On the recordJanuary 16, 2019
Mr. President, government shutdowns are never the answer. No matter how difficult the problem, we should never resort to shutting down government. It harms too many innocent Federal employees--in this case, 800,000 Federal employees and their families-- and it hampers the ability of American citizens to deal with their government. At the same time, we do have a problem at our southern border. We do need to strengthen our border security and fix our broken immigration system. We need to address the issue of the Dreamers population, those young children brought to this country through no decision of their own who are now, often, young adults and who are going to school or working or otherwise serving in the military or contributing to our country. The outlines of a compromise are evident, but in order to get there, I believe we need to assure the President that we will seriously consider his supplemental request for border security, a request that includes not just funding for additional physical barriers to supplement the more than 600 miles of physical barriers--walls, fences--that were built during two previous administrations but also includes $800 million to meet the humanitarian needs of those who are crossing the border. It also includes additional funding for Border Patrol agents and for Immigration and Customs and Border Enforcement. This simply cannot continue.…
Source
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