On the recordSeptember 12, 2019
I start by thanking my friend and colleague the Senator from Illinois, Ms. Duckworth, for her service to our country many years ago in the military, for her serving in Iraq, and now for her serving our country in a different capacity; that of standing up in the U.S. Senate to defend the Constitution and to defend this institution against what is clearly an unconstitutional power grab by the President of the United States. When I took my oath of office--when we took our oaths of office--we all swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Back in March of this year, 59 Senators kept that promise when we stood together, on a bipartisan basis, to say no to a gross abuse of Executive power--to an unconstitutional power grab--when we said: No, Mr. President, you may not ignore the will of the Congress. You may not ignore the appropriations that were passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by you. You may not ignore them and rob critical military projects across the country to fund an unnecessary wall. Now, we can all debate--we have debated many times--the merits of this wall, but there really should be no debate about the fact that the way the President has gone about it undermines the Constitution and undermines the powers given in that Constitution to the Senate and to the House. We made that statement on a bipartisan basis back in March-- 59 Senators. Mr.…
