermons preached by Marcelle's brother, Father Claude Pomerleau, I do not remember being so touched or affected by a sermon.

I had not met Father Hawley before, but after mass, I spoke with him, and I asked him if I could have his permission to put his sermon into the Congressional Record. He agreed.

I ask unanimous consent that the homily by Father Benjamin Hawley, S.J., of January 6, 2019, be printed in the Record at this time.

I yield the floor.

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

It is now day 19 of the Trump shutdown, 19 days that the Federal Government of the oldest democracy and the world's only superpower has been functioning on only half of its cylinders.

I have spoken multiple times about the devastating impact this reckless and unnecessary shutdown is having on the Federal workforce at domestic departments and agencies--departments like Homeland Security, Agriculture, Transportation, Justice, Interior, and Commerce, agencies like Customs and Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the National Park Service.

These departments and agencies have furloughed and stopped paying hundreds of thousands of employees who, as a result, are idle and no longer able to do the jobs that millions and millions of Americans depend on. Hundreds of thousands more are working without pay until the shutdown ends.

The President, a billionaire who has never had to worry about not being able to pay the rent, says he can relate. If he actually believes that, he is alone.

Programs are on hold, and contracts are being cancelled, for which the Federal Government is liable for penalties. Government shutdowns don't save money; they cost billions of dollars and have lasting consequences. And who pays? American taxpayers.

This is a disgrace, and it is made even more so by the fact that it is entirely avoidable were it not for the intransigence, indifference, and obsession of one person, President Donald Trump.

An obsession not with border security--we are all for that, and there is more than a billion dollars in prior appropriations for border security waiting to be spent. In fact, we have offered another $1.3 billion for fiscal year 2019. The White House never says anything about that.

No, the President's myopic obsession--repeated on national television last night--is with building a 30-foot-high wall--mostly on desolate land that the government will have to seize from private owners--along our southern border. The price tag to U.S. taxpayers would be at least $18 billion and likely more, a price tag that at campaign rally after campaign rally he promised Mexico would pay.

There are multiple reasons why that is a terrible idea, why it won't stop illegal migration, why it won't stop illicit drugs, and why it would be a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars, which I have discussed before and will again.

Today I want to speak briefly about the impact the Trump shutdown is having not on the Federal Government's domestic programs and workforce, but its impact on U.S. national security and global leadership.

It is worth asking: What made the United States the world's superpower and a global leader in the first place?

Of course, one reason is our superior Armed Forces. That, I suspect, is the answer President Trump would give, but he would be only partly correct.

Even more important are the ideals enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, our democratic institutions and coequal branches of government, our diverse citizenry, and our regional and global alliances and partnerships. Without these, our men and women in uniform would have precious little to defend.

Today, the global supremacy and influence of the United States are being challenged like no time since the Cold War with the former Soviet Union. Why? One need look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Since his first days in office, President Trump has disparaged longstanding friends and allies. He has withdrawn from international agreements negotiated by past Republican and Democratic administrations, announced plans to withdraw from a key nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and proposed drastic cuts to the operations and programs of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which implement foreign policy.

Now the State Department, like other Federal departments and agencies, is swept up in the Trump shutdown.

Our choices are obvious: We can engage with the world by affirming our commitment to our ideals, by continuing to strengthen our democratic institutions, by empowering our diplomats and by expanding our global alliances and partnerships.

Or we can withdraw, even to the point of shutting down the Federal Government, cede the global stage to others whose interests are often adverse to our own, and become the captives of simplistic campaign slogans, xenophobic antimigrant hysteria, and a manufactured national security emergency.

The President said the country needed a ``good'' shutdown. He said that: a ``good'' shutdown. There is no such thing.

He said he would be ``proud'' to take the ``mantle of blame'' for shutting down the government. Then the next day he blamed Democrats, rejecting out of hand our proposal to pass the six appropriations bills that already received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Most of those bills have nothing to do with border security, but the President is obstinately holding hostage thousands of Federal programs funded in those bills, including the paychecks for the people who implement them, which harms all Americans.

With a stroke of a pen, the President could reopen the government and continue negotiations on border security; yet he refuses, and instead he flippantly said the shutdown could last ``months'' or even ``years.''

What has this reckless abuse of executive power meant for our standing in the world? What has it meant for our diplomats at the State Department and in our embassies overseas whose job is to protect our global interests, to maintain our alliances and partnerships, to assist the millions of Americans working, studying and serving overseas, and to protect our security?

As of yesterday, 34 percent--more than one-third--of U.S. direct-hire State Department employees in Washington and at our embassies around the world have been furloughed. That is nearly 10,000 employees at the State Department alone who are unable to do their jobs. Others are working without pay.

If the shutdown continues, more paychecks will be withheld, the number of furloughed employees will increase, and there will be a parallel shutting down of diplomacy, of programs, of contracts, and of our ability to engage with both allies and adversaries.

The effects are far reaching.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security will run short of funds, forcing the State Department to deplete resources used to keep other programs operating order to protect our diplomats and facilities overseas or eventually relying on unpaid contractors to do the job.

Roughly 85 percent of the employees of the State Department's Office of Inspector General have already been furloughed. Oversight of waste, fraud, and abuse has virtually ground to a halt.

Vietnam, a country of nearly 100 million people bordering China, is becoming a key security partner in the Pacific region; yet thanks to the Trump shutdown, key employees at our embassy and USAID mission in Hanoi

were furloughed. The American flag is flying, and the lights are on, but that is about it.

This is illustrative of what is happening in every region of the world, and it does not take a lot of imagination to predict the consequences of a longer shutdown.

For example, the State Department and U.S. Embassies regularly use their social media accounts to update Americans overseas of important developments that potentially threaten their safety. This was the case during the recent tsunami in Indonesia. How will the State Department respond to the next natural disaster when its social media accounts-- tools that are relied on increasingly in today's world--have fallen silent?

What about the loss of U.S. influence on the world stage? With most official travel suspended, how do we ensure that our priorities are protected at the next trade, arms control, or international health summit?

What do you suppose the leaders of China, Russia, Iran, Syria and North Korea--not to mention allies like Great Britain, Canada, and Japan--think about this?

If I were President Putin, or President Xi Jinping, or Ayatollah Khamenei, I would be celebrating. What could be better than U.S. Embassies operating on life support and U.S. diplomats sidelined, while the U.S. Government is shut down over building a wall across the southwest desert?

Does President Trump think the rest of the world will sit idly by, waiting until the U.S. Government reopens? The opposite will happen. They will take full advantage in ways that will not be short lived.

While massive humanitarian crises imperil the lives of millions of people in Yemen, Syria, Burma, Venezuela, and Central Africa, the White House is embracing a diminishing role for the United States.

While Russia meddles in our elections and expands its influence in the Middle East, while China buys the allegiance of countries in Africa, Asia, and our own hemisphere by investing billions in ports, energy and transportation projects, the State Department is shutting down programs and sending its people home.

It is not just the State Department. USAID, the Peace Corps, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, they are all furloughing personnel and cancelling new activities.

With the exception of the U.S. military, if this drags on, the United States will be a superpower in name only. An exaggeration? Don't bet on it.

While our diplomats are furloughed, rather than use the funds Congress already provided for border security that remain unspent, the President has threatened to ignore the legislative process, declare a national emergency where none exists, and order the Pentagon to pay for the wall that he swore Mexico would pay for.

Such a flagrant, unwarranted misuse of authority and circumvention of the democratic process would be immediately challenged by Congress and in the courts.

Regardless of the outcome, what would it say about our commitment to democracy around the world? How would it be perceived outside this country, particularly by autocrats in Syria, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Brazil, Egypt, Russia, Hungary, Poland, or China?

It would be welcomed as a green light for declaring a state of emergency and wielding unchecked executive power--without regard for the legislature or judiciary--as a pretext to do virtually anything. Shut down the independent press. Arrest judges and opposition political leaders. Use the army to police the streets. Close the borders. All in the name of a manufactured national emergency.

This is already happening. In Guatemala, which purports to be a democracy, President Morales is openly defying rulings by constitutional court magistrates who are courageously defending the institutions of justice that are under assault, and the police are ignoring orders of the attorney general.

In Egypt, President al Sisi has locked up tens of thousands of political opponents and other dissidents. In Turkey, President Erdogan has done the same. President Trump has praised both leaders.

In Brazil, President Bolsonaro, a former military officer, has vowed to open up the Amazon to mining, logging, and agribusiness. He wants to give the police a free hand to use lethal force with impunity. He is gearing up to crack down on civil liberties. The White House has applauded.

No one disputes that the United States has experienced national emergencies, when we faced a potentially existential threat. Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks are obvious examples. The Cuban missile crisis could have been.

A future deadly disease pandemic that infects thousands of Americans and rapidly spreads out of control might qualify.

The President talks as if the sky is falling in Texas, but any rational person recognizes that the situation on our southwest border is not remotely a national emergency. To call Central American families fleeing poverty and violence a threat to the security of the world's wealthiest, most powerful country is an embarrassment, especially when the Border Patrol's own data shows the number of migrants apprehended at the southern border has plummeted over the past 10 years.

The White House, grasping for arguments to justify the President's broken campaign promise that Mexico would pay for his wall, has played fast and loose with the facts in a desperate attempt to incite fear among the American people.

The President and Vice President have shamelessly trumpeted all kinds of wildly inaccurate and grossly misleading statistics about migrants, terrorists, asylum applicants, unaccompanied children, and illegal drugs that are contradicted by their own agencies.

The White House says thousands of migrant terrorists have been apprehended, falsely suggesting they were stopped at the Mexican border. Almost none of them were.

We face a far greater threat from al Qaeda and ISIS using social media to inspire extremists already in the U.S. or Canada to commit terrorist acts. The last thing anyone would do who is genuinely concerned about terrorism is to shut down the government and withhold funding from the very agencies whose job it is to track down and arrest those people.

The real threat to our national security is shutting down the government, furloughing 10,000 State Department employees, telling our embassies to cancel programs and our diplomats to stay home.

While we come to grips with practical ways of strengthening our borders so we can more humanely and efficiently process migrants who request asylum, which we must do, we must also stay focused on the real threats to our national security.

We need our embassies at full strength. We need our diplomats in the room with their European, Russian, Chinese, South Korean, Central American, Middle Eastern, and African counterparts.

We need to strengthen NATO and our other alliances, so we can rely on our allies and partners to support us in responding to real national emergencies.

We need to expand our cyber security, nonproliferation, international broadcasting and other public diplomacy and internet freedom programs, military education and training, maritime security, law enforcement, and other international assistance programs. Instead, because of the President's obsession with the wall, these and other State Department programs are stuck in neutral, and the people who implement them are at home.

We need to act like a superpower at the United Nations, in NATO, and in the many other regional organizations where decisions are made that directly affect our interests and our security.

None of this is possible during a government shutdown, a shutdown that with each passing day erodes our democracy, weakens our global leadership, and threatens our security.

We all know this. The American people know this. The world knows this. The President needs to reopen the government and start acting like the defender of the Constitution and of our national security that the country needs.

I again urge the Republican leader to let us vote on the bipartisan, six-bill minibus, and when it passes, he and the entire Republican Caucus should urge the President to sign it.

That is our job, as an independent, coequal branch of government: to vote,

to appropriate the funds so the Federal Government can work for the American people. It is not our job to sit on the sidelines while the wheels of government grind to a halt because the President is recklessly holding it hostage.

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

Mr. President, the Appropriations Committee has worked extremely hard to get these bills through. We passed them almost unanimously. Every single bill to keep this government open has been passed by this Senate or the Senate Appropriations Committee and will be passed again if Republicans allow it to come to a vote. They passed almost unanimously out of committee. Senator Shelby and I worked very, very hard to have bipartisan bills, and we did. I think the appropriations bills have had more bipartisan votes than they have had in over 20 years.

Now, where are we? We are on the 18th day of the Trump shutdown. For more than 2 weeks now, the President has withheld the paychecks of more than 800,000 Americans. He has held them hostage in order to extort Congress into funding his border wall--a wall for which he gave his word to the American taxpayers over and over again that Mexico would pay for, not the American taxpayers. Now he says: I want the American taxpayers to pay for it.

For more than 2 weeks, the President has withheld vital government services from the American people in order to gain leverage to fulfill a divisive campaign promise and rally his base. He has totally ignored that we had passed the bills that would reopen the government. Shamefully, he cares more about this cynical bumper sticker symbol of his Presidency than he does about the millions of Americans impacted by his shutdown or the hardships to come if the Trump shutdown continues. He wants rhetoric, not reality. I want reality.

I ask, what will the President say to the 800,000 Federal workers who will not get a paycheck this Friday because of this political stunt? What will he say to the men and women who have mortgages, families to feed, and bills to pay? What will he say to those forced to deplete their hard-earned savings or retirement funds or to those who have no safety net at all?

I will give an example. Just yesterday, a man called my office. He has a job with the Internal Revenue Service in Vermont. He has been furloughed. He will not receive a paycheck this week. He fears he will not be able to pay his bills past mid-January if he does not get paid. He has already turned off the cable and most of his family's cell services to save money. He is concerned about feeding his family, and his wife has serious medical issues that require attention. Incidentally, I was looking at the weather report for parts of Vermont. Tomorrow, it will be 5 degrees below zero. He also has to heat his home in that weather. So he was upset, he was worried, and he was looking for help.

Does the President even care about these people? The President claims he can relate to them, but he dismisses their fears, glibly saying they will ``make adjustments.'' Make adjustments for their child's medical bills? Make adjustments for their mortgage payments? Make adjustments for heating their homes when it is 5 degrees below zero? He even absurdly claims they support his silly wall. Really? Really? Come on. There are 800,000 Federal employees who are affected by the Trump Shutdown. Let somebody poll them and find out how many support what many in Vermont have called a ``dumb wall.'' I have never heard anything more tone-deaf from a President of the United States of America.

Perhaps for a man who was made a millionaire by his father at the age of 8, the idea of living paycheck to paycheck is a foreign concept, but it is not to the millions of Americans--both Republicans and Democrats alike--across this country who struggle to make ends meet. They should not be bargaining chips in the President's game. This is not a game for them, and the President should not treat it as such.

In fact, in addition to all of the Federal employees who are wondering when they will get their next paycheck, vital services on which many Americans rely and have paid taxes to support have come to a grinding halt. Remember that. Americans have paid taxes for these services, and they have come to a grinding halt.

Farmers can't get loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-- USDA--to get them through the next planting season because no one is in the office to process the applications. We passed a 5-year farm bill. I am proud of the bipartisan bill that Senator Roberts and Senator Stabenow led through the Senate. I was one of the conferees on that farm bill, and it was bipartisan. It is complicated, and there are new rules in it, but the USDA cannot implement the new farm bill because all of the staff have been furloughed. How about all of the midwestern farmers who don't know what the rules are going to be before they start planting? They have to make that decision now. They paid their taxes to have the Department of Agriculture to help them, but it is closed now.

Our national parks--the prize of this country since the time of Teddy Roosevelt--are being vandalized and littered with trash and human waste. Since the Trump shutdown began, seven people have died in national parks. The parks were left unsupervised and unstaffed.

Homebuyers are finding out that their Federal Housing Administration loan applications are on hold.

Food safety inspections are slowing. How many people are going to die of food poisoning?

The Small Business Administration has stopped issuing new business loans, and our Federal courts are running out of money.

This is the United States of America. We are an embarrassment to the rest of the world because of this. The President should be embarrassed because he is the one who has asked for the Trump Shutdown.

Everyone agrees that we need to secure our borders, but there are smart ways to do it. A wall is not one of them. It is a 5th-century solution to a 21st-century problem. In 2015, the President's own acting Chief of Staff said that the idea of a wall was ``absurd and almost childish.'' He said that a ``fence doesn't stop anybody who really wants to get across . . . you go under,

you go around, you go through it.'' It may be one of the few times Mick Mulvaney and I are in agreement.

To do what the President wants to do would require seizing land from ranchers and farmers. Some of these ranchers and farmers have had that land in their families for years. They are proud, hard-working, taxpaying Americans, and we say that we are going to come in with a wall through their land. It would require building walls through wildlife refuges and nature preserves. It would forever scar the landscape and ecosystem of the southwest border in ways we cannot anticipate. After all of that and billions of wasted taxpayer dollars, what would we have accomplished?

Tonight, the President will assert that the security of our Nation is in crisis. He will assert that criminals and drugs are pouring across the border. But his claims are not grounded in fact. That is typical of the claims he makes. The disinformation coming from the White House has been staggering.

In his zeal to feign a national emergency at the border, the President has employed nothing short of a propaganda campaign like we have seen in dictatorships of the past.

The reality is that between the year 2000 and 2018, apprehensions at the border have dropped. How much? They have dropped by 75 percent. The reality is that apprehensions at the southwest border have dropped to similar levels we had in the 1970s. It has dropped.

The reality is, many southern border communities have violent crime rates that are lower than the national American average. The reality, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, is that the vast majority of drugs apprehended at the border are seized at ports of entry so a wall between such ports would be entirely useless at stopping drugs.

The demographic that is increasing in number are families--women and children--seeking asylum. Many are not even trying to sneak past the Border Patrol; they present themselves to Border Patrol agents when they cross. They are not here to perpetuate violence; they are fleeing violence, they are fleeing murder, they are fleeing rape, they are fleeing crime from their countries. Wasting billions of American taxpayer dollars to build a wall will not stop them from coming. We need comprehensive immigration reform--like the bipartisan bill the Senate passed in 2013--and smart foreign policy to address these issues, not fearmongering, not distortions, not lies, and certainly not thousands of miles of concrete or steel.

The Constitution vests the power of the purse to Congress. It is our job to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. A border wall doesn't meet that threshold. Even if it did, the President has never provided us with a detailed plan for how he would spend the money, and he has been all over the map about how much he is demanding. The only thing he has said is: We are going to have a wall, and Mexico will pay for it. Fine, let Mexico pay for it. For someone who spent years as the host of a reality TV show, reality has never been his strong suit.

We are not in the business of providing blank checks to satisfy Presidential whims. The President's own budget request to Congress was $1.6 billion for the wall, and he has never submitted an addendum. No matter how much he or others talk about it, he never has. Instead, he makes demands by tweets and through the press. I have lost track of all the times his demands for the wall have changed, but I still go back to the original request. The only request in his budget was $1.6 billion.

This weekend, Democrats asked the Vice President for more details on their border wall request. The administration sent Chairman Shelby and me a letter asking for $7 billion in border security investments that the President is demanding as part of this negotiation, including $5.7 billion for the wall. This letter came out of nowhere 3 months into the fiscal year and 18 days into the shutdown, and it did not come from the President, it came from the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I think I may have that letter. They are asking for $5.6 billion more for the Department of Homeland Security than they proposed in their original budget request, including an additional $4.1 billion for the wall. This came up this weekend, but the letter included no budget justification, no details, and no suggestions for how to pay for it. The letter has a lot of cliches but does not say where the money comes from or what it is going to do. That is not the way we operate. It should not be the way we operate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter be printed in the Record.

The President may not care about the impact the shutdown is having on millions of Americans, but the U.S. Senate--a body that should be the conscience of the Nation--should care. Stoking fear through misinformation in order to promote a political agenda is simply wrong. We could and should reopen the government this week.

Last week, the House passed a bipartisan, six-bill minibus to reopen most of the government and a continuing resolution for the Department of Homeland Security. To show how bipartisan it is, the six appropriations bills the House passed originated in the Republican- controlled Senate last Congress and had bipartisan support, including by Senator Shelby as chairman and by myself as vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

I worked hard with Senator Shelby--and I admire his efforts--to produce these bills last summer and fall, and all of them received nearly unanimous support when they were considered on the floor of the Senate or in the Appropriations Committee. Senator McConnell should bring them to the floor of the U.S. Senate today and put them up for a vote. We have already shown virtually every Republican and every Democrat in this body will vote for them.

Bring them up. Let's vote for them. End this nonsense. End it. The leader owes that to the American people. We owe that to the American people. Let us be the conscience of the Nation, not an institution that is simply a foil for the latest tweet or posting. We can do it. We have passed these bills before. Bring them up. Bring them up. Bring them up, and pass them again. Republicans and Democrats have voted for them in the past. The Republican chairman and I strongly support them. Bring them up. Bring them up. Bring them up and pass them and open the government and let 800,000 Americans stop their suffering.

I yield the floor.

I see the Senator seeking recognition, so I withhold my request.

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

Today, 9 of our 15 Federal Departments and several dozen Agencies have shuttered their doors. By doing that, they denied vital services to millions of American citizens.

Since midnight last night, just a few days before Christmas, more than 800,000 dedicated public servants and their families have been told not to expect their next paycheck for the foreseeable future.

There is one reason and one reason only that our Federal Government has shut down today and countless Americans are living with uncertainty. That reason is President Donald J. Trump. The President is holding the Federal Government hostage for $5 billion of from the American taxpayer for his unnecessary, ineffective, and expensive wall on the southern border--a wall he repeatedly promised--gave his word to the American taxpayers--that Mexico would pay for. Now he wants American taxpayers to dig in their pockets and pay for it.

The President's irresponsible behavior is astounding. His job, like ours, is to keep the Federal Government operating for the hundreds of millions of Americans who depend on government services every day, from our national parks, to housing services for the elderly, the disabled, our veterans, and for assistance for our Nation's farmers. In fact, 2 days ago, the President signed the farm bill into law and praised his efforts. Today, he precipitated a shutdown that shuttered the doors to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's field offices--the same offices farmers rely on to understand this new law.

But the worst part of all is that this was completely avoidable. We provided the President with several options to avoid this result. It is a case where he cannot take yes for an answer. We offered to pass six full-year appropriations bills and a continuing resolution for Homeland or a continuing resolution for all the remaining bills. Either of these options would have kept the government open. They would have provided more than $1 billion for border security--the very thing the President says he needs and cares most about. Plus, signing them instead of having a needless shutdown would save taxpayers millions of dollars.

After both of these offers were rejected, the Senate passed by voice vote a 7-week continuing resolution. This would have given us more time to negotiate and avert this catastrophe. Democrats and Republicans came together to pass it. The President had agreed to sign it. We finally had a path forward. Then FOX News and the rightwing media started criticizing it. The President's ego won out over his duties to the country. His ego was so bruised, he reversed course and went back on what he had agreed to.

Here we are exactly where the President wanted us to be--in the middle of a Trump shutdown. For anyone doubting where responsibility lies, let's recall that the President has publicly called for a government shutdown no fewer than 25 times over the past year. Just last week, he declared he would be proud to shut down the government unless we capitulated to his demand. Proud? I have been here with every President, Republican and Democratic, since President Gerald Ford. It is one of the most reckless statements I have ever heard uttered by a President of the United States. And now he has made good on his threat. His pride has won out, and the Trump shutdown has begun. How long is it going to last? Who knows? Yesterday, the President promised it would last a long time, and then he promised us it would be a short shutdown. Even in this, his behavior is erratic.

How did we get here? Is there a legitimate crisis precipitating this shutdown? Is the President playing games with the lives and livelihoods of American citizens to solve some immediate problem that threatens our Nation? No. Of course not. In caving to the most extreme sliver of his base, President Trump is throwing what many of us have described as a childish tantrum because he wants money to fulfill a cynical promise he made repeatedly on the campaign trail--more of a symbolic prize than any sensible policy solution.

This wasteful wall--a wall he promised Mexico would pay for, not the American taxpayers--this wasteful wall that he now wants to bill to the American taxpayers would do more to preserve the President's ego than it would to protect the American people. But I believe it is the natural result of the President's years-long demonization and vilification of immigrants, years during which the President rallied his base with falsehoods and fantasies where vulnerable women and children are portrayed as hordes of gang members and terrorists invading our country. The sad reality, as Republicans and Democrats know, is that many of these people coming to our country are fleeing desperate situations in their home countries, and they are looking for sanctuary. They are not coming here to perpetuate violence; they are running from it.

Let me be clear. There is no crisis that requires us to build a 30- foot wall between us and our neighbors to the south. The President's hateful rhetoric about a crisis on our southern border does not reflect reality.

At the end of 2017, arrests of people attempting to enter the United States illegally dropped to historic lows. Between 2000 and 2018, border apprehensions fell sharply from 1.6 million in fiscal year 2000 to approximately 400,000 in fiscal year 2018. That is a 75-percent drop. Not only do the facts on the ground not warrant spending billions of American taxpayer dollars on a ``big beautiful wall,'' as the President likes to call it, that is not who we are as a nation. We are a country founded by immigrants, just as my maternal grandparents came to Vermont from Italy, my paternal great-great-grandparents came to Vermont from Ireland, and my wife's parents came to Vermont from the Province of Quebec in Canada. We need to look at the immigrant founding of our country. Then, if we want to wall ourselves off from our neighbors, it will not only be an expensive waste of Americans' taxpayer dollars, but it will be immoral, ineffective, and an affront to everything this country is supposed to stand for.

To build a wall, the President wants to seize land from ranchers and farmers in Texas and in other border States--seize lands that have been in their families for generations. He would need to construct walls through wildlife refuges and nature preserves, basically destroying them. Ironically, we would end up walling ourselves off from the Rio Grande in the process, essentially ceding the river to Mexico.

After all of that and after billions of wasted taxpayer dollars, what would it accomplish? Would it stop people from fleeing violence in their home countries and seeking sanctuary? No. Would it stop drug smugglers and human traffickers from engaging in illegal activity? Definitely no. As so many have said, show me a 30-foot wall, and I will show you a 31-foot ladder or a tunnel.

To address these complex issues, we need real solutions, not bumper sticker slogans, not angry tweets. Everyone agrees we need to keep our borders safe and secure, but it has to be with smart border security, with border security that works, with new technologies that have proven to have worked on the border and at our ports of entry, technologies with new air and marine assets and additional personnel who are needed.

A 30-foot wall is symbolic and unneeded. Even if we needed to build it, what is the rush? Over the past 2 years, Congress has provided nearly $1.7 billion to build or to replace fencing on

the southern border. Yet the administration has hardly spent any of that money, and the projects it has undertaken have been handled in such a way that they have ballooned in cost. We have given the administration $1.7 billion, and it is now demanding more. How much of the $1.7 billion did it spend? It spent 6 percent. Six percent of these funds have been spent. We have recently learned that one project in the Rio Grande Valley that was supposed to cost $445 million will now cost American taxpayers nearly $787 million. That is a 77-percent cost overrun with a pricetag of $31.5 million for each and every mile.

We have seen that you cannot trust the administration to be responsible with the money we have already provided, let alone trust it to spend responsibly the additional money the President is demanding. Once and for all, let's put an end to this nonsense, and we have an easy way to do it.

We could finish six of the seven appropriations bills right now while we continue to debate these other issues. These bills are the product of bipartisan compromise as the Republicans and Democrats have come together. They provide billions of dollars in new resources to address critical needs for the American people. They protect U.S. national security. These six bills that we have already agreed on--Republicans and Democrats--would provide much needed funding to help combat our Nation's opioid epidemic and critical investments in infrastructure. They would help us to rebuild our Nation's crumbling roads, bridges, and highways. They would provide resources to protect the environment and help ensure that the water we drink and the air we breathe is safe and clean for this generation, for our children, and for the following generation. They would also support key allies and national security programs to enable the United States to be a global leader--a role that is being increasingly challenged by China and Russia.

So I have to ask; is the President really going to hold the American people hostage over a wall that he, time and again, has promised Mexico will pay for? Is he really going to force hundreds of thousands of Federal employees, including the very Agency he depends upon to carry out his immigration enforcement policy, to work without pay over the Christmas holiday? Is he really going to tell millions of Americans, including his most ardent supporters, that he could care less whether they are cut off from critical government services purely in the service of his own vanity?

The President has, apparently, decided that fighting a symbolic fight for a shiny object is more important than keeping our government running for the American people. It is the height of irresponsibility.

As negotiations with Chairman Shelby and Leader McConnell continue in good faith, I am here this weekend to continue to talk with Members of both parties, but we are all coming to the same conclusion. We can agree easily, Republicans and Democrats, but we can only succeed if the President decides to do what we have done, which is to put the country first. The President of the United States owes that to the American people. He owes reality, not rhetoric.

I don't see another Member seeking recognition.

I ask unanimous consent that the editorial in yesterday's New York Times about Secretary Mattis be placed in the Record.

Mr. President, like so many Republicans and Democrats, I was stunned to hear that Secretary Mattis was going to be leaving.

I understand his reasons. He has said he always felt a duty to uphold the interests and security of the United States and to uphold our agreements with other countries for the security of democracy. The President has disagreed with him on that. He feels otherwise. So Secretary Mattis feels the President should be entitled to have somebody who takes differing views.

Unfortunately, General Mattis's views are those that are the result of decades of service to this country as a marine in combat, as a marine commander, as a four-star general, and as one who has the strong respect of Republicans and Democrats alike. Certainly, he has the strong respect of those who have served in the military and who know what it means to actually stand up for this country, not just in rhetoric but by putting their lives on the line on the battlefield.

I will always admire General Mattis. I applaud his service to the United States of America, and I know he is a man who can leave with his head held high.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, like many Members of Congress who have long supported efforts to help build an independent judiciary and reduce public corruption and impunity in Guatemala, I have observed a pattern of alarming actions by President Morales's administration and his allies in Guatemala's Congress to thwart these efforts.

In the latest development, earlier this week, the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs withdrew the diplomatic immunity of 11 investigators and other personnel of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, CICIG, and ordered them to leave the country. This followed an announcement by the Minister of Interior of the removal of another 15 high-ranking police officials from their posts.

Over the years, the United States has invested many tens of millions of dollars to support the national police, the attorney general's office, and CICIG. These actions by the Morales's administration directly undermine those investments and indicate that it cannot be trusted to keep its word and is not serious about upholding the rule of law.

Working jointly with the Attorney General's Office, CICIG has investigated cases of public corruption and other serious crimes. It has helped to strengthen the investigative capabilities of the attorney general's office and the police and promoted key criminal justice reforms. For this reason, CICIG, its commissioner, and the former attorney general have been the target of acts of intimidation and a smear campaign orchestrated by the Morales's administration and its allies in the military and the media. These actions by the government threaten CICIG' s independence and its ability to function effectively. According to information I have received, the professionals whose diplomatic immunity and visas were revoked include investigators and lawyers involved in some of the most sensitive cases related to alleged corruption and illicit campaign financing by top government officials.

Other actions by Guatemalan authorities are equally disturbing. Since assuming office in January 2018, Minister of Interior Enrique Degenhart has, on multiple occasions, removed or relocated senior national police officers and detectives. Most of these officers had many years of experience in criminal investigations, counternarcotics, and other specialized areas. Most were trained by the United States. Even worse, the Minister has reportedly appointed police officials with alleged links to the military and promoted officers without transparent, merit- based processes, undermining efforts to build a professional, transparent, and accountable police force. This threatens our ability to continue working with the police, which has in the past been infiltrated by organized crime, to combat narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and other transnational criminal activity.

In 2009, working with key Guatemalan law enforcement agencies,

CICIG helped establish a wiretapping unit within the Attorney General's Office. Prior to that, wiretaps were illegal. The unit, which has been supported by the United States, has been instrumental in helping the Attorney General investigate and dismantle complex criminal networks. Reportedly, among the officers recently removed by Minister Degenhart was the director of the wiretapping unit.

If we have learned anything over many years of trying to assist the countries of Central America build the institutions of government necessary to effectively combat corruption and impunity, it is that without partners who care at least as much about these issues as we do it is a fruitless exercise and a waste of U.S. taxpayers' money.

What is happening today in Guatemala is a repeat of what we have observed many times before. New government officials take office, they profess their commitment to democratic ideals, the rule of law, and judicial independence, and then, when their own misdeeds become the focus of criminal investigations, they show their true colors.

They ignore rulings by the country's highest courts. They seek to replace magistrates who cannot be intimidated, with cronies who will shield them from the law. They expel international prosecutors on grounds of ``sovereignty.'' They threaten those whose job it is to apply the law. They try to intimidate their political opponents. It is the same sad story.

I recently met Constitutional Court Magistrate Gloria Patria Porras Escobar, an experienced and internationally respected jurist and former prosecutor known for her independence and courage. She, like others who have honored their professions, is an example of what Guatemala needs; yet she is being vilified by those who seek to subvert the institutions of justice.

The people of Guatemala deserve better. They have demanded an end to corruption, an end to impunity, and an end to public officials who care more about enriching and protecting themselves than they do about addressing the needs of their people. The Guatemalan people overwhelming support the attorney general's office and CICIG, which have, for the first time in the country's history, shown that public officials who abuse their authority are not above the law.

President Morales's administration has less than a year left in office. Let us hope that he quickly reverses course because the path he is on will jeopardize further U.S. support for his government's participation in the Alliance for Prosperity. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to wait for a government in Guatemala that has the integrity to be a credible partner of the United States.

(At the request of Mr. Schumer, the following statement was ordered to be printed in the Record.)

Mr. President, as a President pro tempore emeritus, I would like to recognize the retirement of the Senate's current President pro tempore, Senator Orrin Hatch. Senator Hatch and I have both had the privilege of representing our constituents for more than four decades. He has fought for the interests of Utah and his constituents throughout his career.

Senator Hatch has shown a commitment to his beliefs. As both a chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee during my tenures in both posts, we have had more than one occasion to partner, to spar, and to share a laugh. Once we even exchanged ties. I gave him a Jerry Garcia one, and he gave me a Rush Limbaugh tie.

He will be remembered here in the Senate as a respected colleague.

I wish Senator Hatch, his wife, Elaine, their six children, and all his family the best.

Mr. President, Senator Nelson is the only Member of this body to see the Earth from space. Perhaps that is why he has been a champion of our environment, our climate, clean air and water, both here in the United States, and for the entire planet.

Senator Nelson has said that seeing our little planet suspended in the infinity of space imparted him ``with a profound sense of obligation to become a better steward for our planet Earth.'' He has never shirked that obligation. Whether urgently warning about the dangers of a quickly warming planet or about the importance of conserving wildlife and our natural spaces, Senator Nelson has long understood that the health of our children and grandchildren depends on our responsible stewardship of our planet today. What is more, Senator Nelson understands that confronting climate change is not

only good for the planet but crucial for his constituents. Florida has already begun to feel the effects of extreme weather made worse by warmer temperatures, and Senator Nelson's work on the issue reflects his deep commitment to Floridians.

In addition to his global outlook, Senator Nelson has shown his willingness and ability to accomplish small changes that can have big benefits for his constituents. In the aftermath of horrific shootings in Florida, he didn't just offer condolences to the victims; he got to work to call attention to gun violence, and he issued calls to action. He partnered with me to introduce legislation that would give law enforcement agencies the tools they need to modernize efforts to combat gun violence. The small technical fix in this legislation--allowing the ATF to digitize its records--would make a world of difference to police trying to solve crimes across the country. I wish his calls to action, like so many of ours, were heard by Congress.

Senator Nelson has devoted his career to public service, and his role in elected office started back in the Florida House of Representatives in 1972. Since then, he has faithfully represented the State of Florida, and we have been fortunate to have him here in the Senate. I am sad to see him go, and the Nation will miss his strong voice on environmental issues. I wish Senator Nelson and his wife, Grace, the best.

Mr. President, Bob Corker is a businessman. He is a husband, a father, and a grandfather. He is a U.S. Senator. But at his heart, he is a Tennessean.

Senator Corker's success in business has translated into a successful Senate career. In these uncertain times, where diplomacy sometimes seems reduced to a tweet or a hashtag, Senator Corker has shown a willingness to refuse to compromise American values for political expediency. Most recently, I was proud to join him and other Senators in sending a letter that triggered an investigation under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act to determine if Saudi officials are responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Senator Corker also recognizes that reducing nuclear weapon stockpiles is an important step to a more peaceful world, and he was just one of 13 Republicans to vote for the New START treaty.

I thank Senator Corker for his service here in the Senate and wish him and his wife, Elizabeth, well.

Mr. President, Senator McCaskill has left an indelible mark on the Senate. A former prosecutor in Missouri, she brought the fight to protect the most vulnerable in her State and across the country to her work here in the U.S. Senate.

Her work to preserve the Affordable Care Act and protect victims of sexual harassment and violence speak to the depth of her convictions. She has also shown great talent safeguarding our Nation and holding our government accountable as a former chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and as a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Senator McCaskill has fought hard to protect college students from sexual harassment and assault on campus. Senator McCaskill has even spoken of the sexual harassment that she herself faced as a young woman in the Missouri State Legislature. Long before the Nation began talking openly about the extent of sexual harassment and assault across all sectors of our society brought into the open by the #MeToo movement, Senator McCaskill prepared a report on the extent of sexual harassment and assault on college campuses. But Senator McCaskill has never been a woman content with report-writing; she introduced a bill to help address the issue. And when the Senate didn't move on that bill, she worked directly with colleges, holding public roundtables to call attention to the issue.

That is a just a glimpse of the determination that Senator McCaskill brings to all of her work on behalf of her constituents. She is a straight shooter. In the face of misinformation campaigns about the Affordable Care Act, Senator McCaskill has always stepped up to promote the truth. I have always admired her commitment to preserving that law that helps so many of her rural constituents.

As a former chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator McCaskill has dedicated much of her Senate service to keeping our country safe. I greatly appreciated her support for my National Guard Empowerment Act, which finally gave our National Guard the tools it needs to protect our Nation and take care of its members.

I will miss Senator McCaskill's tenacity, and I am sure that Missouri and the Nation will too. Missouri is losing a champion in the Senate. Marcelle and I wish her, her husband, Joe, and her family the very best in this new chapter.

Mr. President, Senator Dean Heller may have been a freshman Senator when he came to this body in 2011, but he was not short on experience. First elected as a Nevada assemblyman in 1990, Senator Heller has served in government ever since.

During his Senate tenure, Senator Heller has shown a great interest in protecting American's data privacy, and he was an important partner in our efforts to pass the USA FREEDOM Act. He was a staunch advocate of that bill, even when many in the Senate were pushing for expanded surveillance powers over Americans. Both of us recognized that though the bill may not have included every provision we wanted, the best way to offer privacy protections was through compromise.

While his tenure here was brief, I have appreciated getting to know Senator Heller and working with him on issues of great importance. I wish Senator Heller, his wonderful wife, Lynn, and their four children the very best in this next chapter of their lives.

Mr. President, I know that Senator Jeff Flake believes, as I do, that the Senate at its best can be the conscience of our Nation. Lately, I believe the Senate has been less than that. In the closing months of his tenure in the Senate, however, Senator Flake has spoken about his hopes for this body and for our Nation. What is more, throughout his tenure, he has on many occasions reached across the aisle to bridge the partisan divide for the good of the Nation.

When I first approached Senator Flake about joining me in visiting Cuba, he was willing to come with an open mind. He recognized the failure of the continuing U.S. embargo, and his partnership helped us create a new path forward that culminated in the release of Alan Gross, an American long imprisoned in Cuba, and restored diplomatic relations between our two countries. The few minutes on the tarmac in Cuba while we waited to bring Mr. Gross back home after 5 years in captivity are some of the most meaningful minutes of my life. Senator Flake's partnership helped lead to that moment.

While the release of Alan Gross was the most dramatic event in U.S.- Cuban relations in a generation, Senator Flake has also partnered with me on initiatives to encourage Cuban entrepreneurs, open Cuban markets to American farmers and agriculture, and boost the Cuban Government's respect for human rights. His assistance from across the aisle has been helpful in shining light on the more than 50 years of failed policy toward this small island neighbor.

I have also watched with admiration Jeff's commitment of the last month in protecting one of the most pivotal national security investigations in our Nation's history--the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in our elections. The security and sanctity of our elections is a cornerstone of our democracy. As he rounds out this chapter of his career, Senator Flake's stance and insistence that the Senate act to protect the work of the special counsel has been laudable.

I will be sad to see Senator Flake leave, and the Senate will be losing an

independent voice willing to pursue bipartisan progress. That is a voice that is needed now more than ever. I will miss working with my friend here in the Senate, and Marcelle and I wish Jeff and Cheryl all the best as they begin a new chapter.

Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to recognize the career and service of Senator Joe Donnelly. Senator Donnelly has spent more than a decade steadfastly representing the State of Indiana in both Chambers of Congress. He has resisted labels and rigid partisanship, consistently proving that he is open to any policy solutions that benefit Hoosiers.

I have been particularly moved by Senator Donnelly's commitment to defending fairness in the workplace. He has fought for sustainable minimum wages and helped pass crucial protections for victims of pay discrimination. His work in Congress has made the workplaces of Indiana and the Nation fairer.

I was proud to work with Senator Donnelly in 2015 to expand the resources available to victims under the Violence Against Women Act. We have also worked together to pass legislation to ensure that law enforcement have access to funds to purchase adequate body armor.

Senator Donnelly's presence and his desire to bridge partisan divides will surely be missed in this Chamber. I know he will continue to do all he can to serve Hoosiers and our Nation, and I wish him and his wife, Jill, all the best.

Mr. Preident, you wouldn't guess it, but North Dakota and Vermont are more alike than they are different. Both depend on agriculture and small businesses to support rural communities. Likewise, Senator Heitkamp and I are not all that different: We are both natives of our States, and we both are committed to working across the aisle to get things done.

Before running for the Senate, Senator Heitkamp served as North Dakota's attorney general, where she worked to keep communities safe, much as I did as State's attorney in Vermont before I first ran for the Senate. One of her biggest achievements as State attorney general was forcing the tobacco industry to tell the public the truth about the health risks of smoking, and securing a settlement of $336 million in damages for North Dakota taxpayers.

Senator Heitkamp was a strong cosponsor of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. We worked together closely to include provisions to protect Native American victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault. These protections were sorely needed, and it was an honor to fight with her for their inclusion. She also introduced and helped usher into law the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act, which works to ensure that Native children and families have access to critical economic and educational resources.

North Dakota, like Vermont, struggles with affordable housing and a rural housing shortage. As a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Heitkamp worked to help families achieve stable housing. She sought housing finance reform and relief for community banks and credit unions, giving more rural families access to the economic tools they need to thrive.

Senator Heitkamp and I have served together on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, working most recently to pass a comprehensive and bipartisan farm bill to support the hard work of our farmers, who are the backbone of our rural communities, and to address nutrition and food insecurity challenges across the country and abroad. Senator Heitkamp has been committed to ensuring we invest in our rural infrastructure and business development, and North Dakota is stronger for that.

Senator Heidi Heitkamp has been a tireless champion for the people of North Dakota for longer than just her term in the Senate, and although I will miss her, I know she will continue to serve her State in other ways for years to come. Marcelle and I wish her and Darwin the very best.

Mr. President, today we will pass a third continuing resolution, CR, to keep the government operating through February 8. I support this CR because a government shutdown is never good for our country--in fact, it is a terrible idea--but this whole process has been a missed opportunity.

For six of the seven appropriations bills covered under today's CR, we have a clear path forward. These bills--Agriculture, Commerce- Justice-Science, Interior, Financial Services, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and the State-Foreign Operations bill--could be done by close of business today if there was the will. They are largely finished, are the product of bipartisan compromise, and provide the funds necessary to address critical needs of the American people and to protect U.S. national security. Unfortunately, the President held them hostage for $5 billion to try to wall off our southern border, a wall he promised American taxpayers that Mexico would pay for.

What will be lost because of the President's intransigence?

These six bills provide much-needed funding to help combat our Nation's opioid epidemic and critical investments in infrastructure to help rebuild our Nation's crumbling roads, bridges, and highways. They provide resources to protect the environment and help ensure that the water we drink and the air we breathe is safe and clean for this generation and the next.

They provide important assistance for our Nation's farmers and rural communities who have been particularly hurt this year by the President's trade policies, and they support key allies and national security programs that are what enable the United States to be a global leader, a role that is being increasingly challenged by China and Russia.

Unfortunately, this much-needed assistance is put on hold because the President held out for $5 billion for his wall, at the exorbitant cost of $31 million per mile, straight from the American taxpayer's pocket.

We also should be passing a disaster package to help families and communities devastated by Hurricanes Maria, Florence, and Michael, the Hawaii volcanoes, California wildfires, and Alaska earthquakes. We should remember that no one in this Chamber is immune from disaster. Seven years ago, Tropical Storm Irene devastated my home State of Vermont. Marcelle and I observed the wreckage from that storm in Vermont--large parts of communities washed away, homes and farms demolished, local landmarks and bridges destroyed. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, from across the country, stood by Vermont's side then to help us rebuild because that is who we are as Americans.

This year, the images of flattened homes, buckled pavement, and raging flames have been matched in horror only by the devastated lives they have left in their wake. Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, California, Hawaii, and Alaska, they all need our help, and it is indefensible that, because of the President's obsession with one issue, his wall, we are punting this disaster funding until the new year. These communities need to know their government stands behind them in times of crisis.

Why didn't we get this done? Why can't we pass the six bills that are finished and a disaster package to help those communities in need before we adjourn? There is one clear answer to that question: President Donald J. Trump. He has held all of our good work, by Democrats and Republicans, hostage over $5 billion for his misguided wall along the southern border. It is a travesty.

My opposition to his border wall, a wall he over and over pledged to the American people that Mexico would pay for, has been clear from the start. The United States is a country founded by immigrants, and walling ourselves off from our neighbors to the south is not only impossible and an expensive waste of American taxpayer dollars, it is immoral, ineffective, and an affront to everything this country stands for. Everyone agrees that we need to keep our border safe and secure, but there are better and smarter ways to accomplish that than building a 30-foot high concrete barrier between us and Mexico.

Let's not be fooled by recent White House rhetoric that President Trump was backing down from his demands on the wall. The price demanded by the

White House for letting the rest of these bills advance without $5 billion for the wall was a $1 billion slush fund to fuel the President's extreme, anti-immigrant agenda. Why should we give a blank check to a President who has shown, time and time again, that he is more interested in vilifying immigrants than he is in solving our immigration problems? His immigration policies have already caused immeasurable human suffering along our southern border and tarnished our reputation around the world. Providing his administration with an additional $1 billion slush fund to enact this agenda is a nonstarter.

The fact is the President's wall does not have the votes to get through the House or Senate, and he is in no position to practice horse-trading of one untenable, unpopular, wasteful policy for another, nor will Congress stand by and watch the President take funds from our men and women in the military or their families in order to pay for the wall. This fight will continue into the next Congress, but I do not anticipate those basic facts will change. It is long past time for President Trump to recognize that we live in a democracy. We have three coequal branches of government. Governing effectively is not about making threats and false promises. Campaign slogans are no substitute for practical, affordable solutions.

I want to thank Chairman Shelby for his steadfast partnership this year as we tried to get the appropriations process back on track. I know that he shares my disappointment that we were not able to complete our work, but I am proud of what we have accomplished this year. By working together across party lines, we moved all 12 bills out of the committee on strong bipartisan votes. We advanced 9 of the 12 bills through the Senate, also with strong bipartisan votes, and we were able to enact 5 of the 12 appropriations bills on time for the first time in decades.

I also thank Chairman Shelby's staff and my staff for their hard work, expertise, and their commitment to accomplishing our goals this year.

I ask unanimous consent to print a list of the bipartisan committee staff in the Record. I look forward to working with him and his staff, and our colleagues in the House, in the next Congress to finish our work.