Securing Our Borders

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. There is a lot we can get done in Washington when Democrats are willing to put the politics aside and work together for bipartisan results.

We saw an example of that yesterday when the President signed a bipartisan workforce training bill into law, legislation I and others proudly supported. Unfortunately, though, we have rarely seen such bipartisanship from Washington Democrats these days. Working toward bipartisan solutions and helping the middle class, it always seems like such a chore for them. Just look at what President Obama and the majority leader have planned for the coming days.

The President is off campaigning for a workforce training bill he already signed. It makes no sense, but this is a man who just can't stop campaigning. And apparently the majority leader is suffering from a similar condition. He is busy turning the Senate into a campaign studio. He wants to spend more of the Senate's time on a designed-to-fail campaign bill that he loves to trot out before every national election. We have seen this proposal a couple of years ago before the election. Then, of course, for political purposes they pray that it will fail.

Look, this is time that would be a lot better spent helping the middle-class families who are struggling in our country. Instead of worrying about design-to-fail legislation, we could be addressing things like the highway bill, which already passed the Republican-led House with massive bipartisan support, or addressing the humanitarian crisis on the southern border. That is where our focus should be. That is what the American people expect.

The Border Patrol estimates that as many as 90,000 unaccompanied children will have crossed our border by fall. It is a dangerous journey to the border, and many have suffered heartbreaking treatment and abuse. That is why anyone who wants to help these children should be working overtime to spare them from this journey.

A few weeks ago the President made some modest policy recommendations that should be a part of any legislation that deals with this crisis. Unfortunately, the far left objected and the President has since wobbled.

That has led to top Democrats in Congress balking at even the most modest of reforms. They all seem to prefer a blank check that would preserve the status quo instead, and the President will barely lift a finger to encourage his own party to support these simple reforms.

Remember, now, this is the same President who keeps telling us about this mythical phone he plans to use. So what we are saying is use it. Call the Members of your own party who object to what you said you wanted and what we all know is needed.

Call the leadership of your party in the Senate who, despite the footage on the evening news, pronounced our southern border to be secure. Get them to support the policies that you told us would address this crisis. Frankly, it would be a much better use of your time than campaigning for a workforce bill you have already signed. Sending these children all over the country for indeterminate periods of time just isn't an answer.

We need to humanely return them to their homes as soon as possible, and President Obama needs to show some leadership to help us get a long-term credible plan in place to do just that. He owes the country at least that much.

Remember, news reports suggest the President could have intervened long ago to address this problem before it turned into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. But according to the Washington Post, he prioritized politics over helping these children.

The paper cited a Congresswoman who admitted that her fellow Democrats recognized the urgency of this crisis, but they kept mostly silent because they didn't want to cause problems for the administration's political priorities in Congress.

Democrats didn't want others to be able to point out that the President's policies had failed. It is really quite shameful. The Post also cited one source who said the administration staff was concerned about the growing number of children, but that they too were effectively overruled by White House political concerns.

Here is what the source said:

Was the White House told there were huge flows of Central Americans coming? Of course they were told. A lot of times. ..... Was there a general lack of interest and focus on the legislation? Yes, that's where the focus was.

In short, it appears the Obama administration knew about this problem a long time ago, did almost nothing, and the country is now faced with this crisis.

So the President needs to get serious about this--not some other time--now.

What we are saying is cut out the campaigning, tell your party's leadership in the Senate to get serious and work with Members of both parties to get this addressed.

Source