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Floor Speech
The minute that we passed a 2-week continuing resolution for the Department of Homeland Security, we knew we were going to have to enter into some hard discussions about how we can rein in ICE's lawlessness, which is what the American people demand. And yet during the first week of that 2-week continuing resolution, there was no clarity over whom we were supposed to be negotiating with. Was it Senate Republicans? Was it the White House?
And, in fact, it wasn't until last night, literally on the verge of the shutdown, that we got our first offer of text from the White House--far too late to be able to engage in any compromise before the deadline.
So I wish we weren't here. I wish our Republican colleagues and the White House had shown more seriousness from the start.
But Senate Democrats have been clear that we have all taken an oath-- an oath to uphold the law of the country--and this Department of Homeland Security, this ICE, is out of control. They are tear-gassing our children's schools. They are killing American citizens. They are disappearing legal migrants.
I went down to Texas, a couple of weeks ago, and sat across a table from two elementary school students who had been detained illegally for 6 weeks over Christmas, while their mother wasn't home. It was a choice ICE made to traumatize and terrorize these children. Those children were alive on the outside but dead on the inside.
So, yes, we believe we have a constitutional obligation to only fund a Department of Homeland Security that is obeying the law, and this Department of Homeland Security is not obeying the law.
So I am hopeful that these discussions will continue. But, frankly, we had plenty of time to get a deal in the last 2 weeks, and the lack of seriousness from the White House and from Republicans, not getting language until last night, has put us in the position we are in today.
We want to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but only a Department that is obeying the law, and for that reason, I would object.
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Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I just want to reiterate that we got the language last night. We have been in a 2-week continuing resolution, and last night, we got the first offer of legislation from the White House.
We are not in charge. The Senate Democrats aren't in charge. We don't run the House. We don't run the White House.
We waited for a week for there to be some process to be convened. We got no signal as to what that negotiation would look like. So we finally put our proposals--our text--on the table and didn't get an offer back until last night.
My wish is for my Republican colleagues to be just as upset as they are about what is going to happen next week at TSA or at FEMA as for the children that are being traumatized right now in this country, who are being thrown into what is called the ``Baby Jail,'' outside of San Antonio; for the lives that are fundamentally changed by an immigration policy that is out of control; to have concern for the American citizens who have been killed simply exercising their First Amendment rights; to care about the 4 million Americans who are losing their insurance, as we speak, because this administration has chosen to put money into a lawless immigration enforcement operation instead of protecting people's healthcare.
That is what is happening in America today. Four million people are losing their healthcare insurance. Twenty million people are having their rates go through the roof because the priority is flooding Minneapolis with ICE agents; chasing down kids at schoolbus stops, as they were doing just 2 days ago in Minneapolis, instead of protecting people's healthcare.
People are losing healthcare in this country so as to fund this runaway Department of Homeland Security.
And so we all have outrage about what is happening in this country today, and I don't know why it took the White House until last night to send any semblance of specifics on what they were willing to work for.
We have an obligation, as Members of Congress, to fund a government that obeys the law. This Department of Homeland Security is not obeying the law. They are not. And I would argue that every Member of this body, whether you were a Republican or a Democrat, in order to uphold your oath of office, should not be funding an Agency that isn't complying with the Constitution and the statutes of the United States.
So I do regret that we are at a moment in which we are not going to be able to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but there is a simple solution. If the Agency starts behaving lawfully, if they start obeying the Constitution, then we can get back on the same page.
This is an exceptional moment in this country's history, and my hope is that these negotiations move fast, expeditiously, and that perhaps, as soon as we return--or if the majority leader would like to call us back into session next week--we can get the Department back up and operating. But that is only going to happen with reforms.
That is only going to happen with more serious engagement from the White House than has happened thus far.
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