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Floor Speech
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Mr. MORENO. Mr. President, as you know, I have only had the honor--I call it an honor honestly--the honor to serve as a U.S. Senator for 14 months.
Every day when I drive down Pennsylvania, make a left on Constitution, and see the sunrise over the Capitol, I genuinely feel the weight of how important this office is.
I actually have incredible admiration not for my forefathers--my forefathers came from South America--but for the forefathers of the people who built this country. Think of the wisdom of what our Founders envisioned. Our Founders created an institution that is genuinely--it gives me chills to think about the genius of what they did. They created a House of Representatives where every 2 years there is an election, and there is a lot of friction that goes on, and a simple majority passes a bill. Yet they wanted the Senate to be more deliberative. They wanted to force us--and the Presiding Officer personally knows how hard it is--they wanted to force us to have strong conversations with the opposing party to get to a resolution. They really did. They didn't want it to just be simple majority rule; they wanted to make it really difficult.
But what I have experienced over the last 14 months, I have to tell you, is decently disappointing, because for me, what I think should unite is, what do the American people really want from us? what is it that they want their leaders to do?
We have now seen it three times in a row this year where my Democrat colleagues have shut the government down. What does that mean? You hear a lot of speeches. What it means is if you are a government employee, tomorrow is Friday, it is payday, and you are not getting a check.
Imagine what that feels like. The Presiding Officer is a dad. Imagine what that feels like, to have to explain to your kids how you went to work, you did your job, you didn't do anything wrong, and yet you don't have the money you need to pay your basic bills.
Yet we here in the U.S. Senate--our paychecks are uninterrupted. We get paid to do our job--a lot more, magnitude more money than average Americans make. We will leave here today and travel to far-off places, and yet we will walk by TSA agents that aren't getting paid.
We expect Border Patrol to do their job. We expect Customs to do their job. We expect FEMA to do their job. I have a big Coast Guard presence in Ohio. We need them to do their job. Yet none of them are getting paid. They did nothing wrong. There isn't a single employee of the Department of Homeland Security who is affected by this who personally is the reason this Department isn't funded.
So I truly, truly, from the bottom of my heart, ask my Democrat colleagues, with an absolute desire to get a result, let's spend 2 weeks--and we can start today, by the way. There is no reason for us to go home. I am willing to start today, like we start right now, and we sit down together, we look at the appropriations bill for the entire Department of Homeland Security, and in good faith--not with political theater, not to score political points, not to be cool on social media, but actually sit in a room and say: Let's get this entire Department funded. Let's not leave here today and walk by a TSA agent knowing that we are the reason they are not getting paid. That is unacceptable.
Let's sit down together. For 2 weeks, we can do that--14 days. I am willing to stay in Washington, DC, for 14 days and hash out an agreement. We can do it. That is what our voters want. That is why they elected us. They don't want us to be shirts and skins on everything.
So, Mr. President, I ask a very simple--make a very simple motion I think most Americans would appreciate. 156, H.R. 4553. I further ask that the substitute amendment, No. 4353, be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
What that means is that we can fund the employees of the Department of Homeland Security now while we spend 2 weeks working together to get a resolution.
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Mr. MORENO. Mr. President, I understand the political pressures. I really do. We will see that sometimes appealing to a certain voter bloc--maybe it makes us popular. But I want to read you a quote from the deputy Democrat whip--a senior appropriator, by the way--who said:
[We] are very serene with what is going on.
``[We] are very serene with what is going on.'' You are serene that today, tonight, a dad, a mom is going to come home and say ``Can't do that. Can't pay for your dance recital. Can't pay for your spring break ticket'' because they didn't get a paycheck. I want you to explain to a 12-year-old child why they are not getting paid.
They are going to talk about Senate procedure. They are going to talk about the appropriations process. But this is just another effort to distract us from what is going on here.
So, again, I just urge my Democrat colleague to consider, as you think about your own State--by the way, I genuinely believe you deeply care about your State. I hear you talk about it, and it is absolutely sincere. You deeply care about your State. Think about those Border Patrol agents that are welcoming visitors from all over the world to Las Vegas. Think about those ICE agents that are arresting criminal aliens, like the one that was just recently arrested. That was a pretty bad guy.
Imagine those TSA agents, the Coast Guard, FEMA, Cybersecurity--you have a lot of those resources in your State. Can I please ask you for some level of humanity to get this done?
Reconsider your objection, and let's fund the Department of Homeland Security, TSA agents, for 2 weeks. Please. I ask you to do that.
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Mr. MORENO. In fact, I said in good faith that we could sit down, have a conversation, and get this thing done. I just did that. Why are we saying the TSA agents, whom I totally respect? How about the Border Patrol guys and gals? How about Customs? How about CISA? How about FEMA? How about the Coast Guard? Are we saying we are going to penalize all of them? Why would we do that?
Let's fund the whole Department. Let's get this over with. In fact, I would even offer to fund it until Monday. Let's all--every single U.S. Senator--agree to stay here until Monday, until we get this negotiated. In the meantime, we fund the Department, and we retroactively pay every single worker.
If that is not acceptable, I will ask one more, and I will be the first one to offer it: If the answer is that we leave here today without funding the Department of Homeland Security, every single Senator should give their paycheck to a charity of their choice, retroactively from the beginning of the shutdown, until we get this Department funded. We should not get paid while government employees who did nothing are not getting paid.
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