Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in light of the eloquent remarks from the assistant Democratic leader who is my friend, I hope he will listen carefully to the proposal I am about to outline. In just over 3 weeks the law that funds the Department of Homeland Security will expire, jeopardizing the Department's ability to carry out its critical mission. Legislation to provide funding to the Department throughout the remainder of this fiscal year has passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate, but progress has stalled. The Democrats have blocked it from even being considered because it is not a clean bill. On my side of the aisle House Republicans have insisted that provisions remain in the bill directing the administration to spend no funds implementing a series of Presidential orders issued over the past few years. The Senate has held two votes this week to try to begin debate on this bill, both of which have failed on near-party lines. Thus, we have reached an impasse. In an attempt to find a path forward, yesterday I filed an amendment in the nature of a substitute that would accomplish three goals. First, it would ensure that the Department of Homeland Security is fully funded to perform its vital mission to protect our people. Second, it would allow the Senate to go on record in strong opposition to the President's extraordinarily broad immigration Executive order issued last November. Third, it would protect the DREAMers whom Senator Durbin just talked about.…”