Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRAHAM. I just got off the phone with the President. I told him we were talking about a 3-week CR. All of us believe that if we had 3 weeks with the government open and all the discord coming from a shutdown, that we could find a way forward to produce a bill that he would sign that would be good for everybody in the country, but we need that opportunity.

He gave me some indications of things he would want for a 3-week CR that would be a good-faith downpayment on moving forward that I thought were imminently reasonable. Rather than me telling you about what he said, I think Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell will be talking about this.

The 3-week CR concept is a good idea, and what the President wants to add to it made sense to me, and it gets us back in the ball game. Here is what is going to happen. The TPS language that was sent over by the President is a move forward but unacceptable to my Democratic colleagues. It needs to be like what Tim Kaine did. The DACA provision sent over by the President is moving forward, but it needs to be what Senator Durbin did because they are both, I think, reasonable proposals that the President should be able to accept.

To my Democratic friends, money for a barrier is required to get this deal done. It will not be a concrete wall, and the money will be a program to a DHS plan that all of you know about and have been briefed on and should approve.

You are not giving President Trump a bunch of money to do anything he wants to do. He has to spend it on a plan that the professionals have come up with. If you want $800 million for refugee assistance, you will get it. We all need more judges, and 250 more Border Patrol agents on the border would be good for us all.

I want to let the public know I have never been more optimistic than I am now if we can find a way to open up the government for 3 weeks. If we fail, everybody can say we did our best. This is one last chance to get this right. I am just hoping and praying that what the President is asking for, in addition to Senator Cardin's 3-week CR, he will entertain. Let's get to work. If we can get in a room, we will fix this, and it won't take 3 weeks.

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