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Floor Speech
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Mr. MORENO. Mr. President, for those who are not familiar with what actually happens here in Washington, DC, as I stated earlier, for the fifth time, Democrats have blocked to end debate on whether 260,000 families should get paid for the work that they have done. It is almost ludicrous to even make that statement because the idea that we would withhold the pay of 260,000 hard-working DHS employees is insane.
But we haven't actually even had debate. What you see here in this Chamber that is virtually empty is that one person will make a speech, another person will make a speech, and quite frankly there is no interaction. So I actually want to change that a little bit.
So to any of my Democratic colleagues that want to speak, I will yield my time if they can answer for me and acknowledge that there are currently 260,000 DHS families going without pay. Is that true or false?
OK. No answer on that one. I will break the suspense. That is true.
The second thing I will yield for a comment on is: Will any of my Democratic colleagues that are present in this Chamber acknowledge that the Democrats have not agreed--have not agreed--to individually fund Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, and the nuclear threat Agency within the Department of Homeland Security--have absolutely not presented any resolutions or votes to fund those Agencies? Is that true or false?
Seeing no response, I will break the silence and say that is true.
Would any Democrat in the Chamber acknowledge that fewer than 10 percent of the entire workforce of DHS works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE?
Well, they can fact-check me, but the answer is that is true.
Of the 22,000 ICE employees, will any Democrat in this Chamber acknowledge that the vast majority of those employees work for Homeland Investigations?
What do they do? That is the group that identifies, chases, and catches really bad guys. These are the people who actually go out and find the worst of the worst, transnational groups. The vast majority of ICE employees work for that division. Is that true or false? Would you acknowledge that that is accurate?
OK. Hearing no comments from my Democratic colleagues, the answer to that is it is true.
So the remaining 5,000 employees out of 260,000 that my colleagues do not want to give a paycheck despite the fact that they came to work for the last 35 days--unlike anybody in this Chamber who has not come to work the last 35 days because that has definitely not happened--will they acknowledge that collective punishment is a bad idea? In other words, would they acknowledge that punishing 5,000 people who work for Enforcement and Removal Operations because a couple dozen--maybe, generously, a couple dozen; probably less; probably a handful maybe didn't do everything perfectly--you are recommending that we collectively punish all 5,000 people? Is that what you are saying?
No response. The answer is only a politician would think that that is a good idea. Only a politician would think that collective punishment is the way to go. You are punishing 260,000 employees in the Department of Homeland Security because you think that if you had been in that situation, you would have acted differently. Four or five, six, seven people that you think did the wrong thing gives you the moral authority to take away the paychecks of 260,000 people.
And I am going to look forward to hearing from my colleague from Utah, who has done so much work to put together the SAVE America Act. And he actually hasn't had anybody say this to him: Thank you. Thank you for the hard work. You have put in I can't even imagine how many hours--you and your staff. You have been willing to listen to anybody who wants to improve your bill, and yet you have gotten very little feedback, except for on the floor when they accused you of God knows what.
But I will ask my Republican colleague--because I watched it on TV, and so I am going to ask my Republican colleague to answer whether this is true or false; and any of my Democratic colleagues I will yield to if they want to jump in. I suspect they won't.
Is it true that, yesterday, my fellow Republican Senator, Senator Husted, who is doing an amazing job--a good man that I have known for 20 years. Is it true that he proposed a bill that would have simply required photo ID to vote? Not a photo ID that proves you are a citizen, which I think we should have that, but just a simple photo ID the way any of us have to walk in and out of this building? Is that true?
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Mr. MORENO. I yield to my colleague from Utah.
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Mr. MORENO. It does. Unless any of my Democratic colleagues want to debate any of the items I mentioned--hearing no debate, I yield the floor.
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Mr. MORENO. Will my colleague from Utah yield for a question?
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Mr. MORENO. There are just a few of us here in this Chamber, but I see my colleague from Connecticut. So I am going to ask the Senator a question, my colleague from Utah.
Would it surprise you to know that, just a couple of years ago, a Democrat State representative in Connecticut proposed a bill to allow all undocumented noncitizens the right to vote? It is estimated that there are 240,000 illegal aliens in the State of Connecticut; yet a Democrat-elected official proposed that bill. Would that surprise you?
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