seven republicans voting against the measure. the bill may go to the white house on monday for the president signature. near the end of today's session, house majority leader steny hoyer and minority whip steve scalise came to the floor to discuss next week's house agenda as the ongoing government shutdown. and representative steve king came to the floor to talk about recent comments he made about white nationalists groups. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. scalise: with that, mr. speaker, i'd like to yield to my friend from maryland for our first official colloquy, the gentleman from maryland, and the majority leader of the house, mr. hoyer. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. we have reversed positions, of course. for a number of years now, i've had the privilege of having a colloquy with mr. mccarthy, who was then the majority leader. so, mr. scalise is now -- has now undertaken my role. a role probably he doesn't

welcome. but i know he will do well. as minority whip. and as majority leader, i'm stim here doing the colloquy -- still here doing the colloquy. and i'm proud to be doing that with mr. scalise, who is an outstanding member. i congratulate him on his position and look forward to working with him through the years towards trying to create agreement, consensus, and action by the congress on behalf of the american people. mr. speaker, on monday the house will meet at 12:00 noon for morning hour debate, 2:00 p.m. for legislative biggs. with votes postponed until -- business. with votes pose postponed until 6:30 p.m. on tuesday and wednesday, the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. for morning hour debate and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. on thursday the house will meet at 9:00 a.m. for legislative siness, with last votes no later than 3:00 p.m. we will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. the complete list of suspensions, as is the natural

order, will be announced at the close of business today. in addition, mr. speaker, we will consider h.r. 268, which is the disaster supplemental appropriation act of 2019. chairwoman lowey released this legislation last week. it will provide relief and recovery assistance for americans affected by recent hurricanes, some of which were historic in their power. and devastation. wildfires, typhoons and other natural disasters. mr. speaker, we will also consider additional legislation related to fiscal year 2019 appropriations. we are on day 21 of this shutdown. and house democrats will continue to work so that it comes to end as soon as possible -- to an end as soon as possible. members are also advised that additional legislative items are possible. and i might teed that, it is possible we will deal with one,

two or three of the appropriation bills that haven't been passed. but it's also quite possible, and hopefully will, deal with the balance of appropriation bills which have not been enacted. we will have to see what transpires over the next 24, 48, 72, 96 hours. but hopefully we'll be able to move forward to get our federal employees back to work. i yield back to my friend. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman from maryland. i appreciate the kind remarks and would return those as well. you're well versed at this process. a noble battler in the debate, of ideas. i look forward to having continued conversations about not only the areas where we may have some differences, but how we can find common ground and you are very good at working with both sides to find common ground. obviously right now we're in the

middle of one of those differences that hopefully can get resolved. as we've been in these meetings at the white house with the other leaders, both house and senate, republican and democrat, the unfortunate thing is that we've been at an impasse. the president, through his department of homeland security, has made a formal request and a detailed request for the amount of money it will take to secure our border. to properly give our agents, the people that are risking their lives to keep our country safe, the tools they need. it requires a lot of things it. might require more border patrol -- things. it might require more border patrol agents, more tools and technology. but clearly also physical barriers. that seems to be the area where we've had an impasse. i know that as the president put a formal offer on the table, backed up by the experts at the department of homeland security, for what it will take to secure the border, up until this point we haven't seen a formal proposal, response to counter that offer.

if in fact your side does agree that we need to secure the border, the president's made a formal request that came from our experts at the department of homeland security. the only offer i've seen put on the table is the speaker's offer, and i'm not even sure if it was serious when she said she would support $1. i know the gentleman from maryland will recognize that a dollar is not a serious counteroffer. the president has continued to extend an invitation that whenever there's a serious counteroffer that can be becomed up with an explanation of how that can secure our board fer that's the objective of the other side can the gentleman from maryland share with me when that counteroffer will be made, when a formal, serious proposal to get our government back open and secure our border will be put on the table? i yield. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman from his -- for his observations

theasms gentleman know we have and continue to be and are today even more so concerned about the fact that the president of the united states has taken hostage the government of the united states and shut it down. as a result, what we have asked for before we get into serious negotiations, let us open up the government. after all, when we're -- border security being a focus, nobody that is protecting the borders for the united states of america is getting paid. morale is low. apprehension is high. we believe very strongly that the first step we ought to take is open up government. then as the gentleman well knows, we have articulated on numerous occasions and i hope the gentleman believes we are honest and when the gentleman reviews the record of when we were in charge of the house and the senate that we made very substantial investments in

border security. as i think probably the gentleman knows. urthermore, we have been ready to support and offered the bills that the republicans have passed. and in fact, i think the majority leader at one point in time -- the minority leader in the senate said that he would accept the number that the president suggested. and we made some counteroffers. they were rejected. in fact, senator mcconnell believe he had an adwreement with the president on keeping government open, he sent us a bill, to do just that, in the waning days of december, and as the minority whip well knows, that bill was not taken up. on the floor of this house. in fact a bill which had been pending for 11 1/2 months in committee came first to the

floor with 10 days left in the year. included a number far above the number that the president originally asked for. and far above any number that had been discussed. and although it passed the ouse, the house knew then very well that it did not have the votes in the senate to pass and it did not pass. as a result, government shut down. and we continue to be in a place as we said at the white house to negotiate on border security, to secure our borders, to protect our people from those who would come across our borders, commit crimes, protect against drugs eing imported, protect against trafficking of human beings, we all share that view, republicans

and democrats. the issue is how we most effectively accomplish that objective. pending that, with the government -- we took power, it was our responsibility, what we have done over the last two weeks is to pass essentially your bills. i don't know how can be much more bipartisan than that. than pass your bills. mr. scalise: reclaiming my time. those were not our bills. the house had a negotiation going on with the senate. the senate as the gentleman knows passed some bill, not all the bills brought to the house floor, but brought some bills that were different from the house bills and as you know, when the senate passes a bill and the house has a different version you go to conference committee. you don't just say we're going to take the senate bill. also as you brought that bill to the floor, the speaker, the majority leader, brought to the floor as part of that package a bill that did not pass the senate floor a bill that would have reversed the mexico city

policy. that change was dramatic because that would have allowed taxpayer money to go to foreign government entities who provide abortion. it's been the policy of this country since ronald reagan went to mexico to deliver that speech and create the mexico city policy that we don't give taxpayer money to fund abortion. i know that's gone back and forth through different administrations. this president has made it very clear that he will strictly enforce the mexico city policy that bill on the floor would have reversed it. that's not lang wamming that passed the senate floor. in addition to that, if you go back throughout these negotiations, at the very beginning, the president has been talking about a crisis at the border. the crisis at the boarder is very real. in our first meeting with the leaders in the situation room at the white house about the speaker -- both the speaker and the minority leader of the senate interrupted the secretary

of homeland security every time she tried to go through this crisis. it's not just the drugs which are dramatic and we need to stop. it's not just the human trafficking which is dramatic that we need to stop. it's not just the murders that are happening, there are murders happening in so many state in your state of maryland, just recently, someone who is in this country illegally from el salvador was sentenced to life in prison without parole in montgomery county in maryland for the murder of someone. and he had no remorse for his crime. we just saw a police officer in california who was murdered by someone who came back and forth through this country illegally multiple times because we don't have physical barriers to secure our border. so that presentation was interrupted and we never got through the full presentation but ultimately the second retear of homeland security has laid out why we have a crisis at the border and it needs to be resolve and they went into a detailed breakdown of the costs

to secure the border. so at issue right here now is a difference in amount. if your side truly does agree that we have to secure our border, which i've heard the speaker, the minority leader and others say they need to secure the border, but yet they haven't been willing to agrow to more than one dollar in the request that's been made by the administration to secure the border. so the real question is, at the heart of this debate if we're all for border securitying we can talk about border security, in fact, back in 2006, president obama when he was a senator talked about the need for securing the border when ehe voted for the fence act. the minority leader, mr. schumer, at the time, voted for the fence act that language, and you can call it whatever you want, a fence, a wall, cement, steel slats. but ultimately it's law. lang wang that allows what can and can't be built. the language that the minority

leader, mr. schumer at the time, voted for in 2006 would have given the department of homeland security many of the tools they need in language but not the money. so now we're at a point where if it's all of a sudden he's against that kind of physical structure that he was for in 2006 he ought to explain why. and so shoiled others who have maybe change thared position. but if the language in 2006 would give the secretary of homeland security the tools they need and the authority they need to actually start securing the parts of the border between ports of entry. we have ports of entry. and everybody knows where those are. we by the way stop a lot of really bad people from coming into our country at ports of entry. what we don't know is how many people come through the areas where we have no ports of entry. where we have no brders. everybody recognizes that you can't just stop people at the points of entry and then have no protection in the hundreds of miles, we're talking about over

500 miles of unprotected area of this country on the southern border where there is a crisis that's growing every single day. if we acknowledge that, now i know the minority leader than speaker went on tv the other night and said it's a fabricated crisis. how could you call this a fabricated crisis? when you see deaths, when you see -- over 90% of the heroin that comes into this country and kills americans every single day is coming across our southern border. that's not a fabricated crisis. those are real, serious things that are happening. that are bad. there are good people that come to this country. this country, america, is the greatest country in the world in letting people in legally. we let over one million people into our country legally every single year and it enriches our country. it's a legal process. and there are millions of people waiting to come to this country the right way. so while we recognize that

greatness of our country, we also recognize that there are people that are bad people, that come into our country every single day as well and we need to have the tools to secure our border so we can stop that. so the real question is, how much mup money is the other side willing to support to actually secure the border if the department that's tasked with keeping our country safe is saying they need $5.7 billion? if you agree for a smaller number, if you want to put on the table a smaller number, it's not $1, and let's at least recognize that was an insult. so if it's not $1, then what is the amount you will support and put on the table to start ta real gorblingse to solve this crisis? and i yield. mr. hoyer: mr. president, the government of the united states partially has been shut down. that's the issue here. we can have the debate that the

gentleman just discussed. not a word about opening up the people's government. not a word about 800,000 people who are not getting their salaries. not a word of the financial instability that he is subjecting 00,000 people to. he being the president of the united states. they are being held hostage for the ransom of doing what they believe is the right thing to d on border security. however, mr. hurd says a republican who has more border mileage on the border than any other congressional district in america, says what the president wants to do is not the right thing. senator ron johnson says a similar quote. lindsay -- lindsey graham said he thought it was a bad investment he didn't say it yesterday or the day before he said it about a year ago.

the issue -- if my friend will allow me to continue. mr. scalise: but lindsey graham did say we need to build the wall. he has a different solution than the gentleman from maryland. let's be clear. i just was speaking with senator graham last night about this. he wants to start building the wall and clearly your side has not been willing and the president by the way in the meeting in the oval office in the situation room two days ago looked at the speaker directly and said, ok, we don't agree even on some of these other areas of government that haven't been opened but if you'll agrow to work with me on the wall i will support another 30 days of keeping all government going even on the areas we disagree but to open everything up and continue negotiations on the wall and the speaker said no. we could have everything open today but the speaker is the one being held hostage by the far left elements of your party because she's yet to agree to anything, not putting more than

$1, she said on tv last week she'd support $1. that's an insult. and i have yet to see in any of the meetings i've been in her willingness to support more than that. and so we could have everything open today. that offer has been put on the table. the president himself has said you can write the definition of the wall. you can ban cement wall. the president has already acknowledge head would be willing to support that. he would be willing to support a lower number if you can justify how it secures the border but that offer has never been put on the table. we can end this crisis today. 21 days in is too lock. and there's a solution. but the solution includes, it's not going to be your way or the highway. you can't say no, we want everything or nothing. you've got to be willing to put something on the table that will secure the border of this country or just say you're not for border security. but you can't say you're for border security and then not agree to more than $1. i yield.

mr. hoyer: the gentleman yields? mr. scalise: the gentleman yields. mr. highway wrer: the government is shut down. there's no excuse for that. but the president wants his way. and he's taken 800,000 people hostage and the ransom he nands is his wall. nancy pelosi has nothing to do with shutting down this wall. we have passed bill after bill over the last two weeks to open up this government. if the minority whip thinks it's good for border security not to pay people who are protecting the border, he and i differ. let me tell you what mick mulvaney said. he wasn't there last night. and i talked to senator graham last night. he made the statement that i just reflected to you. acting chief of staff mick

mulvaney said, 2015, i understand it's not when he's working for the president who is paying his salary, to just say build a darn fence and have that at the end of an immigration discussion is absurd and almost childish. for someone running for president to take that simplistic of a view. 8/25/15.hat on wrhi on look it up. the government is shut down. we are fully prepared and if the minority whip will look at the record, we funded more money for border security in twine than was funded in the next -- 2009 than was funded in the next seven years. under republican control. they didn't bring their bill, mr. speaker, to the floor until 11 1/2 months had passed. but now border security has to

be done right this second or we're going to close down government, keep it shut, and keep 800,000 people hostage and millions and millions of americans who he will -- rely on the services of government. a, we are for border security. we do not want people coming into this country who are not authorized to come into this country. c, we care about crime. we care about drugs. we care about investing money to stop drugs coming into the country and to treat those who are afflicted with drugs. the record reflects that, mr. speaker. but the record also reflects that the republicans had over shuttingagain used the down of government, the taking hostage the people's government, to get their way. newt gingrich did it first for a

long period of time in 1995 and 1996. 21 days. we're going to surpass that this time. he did it because president clinton said, i'm not going to allow you to cut education spending for the people of the united states as deeply as you want to cut it. and then senator cruz came over here and talked to the so-called freedom caucus sained, unless obama agrees -- and said, unless obama agrees to repeal the affordable care act, we're going to shut down government. and they shut down government. and very frankly, when we tried to open it up, the minority whip didn't vote to open it up. so maybe he doesn't care about opening up government, paying people who are working for the people of the united states. i don't know. and then just recently, a few weeks ago, when they came to the end of the fiscal year, they had not done their job, the republicans are in charge of the senate, they were in charge of

the house, and they have the presidency of the united states. so we did a c.r. and we voted for it. because we didn't want to shut down government. and then we came to the december date to which that c.r. ran and lo and behold the majority leader of the united states senate sent us over a bill. not our bill. it was a bill from the republican majority leader. it came here under unanimous consent. republican-led senate sent it here. and lo and behold the senate leadership and the house would not take that bill up. -- why? the president, who had told senator mcconnell he would sign it changed his mind -- sign it, changed his mind. i don't know whether it was ann coulter, sean handity, rush

limbaugh, i don't know who the principal adviser in that decision was. but one person communicated, i won't sign that bill, and so the republican leadership decided, we won't put that billen the floor and they put a -- bill on the floor and they put a bill on the floor they said over and over again, this week we put bills on the floor that wouldn't pass the senate. they put a bill that they knew would not pass the united states senate on the floor, sent it over there, it didn't pass. and government has been shut own. the president walked out because nancy pelosi said 30 days from now, when asked, will you support the wall, said no. and the president had a tantrum and he walked out. he said, well, this is a waste of my time. this is not a process where the president tells us to do things.

as i recall, mr. speaker, the constitution of the united states, article 1, says, we are the policymakers. we are the ones who pass the laws. we are the ones who say what the executive department carries out as policy. so we ought to pass these bills. and then, yes, we ought to deal honestly and openly and together to make sure the borders are secure. the gentleman said the immigration system does not work. it's broken. he's absolutely right. and the senate five or six years ago passed a bill in a bipartisan way with over 62 votes, 14 republicans, and sent it to the house under republican leadership six years ago. they have never brought that bill to the floor. we have pleaded with them to bring that bill to the floor.

to fix the immigration system. it has never come, mr. speaker, to the floor of this house. but what we should never do, we should never take hostage the government of the united states, the employees who toil every day on behalf of the policies that we adopt. and on behalf of the american people. we should never take them hostage and say, if you don't do what i say to do, we're going to keep them in an unpaid status, working, if they're critical employees, and locked out if they're not. mr. speaker, it is very, very unfortunate we find ourselves in this position. i would urge that the republican whip, who is my friend and whom i respect, would talk to the president of the united states and say, let's open up the

government. mr. hoyer has told me we will sit down and have a rational, easonable, fact-based, expert-based discussion on how in fact we accomplish the objective we all say we want to accomplish, and that is make our borders secure. we're prepared to do that. open this government. mr. scalise: reclaiming my time, mr. speaker. if the gentleman's finished. we'll obviously have more time to go back and forth on this. but let's keep in mind a few facts. first of all, the last shutdown of the united states government, which was dubbed the schumer shutdown, because the senate minority leader wanted to force his way on daca. mr. hoyer: would the gentleman yield? mr. scalise: let's keep in mind -- i will yield for one moment. mr. hoyer: does the gentleman remember how long that lasted? mr. scalise: it lasted very shortly because the gentleman from new york realized he was on the wrong side of the issue.

just like right now, your side is on the wrong side of this issue, opposing border security. and let's be very clear what the fight is about. it shouldn't be a fight. it's a fight because the president has said heerks a proposal that my department of homeland security has brought that said, these are the tools they need to keep the country safe. with a crisis at the border. and it can't be denied. i know some on your side want to deny it. i don't think the gentleman from maryland denies it, but clearly when the senate minority leader and the speaker of the house go on national it was and -- tv and say it's a fabricated crisis at the border, the american people see what's happening at the border. we can debate how best to solve it. the president, through the department of homeland security, has put down a proposal of what it's going to take. this is not a new idea. obviously the president ran on this as a front and sent insure. not only ran on it, but he was elected by the american people as president to carry out border

security and build a wall. it's part of the national debate. i know some people on your side don't even want to recognize that that election occurred and the result. but it happened. mr. hoyer: i think there was an election and he did raise that question and as i recall, that's why i'm the majority leader and you're the minority whip. mr. scalise: i don't -- you were not the majority leader when that happened. he was elected on that -- we were still in the majority. and when the omnibus bill came, let's remember why we're here. special election, he was elected in large part on building the wall to secure our country's border. so then we go to the first spending bill. as he was president. and we had a disagreement. there were a lot of things that we were in disagreement on. we wanted to rebuild our military. and we finally came to a two-year agreement to do just that. it was critically important. to start rebuilding the military

of this country that was decimated. to give our men and women in uniform who risked their lives for our country a much-need paid raise. we finally did that. -- much-needed pay raise. we finally did that. but in that negotiation the president wanted, and he was talking about $25 billion for full border security, to build out the full 550 miles that are not secure right now, and they're well identified. the gentleman from maryland knows those areas where we haven't built walls. sure, we've got some money to build walls. there's about 120 miles of wall being built. a wall that's not all cement. some of it is steel slabs. let the experts figure out the best way to secure our border. we're not the arc tects of the border. let -- architects of the border. let the experts be that. there's some wall being built, but not enough. especially in the areas where federal law today prohibits the wall from being built. in fact, you want to know howry dick louis some of the laws are how -- howry dick louis some of the laws -- how ridiculous some of the laws are?

laws prevent the president from building walls in the most cost-effective way. why do we have those prohibitions in law? we passed a bill in the house before the shutdown happened, you voted no, a lot of your side voted no, i think all of your side voted no, it was a bill the president would have signed that would have given him the tools he needs to secure the border and it went over to the senate and the reason it didn't get to the president's desk is not because there wasn't republican support. they have a 60-vote rule in the senate. i can disagree, you might even disagree. i don't know. i disagree that on appropriations bills they should at least let the majority rule so we can properly govern this country in a more efficient manner. but they have a 60-vote requirement. so the senate minority, the democrats in the senate, all voted together to block it. and that led to a shutdown. that bill would have kept the government running and secured the border. but democrats vote nod. in the house. democrats vote nod in the senate. so we have a shutdown. how are we going to get out of this? how are we going to get resolved? we can talk about hostages and

the people on your side of the aisle that refuse to support any border security with a dollar amount behind it. you can use words all day. but words don't secure our border. borders secure our border. walls and barriers secure our border. the president has said, you can call it and define it whatever you want. he's been very flexible in wanting to negotiate, but never one of those meetings there has not been a counteroffer put on the table by your side. so if we want to resolve the crisis, it involves both sides coming together. you've got the president already out there publicly in our meetings saying he's willing to negotiate and come into a different place. work with your side to come up with definitions. to come up with a different dollar amount. but it's got to end in securing our border. if we all agree on that, it has to end in the actual language and dollars to accomplish that objective and when the president said i'll give you 30 more days, even though we don't agree on some of these other things, i'll agree to sign that into law, if

you'll agree to work with me on the wall and the speaker said, it was the speaker who said no, not the president. that's why we're at day 21. we didn't even need to be at day one. we passed a bill out of the house. the senate killed it because every democrat voted no. so here we are. republicans and democrats, nerve this room knows how we can sthove problem. but it's not by y'all sitting there saying we're only going to support a dollar and nothing more. real money has to be put on the table to solve the crisis. i yield. mr. hoyer: we can go on and on, mr. speaker. the fact of the matter is the senate sent us a bill to keep the government open. they passed it unanimously. under republican lip. -- leadership. the president said he would sign it. he changed his mind and this house pulled it. and the republicans who were in charge at the time wouldn't even put the senate bill on the floor

. we're not prepared to be bludgeoned by taking hostage 800,000 people who work for the federal government and who are not now being paid, some of whom are working. and ironically they're working to protect the border. and to make sure our planes are flying, make sure people who fly on planes are not a danger. . we want the president of the united states to open up this government. we want the republicans to help us open up this government. we just passed four bills that are the senate bills. senator mcconnell is not going to take yes for an answer. because the president tells him i'm not going to sign those bills. let me tell you something, mr. speaker. i've been a member of this body

for some period of time. i served with george bush. he was president of the united states and we had a democratic house. and we didn't have a shutdown. he signed appropriations bills. we worked together. e respected one another. i would hope, mr. speaker, in would in t the whip fact help us open up the government. and then we're prepared to sit down, he knows me. talked about how we make our borders secure and protect our people. and yes, give humanitarian services to those who are seeking asylum. running from violence and mayhem and murder. we're prepared to do that. we want to do that.

i would hope the whip, i would hope senator mcconnell, who was quoted just a few years ago as saying shut down is a failed policy. shutdowns ought not to occur. adults who are responsible ought not to allow that to happen. realizing full well that in order to preclude that from happening, compromise is absolutely essential on both sides. president trump is the president of the united states. we have to work with him to compromise, to come to agreement. but there are an awful lot of republicans -- i quoted will hurd, i quoted ron johnson, i quoted some other republicans. there are an awful lot of republicans who think the president has the wrong idea. frankly as mr. mulvaney said, during the course of the campaign, it wasn't a very

realistic idea. but that aside, it is time for us to open up the government. then we will have an extensive discussion. as we must, as we should. in the best interest of the american people to keep our borders secure and keep them safe. unless the gentleman wants to say something further -- i yield my time. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman. now that we're closing this. i want to go back, last year when the president signed the omnibus bill to keep the government open. at that time he said this won't happen again. he laid down a marker last year that ok, he'll go along with a bill far short of what he needs to secure the border but he wasn't going to do it again. that was a year ago. so everybody has known that this issue is going to have to get resolved because lives are at risk. the president, like we did, took an oath to protect this country. that's what this is about. we surely want to open up all areas of government but keeping

the border secure is part of that. so when the president signed the bill last year, he said it's not going to happen again. now obviously when we came to this year, there were some people telling the president the votes weren't there. to put the money in place to secure the border. in fact, the now speaker, when she was minority leader, went to the white house and told the president, the votes aren't there in the house to fund your request for the wall. mr. hoyer: how many republicans were in the house at that point in time? r. scalise: we had over 18. mr. hoyer: we had 240 plus. mr. scalise: good for you, things have changed. when the minority leader said the votes weren't there to fund the wall, maybe the president took her at her word. but it turned out she was wrong. the house had a difference with the senate. it's surely not the first time in this country's history where

the senate passed one bill and we came back and passed a bill to fully fulfill the president's request to secure the border and we ended up at an impasse. not because there weren't enough republican vote bus because there were no democrat votes to do that so now we're here today. you want to quote republicans, i'll quote a democrat. i won't tell you who it is first. in 2006, when there was a bill to put $50 billion in place over 25 years for border security, this democrat in the senate said, quote, it will authorize some badly needed funding for better fences and better security along our borders and that should help stem some of the tide of illegal immigration in this country. that was in 2006 for over $50 billion for border security and the democrat who said that was then-senator barack obama. so you can quote republicans, i'll quote democrats. that -- mr. hoyer: that bill passed, did

it not? mr. scalise: it passed but it didn't put the money there. if you don't appropriate the $50 billion the money is not there to actually build the fencing that's needed. mr. hoyer: was that bill brought up in the house? mr. scalise: oso now we talk about how to fund the wall, how to fund the structure. call it what you want. -- what you will. the president said you can title it however you want, you can ban cement fencing. what barack obama and chuck schumer voted for in 2006 is the authority to build what's need bud they tnt put the money there. it's time to finally back up the words, it's hot air unless you put the mown the table. so the money has been put on the table by the republicans, at least an offer. backed up with real data of where the money would be spent to secure this country. there is not -- there has not been a counteroffer. let's talk now about the final issue and that is adjournment. i know later today the house will be voting to adjourn. last week the house under

democrat majority as you proudly talk about, the fact that y'all are in the majority y'all voted to adjourn. with voted not to adjourn. we should stay here to get this job done. to finally have a real negotiation. to solve our differences. we cab solve our difference bus we won't solve them by continuing to adjourn every weekend when we should be fwoshting and getting the government back open and securing the border. on this final thought would the gentleman address the vote, the motion that will be made later to adjourn that we oppose? mr. hoyer: the gentleman has a different concept of negotiating han i do if somebody takes somebody that i care about hostage an says now i want to negotiate with you, that's not a negotiation. that's a demand. that's an if you don't do it i'm going to harm people. when you said the president of the united states said this is the last time i'm going to open up government, i'm going to sign

an almost overwhelmingly supported piece of legislation by republicans an democrats, george bush didn't do that i don't remember ronald reagan doing that or george h.w. bush doing that, obill clinton doing that. and they did it when it was a close vote out but not when it was overwhelming that we ought to open up the government. as long as hostages are held by your opponent, you are not negotiating, you are subject to being demanded, do what i say. that's not the democratic process. and it is harming, literally, millions, tens of millions of people. in the process. in order to get his way. ye not seen that before. the other two shutdowns were legislative shutdowns. there's no doubt this is an

executive shutdown and you just said it. i'll never sign something like this again unless it gives me what i want. frankly that's what we saw in the negotiations over the three days we were there. last day of course was about a 10-minute day. because the president stomped out. mr. scalise, all i can tell you is, i share your view of the objective but because we don't agree with the same ways and means to accomplish that objective, shutting down government ought not to be the alternative. the alternative ought to be keep talking. and getting to a place where i think you and i both want to get. where these borders are secure, where people are not being transported across it for human trafficking purposes, where murderers and -- don't come across the border. but there's a surge right now across our border. and that surge is of mostly mothers and children.

seeking asylum. coming to ports of entry. not across any fences or borders -- coming to ports of entry. border guards telling us they're turning themselves in. they want to -- because they are seeking refuge. from a country that has purported to be a country of refuge. raises a statue in new york harbor to send that message. but we need to make them known to us. when they come into the country. we agrow on that so rather than all this rhetoric back and forth, mr. speaker, it is a simple proposition. senator mcconnell has said unless the president says he will sign an opening up of government he won't put it on the floor. that's the only person who can stop you. we've sent bills. mr. cole of your side i don't like the bills because they're only senate bills, we don't like

them either. but we like less government being shut dun. we like less 800,000 people being put at risk. we like less the anxiety that we are causing federal employees in torpse they have financial stability of their homes. and their ability to put food on their tables. and pay their mortgage and pay their rent. surely, surely we ought to be able to come to agreement that that is not what we ought to nflict to get our way. i hope we open up our government. i yield back. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman from maryland. when you look at the women that are coming across through this trek to try to cross the border, first of all, asylum has been offered by mexico to all the people as part of that caravan. thousands of people were offered

asylum, work permits, turned it down. there's a legal way to seek asylum. seems to me if another country offers you asylum and you want to leave your country you take the asylum, but they turned it down. the women coming over, doctors without borders has done a study said 30% of the women on this trek have been sexually assaulted or worse. we should all want to address this crisis. there's a way to solve the -- a way to solve the crisis. if we talk about hostages, both sides can use terms. but when the president of the united states in the white house looks at the speaker and says i will sign a bill that contains things we have yet to negotiate, i'll sign them if you agree to keep negotiating and the speaker of the house said no. that's the my way or the highway approach that's wrong. the president has put multiple things on the table. has offered to negotiate on terms, on dollars, on every front, and not one counteroffer.

that's got to change. we can solve this crisis. but it's going to involve both sides being willing to put something on the table to solve the border security crisis. i hope we can get there. we will keep working at it. i appreciate the comments the thoughs of the gentleman from maryland and i truly do believe that he wants to solve this. we have some differences. let's keep working. consume to riend from iowa, mr. king. mr. king: thank you, mr. speaker and i thank the gentleman from texas for yielding to me here this afternoon and i come to the floor of the united states house of representatives for the specific purpose today and that's to address an issue that has become a controversy. i regret that. i made a freshman mistake a week ago today when i took a call from a reporter from the "new york times" and that was a 5