Jeanne Shaheen: “I agree with my colleagues. We have a crisis at our southern border. And in New Hampshire, it is affecting us because…”

“I agree with my colleagues. We have a crisis at our southern border. And in New Hampshire, it is affecting us because there are too many deadly drugs flowing into our country and not enough technology and equipment and personnel to stop it. So it is not every day that I agree with my Republican colleagues on an issue as big as the border, but on this one, I agree. We needed to act. That is why a group of negotiators--Republicans were led by Senator Lankford; Democrats, by Senator Murphy and Senator Sinema. I appreciate the work that all three of them did. They rolled up their sleeves. They got to work. For months, they passed paper back and forth. They ironed out big and small details of the bill that we voted on, that is before us. And the final agreement is the strictest--I think that is worth repeating. It is the strictest border security legislation that we have seen certainly since my time in the Senate. It is a historic agreement to supply the border with critical resources that are necessary to increase security, to stop the flow of illicit drugs, and to better protect all Americans. Now, our Republican colleagues were for this bill until Donald Trump put his thumb on the scale and said: Don't fix the border. I want to campaign on it as a crisis. And as we heard, he acknowledged that we should blame him for the fact that the border deal failed.…”