conversation hearings for william barr to become the next attorney general began on tuesday. in december, president trump nominated him to replace jeff sessions who held the position for a year and a half. counselbarr is now of to a law firm and served as u.s. attorney general for george h w bush. watch the confirmation process eastern ony at 9:30 c-span three. week, senateis debated abroad middle east policy bill, one that would allow members to talk about president trump's decision to bring u.s. troops on from syria and also levy sanctions against the assad government. here is some of this week's debate. the is going to take up

senate bill one, which is a combination of four separate bills that enjoy widespread support in this chamber very from colleagues on both sides of the aisle, all sponsored and cosponsored both sides of the aisle and apparently we will fail to get a significant number of votes to get on this bill nonetheless. on earth a few places that the but against things they are for for reasons unrelated to the issue at hand. i don't want to dig too deep into that. it will be a topic for conversation later on and maybe they will change their minds and we will be able to have the votes we need. i don't think it makes a lot of sense to say i'm upset about the government shutdown. the senate voted to fund the government. this chamber has already acted in that regard. it is incumbent on the leaders of the democratic party in the

senate might with the white house to reopen the government. the shutdown is not good for anybody. said, i don't know why we would shut down the senate to. o, given issues we face. the president announced the united states was withdrawing from our engagement in syria. the majority of people in the senate believe that decision was a mistake and is a mistake. bele i would certainly encouraged by some of the comments by the national , theity council director head the national security council, ambassador bolton, on the pace, scale, and and scope of the withdraw, nonetheless, there been conflicting statements that put this all in question. at the time you made this decision, we walked through all of the reasons why this was a mistake, not because we want to

be at work in syria forever, that is false. it has to come to an end but it has to be in the interest of the united states of america. it is not in the interest to see isis reemerge the way they did after 2011 when the united states left iraq and the u.s. left and pulled back its presence in iraq. it allowed isis to reconstitute itself and reemerge. they were called something different but they were basically a spinoff of al qaeda. they grew very rapidly. there are larger today and more powerful today than when they reconstituted themselves almost a decade ago. has this doubt that it moves forward, isis will reconstitute itself, maybe not as a caliphate but as something equally dangerous, and that is an insurgency, with the

capability not just to create havoc, may have, murder, and -- mayhem, where, but also to plot an attack on the homeland here. this raises other disability like iraqi troops and a regular forces sponsored by iran, they will come across the border into syria. we have all read and heard about it took his troops that want to come in the kurdish areas very if you are a saudi and -- areas. if you are a saudi and america announces they are pulling out, he is probably thinking what does he need anybody for. this diminishes the chances that aside -- assad will ever have to face accountability for the crimes committed by his regime against innocent civilians, children, women, others.

not just the gassing and the use of chemical weapons, but torture and murder. iran'sncerned about growing influence with the u.s. leaving in southeast iraq and on the border of jordan and israel. hezbollah and other iranian proxies and iran it self -- itself in a general who is a maven of murder in that area. they can do whatever they want. most freedom of movement and the tract threat it poses to israel and jordan. and iraqiurks come in troops come in, when isis is we constituted and start killing people again, you are going to have new refugee flows. maybe it will be mostly kurds or folks from the syrian defense horses who are far alongside us for a while and their families,

aware of the refugees going to go? potentially some will wind up in jordan, further destabilizing or testing that countries ability to deal with all this. both the kurds and syrian defense forces have in excess of 700 isis fighters in custody. are they going to let them all go? because without us there supporting them, i don't know how they hold them. none of the countries they came from want them back. you could save hundreds of isis fighters being released overnight. these are all of the consequences and more. what are we going to do if isis decides to to play chemical weapons against kurds or others in these areas? the possibilities are extraordinary. we could go on and on for a while.

that is why among other reasons it was a mistake. when we came out and said it was a mistake, a lot of people said what are you going to do about it? wars andcan stop congress can defund and he eauthorize,ction -- d but we cannot force the president to deploy troops or keep them somewhere. we can't force them to do it. our options are limited but we wanted to do something. bill one,se is senate which is the item before us here today. senate bill one combines these four elements that enjoy widespread bipartisan support. you would think in the midst of everything else going on this would be a good way to start the new congress. foreign policy, an area that traditionally has not been

partisan. or shouldn't have been. combining these four bills into a wantnate bill one, and to outline the four provisions combined in this bill two of them deal with our ally in israel. it makes clear that it shall be the policy of the united states to provide assistance to israel in order to support funding for programs to develop and procure missile rockets, projectiles and other defense capabilities to help israel meet its security needs and to help advance u.s. capabilities. that last line is important because much of the technology innovated and developed by israel to defend israel can also be used by the united states to protect us rocket attacks there or when we are deployed abroad. this is critical because hezbollah, who has a large

presence in syria and their base of operations in lebanon, hezbollah today is better funded and equipped and have more armaments that at any time in its history. we all recall the hezbollah israel war from a decade and a half ago. the next war will be far deadlier and costly. esplanade longer simply depends on iran to provide weapons, they make them themselves. they have enough rockets to potentially overwhelm defenses. you can have the best missile defense system that if he fire enough, some will get through. when they get through in a small country like israel that at its narrowest point is only nine miles wide and if it's a population center and kills thousands of people, then you know we are facing a catastrophe for israel. it will respond with overwhelming force. this could spiral quickly out of control.

we could wind up in that light because now that the united states is leaving syria, the israelis will not allow iran and .ezbollah to build up it is possible when they step it up it is likely iran and hezbollah will get back. israel will hit back harder. you can easily see missile start coming out of lebanon and into israel and israel is funny with overwhelming force, and now we have a much rotter conflict -- and israel responding with overwhelming force, and now we have a much broader conflict. the united states stands ready to equip israel in the case of such a contingency is one of the best things we can do to prevent it from happening. there's enemies believe any doubt the u.s. will step forward and help israel we supply, you increase the

probability that they will miscalculate and take such action. if a no -- if they know we are committed to rearming israel is often as is necessary in order to help them defend themselves, and the chances of them attacking our diminished. that is why this bill authorizes u.s. security assistance and financing to israel at an amount no less than 3.3 billion dollars for the next 10 years. this is authorize a memorandum of understanding signed between the obama administration and israel. we are often rising that and putting it into law. we are also authorizing the president to transfer precision guided -- as needed. israel's enemies now know that the united states has put aside in reserve munitions, precision guided that are there is israel needs them and we can transfer

that isthey need them the first thing this bill does. isnow the thing it does combat an act of 2015. for those not familiar, it is an effort by and large to punish israel by convincing companies in a national company and others to what cut doing business with israel or israeli entities, to entities andi convincing governments to sanction israel. this provision of the law does not boycott -- does not outlaw boycott by sanctions. the united states -- if a united states company case and divest from israel, they have a legal right to do so. it does say that if a state or local government decides that it is not going to do business if

the government is not going to issue contracts for goods or services with any company that is boycotting israel, they have a right to do that. i have are the argument that this is about free speech. it is not about free speech. it is not about free speech but it is about form policy. there are court cases out there that talk about that this is not an effort to influence a domestic political debate or to speak or take action in the form of speech that influences a domestic political debate. it is about influencing the behavior of a foreign government and foreign policy and the courts give broad discretion to congress and the president in the setting of foreign policy. i have already told you this does not prevent anyone from participating in boycotting or divesting from israel.

all it says is that if you do, your state and local governments can boycott or divest you in return. it makes it very clear in the law that nothing should be construed, nothing to violate anyone's first amendment rights. these are the two provisions that help israel to prevent the sort of economic warfare that is being driven against them and to make clear to their adversaries that the united states stands ready to resupply and strengthen israel's ability to defend themselves in the hopes of not just helping israel defend themselves, but in the hopes of deterring an act against israel. we do that by authorizing and putting into law the memorandum of understanding signed by the obama administration in september 2016. in addition, the third thing this does is deal with jordan. it is a u.s. ally and is a

nation that along with egypt has been a linchpin of israel security in the region, and it is also a nation that has faced an onslaught of refugees fleeing the conflict in syria. they face threats from isis as well. and senate bill one, we reauthorize the u.s., jordan defense act was passed in 2015, and not that includes jordan and a list of countries eligible for certain streamlined defense sales because jordan is facing many of the same challenges, particularly because of our pullout from syria. if you think the pullout from southeastern syria is good for jordan, you are wrong. once the u.s. leaves that area, the iranian influence and potentially the isis influence and it will become harder on jordan. this is the least we can do to strengthen an important ally in this region.

the last piece was sponsored by the soon-to-be chairman of the foreign relations committee, it is the civilian syrian tech connect. it requires -- protection act. --requires that serious -- not that opens the door for the second thing am a new sanctions on any does business with or provides financing to the syrian regime. it also requires the congress onon as what our strategy is to facilitate humanitarian products and assistance inside syria. lovely as the week goes on -- hopefully as the week goes on, i sadly will have to come to the floor and point out the

atrocities committed that i believe 50 and 100 years from now will look back at as one of the most horrifying things that have happened in this century. the people wept on this should be held to account and this law puts in place not just requiring the administration to tell us what they plan to do in the , but term to help people also put in place the ability to hold those who have done this is possible and accountable for what they did and what they continue to do. i sincerely hope that we can get on this because the american people in the face of all of the noise out there are in desperate need of resurgence that our -- reasserts -- reassurance that our republic still works. again, ind everyone know we have new members, this body passed unanimously a bill to fund the government. -- iews on the shutdown

don't understand the objection to $5 billion of spending on border security. it is not on a wall, that to fund the top 10 priorities of the border security plan and included are strengthening existing walls and barriers and building some new ones. it includes far more than just a wall. i might many of my colleagues here in 2013, we spent four times as much in that bill for border security. of course, the politics have changed and so have people's positions. that said, i am not in favor of government shutdowns. i don't think they make sense. people have nothing to do with this and are not responsible for this. border agents, tsa, federal employees across the country, these people are missing paydays. their mortgage company doesn't care and there are credit card

companies that don't care they want to get paid. i hope we can find a resolution for them but also for the country without abandoning the reality that we need to deal with border security. here is what i know, i don't believe that shutting down the senate and not allowed us to move forward on something as important as syria policy is the way to resolve the shutdown issue. you don't solve the shutdown with a shutdown. shutting down the senate and saying we are doing anything here until we resolve this issue is not a constructive approach and not the way to start this new congress. at a time when i think the senate serves a role as important as it has in two decades. this country needs a senate that is capable of functioning and agreeing on the things we agree on, passing bills that have broad support and not allowing them to fall victim to debates

unrelated to the issue at hand. i remind all of my colleagues who just two or three weeks ago joined me and others in criticizing the decision to draw there isn'tria that a lot we can do in congress force the president to say there. there are things we can do to reassure allies in the region that here in the u.s. senate they have our support. that israel and jordan and the ts tortured and killed have our support. senate bill one does that. i don't know why we would not move forward to at least debate it. the vote we are taking will not be able to pass it. it is a class -- vote to begin debate on it. to not even allow debate to begin on something we largely agree on, that may make a lot of , but in the hallways here

it does not make a lot of sense to the men and women back home who are already watching a government shutdown with disdain and on top of it see many even the senate can function in the midst of all this. i hope that whether it is today or later this week that my colleagues across the aisle will reconsider their objection to even beginning debate so we can on on this and get to work behalf of the men and women of this country that we work for and represent. mr. president, i yield the floor. >> mr. president, thank you for the recognition. presidentcall on the to stop holding the government hostage and trying to force

taxpayers to pay for his border wall, a wall that would be ineffective and wasteful and that is rejected by the american people. proudent trump said he is -- those are the words he used -- to shut down the government and proud to force hundreds of thousands of people across this country to miss their hard-earned paychecks, proud to shut are critical services and try to extort the american people into paying for a wall they don't support. this trump shutdown is nothing to be proud of. it is a national disgrace. it is time to end this recklessness. today i joined with my democratic colleagues in calling on republican leaders to do their jobs and reopen the government right now. the american people don't support trump's border wall and they don't support this trump

shutdown. the funding bill is being held up and used as a bargaining chip and they have broad bipartisan support. democrats in both chambers want to pass these appropriations ills now, -- bills now. president trump to address the nation tonight to tell us again why he is proud to keep the government shutdown. tonight we will likely hear more bizarre talk about what we need at the border from a president who doesn't know the first thing about the border. once again, we will likely hear blatant lies about immigrants, our border, and about our border communities. the american people are tired of this president's assault on the truth and tired of having their lives and livelihoods caught up in this president's ability --

inability to rise to the office that he holds. address from the oval office will change that. we need the republican leadership in this chamber to muster the political will to stand up to the president and get federal employees back to work and critical services restored. monday 18 of the shutdown, the second longest period the government has been shuttered since 1980. we have already begun to see consequences for families across the nation. my home state of new mexico is one that is being hit the hardest by the president's temper tantrum, by his act of political extortion. in new mexico, roughly 58 hundred federal workers are furloughed or working without pay. these aren't just numbers, these are real people.

real people wondering how they will make their mortgage or read payments or feed their families. a federal employee from albuquerque wrote to my office to tell me how the shutdown is affecting her and her family. she wrote to me and i quote, to go on the record that i'm not one of those federal employees the president is touting as whining to be out of work without a paycheck until he gets his wall. she had an important message for the republican leadership and i quote, the senate does not work for the president, it is supposed to represent the citizens of the united states. federal employees are not want to stay out of work, we want to go back to work and get paid. she ended with this, this is not our fight them adjust his. pervasive inety is all corners of the state. new mexico was recently ranked as the most vulnerable to the impact of the shutdown because

of our significant federal workforce and the importance of the federal government to our economy. member of the subcommittee on interior environment and related agencies, i am acutely aware of the lapse in appropriations is affecting the agencies funded in our bill and the services they provide. these include the department of interior, environmental protection agency and the health service. as the ranking member, i am especially, said of how the shutdown is hurting native acrossties, for tribes to shutdown, circumstances are dire without federal funds. it is critical to health and a look safety and grinding to a halt.

lives are in danger. this is larger in size than the entire city of houston, texas, with only one on-duty police officer. that would be unacceptable even under normal circumstances. but due to a huge winter storm that left my state under heavy snowfall and subfreezing temperatures, that loan officer is responsible for not only responding to domestic violence and child welfare but also snow related accident and emergencies across 700 and 20 -- 720 square furloughedbecause road crews are not clearing ice on the reservation roads. one elder has already died because he was unable to make it to dialysis. sadly, the experiences are not uncommon.

tribe of california will soon have to close its courts, curtailing the efforts to rein in the opioid epidemic. urban indian health programs in baltimore and boston are days away from closing completely, leaving native families in the cities without support. was justn south dakota informed its indian health service unit must begin reducing services, and the 276 tribes that depend on the usda's food distribution program on dineen reservations, a program -- on indian reservations, are faced with reliving the 2013 shutdown crisis when food rotted in locked where houses while hungry families added outside, all because the president and some extreme members of his party refused to do their job and keep the government open.

it is disgraceful and it is dangerous. the president continues to treat tribal health and public safety programs like hostages for political gain and it endangers families in the indian countries. they have trust and treaty obligations that tribes obtain ed, the consequences of the outright disregard for treaty obligations are real. the consequences of the inaction are real. the consequences of the republicans unwillingness to stand up for tribes in their states, to stand up for basic humanity and common sense are real. mr. president, we are talking about people's lives in the fundamental obligation of our nation to honor its commitment to native americans. it is really that simple and we

all know how pressing these problems are. of the trump shutdown are far and wide. there are thousands of stories across the nation. let me tell you another from my home state of new mexico. a local santa fe small business construction company is ready to project to.4 million build two new hangers at the santa fe municipal airport. this 32,000 square foot project will generate $650,000 and local tax revenue and employs 75 to 100 people. many of those people are literally unemployed now. waiting for this project to is a bigthis project deal for my home city of santa fe. do you know why the project is stalled? they cannot get the necessary

approval from the federal aviation administration because of the trump shutdown. the faa personnel responsible for approval are furloughed. the shutdown has real consequences for real people, especially for people like those unemployed new mexicans ready and eager to work. the president says he can to federal workers who can't pay bills during the shutdown but in the next breath assumes they will make adjustments and be fine. as he has demonstrated time and time again, this president cannot and does not relate to the struggles of everyday americans who are hurt by his policies. he cannot and does not relate to federal employees who live paycheck to paycheck or santa fe construction workers who wait anxiously to get back to work. yet shown us time and time again

that his policies and behavior are heartless and he is unfit for the office he holds. i will say it again, the president told the american people on camera that he is "proud to shutdown the federal ."vernment the impact reaches every corner of our nation. the shutdown has already had our public lands including our most iconic national parks. remaintional parks closed. restrooms have been closed for two weeks. trash has a cumulative and roads have not been plowed. two weeks have heard stories about poor sanitation and public safety issues at national parks because of the shutdown,

including overflowing toilets, vandalism and other damage. in big bang national park, good samaritans had to help rescue a hiker who fell and broke his leg while hiking on christmas eve gust of the lack of emergency services. the effects have been effectsing, and the have been so devastating that any legally questionable move, administration made the decision to dip into the parks entrance fees to fund basic services at a handful of parks across the country, fees that congress authorizes the parks of to collect pay for deferred maintenance projects and other critical needs, not to take the place of appropriate in funds. we still do not know what parks will be affected, but i fully expect this band-aid approach to fall far short of protecting our

treasured national resources or restoring services to the public in a meaningful way. it is merely a cynical attempt to get the problems caused by the president's shutdown off the front page of the newspaper. if we want to reopen the parks, or is a simple solution -- pass the interior appropriations bill without delay, and we can reopen the entire national park system. somee meantime, reopening dark sides but not others will not help gateway communities that depend on public land to provide needed revenue and are facing economic crisis as the shutdown wears on. the national parks conservation association estimates that visitors spend an average of $20 million a day in january and

nearby communities. that is real and vital revenue. in new mexico alone, national parks generated 1700 jobs in 2017 and created more than $140 million in economic output for my state. i can tell you new mexico can't afford for these sites to be closed. it is not just the parks that are at risk of fire prevention programs are being deferred during the shutdown despite a record-breaking fire season. environmental protection programs are suffering. epa has halted most activities related to hazardous waste cleanups under its national superfund program. enforcement activities against polluters have ground to a halt as have federal permitting efforts. states are not receiving funds to operate regulatory programs and even our nations cherished

national museums are shuttered. on january 2, the smithsonian ran out of funds and closed its doors, preventing more than 110,000 visitors a day from accessing its prized collections . it's next her neighbor, the national gallery of art is also closed, leaving school groups, families and citizens out in the cold. mr. president, there is a simple solution to stop this damage. all we have to do is pass an appropriations bill and reopen the government. i want to end where i began, the president has nothing to be proud of your. -- proud of here. he needs to stop holding the government hostage. end the shutdown now.

this should cause no controversy . these are bills drafted by republicans with broad bipartisan support. in fact, the interior bill is the exact same legislation that was passed by this chamber by a vote of 92-6 last august, a margin that would override a veto of the bill, i might add. andll on leader mcconnell members of his party to let us get to work. is right and what immediately take up and pass the house bill today. there is no reason why the shutdown must go on one day longer. the lives and livelihoods of everyday americans hangs in the balance. i just want to say as a final comment, i so much appreciate working with senator leahy who is a vice chairman of the appropriations committee, and i

know he feels and sees and hears from his members how concerning the situation is. with that, i yield the floor. >> the senator from vermont. >> i think the senior senator from new mexico for his kind comments. he knows that the appropriations committee has worked extremely hard to get these bills through. we passed almost unanimously every single bill that would open and government has been passed by the senate and will be passed again if republicans would allow it to come to a vote. it would pass almost unanimously. senator shelby and i worked very hard to have bipartisan bills and we did. bill has thetions most bipartisan votes they have had in over 20 years.

where are we? shutdown, fore more than two weeks now the president has held the paychecks of over 800,000 americans. he has held them hostage in order to extort congress into funding his border wall, law for to thee gave his word american taxpayers over and over again that mexico would pay for it not the american taxpayers. now he says i want the american taxpayers to pay for it. weeks, he is two denied services to fulfill a campaign promise, totally ignoring that we passed the bills that would open the government. more about he cares a cynical bumper sticker of his

presidency and he does about the demands of americans impacted by a shutdown and hardships to come if the shutdown continues. he wants rhetoric not reality. i want reality. i said, what would the president workers00,000 federal who will not get a paycheck this friday because of this political stunt? what would he say to the men and women who have mortgages, families to feed, bills to pay? what will he say to those forced to deplete their hard-earned savings or those with no savings at all? just yesterday a man called my office. he has a job with the irs in vermont. he has been furloughed. he cannot receive a paycheck this week. he fears he will not bill to pay

his ills passed mid-january if he doesn't get paid. he has already turned off the cable and most of the cell phone services to save money. he was concerned about feeding his family, and his wife has serious medical issues requiring attention. he look at the weather report for parts of for mont -- vermont , and it was below zero and he has to heat his home. he is worried and looking for help. does the president care about these kind of people? the president claims he can relate to these people. gliblyisses their fears, saying they'll make adjustments. make adjustment for their child's medical bills? make adjustment for mortgage payments? making adjustments heating their

homes when it is five below zero? he claims they support his silly wall. really? have 800,000 federal employees, why doesn't someone pull them and find out how many supported. i never heard anyone more tone deaf as the president of the united states. he was made a millionaire by his --her at the age of eight, they should not be a bargaining chip in the president's game. this is not a game for them. the president should not treat it as such. federalion to all

employees when it was in its paycheck, why don't services on which americans relied and pay taxes to support come to a grinding halt. americans have paid taxes for these services and have come to a grinding halt. farmers cannot get loans with the u.s. department of agriculture to get them through the next planting season because no one is in the office to process the applications. bill.sed a five-year farm i am proud of the bipartisan bill that senator roberts and isator stabenow lead and it bipartisan but it is complicated. , that thenew rules usda cannot implement the farm

bill because the surface furloughed. the farmers who don't know what the rules are going to be have to make the decision now and they paid their taxes to have the department of agriculture ,lose down the national parks since the time of teddy beingelt, they are vandalized. seventhe shutdown began, american taxpayers have died in national parks. they were left unsupervised and unstaffed. home buyers are finding out that 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 court 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 and the president should be embarrassed because he is the one who has asked for it. everyone agrees we need to secure our borders but there are smart ways to do it. a while is not one of them. it is a fifth century solution to a 21st century problem. his own chief of staff in 2015 said the idea of a wall was absurd and childish. he said a fence doesn't solve anybody who really wants to get across. -- for the first time, we are in agreement. to do what the president wants from include seizing land

farmers and people in our taxpaying americans and we say we are going to come in for a wall. it will forever scarred landscape and echo system of assault with borders in ways we cannot anticipate. after all that, tens of millions of dollars wasted, what would we have accomplished? tonight the president will assert that are security is in crisis. his claims are not grounded in fact. it is typical of the claims he makes, but these and this information coming from the white house has been staggering.

a president has employed nothing short of a propaganda campaign that we have seen in dictatorships of the past. the reality is between the year 2000 and 2018, apprehensions at the border have dropped. how much? reality is that the apprehensions at the southwest border have dropped two similar levels as we had in the 1970's. this was back in the 1970's and this is where we are today. it has dropped. is that many southern border communities have violent crime rates that are lower than the national american average. that the vast

majority of drugs and that the border are seized at ports of entry. so a wall between ports would be useless at stopping drugs. seized at the border, the vast majority are seized at the port entry. a wall would be entirely useless at stopping drugs. the demographic that's increasing are families, women, asylum.dren seeking many are not even trying to sneak past the border. themselves to border patrol agents when they come across. perpetuate here to violence. they are fleeing violence, and crime from their countries. wasting billions of american dollars to build a wall

will not stop them from coming. need comprehensive immigration and reform. the bipartisan bill that the senate passed in 2013 and smart to address these issues, not fear mongering. not distortions. of thousands of miles concrete or steel. over the mapt how much he's >>it's our job to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. border wall doesn't meet that threshold. if it did the president has never provided with us a detailed plan for how to spend the money. some have spent years as a host reality tv show.

reality has never been his strong suit. we're not in the business of providing blind checks to presidential whims. the president's own budget $1.6 t to congress was billion for his wall. submitted an addendum no matter how much he or others never has.it, he by tweets and s to the press. i've actually lost track of all times his demand for the wall has changed. i still go back to the original only request of his $1.6 billion. the president is demanding a negotiation including

$5.7 billion for the wall. came out of nowhere three 18 hs into the fiscal year, days into the shutdown. it didn't come from the president. from the acting director of the office of management and budget. i may have that letter, and, you know, they are asking $5.6 billion more for the department of homeland security proposed in their original budget request ncluding an additional $4.1 billion. weekend.e up this but the letter included no budget justification. details. o discussions for how to pay for it. a lot of cliches,

ut doesn't say where the money toes from or what it's going do. that's not the way we operate. have asked unanimous consent that it be made part of the record. objection. >> the president may not care about the impact that the shutdown is having on millions the united but states senate, a body that hould be the conscience of the nation, we should care. nd stoking fear through misinformation in order to agenda is olitical simply wrong. we could and should reopen the government this week. passed a house, bipartisan bill that reopened most of the government. a continuing resolution for homeland ment of

security. to show how bipartisan it is, the six appropriations bills originated in d the republican-controlled senate last congress. had bipartisan support, ncluding by senator shelby, as chairman, and by myself as vice chairman of the appropriations committee. i have worked hard with senator shelby. i admire his efforts on this, to produce these bills last summer and fall. nearly hem received unanimous support when they are considered on the floor of the in the appropriations committee. we want to end this and senator mcconnell should bring them up a vote.

we've already shown that virtually every republican and democrat in this body would vote it. bring it up. let's vote for it. nonsense. it. the leader owes that to the american people. that to the american people. the conscience of the nation. simply a dy who is foil for the latest tweet or posting. it.can do we've passed these bills before. bring them up. bring them up. up.ng them and pass them again. republicans and democrats have past. for them in the the republican chairman and i strongly support them. bring them up. up.g them bring them up and pass them. and open the government. and let 800,000 americans stop suffering.