March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1857 for all of Stew’s colleagues, that level Happy trails, buddy. not your typical vote on an appropria- of good cheer and concern for others f tions or authorization bill. It doesn’t really has been typical for a dozen concern a nomination or an appoint- RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME years. ment. This will be a vote about the That is why his departure has trig- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under very nature of our Constitution, the gered an avalanche of tributes from the previous order, leadership time is separation of powers, and how this gov- people all over Washington and beyond, reserved. ernment functions henceforth. people—many of them junior people— f The Framers gave Congress the whom he wrote back with advice, met power of the purse in article I of the for coffee, shared some wisdom; this CONCLUSION OF MORNING Constitution. It is probably our great- sprawling family tree of men and BUSINESS est power. Now the President is claim- women who all feel that, one way or The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning ing that power for himself under a another, they owe a significant part of business is closed. guise of an emergency declaration to their success and careers to him. On f get around a Congress that repeatedly that note, I have to say I know exactly RELATING TO A NATIONAL EMER- would not authorize his demand for a how they feel. So today I have to say goodbye to an GENCY DECLARED BY THE border wall. all-star staff leader who took his job PRESIDENT ON FEBRUARY 15, The President has not justified the about as seriously as anybody you will 2019 emergency declaration. You would ever meet but who took himself far less The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under think in a moment like this, when seriously than most people you will the previous order, the Committee on there is not a war, when there is not an ever meet in the process. Professional Armed Services is discharged from fur- immediate disease, or when there is excellence and personal humility are ther consideration of H.J. Res. 46, and not a disaster—that is when we had rare virtues. Having a heavy dose of ei- the Senate will proceed to its imme- other declarations. They don’t need an ther is impressive, but only the com- diate consideration. elaboration, but this one would. But bination can explain Stew. There are The clerk will report the joint resolu- the President hasn’t done that. He sim- plenty of people in this town who tion by title. ply said he ‘‘didn’t need to do this.’’ haven’t tackled nearly the challenges The bill clerk read as follows: That is amazing, folks, my colleagues. or rubbed nearly the elbows he has, but A joint resolution (H.J. Res. 46) relating to The President said he didn’t need to do you better believe their egos dwarf his. a national emergency declared by the Presi- this, and yet he is declaring an emer- His resume looks like he belongs in dent on February 15, 2019. gency. It is a direct contradiction of fancy cocktail parties in tony neigh- There being no objection, the com- his own words. borhoods, but I am not positive Stew mittee was discharged, and the Senate Everyone here knows the truth. would even be allowed into a fancy proceeded to consider the joint resolu- Democrats and Republicans know the cocktail party. Regardless, I doubt he tion. sad truth. The President did not de- would find much time for the elite Mr. MCCONNELL. I suggest the ab- clare an emergency because there is guests; he would be too engrossed in sence of a quorum. one; he declared an emergency because conversation with the security guards, The PRESIDING OFFICER. The he lost in Congress and wants to get valet parking attendants, hospitality clerk will call the roll. around it. He is obsessed with showing staff, talking Nationals baseball and The bill clerk proceeded to call the strength. He couldn’t just abandon his everything else under the Sun with the roll. pursuit of the border wall, so he had to people who actually made the thing go. Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I trample on the Constitution to con- Never before yesterday had I seen a ask unanimous consent that the order tinue his fight. That is not how this de- large number of Capitol police officers for the quorum call be rescinded. mocracy is supposed to function. That gather to surprise a departing Senate The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without is not how this democracy has func- staffer and send him off as if he were objection, it is so ordered. tioned. I have never seen it, where, out one of their own. That is the admira- RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY LEADER of anger and out of a desire to win the tion and love that Stew has for the The PRESIDING OFFICER. The fight regardless of the consequences, a men and women who keep us safe—and Democratic leader is recognized. President would do this. vice versa. I know nothing I say today TRIBUTE TO ‘‘STEW’’ will really compete with that tribute. The President has not laid out where The only kind of man who would earn Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I he plans to divert funds from, though that sort of salute is the kind of man thank my colleague and friend from we know it is going to be from our who would prize it above and beyond Tennessee for deferring. military—from the men and women any fancy praise offered in a place like First, on Donald Stewart, I know serving us and from the things they this. Don’t get me wrong. Stew reveres Leader MCCONNELL talked about him. need. Everyone is going to miss him here in this institution, but he never once Senators who vote against this reso- the Senate. He was truly somebody seemed to covet the trappings or the lution this afternoon may be voting to whom everyone liked. He always had a power for its own sake; he just seemed gut funding for a military installation great sense of humor and a big smile. honored to serve. in their State or for a cut to military He served his boss, MITCH MCCONNELL, My colleagues and I are sad to bid pay and military pensions. How could extremely well, but he never let that farewell to the Senate staffer who they do that? made himself thoroughly famous by get in the way of being friendly and Most importantly, President Trump trying not to make himself famous. We working with the other side. He is has shown zero understanding of what are sorry to part with our tough-talk- somebody we will all miss. I enjoyed his emergency portends for the separa- ing workaholic who can’t bypass a cute my interactions with him a great deal. tion of powers in our democracy. The puppy without stopping for a good I think that is probably true of just President seems to regard the govern- scratch and a photo shoot. We will about every Member here. ment, not just the Justice Department, sorely miss our true-blue patriot who We wish Stew the best and thank him as his own personal tool to do whatever so loves this country where a kid can for serving this body so long and so he wants, whether it is in the private grow up from working odd jobs to well. sector or the public sector. We have counseling Senators and statesmen and H.J. RES. 46 never had a President like this. not lose an ounce of his character Today, Madam President, the Senate along the way. will vote on the resolution to termi- We have had lots of Presidents with Stew, we can’t quite imagine a place nate the President’s declaration of a lots of foibles, but none of them seem without you, but we are so grateful for national emergency. This is not a nor- to equate their own ego with the entire what you have made it while you were mal vote. What we are doing here functioning of the government of the here. today—this is not a normal day. It is United States, except this one.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.004 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1858 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 We can’t succumb to that. It is our Members rise above politics for the makes enduring, verifiable reforms of job here, in Congress, to limit execu- sake of fidelity to our constitutional China’s economic and trade policies, tive overreach, to defend our core pow- principles and to this great United because the odds are high that if the ers, to prevent a President—any Presi- States of America. President walks away from a weak dent—from ignoring the will of Con- In conclusion, on this issue, this is deal, he will be able to get a much bet- gress every time it fails to align with not an everyday moment. This is not ter deal down the road. the will of the President. That is what just about going along with this Presi- I yield the floor. the balance of powers is. That is what dent or that one. This is a red-letter The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- checks and balances is. That is what day in the history of how the U.S. Gov- ator from Tennessee. every one of us learned in second grade ernment functions. The judgment of H.J. RES. 46 civics class. our Founding Fathers and the judg- Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, All that teaching in the second grade ment of history weighs upon this vote. Tennesseans have asked me: Is there civics class seems to be lost on so TARIFFS really a crisis on the southern border? many of my Republican colleagues in Madam President, the trade negotia- Do you support President Trump’s bor- blind obeisance to this President, no tions with China are moving forward, der wall? matter what the consequences. and I continue to have concerns that And my answer to both questions is This is not an issue of the wall. It President Trump will accept a weak yes, I do. goes way beyond that. We have had our deal for the sake of a headline. Appar- I have urged the President to build fights and disputes on the wall for sev- ently, I am not alone. President the 234 miles of border wall that he eral years here. However you feel about Trump’s former top economic adviser, asked for in his January 6 letter to the our policy on the southern border and Gary Cohn, told a podcast that the Senate and to do that in the fastest however you feel about the President, President is ‘‘desperate’’ to reach a possible way, with a minimum delay Senators should vote yes on the resolu- trade deal. He also expressed deep skep- and legal challenge, by using the $5.7 tion to terminate the emergency dec- ticism that the administration would billion already approved by Congress. laration. be able to stop the Chinese from steal- But the President’s emergency dec- This resolution is about more than ing intellectual property and hold the laration to take an additional $3.6 bil- this President. It is about the Presi- Chinese accountable. lion that Congress has appropriated for dency now and on into the future. I hope Gary Cohn is wrong. The military hospitals, for barracks, and It should not be difficult for any of President, to his credit, was not des- for schools—including one in Fort my Republican colleagues to take this perate for a deal in North Korea and Campbell—is inconsistent with the vote. Conservative principles would de- stood up to Kim Jong Un and looked U.S. Constitution that I took an oath mand it, and some of the true conserv- strong for that. I hope he realizes that, to support and to defend. atives, like Mr. LEE, yesterday, under- as he negotiates with someone with Never before has a President asked stood that logic. Conservatives have al- even more consequences at stake for for funding, the Congress has not pro- ways feared an agglomeration of power the long run of America—President vided it, and then the President has in any branch of government, but par- Xi—and with a country that can do far used the National Emergencies Act of ticularly in the executive branch. The more harm to our country, ultimately, 1976 to spend the money anyway. The conservative movement has been de- in the long run. problem with this is that after a Revo- signed to reduce the powers of the Fed- Ambassador Lighthizer has said that lutionary War against a King, our Na- eral Government. That is why they are there are still major issues left to be tion’s Founders gave to Congress—a for lowering taxes so much. resolved. If that is the case, President Congress elected by the people—the All of a sudden, again, because Presi- Trump should not be pressing for a power to approve all spending so that dent Trump simply wants it, they say: quick solution. The Chinese are more the President would not have too much Let’s abandon those principles and vote desperate for a solution than we are, power. This check on the executive is a to change, fundamentally, the way the although, obviously, some harm has source of our freedom. balance of power works—shame. been created to bring the Chinese to In addition, this declaration is a dan- If conservatism today is to mean the table with tariffs. gerous precedent. Already, Democrat anything, self-branded conservatives The Chinese are desperate, and it is Presidential candidates are saying they should vote to terminate the resolu- like they are ahead in the seventh in- would declare emergencies to tear tion. Deep-seated principles like that ning, and then you say: I quit the ball down the existing border wall, to take shouldn’t take a back seat to the poli- game; I lose. away guns, to stop oil exports, to shut tics of the moment. They should not be Don’t do that, Mr. President. The down offshore drilling, and for other abandoned just because the President tariffs you have imposed, at some po- leftwing enterprises—all without the shares the same party. litical cost, have brought China to the approval of Congress. Now, let me speak from the heart to table and given us the first opportunity I believe the crisis on our southern my Republican colleagues. I know that in decades—in decades—to make the border is real. U.S. Customs and Border President Trump is extremely popular Chinese reform so they don’t take total Patrol arrested more than 66,000 illegal among Republicans for many reasons. I advantage of American workers and aliens in February of 2019—the highest know he commands the vast majority know-how. Soybean purchases and total in a single month since March of the Republican Party, and I know promises to import more American 2009. In the last 2 years alone, U.S. Im- that the President never shies away goods are not sufficient if we don’t win migration and Customs Enforcement from threatening, bullying, or publicly concrete concessions on major issues. officers have arrested 266,000 illegal castigating members of his own party If President Trump caves to China aliens in the United States with crimi- if they refuse to do what he wants. for the sake of soybean purchases, he nal records. Each week, approximately So, I realize this. It is a much more would be trading America’s future, lit- 300 Americans die from heroin difficult vote for my colleagues on the erally, for a hill of beans. We want to overdoses, of which nearly 90 percent other side of the aisle to take than for help the soybean farmers. We want to come across the southern border. those of us who are Democrats. I would help everybody else, but not at the ex- During the last 25 years, Congress ap- say to them, and I would say to every pense of the future viability of jobs and proved and President Obama, President Republican: There are times when loy- wealth in America. Clinton, President George W. Bush, and alty to America, to our Constitution, My message to President Trump is President George H. W. Bush built 654 to our principles, and to what has made the same one I mentioned to him and I miles of barrier along the 1,954-mile this country great should lead Mem- gave to him before he met with Kim southern border. In 2013, the com- bers to rise above and rise to the occa- Jong Un: Don’t back down. prehensive immigration bill that re- sion. The President should be proud that ceived 68 Senate votes, including mine, I hope and I pray that this moment is he stood up to North Korea and walked included $40 billion for border security, one of those times when Members away. He will be proud if he does the including physical barrier, and enforce- choose country over party and when same with China, unless President Xi ment. Last year, I voted with nearly

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.006 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1859 every Democrat for a bill that included zona in 2020, and to win she’ll need a coali- ing the Constitution is our first and $25 billion for border security, includ- tion of Trump voters and the President’s foremost sacred duty. ing physical barrier. skeptics. No matter how she votes she iso- The Founders built a system of So one might ask: Why is President lates potential supporters. Ditto for Cory checks and balances into our Constitu- Gardner of Colorado. tion. They made sure that the three Trump the only President not allowed And for what? The President doesn’t need to build more wall on the southern bor- to invoke a national emergency to build his branches of government exercised their der? wall along the southern border. Sen. Lamar own separate powers, and they made But in this case, as the Wall Street Alexander of Tennessee has pointed out that sure that no one branch, no one person, Journal said on March 12, ‘‘The Presi- the White House already has funds at its dis- could exercise too much power, espe- dent doesn’t need to invoke a national posal without declaring an emergency. cially over the use of taxpayer money. emergency to build his wall along the Consider: The President wants $5.7 billion The Founders gave to Congress the southern border.’’ He has the money for the wall. Congress provided $1.375 billion power of the purse, one of our most in appropriations. The President plans to tap fundamental powers. Article I, section immediately available in other ac- $601 million from a forfeiture fund at the counts already approved by Congress. Treasury Department that can be used for 9 of the Constitution could not be more Any appreciation for our structure of general law enforcement purposes. Mr. clear: ‘‘No money shall be drawn from government means that no President Trump also plans to use $2.5 billion from De- the Treasury, but in Consequence of should be able to use the National fense Department accounts that deal with Appropriations made by Law.’’ Emergencies Act to spend money that drug smuggling, though Sen. Alexander Congress holds the power to spend Congress refuses to provide. notes that the law allows him to tap up to $4 taxpayer money, not the President. It The late Justice Antonin Scalia, who billion. is our job to make sure that spending In other words, if the President moved $3.7 is revered by constitutional conserv- decisions have widespread public sup- from the Pentagon drug account, he’d reach port and are not the product of an ex- atives, put it this way for us. Justice his $5.7 billion goal without needing to pilfer Scalia said: $3.6 billion from military construction. The treme minority, much less one man or ‘‘Every tin horn dictator in the world White House noted this in a fact sheet last one woman. today, every President for life has a Bill of month but declared an emergency anyway. We all know that the President Rights. That’s not what makes us free. What The irony is that the President can’t pos- wants a wall. We just had a major de- has made us free is our Constitution. Think sibly spend all this money on wall construc- bate about border security funding. of the word ‘‘constitution,’’ it means struc- tion before the fall’s budget negotiations for The President shut down the govern- ture. That’s why America’s framers debated fiscal 2020, when he can work on winning ment for 35 days because Congress re- not the Bill of Rights, but rather the struc- more funding. fused his wall request. ture of the federal government.’’ Mr. Trump could rescind the order and say Eventually he relented, but now he Justice Scalia wrote: he’ll spend the money available under the has declared an ‘‘emergency’’ to simply law first, and reconsider if facts warrant. The genius of the American constitutional This would keep the money out of the try and take the money that he system is the dispersal of power. Once power courts. The President would also be better couldn’t get from the appropriations is centralized in one person, or one part of positioned to win the 2020 defense spending process. He said: ‘‘I didn’t need to do government, a Bill of Rights is just words on he wants if he isn’t raiding the military to this.’’ He flaunted the fact that this is paper. pay for the wall. In his budget proposal this not a real emergency. That was Justice Scalia. week, Mr. Trump asked Congress to backfill The President is testing the limits of I fault Democrats for not supporting the money he is taking from military con- Executive power. The questions before President Trump’s reasonable request struction. House Democrats have no incen- the Senate today are these: Are we for more wall on the border after 25 tive to cooperate. going to let this happen or are we The alternative is a divisive vote that Mr. years of approving physical barriers Trump is sure to lose and a bipartisan reso- going to open Pandora’s box? What and border wall for four other Presi- lution he’ll have to veto. And that’s for about article I of the Constitution? dents. That is not an excuse to ignore starters. The National Emergencies Act al- What about the 35-day government the constitutional separation of pow- lows a vote in Congress every six months shutdown? What about Presidential ers, especially when the faster way to until an emergency is terminated. Demo- budget requests? What about the Ap- build the 234 more miles of border wall crats have found a gift that will keep on giv- propriations Committee? Are we really that the President has asked for is to ing. going to let a President raid taxpayer use $5.7 billion already approved by Some Republicans are proposing fixes to money after Congress denies the re- the National Emergencies Act, which would Congress. quest? be welcome. A proposal from Mike Lee of The opposition to this power grab is I ask unanimous consent that the Utah would let the President declare an editorial from the Wall Street Journal emergency as he can now, but after 30 days bipartisan, as it should be. Among the dated March 12, 2019, be printed in the Congress would have to vote to continue it. American people the numbers are over- RECORD. Republican Senators don’t want a pointless whelming. Almost 70 percent of the There being no objection, the mate- showdown with Mr. Trump, but they can’t American people oppose the President’s rial was ordered to be printed in the avoid one if the White House won’t change emergency declaration to raid tax- course. Mr. Trump should declare victory on RECORD, as follows: payer money for the wall. That is al- wall funding for this year and live to fight [From the Wall Street Journal, Mar. 12, 2019] most 70 percent. next year. My fellow Senators, it is time for the TRUMP’S EMERGENCY EXIT Mr. ALEXANDER. I yield the floor. Senate to do its job. It is time for us to HOW HE CAN DECLARE VICTORY ON WALL MONEY The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- assert our authority over the purse. It WITHOUT LOSING A VOTE ator from New Mexico. is time for us to honor our oath of of- (By The Editorial Board) Mr. UDALL. Thank you, Madam fice. Every Senator should vote yes on The Senate will vote on a resolution to President, for the recognition. It is the resolution to terminate the Presi- override President Trump’s emergency dec- great to be joined on the floor by Sen- dent’s emergency declaration. laration as early as Thursday, and rarely has ator COLLINS, who is going to speak I want to thank my cosponsors in there been a clearer case of needless self- after me to stand up for the Constitu- harm. Mr. Trump should listen to the Senate this effort. Earlier I mentioned Senator Republicans offering him a safe emergency tion, and I very much appreciate Sen- COLLINS, who is on the floor with me exit. ator LAMAR ALEXANDER’s comments and will speak after me—Senator MUR- On Tuesday Vice President Mike Pence also. He is a real student of the Con- KOWSKI, Senator SHAHEEN. Again, I met with several GOP Senators ahead of a stitution, and I respect very much the know that Senator COLLINS is on the vote on the override resolution that passed conclusion he has come up with here floor to urge us to do the right thing, the House with ease. As many as 10 to 15 today. to stand up for Congress’s authority. GOP Senators may vote to override. When each Senator is sworn into of- This vote is historic. The Constitu- Republican Senators up for re-election in fice, we take a fundamental pledge to tion’s principle of separation of powers tough states are in an impossible position. Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of support and defend the Constitution of is at stake. If the Senate enables the North Carolina are both up in 2020, and the United States. That vow that we President to hijack our power to appro- they’re voting to rebuke the President. Mar- support the Constitution dates back to priate, history will not remember us tha McSally has to fight for her seat in Ari- the very first Congress in 1789. Defend- fondly.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:03 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.007 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1860 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 This vote is not about the wisdom of of presidential power, many with the helping The opinions expressed in this commentary building a wall along the border. This hand of Congress. are his. View more opinion articles on CNN. vote is not about party. This vote is In fact, if I were the leader of the Constitu- During my 18 years as a member of Con- about whether we will let any Presi- tion’s Article II branch, I would probably de- gress—not so long ago—my colleagues and I clare an emergency and use all the tools at didn’t robotically toe the line with the Presi- dent trample on the Constitution, my disposal as well. But I am not. I am a dent. Republicans didn’t vote in lockstep whether we will sit by and let the member of the Senate, and I have grave con- with Republican presidents, not even Ronald President take away our constitutional cerns when our institution looks the other Reagan. And Democrats departed from their authority to appropriate. way at the expense of weakening Congress’s party’s president when they thought it was I rise today, hopeful that my Repub- power. the right thing to do. We took party loyalty lican colleagues will speak up. In addi- It is my responsibility to be a steward of seriously, but we gave even greater weight to tion to Senator COLLINS and Senator the Article I branch, to preserve the separa- principle. tion of powers and to curb the kind of execu- In recent decades, of course, partisanship MURKOWSKI, Senator TILLIS stated tive overreach that Congress has allowed to in the House and Senate has become far firmly in a recent opinion piece: fester for the better part of the past century. more intense, and the nation is worse as a I support Trump’s vision on border secu- I stood by that principle during the Obama result. But even now, in this hyper-partisan rity. But I would vote against the emer- administration, and I stand by it now. era, there comes a time when our elected gency. Conservatives rightfully cried foul when leaders must put country over party. Why does he say he would vote President Barack Obama used executive ac- One such moment: the ongoing debate over against the emergency declaration? Be- tion to completely bypass Congress and uni- President Donald Trump’s national emer- cause, he said, ‘‘[a]s a U.S. Senator, I laterally provide deferred action to undocu- gency declaration to fund construction of a mented adults who had knowingly violated wall on the US-Mexico border. Sometime cannot justify providing the executive the nation’s immigration laws. Some promi- soon, Republican senators will have the op- with more ways to bypass Congress.’’ nent Republicans went so far as to proclaim portunity to demonstrate—as 13 Republicans Former Governor Kasich authored an that Obama was acting more like an ‘‘em- did in the House—their love of country and opinion piece recently titled ‘‘It’s time peror’’ or ‘‘king’’ than a president. their commitment to constitutional values for Republicans in Congress to put There is no intellectual honesty in now by voting for the resolution to disapprove country over party.’’ He states: turning around and arguing that there’s an the President’s emergency declaration. In- Let’s be clear. This vote is not about the imaginary asterisk attached to executive stead of acting like they’re afraid of their situation at the border; it’s about an execu- overreach—that it’s acceptable for my party own shadows, Senate Republicans must use tive power grab and, above all, congressional but not thy party. this vote to—at long last—stand up and de- respect for the democratic process. Republicans need to realize that this will fend the Constitution. lead inevitably to regret when a Democrat I couldn’t agree more with Governor THE REAL NATIONAL EMERGENCY IS NOT AT THE once again controls the White House, cites BORDER Kasich. the precedent set by Trump, and declares his Let’s be clear. This vote is not about the Madam President, I ask unanimous or her own national emergency to advance a situation at the border; it’s about an execu- policy that couldn’t gain congressional ap- consent to have printed in the RECORD tive power grab and, above all, congressional the full pieces by Senator TILLIS and proval. This isn’t just conjecture. House Speaker respect for the democratic process. Whatever Governor Kasich. their views on the border situation—which I There being no objection, the mate- Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) and other prominent Democratic elected officials have already agree is serious—Republicans should oppose rial was ordered to be printed in the hinted that emergency declarations will be the President’s declaration. Standing RECORD, as follows: part of the playbook for the left, with Pelosi against the President on this issue is impor- [From the Washington Post, Feb. 25, 2019] musing, ‘‘just think about what a president tant not just for today, but for our future. with different values can present to the For years, Republicans decried executive I SUPPORT TRUMP’S VISION ON BORDER SECU- overreach by President Barack Obama. If we RITY. BUT I WOULD VOTE AGAINST THE American people.’’ Conservatives should take these warnings are serious about our constitutional values, EMERGENCY we can’t complain only about actions by the (By Thom Tillis) seriously. They should be thinking about whether they would accept the prospect of a other party. We have to apply consistent Thom Tillis, a Republican, is a U.S. sen- President Bernie Sanders declaring a na- principles whenever we have a president ator from North Carolina. tional emergency to implement parts of the from our own party as well. President Trump has few bigger allies than radical Green New Deal; a President Eliza- We should be especially concerned about me when it comes to supporting his vision of beth Warren declaring a national emergency President Trump’s effort to circumvent Con- 21st-century border security, encompassing a to shut down banks and take over the na- gress simply by invoking the magic word major investment in technology, personnel tion’s financial institutions; or a President ‘‘emergency.’’ If presidents can do end runs and infrastructure, including new physical Cory Booker declaring a national emergency around Congress merely by claiming ‘‘emer- barriers where they will be effective. It is a to restrict Second Amendment rights. gency,’’ then there’s almost no limit to exec- vision that will take many years and tens of Those on the left and the right who are utive authority. This would create a gravely billions of dollars to fully realize, and the making Trump’s emergency declaration a dangerous situation, not only for this presi- president can count on me to help. simple political litmus test of whether one dent but for all future presidents as well. The president is rightfully frustrated with supports or opposes the president and his Legal scholars are debating what the word Congress’s inaction regarding the humani- policies are missing the mark. This is about ‘‘emergency’’ means as it’s used in the Na- tarian and security crisis at the nation’s the separation of powers and whether Con- tional Emergencies Act, and the courts will southern border. Even though Republicans gress will support or oppose a new precedent resolve that question if Congress fails to and Democrats spent the past several dec- of executive power that will have major con- override an expected presidential veto of ades in the halls of Congress and on the cam- sequences. their resolution of disapproval. But there’s paign trail promising the American people As a U.S. senator, I cannot justify pro- no real doubt about what the word is sup- that they would work to secure U.S. borders, viding the executive with more ways to by- posed to mean. A president’s emergency pow- some of my colleagues seemingly made a po- pass Congress. As a conservative, I cannot ers are intended to be used for addressing litically calculated decision to block the endorse a precedent that I know future left- sudden or unexpected events, not just serious president’s good-faith efforts to finally get it wing presidents will exploit to advance rad- problems. Indeed, the National Emergencies done. They have regressed to the point where ical policies that will erode economic and in- Act, passed in 1976, aimed to curtail—not ex- a Democratic presidential contender such as dividual freedoms. pand—presidential discretion to declare Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) and a possible These are the reasons I would vote in favor emergencies. candidate, former congressman Beto of the resolution disapproving of the presi- What’s also clear is how emergency dec- O’Rourke of Texas, are even entertaining the dent’s national-emergency declaration, if larations should be used: To address prob- possibility of tearing down existing physical and when it comes before the Senate. lems in ways for which there is not only a barriers. Although Trump certainly has le- general consensus, but also where the press- gitimate grievances over congressional [From CNN, Mar. 12, 2019] ing nature of the challenge requires speedy Democrats’ obstruction of border-security action without the formal and oftentimes JOHN KASICH: IT’S TIME FOR REPUBLICANS IN funding, his national emergency declaration slow process of congressional action. Noth- CONGRESS TO PUT COUNTRY OVER PARTY on Feb. 15 was not the right answer. ing about the current situation matches up From the perspective of the chief execu- (By John R. Kasich) to that standard. tive, I can understand why the president John R. Kasich is the former governor of President Trump’s emergency declaration would assert his powers with the emergency Ohio, serving from 2011 to 2019. A Repub- for border wall funding is almost the anti- declaration to implement his policy agenda. lican, he was previously a member of the thesis of that model. The problems at our After all, nearly every president in the mod- House of Representatives. He is the author of border may indeed be severe, but they are ern era has similarly pushed the boundaries ‘‘Two Paths: America Divided or United.’’ chronic. Even more significantly, there is

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.009 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1861 not a consensus to pursue the President’s ap- these topics, as our system is supposed With this, I yield to Senator COLLINS, proach. To the contrary, Republicans and to work. No previous President has who, from the beginning, has worked Democrats in Congress did negotiate a com- used the National Emergency Act to with me as we have our resolution in, promise—and the President signed it into bypass the appropriations process like and we are working hard to make sure law. But then he proceeded to turn his back on the negotiation, the process and the this. Our Constitution, the rule of law, that we stand up for the Constitution. agreement by declaring a national emer- separation of powers—all of these rise I yield the floor. gency. far above the day-to-day controversies The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. That kind of unilateralism not only con- like the President’s border wall. SCOTT of Florida). The Senator from flicts with our Constitution, it amplifies the On a practical note, the President Maine. worst of our present-day politics. President wants to take real money away from Ms. COLLINS. Thank you. Trump is playing to his base, focused on poli- real military construction projects, Mr. President, later today, the Sen- tics not policy. The result of his approach is which will have a real impact on na- ate will make a significant decision more bitterness and alienation, less trust be- with implications for our constitu- tween parties and a continued loss of public tional security. These military con- struction projects have been vetted tional system of government. confidence in our government. It leaves both We will vote on a resolution to re- through years of scrutiny, through the parties—our government—far less able to do verse the President’s ill-advised na- the things the American people need and de- military, through numerous congres- tional emergency declaration that sire. I am proud to have joined with three sional committees in Congress, and funds the construction of a border wall dozen former Republican members of Con- they are projects deemed essential to using money that Congress has appro- gress to urge those Republicans currently national security—projects all across priated and the President has signed serving there to stand for our values and by the Nation, in our States, that are now standing up to the President against his into law for other purposes, such as emergency declaration. President Trump re- at risk. military construction. We have a long list of military con- mains popular within our party, but so is a I want to thank Senator UDALL, the deeply ingrained commitment to constitu- struction projects by the President. Senator from New Mexico, for working tional conservativism. Opposing your party’s Yet he has not bothered to tell us together with me. We introduced a president is never easy, but I am hopeful which projects would be cut to build companion resolution to overturn the that Republicans will vote to uphold the con- his wall. Will he raid $793 million to re- stitutional principles I know they hold dear. President’s declaration, and I commend build Camp Lejeune, NC, after the dev- Senator UDALL for his leadership. Mr. UDALL. Madam President, to get astation from Hurricane Florence? By declaring a national emergency, this wall money, the President caused Will he steal up to $800 million for the President’s action comes into di- the longest government shutdown in Navy ship maintenance to make sure rect conflict with Congress’s authority our Nation. The shutdown caused hard- that accidents like what happened to to determine the appropriation of ship for millions of Federal employees the USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald funds, a power vested in Congress by and lasting pain for thousands of Fed- never happen again? the Framers of our Constitution in ar- eral contractors, not to mention the Will he raid $125 million from my ticle I, section 9. That is why this issue millions of Americans who were denied State of New Mexico for Holloman Air is not about strengthening our border services for 35 days—services they paid Force Base to develop unmanned aerial security, a goal that I support and have for with their tax dollars. vehicles to track terrorists and for voted to advance. Rather, it is a sol- I visited with New Mexicans hurt by White Sands Missile Range to build a emn occasion involving whether this the shutdown and it was very, very badly needed information systems fa- body will stand up for its institutional painful to hear their stories. cility? prerogatives and will support the sepa- In the end, Congress decided on a bi- The answer is that we don’t know, ration of powers enshrined in our Con- partisan basis not to spend the $5.7 bil- but these critical projects in all of our stitution. lion the President demanded for his States are at risk. Throughout our history the courts wall. He got $1.3 billion. I didn’t want We each need to think about our have consistently held that ‘‘only Con- to see that much, and I wanted to see States and the people we were sent gress is empowered by the Constitution more restrictions as to specifically here to represent. I am from one of the to adopt laws directing monies to be what it was going to be spent for, but four States that border Mexico, one of spent from the U.S. treasury.’’ it was a hard-fought compromise, and a the four States that would be the most For the past 65 years, the courts have deal is a deal. directly impacted by any border wall, determined the boundary of Presi- Congress’s determination should and I am here to state there is no na- dential authority vis-a-vis Congress have ended the debate for this fiscal tional security emergency along my under the doctrine of Youngstown year, the year that we are in. State’s border with Mexico. What is Sheet & Tube, the 1952 Supreme Court Now the President is asking Congress happening at our border does not jus- case that reversed President Truman’s for $8.6 billion for the border wall next tify the use of this authority. seizure of U.S. steel companies during year. That is his prerogative, but make New Mexico’s border communities the Korean war. no mistake, it is not only Congress’s are flourishing with economic, cul- As Justice Robert Jackson explained prerogative, it is Congress’s constitu- tural, and educational activity. Border in his profoundly influential concur- tional responsibility to decide if he communities are as safe as or safer rence in that case, the question of gets that money. As the old saying than others in the interior. whether a President’s actions are con- goes, the President proposes and Con- This is not a partisan view along the stitutionally valid should be deter- gress disposes. President Trump is border. Republican WILLIAM HURD rep- mined by examining the source of the being treated no differently than all resents more than 500 miles of the President’s authority. In this concur- previous Presidents. That is how our Texas border with Mexico. He not only rence, the Justice goes through three constitutional system works—or at believes the President’s emergency scenarios in which he assesses the least how it is supposed to work. declaration is unconstitutional, but he President’s power. The President’s emergency declara- also thinks the President’s wall is ‘‘the According to Justice Jackson, when tion is an end run around Congress, most expensive and least effective way acts taken by the President are against plain and simple. If any Democratic to do border security.’’ the express or implied will of Congress, President issued an emergency declara- Again, whether you support or oppose the President’s power is at its lowest tion like this, say for climate change the border wall is not an issue. What is ebb. President Trump’s declaration or gun safety funding, Republicans in at issue is our oath to support and de- clearly falls in that category. this body would scream bloody murder fend the Constitution, whether any The President rests his declaration and vote to disapprove. President can toss Congress aside and on the National Emergencies Act, and I am on record that climate change is raid critical funds at will. that act fails to define precisely what one of the most pressing issues on our We have an opportunity to stand up constitutes an emergency. There is a planet, and I am on record that gun vi- to an unconstitutional power grab. I commonsense rule we can apply. It is a olence is a national crisis. I have voted urge everyone in this Chamber to seize five-part test that was used by the Of- for and proposed actual legislation on that opportunity. fice of Management and Budget under

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:29 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A14MR6.002 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1862 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 former President George Herbert Walk- fused. Even when his own party con- tary base improvements to pay for his er Bush to determine whether re- trolled both Chambers of Congress, he wall. This comes almost in the same quested funding merited an emergency could not convince enough Members week we see in the news that so much designation under our budget rules. that it was a good idea. Certainly, no- of military housing is infested by mold, Under that test, a spending request was body accepted his pledge that Mexico by rats, by asbestos, and by all these designated as an emergency only if the would pay for the wall. We all knew the other problems. Is he going to take the need for spending met a five-part test. U.S. taxpayers would have to pay for money that would make this housing It had to be necessary, sudden, urgent, it. safe for the men and women in our unforeseen, and not permanent. So instead of accepting that we are military to pay for his wall? Is he Whether one agrees with President in a democracy, and he is not a mon- going to take money from Camp Trump that more should be done to se- arch, instead of accepting that we are Lejeune that was hit by Hurricane cure our southern border—and I do in a democracy and there are two other Florence and badly damaged? I know agree with him on that goal—his deci- coequal branches of government that Camp Lejeune. When my son was in the sion to fund a border wall through a could constrain his actions, the Presi- Marines, he spent time there. Is he national emergency declaration would dent has decided to ignore the Con- going to take money from Tyndall Air never pass all of this five-part test. stitution and the will of Congress and Force base, which was flattened by Another concern I have with the go it alone. Actually, Congress alone Hurricane Michael? What about money President’s declaration is, it shifts has the power of the purse. Congress for schools for military families, like funding away from critical military having exclusive power over our gov- the school at Fort Campbell, KY, or a construction projects. We don’t know ernment spending priorities is one of child development center at Joint Base which ones. We have not been able to the most critical checks and balances Andrews in Maryland? What about es- get a list, but this could have very real in our constitutional system. sential training facilities that would national security implications. Again, Anybody who goes back and reads ensure military readiness, like a spe- I would note that the Military Con- the history of the founding of this cial operations training facility at Fort struction appropriations bill incor- country knows that the reason we are Bragg, NC—which I have visited. Con- gress chose to fund these projects over porated projects recommended by the the oldest existing democracy cur- an ineffective, wasteful wall. Congress President and his Department of De- rently in the world, is that we believed had to say, where does the money go? fense, was passed by both bodies, and in checks and balances. We felt these things to help our mili- signed into law by the President. The President, of course, could pro- tary and military families made far Let me emphasize, once again, that pose funding for whatever projects he more sense than the wall. Congress the question presented by this resolu- wants, but it is the job of Congress to used its constitutional power—let me tion is not whether you are for a border decide where to invest the American emphasize that—Congress used its con- wall or against a border wall; it is not people’s hard-earned tax dollars. In a stitutional power of the purse to set whether you believe that border secu- democracy, every President from priorities for how to invest the Amer- rity should be strengthened or whether George Washington to now is supposed ican people’s hard-earned tax dollars. to respect those decisions. After not it is sufficient; it is not whether we The President is trying to label oppo- support or oppose President Trump; getting what he wanted, this President nents of his action as weak on border rather, the question is a far more fun- has invoked the National Emergencies security or weak on crime. That is non- damental and significant one. The Act. He is stretching the powers given sense. I don’t know any Member of the question is this: Do we want the execu- to him in that act beyond all recogni- Senate, of either party, who doesn’t be- tive branch, now or in the future, to tion. He has declared a national emer- lieve in border security or is in favor of hold the power of the purse, a power gency on the southern border. crime. the Framers deliberately entrusted to We are not responding to a national Let’s see what he asked for. Instead Congress? emergency. There is no crisis on our of border security, he wanted $5.7 bil- We must stand up and defend southern border requiring such ex- lion for the wall. Congress approved a Congress’s institutional powers as the treme action. What kind of national border security package—money for Framers intended we would, even when emergency is declared only after you fencing along with technology added doing so is inconvenient or goes lose a 3-year funding fight with Mem- between the ports of entry, and addi- against the outcome we might prefer. bers of your own party? What kind of tional personnel. That is real border se- I urge my colleagues to support the national emergency is resolved by a curity, not a political stunt. Now the rulings of disapproval and our Con- vaguely defined, multiyear construc- President is saying: Thank you for stitution. tion project? The truth is clear. He is your views; thank you for following Thank you. trying to use this authority as a means your constitutional power, but I am The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- to a political end. still going to do it my way. Where is he ator from Vermont. When Congress enacted the National going to stop? Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, this is a Emergencies Act in 1976, it conveyed The fact that it is a political game debate worth happening. I appreciate certain powers to the President to use was shown when this Congress passed, the comments from my New England in the event of a true emergency that overwhelmingly, $1.6 billion for border neighbor. It is an important matter for required quick action. I remember. I security. The President threatened to us to consider. was here during the debate. There was veto that. Then after closing the gov- President Trump declared a national a Republican President. It assumed ernment for 35 days—costing the tax- emergency, citing a ‘‘crisis’’ at the that whoever sat in the Oval Office payers billions and billions of dollars southern border, but it has become would have enough respect for the of- for nothing—he signed the bill that did more and more evident he did it for one fice and the power being conveyed not not give him the $1.6 billion that he reason, to do an end run around Con- to abuse it. Those of us in the Senate, threatened to veto but that gave him gress and the Appropriations Com- at that time, felt that whether it was a $1.3 billion, and that he signed. If any- mittee, and use taxpayer money to Republican or Democratic President, body thinks this is just playing games, build a wall on the southern border they would not abuse the power. Presi- that states it. that Congress has refused to fund. dent Trump has failed that test. Over the past 2 years, we have seen For 3 years, he failed to convince Presidential emergency powers the erosion of our institutional checks Congress—a Republican-controlled should only be invoked in a true time and balances in the face of creeping Senate and a Republican-controlled of crisis. It is an abuse of power to in- authoritarianism. The time has come House—that his wall was a good idea. voke these authorities just because he for Congress and Members of the Presi- For 3 years, he requested that Congress couldn’t do what he wanted in any dent’s own party to take a stand. Con- fund his cynical campaign promise to other way. We are now seeing what he gress simply cannot afford to remain build a ‘‘big beautiful’’ wall on the would do if he had these powers. silent in the face of such an unprece- southern border, and for 3 years, the The President wants to raid money dented violation of the separation of Republican-controlled Congress re- meant for military housing and mili- powers.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.012 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1863 I understand Senator LEE has intro- death on a bridge over the Mexican self-styled resistance have compared duced a bill to reform the National border near McAllen, TX. Early reports the President to Hitler. Emergencies Act. I appreciate the suggest Rocio was caught in a shoot- These are curious, overheated claims, thought he has put into this issue. I am out between cartel gunmen and the I have to say. To be lawless, after all, certainly going to review his legisla- Mexican police, but whatever the case one must act outside the law. Yet the tion with an open mind, but make no turns out to be, Rocio has perished— President’s critics don’t even bother mistake, legislation to fix future the latest American victim of lawless- making that case, probably because abuses of this law does not address the ness at our southern border. they don’t have much of one to make. abuses we have that are happening Since last October, Border Patrol The President isn’t purporting to in- right now. His bill does not address the agents have apprehended more than voke his inherent Executive powers fact that this President is trying to do 260,000 illegal aliens at the border, under article II of our Constitution. He an end run around Congress—an end which is a surge of 90 percent—almost does not even claim to defend his con- run around Democrats and Republicans double from the previous year. For the stitutional prerogatives from legisla- alike—and is cynically using an emer- most part, these aren’t young men who tive encroachment. On the contrary, he gency declaration to fund a request on are coming for work, as has been so is only exercising the statutory au- which we had voted but of which we did often the case in the past; rather, they thority that has been delegated to him not approve. We must send a message are Central Americans who are gaming by us, by this very body—the U.S. Con- to the President that this is unaccept- our generous asylum laws. Instead of gress. More than half of the $8.1 billion able. This is not something we never running away from the Border Patrol, the President is using to build the wall voted on. We have voted on this mat- these illegal aliens run to it so they and secure the border comes from non- ter, and under the Constitution, that is can be captured and released into the emergency statutes that have been what is supposed to carry the day. country, with notice to appear in passed by Congress. The remainder I hope my Republican friends will court, which they hardly ever do. comes from an explicit delegation of take a moment to take stock of where Thanks to stupid laws and activist various powers to the President in the we are. President Trump is going to be judges, illegal aliens are even using lit- event of a national emergency, just but a moment in our Nation’s history. tle kids as legal force fields because like the one the President has declared, The Constitution controls our history being detained with minors increases which we also delegated him the au- no matter who is President. For the their odds of being held in America thority to do. I should add, the Na- sake of appeasing a man who made a rather than to be turned around and tional Emergencies Act passed nearly foolish campaign promise that was sent home. unanimously, with only five ‘‘no’’ votes never grounded in reality, will they not As a result, we see all of the horrors in the House. stand up for the institution in which of the human smuggling trade at the I am sympathetic to arguments that they serve? For the sake of appeasing a border today. Women and girls are sex- the National Emergencies Act is too President who detests any limits or ually assaulted at horrific rates. Hun- broad and gives the executive branch checks on his authority, will they for- dreds die in the desert each year of too much power. That is a reasonable ever diminish the role of Congress as a thirst and exhaustion. Infectious dis- debate to have. Believe me, Congress coequal branch of government? eases we had all but eradicated with has ceded too much power to the Exec- Now is the time for country over vaccines are appearing again in border utive for more than a century and has party. I will vote aye on the joint reso- communities. ICE health officials have expanded an administrative state that lution of disapproval, and I urge all found 236 confirmed or probable cases increasingly deprives our people of Senators to do the same. of mumps among detainees in the past having a meaningful say in their gov- I do not see any Senator who seeks year after having reported zero cases ernment, so I invite my Democratic the floor. for the previous 2 years. colleagues to reconsider the wisdom of Mr. President, is this under con- This surge of illegal aliens is swamp- this path. trolled time? ing law enforcement’s ability to do its Maybe we can also reform the EPA. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time job. ‘‘Overwhelmed’’ is the word we Perhaps we can require up-or-down is controlled equally between the pro- hear so often from agents. Border Pa- votes in Congress in order to approve ponents and opponents. trol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan big regulations so politicians around Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask says: ‘‘This is clearly both a border se- here can show some accountability for unanimous consent that the time con- curity and humanitarian crisis.’’ once. I am ready to have those debates. sumed by the quorum be equally di- The consequences of this crisis Believe me, I am ready. In the mean- vided between both sides. stretch far beyond the border. Some- time, don’t pretend we didn’t delegate The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without times it stretches thousands of miles all of these powers or that it is lawless objection, it is so ordered. away. An American—1 of 192 every Mr. LEAHY. I suggest the absence of for the Executive to use the laws we day—dies of a drug overdose. The poi- a quorum. have passed just because you deplore The PRESIDING OFFICER. The son in his veins flows across the Mexi- him. clerk will call the roll. can border. A brave police officer and If you want to see lawless Executive The legislative clerk proceeded to father, Corporal Ronil Singh, of Cali- action, by the way, you can look, in- call the roll. fornia, was shot dead the day after stead, to the last administration. Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask Christmas after his killer snuck into President Obama purportedly gave mil- unanimous consent that the order for the country illegally. We have failed to lions of illegal aliens legal status and the quorum call be rescinded. protect our border, as any sovereign work permits, which was in clear viola- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without nation must, and our people are dying tion of statutes that had been passed objection, it is so ordered. because of it. by this Congress. He also expressly de- Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, the Sen- The President has declared a na- fied our ban on bailout payments from ate will soon vote on the President’s tional emergency because of this crisis. the ObamaCare slush fund to big health declaration of a national emergency. Yet the administration’s sensible, long insurance companies. It is strange how We have reached a moment of crisis, overdue efforts to secure the border I don’t recall the self-styled resistance but it is not a constitutional crisis; it have been met only by howls of outrage manning the ramparts and rushing to is a crisis on the border, a crisis of from the Democratic Party and its the Ninth Circuit back then. In fact, I American sovereignty. When hundreds media wing. Judging from their reac- only recall a lot of congressional of thousands of foreigners arrive at the tion, you would think the real emer- fanboys of the President’s using the southern border and demand entry, gency was not our lawless border but pen and phone to encroach on our con- that is not migration; that is an emer- any genuine effort to secure it. The mi- stitutional prerogatives. gency and a threat to our sovereignty. nority leader called the President’s I have also heard from some Senators The stories speak for themselves. emergency declaration a ‘‘lawless act’’ who admit the President is acting law- Last Thursday, an American citizen that showed ‘‘naked contempt for the fully but who worry about the slippery named Rocio Alderete was shot to rule of law.’’ Other members of the slope of Executive power. I respect this

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.013 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1864 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 view. Our system of separated powers at a worse time for our country be- ing on giving American consumers a calls on each branch to jealously pro- cause there is, indeed, a crisis at the break. tect its own powers, but one can ski to border, and we ought to be addressing What I want to talk about today goes the bottom of a slippery slope pretty it. to an issue that is hard to believe but fast. A Republican declares a national We could be spending this valuable true. A few years ago, the New York emergency today on the border. A legislative time tightening up our asy- Times reported that nearly $3 billion Democrat—or who knows these days, lum laws or cracking down on employ- worth of drugs was wasted each year. maybe a socialist—will tomorrow de- ers who exploit illegal aliens instead of These are not ordinary drugs; these are clare a gun violence emergency to con- hiring American workers or ramping cancer drugs used in chemotherapy. fiscate guns or will declare a climate up drug enforcement. Instead, we are Medicare, Medicaid, and private health change emergency to shut down coal- debating whether a crisis at our south- insurers spend billions of dollars on fired powerplants. ern border can be called an emergency. medications. Many of them are lit- I acknowledge it doesn’t take much Instead of solving a problem, we are erally thrown in the trash. How could to imagine such abuses by a future lib- trying to spin it. that possibly be? eral President, especially with the So I have a simple suggestion for my You see, for many of the most expen- gang they have running today, but that colleagues: If you are genuinely sive drugs, like new cancer treatments, is precisely what such actions would alarmed by the President’s invocation the pharmaceutical industry produces be—abuses. What the law says matters of the very emergency powers we dele- them in a one-size-fits-all container, a here. We have delegated to the Execu- gated to him, instead of furrowing your single-use vial that a physician has to tive the power to enforce the Nation’s brows and tugging your chins and draw from to give a treatment to a pa- immigration laws, including by an gravely citing Youngstown Sheet, let’s tient. The dosage for the patient in the emergency declaration. We have not tackle this emergency declaration by cancer therapy is based on the pa- delegated to the Executive the power making it unnecessary. Let’s get to the tient’s size and weight. The problem is to confiscate guns, to close power- root of the problem and secure our bor- that the pharmaceutical industry in- plants or any of the other common en- der once and for all. No more border sists on selling these drugs in exces- trants in the parade of horribles on the crisis, no more emergency—it is as sively large vials that contain dramati- slippery slope. That is the difference simple as that. cally more medicine than the average between lawful and lawless govern- I yield the floor. patient would need, so doctors admin- ment, and that is the case here. I suggest the absence of a quorum. ister the proper dosage and throw away Still, others claim the crisis on the The PRESIDING OFFICER. The the rest. border isn’t bad enough to call a na- clerk will call the roll. Here is a graphic to illustrate what I tional emergency. Some have gone so The legislative clerk proceeded to am talking about. Here is why we are far as to deride it as a fake emergency. call the roll. wasting billions of dollars each year on cancer drugs. One size does not fit all. If killings, caravans, and cartels at the Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask This drug, Velcade—the vial size border are fake emergencies, I would unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. available is 3.5 milligrams. The patient really hate to see a genuine emergency. dose is 2.2. The amount that is left over Let’s suppose we take their claim se- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without is 1.3. Oh, you are going to recycle riously. We at least ought to compare objection, it is so ordered. that? You can’t do it. That is the end the crisis at the border to past national PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS of it, and it is thrown away. In 2016, emergencies to see how they all stack Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last $300 million was wasted in this way. month, I launched a new series of floor up. Right now, there are 32 national This vial, the first one here that is speeches to recognize what is going on emergencies in effect—32 national produced, is a vial that would apply to emergencies. Among them is a national with prescription drug pricing across a person who is 6 feet 6 inches tall and emergency related to election fraud in America. weighs 250 pounds, which means our When you ask the American people Belarus. Another is in response to the linebacker Khalil Mack on the Chicago about the economic things that are on breakdown of the rule of law in Leb- Bears—God forbid he would ever need anon. A third is in response to a failed their minds, it is No. 1—the cost of pre- it—that would be his dosage size. Most coup in Burundi. scription drugs. No. 2 is, have I saved people are not as big as Chicago line- I don’t deny that those are all gen- enough money for my retirement? It backers. uine problems or that an American re- really gets to the heart of the concerns Why is Pharma sending us one vial, sponse may well be warranted—far families have every day. Each one of us take it or leave it? Because they make from it. Yet I doubt many Americans knows that the cost of prescription money. They make money when we would put them ahead of a serial viola- drugs is going up, and we also realize buy it and have to throw it away. tion of our sovereign border by mil- how vulnerable we may be as individ- Takeda Pharmaceutical sells this lions of foreigners. If the Belarusians uals if one of those drugs is a matter of drug for those who are suffering from warrant an emergency declaration, life and death. multiple myeloma and lymphoma. As I then surely Americans do, too, when I came to the floor 2 weeks ago to mentioned, it is for a person who is 6 we face a crisis at our southern border. talk about the cost of insulin. Seven feet 6 inches and weighs 250 pounds. The Democrats used to take border and a half million diabetics across Takeda made $310 million in the year security seriously, but in elite society America have seen dramatic increases 2016 off of unused Velcade that got these days, ‘‘border security’’ are bad in the cost of insulin—increases that thrown in the trash—$310 million. words, and ‘‘wall’’ is practically a four- can’t be justified because the same What makes this even more appalling letter word unless they are the walls American companies selling the same is that the pharmaceutical industry ti- that protect the rich and the powerful drugs in Canada do it for a fraction of tans actually sell the same drug in and the politically connected from a the cost. Americans pay outrageous smaller containers in other countries dangerous world. Look in the news. prices. but not in the United States. Here, we The Democrats’ newest Presidential as- Humalog, which is one of the most are forced to buy the largest container pirant, Robert Francis O’Rourke—a popular forms of insulin, costs $329 a and throw away the difference. former Congressman and failed Senate dosage in the United States. Twenty This chart shows that the same com- candidate—has gone so far as to sug- years ago, it was about $29. It has gone pany—Takeda—that makes Velcade gest the tearing down of existing bar- up in price 35 times in that 20-year pe- sells this drug not in 3.5-milligram riers at the southern border, which I riod of time. How much does the exact vials, as in the United States, but, in am sure has thrilled all of the good same drug that costs $329 in the United Europe, in 1-milligram vials. It seems people in El Paso who don’t live in a States cost in Canada? It is made by like a simple thing, doesn’t it, that you world of private planes and security de- the same company. Thirty-eight dol- would dispense this drug in a manner tails. lars. You look at that and you think so that it is not wasted? Sadly, wasting Regrettably, the Democrats’ hos- there is something wrong here. The and throwing away the drug is part of tility to border security couldn’t come pharmaceutical industry is not focus- their marketing strategy.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.015 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1865 Another Japanese company, Eisai, Blue Cross Blue Shield, based out of Instead of going to Mexico to get sells its chemotherapy drug Halaven Chicago, when I sit down with them, them to pay for the wall, as he said he only in 1-milligram vials in the United say: We spend more money on prescrip- would do over and over again, he has States but sells smaller vials—0.88 mil- tion drugs than we do on inpatient hos- now asked Congress to pay for it. He ligram—in Europe. pital care. has now asked the American taxpayer Merck’s immunotherapy drug To give you an idea, it is out of sight. to fulfill his broken promise. KEYTRUDA, which is truly a break- You can’t turn on a television set, par- By the way, that is after 2 years of through, an amazing drug—research ticularly if you are over the age of 50, having a Republican majority in the was done by taxpayers at the National without being bombarded with all Senate and a Republican majority in Institutes of Health, which led to the these drug ads, right? You have heard the House who said: We don’t want to development of this drug—they sell them over and over again. build your wall. We are not going to this drug, KEYTRUDA, only in 100-mil- The No. 1 drug being sold on tele- help you keep your promise. In fact, ligram vials in the United States but in vision today is HUMIRA. What is it you promised Mexico would pay for the 50-milligram vials in Europe. In 2016, for? psoriatic arthritis. It is serious. If wall. Go get Mexico to pay for the wall Merck made $200 million on you have that arthritis, that may be a is what the Republican Senate and the KEYTRUDA—this lifesaving drug— lifesaver for you, but it is now being Republican House said. that was thrown away. sold for that little red patch on your So he was frustrated. He said how In 2016, I asked the inspector general elbow called psoriasis. Interesting. Do frustrated he was. He went out to the of Health and Human Services about you know how much HUMIRA costs American people during the 2018 elec- this waste of taxpayers’ money. The in- each month? Five thousand dollars. tion, and the people rewarded him by spector general uncovered that Medi- I have legislation that would require electing Democrats to be the majority care spent $195 million in just 1 year on these drug companies to advertise the in the House of Representatives. 20 identified drugs for medication that cost of their drugs on television. They Then, last December, those Demo- was thrown away. That year, Takeda tell us everything else; don’t they? crats offered the President $1.3 billion received $47 million in taxpayer fund- They tell us, if you are allergic to for border security. It wasn’t for his ing for amounts of Velcade thrown in HUMIRA, don’t take HUMIRA. I have medieval wall. It is for what he now the trash. It wasn’t alone. Genentech’s never understood that warning. They calls steel slats. Instead of accepting that fact—the Rituxan, one of the most common can- tell us everything under the Sun, but cer medications, only comes in vials fact that nobody here wants to fund they never mention the price. So what that are 100 milligrams or 500 milli- the wall he said Mexico would pay for— I want to do is get the price out in grams. In 2013, Medicare wasted $10 he shut down the government for 35 front of the public, and let them know million on Rituxan that was thrown days. Then, after all the misery he in- what being perfect in a swimsuit is away. flicted, after the billions of dollars he going to cost you per month. It is for this reason that I am pre- cost our economy, to say nothing of From my point of view, there are senting my second Pharma Fleece what he did to the Federal workers, he people who need these drugs des- Award to Takeda, Eisai, Merck, and basically got exactly the same deal as perately, and we ought to try to get Genentech. Patients in America should he got before he shut down the govern- the prices within their reach. For those not face higher drug costs because ment, making the shutdown pointless, who are overusing and abusing the air- these Pharma fleecers choose to sell making the billions of dollars of lost waves of America to advertise drugs— their expensive cancer drugs in exces- wages and economic activity in Amer- to try to push doctors into writing the sively large drug vials that are nec- ica pointless, all a casualty of his in- scripts even when it is not necessary— essarily going to be wasted. ability to keep his promise that Mexico Two weeks ago, I teamed up with Re- we have to come to grips with this. If would pay for the wall and his inability publican Senator ROB PORTMAN of Ohio we don’t, we are not going to have a se- to get Republican majorities in the to introduce the REFUND Act—a sim- rious effort to reduce the cost of health House and the Senate to build his wall. ple bill that Senator PORTMAN and I insurance and the healthcare costs So having failed to get Mexico to pay have introduced, and I hope others will that face our Nation. for the wall, having failed to get a Re- join us. It says that taxpayers will only I yield the floor. publican Congress to pay for the wall, pay for the drug that is given to a pa- I suggest the absence of a quorum. he now says he is going to declare a na- tient, not for the part that is thrown The PRESIDING OFFICER. The tional emergency to pay for the wall. away. Medicare already tracks how clerk will call the roll. We should ask ourselves—we must much of this medication is being dis- The legislative clerk proceeded to ask ourselves—whether this is an ap- carded, so the REFUND Act simply re- call the roll. propriate use of emergency power. By quires Medicare to determine how Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I ask the way, if it was an appropriate use of much was wasted and to recoup the unanimous consent that the order for emergency power, why didn’t he just money from the drug companies. We the quorum call be rescinded. declare an emergency before he shut then provide a portion of that money The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without the government down for 35 days? Why back to seniors for the 20-percent coin- objection, it is so ordered. cost the economy billions and billions surance they have to pay for the drugs. H.J. RES. 46 of dollars if you can just do this by de- An important point: When Medicare Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I want claring an emergency? The easy answer is paying for these drugs, and a lot are to congratulate the Presiding Officer for that is that it is not an emergency. being thrown away, the seniors are on being in the Senate and presiding He is only doing this now because he still paying their 20 percent, even for over the Senate. lost the negotiation. He lost his lever- the drug portion that is being thrown I come to the floor to remind us how age. He embarrassed himself by having away. So ROB PORTMAN’s bill—the one we got here. President Trump told us the longest shutdown in American his- I have introduced with him—says that over and over and over again during his tory. the money recouped from the drug campaign that Mexico would pay for This is not a national emergency. companies will go back to the benefit the wall. He said it at the beginning of This is just plan B. The President has of these seniors. Under our new bill, the campaign. He said it in the middle admitted as much as he was signing this pharma fleecing for drug vial of the campaign. He said it at the end the declaration itself—the declaration waste will soon come to an end so that of the campaign. of emergency. He said: not just the patients but our govern- He made that promise over and over I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it ment will save money. again. The U.S. Congress didn’t make much faster. . . . I just want to get it done Remember the bottom line. When that promise. There is no way for Con- faster, that’s all. you ask the major health insurers gress to force Mexico to pay for the It is not an emergency. He just wants today: What is driving the cost of wall. We cannot force Mexico to pay for to get it done faster, which is aston- health insurance premiums, they say: the wall. It is not Congress’s fault. It is ishing coming from a guy who has not Senator, prescription drug pricing is the President’s fault, and it is his spent the money that Congress has al- No. 1. promise he has broken. ready appropriated for the wall. He

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We are going to need a little eminent do- needs a national emergency to build I would think this step would be one main to get that wall built, just so you un- derstand. . . . You need eminent domain, you the wall. It is preposterous. It is a joke. step too far, even for anybody in this have to take certain areas, okay? On top of everything else, he is not Chamber who supported this craziness That is the kind of language you telling the truth about that. He has not up until this point. built a mile of this wall since he has Let’s add it all up. What has it gotten would expect out of some autocrat been President of the United States, us? The President couldn’t get Mexico someplace, not in a democracy. I say to my Republican friends here even though Congress has appropriated to pay for the wall. He couldn’t get a who are going to vote with the Presi- more than $1 billion—I think about $1.7 Republican House and a Republican dent on this bill, that is what you are billion—to do it. Senate to pay for the wall. So now he When he signed the emergency dec- is violating the Constitution to steal supporting when you are voting with laration, he said that national emer- money that has been appropriated by him on this bill. I don’t know how anybody goes home gencies have ‘‘been signed many times this branch—by Congress. He is steal- and defends that. For anyone who before. It’s been signed by other presi- ing that money from the Department wants to go home and defend misappro- dents from 1977 or so; it gave the presi- of Defense, from our warfighters, and priating money that has been dedicated dents the power.’’ from the U.S. military to expropriate to the Department of Defense and to ‘‘There’s rarely been a problem’’ the private land held by American farmers our military and to take that money President said. ‘‘They sign it. Nobody and ranchers—many of whom I assume cares.’’ That is what he said. are Republicans—through eminent do- extra-constitutionally and use it to Nobody cared because those were real main. take the property of law-abiding citi- emergencies, not fake emergencies. As I have said on this floor before, if zens, I don’t understand how you de- They weren’t emergencies being de- any President tried to do that in Colo- fend it. clared by Presidents who had promised rado, there is not a person in our dele- I am not making any of this up. that Mexico would do something, and gation who would support that—steal- These are his words. By the way, it is then it didn’t happen, and now they ing our farms and ranches. no wonder he can’t get it through the had to declare an emergency. They cer- It must be said that, for a politician, people’s Representatives in Congress tainly were not cases where the Presi- he has a very unusual view about emi- because there is not a single person dent came to the Congress, including a nent domain. Here are some quotes of here who would ever admit to doing Congress of their own party, and said, I his: ‘‘I think eminent domain is won- what he is about to do and what he want to do something, and they said derful.’’ says he wants to do. What a betrayal of no. Then, they said: Well, we are going For those of you who don’t know conservative principles this is. to declare an emergency. what eminent domain is, it is when a As I said, this whole exercise itself is That has never happened before in government decides it wants a project, an admission that he has broken his American history. and your house is in the middle of promise to the American people. By the way, if we go down this road, where that project is going to go. Then, We didn’t break it, Republicans in this will not be the last time this hap- the government can use this thing the Senate. We didn’t break it, and we pens. This will happen time and again, called eminent domain to take your should not help him keep it if it is which is why every Member of the Sen- house and pay you for it. That is what going to break the Constitution. In ate should vote for this measure of dis- it is. It is rarely used because most fact, we can’t help him keep it unless approval. people don’t want the government de- somebody around here has a way of Since 1976, when Congress passed the ciding whether they can live in their persuading Mexico to build the wall or National Emergencies Act, Presidents house or on their farm or on their pay for the wall, which I don’t think have declared national emergencies 58 ranch, which—in the case of people on there is a single person here who has times. Fifty-three of those times have the border of the United States—has that kind of influence, as influential as been to do things like block the sale of been in their family for generations. all of us think we are. weapons to foreign countries or to That is why the local Congressman I don’t understand it, but it is amaz- sanction governments, like Iran and down there doesn’t want this wall ing to me why people would cash in North Korea. The four remaining cases built. I think he is a Republican. their conservative principles so cheap- were after two U.S. planes were shot But the President said: ‘‘I think emi- ly—$3.6 billion. down by Cuba, after we invaded Iraq nent domain is wonderful’’—not some- The idea that you would be willing to and desperately needed to protect crit- times essential, not a tool that is use- give up your principles in such a taw- ical infrastructure, after the outbreak ful from time to time. He said it is dry exchange should be infuriating to of swine flu, and after 9/11. ‘‘wonderful.’’ the real conservatives who I know are Failing to fulfill his promise that He said: ‘‘Eminent domain is some- in this country. Many of them live in Mexico would pay for the wall is not a thing that has to be used, usually you my State of Colorado, which is a third national emergency, and if he thinks it would say for anything that’s long, Republican, a third Independent, and a is, he should sanction himself for fail- like a road, like a pipeline, or like a third Democratic. Don’t come to our ing to keep his promise. wall, or a fence.’’ State and tell us you are taking away As I said earlier—and this should He didn’t say steel slats, but I am our houses because we don’t care about bother everybody who believes in our sure the same thing applies. them—that we will just take the system of checks and balances and who Here is another quote. This is fas- money instead for a broken promise believes in the Constitution—never has cinating. I have not met a single per- that you didn’t keep. That would not a President sought to enact a national son in Colorado who would agree with sell in Colorado. I don’t know why it emergency like this after Congress has this—not one—and I bet you there is sells in Texas. I can’t imagine that it said no. In our Constitution, Congress not a person in Mississippi or Texas or does. I don’t know how anybody could has the power of the purse. Every sin- Alabama who would agree with this support that. gle Senator should be voting to protect sentiment either. This is what the By the way, that is not even the most that. President of the United States said: important point. The most important

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We spend a did, and that is why they created the now says is almost fully built, while he lot of time talking about him and his checks and balances that they did. is declaring an emergency to build a priorities, unlike figuring out a plan to There is a reason no President has ever wall that hasn’t been built. counteract what China is doing or oth- done what this President is trying to While we are screwing around here to ers are doing. do. keep a broken promise that Mexico is I bet they have a great strategy in They exercise self-restraint because going to pay for the wall, this is what China and Iran. Russia is not so obvi- of what is in the Constitution and be- was going on in China. By the way, I ously good at that strategy. Actually, cause nobody on this floor would have know somebody is going to say: Hey, come to think of it, they are pretty supported him. There are many ways they have a wall. They do have a wall. good, too. If you can stay off FOX this generation of politicians—and I ac- They built it 500 years ago. That is not News, the President will not pay any cept my share of the blame. There are what they are working on today. They attention to what you are doing, so go many ways in which we have degraded took care of that medieval wall 500 do whatever it is you want to do while these institutions in our time. We have years ago. we fritter away one day after another destroyed the Senate’s responsibility Today, what they are doing is they of the American people’s time over a to advise and consent on judicial nomi- are spending $125 billion on high-speed broken promise that he never could nations and Supreme Court nomina- rail this year alone. That is $125 billion keep. tions. That has been turned into a on high-speed rail. You get on one of Unless we are prepared to be the first purely partisan exercise by this genera- those trains and you could hear a pin generation of Americans to leave less tion of American politicians. I am drop. If you go on Amtrak, which I opportunity, not more, to the people ashamed of that. I am ashamed to have take all the time—I feel grateful that coming after us, we need to do a lot been here when we did that, and I take we have it—it is less than half the better than what we are doing, and my share of the responsibility. speed, and you can’t put your Coca- part of that is to ensure that we pre- What I say to my colleagues is that Cola on the table in front of you with- serve the institutions that built this we cannot continue to degrade these out it falling over or falling on your country, like the one we are standing institutions and expect that the next neighbor. in right now. generation of Americans is going to China has spent $300 billion on new I know that among some people there look back on us with anything except roads, bridges, and ports across the is an effort to divide the government contempt. Generation after generation globe through their Belt and Road Ini- from the American people and that after generation of Americans has pre- tiative. They have bought stakes in 16 there are people here who think they served these institutions so the next different ports across Europe and the have been sent here for one purpose, generation could have the opportunity Mediterranean, some of which have which is to discredit the Federal Gov- to resolve their disagreements in these fallen into their hands because—and ernment. Chambers. We will regret it. We will re- this is part of the plan—the debt that I have a lot of problems with the Fed- gret it if we go down this road. As the majority leader said in an- the countries have put on to build the eral Government—lots of them. I was a other time: Things have a way of ports is so onerous that China gets to school superintendent before I came changing around here sooner than you own the ports. They have built the here. I have a lot of problems with think, and someday the shoe will be on longest sea bridge in the world. They what is happening to poor children who the other foot. If this Republican sets have laid over 3,700 miles of fiber optic are going to schools in our public sys- this precedent and some Democratic cable to connect Africa to Latin Amer- tem of education across the country, so President follows it, that is one more ica and, ultimately, to China. On that I am not here to defend government or step away from living in the Republic Belt and Road Initiative, they have the way it works right now. In fact, I that we all claim we cherish, from the laid their technology over that with don’t think Democrats should be the democracy we all claim we cherish, to party defending bad government. We fiber optic cables so they could extend put power in the hands of a tyrant who the surveillance society that they are should fix it where it needs to be fixed. We are talking here about our insti- may or may not represent the will of building inside of China right now, the American people. tutions. We are talking here about the while we screw around with this wall. We may never get another vote like rule of law. We are talking here about By the way, on the $3.6 billion for the this around here. This is going to be wall, here is an interesting chart. Here the Constitution that generation after the time that each of us is going to de- is how much cement China used over a generation after generation of Ameri- cide whether we are going to act to 3-year period, from 2011 to 2013. This is cans has preserved—not always per- preserve these institutions for the next what they used in 3 years, 2011 to 2013. fectly, often very imperfectly. generation or whether we are going to Every generation of Americans has I was in the Congress then. We were in continue to degrade them in our mind- the depths of the great recession dur- seen it as their obligation, their re- less partisanship and, in this case, to ing that period of time. It was 6.6 sponsibility, to at least try to live up somehow fulfill a promise the Presi- gigatons of concrete. Here is how much to the pages in our founding docu- dent never could keep. That would be a we have built in concrete in 100 years: ments, and where we failed, we got up shameful day in the U.S. Senate. 4.5 gigatons. and we tried again. This whole country I yield the floor. They used 4.5 gigatons in 3 years. is founded on the idea that we will The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. They have used dramatically more have disagreements because we live in FISCHER). The Senator from Texas. than we have used in 100 years, and we a Republic, and in a Republic, you have Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, can’t even get an infrastructure bill off disagreements. There is no King or ty- when President Trump declared a na- this floor. The White House can’t even rant to tell you what to think. That is tional emergency over the crisis along write an infrastructure bill. the reason we live in a democratic Re- our southern border, it was imme- All night, every night, on the cable, public. diately met with expressions of con- all we hear is $3.6 billion for the wall, This place here and the Chamber cern—some, in my view, illegitimate; the wall, the wall—the wall that the down the hall are part of the mecha- others, quite legitimate. President says has already been mostly nisms that were drafted into our found- As I have said in the past, I will re- built, that he is now declaring a na- ing documents for us to resolve our dis- peat again that this—what we are tional emergency to build. agreements. The Founders believed doing here today—is no one’s first The world is racing ahead of us, as I something. They had no good example choice, but it is useful to recall how we have said on this floor over and over in the past, but here is what they be- find ourselves at this point today. again, while we are getting run around lieved. They believed that out of that Of course, when it comes to funding, by one inane distraction after another. vigorous disagreement, we would cre- when it comes to appropriations, Con- It has been said that the President is ate more imaginative and durable solu- gress holds the purse. That is why,

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Chair- are dead on arrival. It then falls to us, told me is that hindsight is always 20– man JOHNSON has said he will give that in the Senate and the House, to look at 20. Our predecessors did not anticipate bill a hearing and then a markup. Then his request and to work on a com- the fights we would be having today, I would expect, at some point, that leg- promise budget and appropriations which are largely contrived and unnec- islation will make its way to the Sen- process and fund the operations of the essary. We should be working together ate floor where we will have a debate Federal Government. to solve these problems, not engaged in and a vote. This process is arduous, it is time- a zero-sum game of political brinkman- The proposal would allow the Presi- consuming, and it is often frustrating, ship. That is what brought us to where dent to maintain his statutory powers but it is the way the system is sup- we are today. to declare an emergency, but that dec- posed to work. As all Americans can I think it is appropriate to look at laration would end after 30 days unless attest, what we have seen over the last what Congress did in 1976, and in a pro- Congress affirmatively votes to extend few months looks like something very spective sort of way, ask ourselves: it. This would maintain a President’s different. The refusal of Democrats in Have we delegated too much authority ability to provide funding during na- the House and the Senate to engage in to Presidents since that time? There tional emergencies while restoring negotiations on border security fund- are literally 123 statutory authoriza- Congress’s proper authority under arti- ing led us to a 35-day government shut- tions that could be invoked under the cle I of the Constitution. I think this is down. National Emergencies Act—123 times an honest and important effort to Despite the clear message from bor- that Congress has said a President, hopefully prevent us from ending up in der security experts, despite seeing the upon the declaration of a national this predicament in the future. humanitarian crisis at the border, de- emergency, can reprogram money that The real cause of where we are today scribed by President Obama in 2014, get Congress has appropriated—123 times. is just politics—Ms. PELOSI’s deciding many times worse, our Democratic col- That was a shock not only to me but, that building any border barrier was leagues decided to play politics instead I dare say, to virtually all of our col- immoral, after Democrats and Repub- of dealing with the problem. leagues here in the Senate. licans had not made that a particularly We heard the Speaker of the House Many of these statutory grants of au- political decision in the past. In fact, it call border barriers immoral. The mi- thority are exceedingly broad. They had been bipartisan that we did sup- nority leader here in the Senate said cover everything from the military to port it as one tool in the toolbox for that there would be no additional public health to Federal pay schedules. Border Patrol, in addition to tech- money for physical barriers along the With these broad authorities already nology and personnel, some physical border. They know, just as I know, that part of the law, the emergency powers barriers. back in 2006 and 2008, the Secure Fence provision could be viewed as a fail-safe Rather than scolding the President of Act was passed with broad bipartisan for an agenda that the administra- the United States for exercising statu- support, including support from then- tion—an administration alone—is tory authority that Congress has al- Senator Barack Obama, then-Senator pushing. Let’s say, hypothetically, ready given, we should try to work to- Hillary Clinton, and Senator CHUCK that a future President decides there is gether to solve these problems rather SCHUMER, currently the Democratic a need to declare a national emergency than engaging in the kind of political leader in the Senate, who now feels over climate change. Maybe they de- brinksmanship that brings us here that this President should not get any cide this is a way to enact the Green today. We should fix—should it be the additional money to fund border secu- New Deal being pushed by some of our will of Congress—this massive delega- rity measures that the President be- colleagues across the aisle. tion of authority not just to this Presi- lieves are an important response to the Considering the potential scope and dent but to any President since 1976. crisis we see at the border. scale in which these powers could be I have to disagree with our colleague My preference would be for the nor- abused in the future and this overdele- from Colorado and others who suggest mal appropriations process to be used, gation of authority that Congress has that what is happening at the border is but when your negotiating partners done 123 times, I believe we should take not serious. By the way, I haven’t refuse to take a seat at the table, nor- a look at the National Emergencies heard any of them suggest any alter- mal goes out the window. Our col- Act, once we vote today, and have a native solutions. Perhaps instead of leagues across the aisle left the Presi- fulsome debate and discussion about Border Patrol securing the border we dent with few options to fund what he whether this is really the sort of dele- ought to have police officers at the bor- believed was so important for the Na- gation of powers that the Founding Fa- der directing traffic, waving people tion’s security, and that is what led us thers intended when they said that dis- through to their chosen destination. I to this situation. tinct separated power should be given think that would be a terrible mistake, Enter the 1976 legislation, the Na- to each branch of the government: the but that seems to be the only alter- tional Emergencies Act. What the legislative, the judicial, and the execu- native our friends across the aisle are President did is ask his lawyers to look tive branch. offering to this humanitarian crisis at what other authority, under con- It is clear that the President is oper- and emergency at the border. gressionally passed laws signed by pre- ating within the authority Congress Last month, 76,000 people illegally vious Presidents, might he have to ac- has given to him. You don’t have to crossed the border and were appre- cess additional funds, and his lawyers like it. You don’t have to agree with it, hended by U.S. Customs and Border pointed to the 1976 National Emer- but it is clear the President is oper- Protection, making this an 11-year gencies Act, which has granted Presi- ating within the authority Congress high. So rather than 76,000 people in 1 dents, since that time, broad powers to delegated to him. Rather than talking month, which our Democratic col- reprogram funding previously appro- in circles and debating that fact, I leagues don’t seem to think is a prob- priated by Congress. think our discussion should focus on lem, let’s say next month it is 150,000 This idea that somehow this is an un- the structure of emergency powers or 300,000 or 600,000. As long as we have constitutional act by this President is moving forward. this attraction for people from other simply wrong. Congress has given the I believe there is a need to rein back countries to come to the United States, President this authority. They may re- in some of the authority that Congress and if they pay the fee to the criminal gret it today or they may disagree that has delegated to presidents just as a organizations that transport them

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.021 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1869 here, they will successfully make their promised Mexico would pay for; rather, than focusing on the border security way into the United States. They are we specifically allocated these re- proposals that actually work. I was dis- going to keep coming. sources that are being talked about to appointed to hear my colleague from It is clear this problem isn’t going be used by the President for the wall to Texas accusing Democrats of not sup- away, and it is overwhelming the com- ensure that our military is ready and porting border security because, in munities along the border as well as capable and that our servicemembers fact, virtually everyone here has sup- the Federal Government’s ability to receive the support they deserve. ported significant border security pro- deal with it. The President’s attempt to cir- posals in the past, including targeted I remember what the Director of Cus- cumvent Congress by making the mili- fencing in vulnerable areas where we toms and Border Protection said. He tary pay for his border wall jeopardizes know fencing or barriers can make a said: When the Border Patrol is hand- our national security and does a dis- difference. We have supported more ing out diapers and juice boxes to chil- service to our men and women in uni- Border Patrol agents, better surveil- dren coming across the border, the form. That is why the House passed the lance and screening technologies, and drug cartels will exploit that and move legislation on the Senate floor today increased security at the ports of their poison into the United States. I and why I introduced legislation with entry. will just remind my colleagues that my colleagues in the Senate to termi- Coming from a State where we have more than 70,000 Americans died of nate the emergency declaration. a huge challenge with the opioid epi- drug overdoses last year alone. A sub- The resources Congress has provided demic, where we understand the impact stantial amount of it was synthetic support military construction projects of having cocaine and fentanyl and opioids in the form of fentanyl, but a in New Hampshire and across the coun- other drugs come across our border, I lot of it had to do with heroin that had try. Those projects often provide nec- also know the best way to interdict made its way from Mexico into the essary infrastructure improvements those drugs is through the ports of United States because 90 percent of the that enable our servicemembers to ac- entry. That is where most of them are heroin that comes into the United complish their mission. coming from. States comes from Mexico. So while Several of those projects that, I In a recent bipartisan budget agree- the Border Patrol is handing out dia- think, are potentially being reviewed ment Congress provided, I supported, pers and juice boxes, the drug cartels for being added to the list of projects along with the majority of this Senate, are moving in heroin, fentanyl, and to have money taken from are at the nearly $15 billion for Customs and Bor- methamphetamine across the border Portsmouth Naval shipyard. It is one der Protection, including $1.3 billion into our Nation and getting rich in the of the many installations that faces po- for physical infrastructure in vulner- process. tential cuts in funding if this emer- able areas along the southern border. We know border security is com- gency declaration is executed. Con- The reality at our borders is, the vast plicated, and that it is not just about gress has already approved funding for majority of drugs and contraband come security, it is about facilitating legiti- several projects at the shipyard and at through the ports of entry. They don’t mate trade, travel, and commerce. Last our public shipyards around the coun- come through the areas between the year alone, there was $300 billion worth try that support critical submarine ports of entry. of commerce that took place just at maintenance, and any disruption to In the past 2 months alone, law en- Texas ports of entry with Mexico—$300 funding of those projects could lead to forcement officials have made the larg- billion. That supports an awful lot of costly delays and to a reduction in est cocaine seizure in the past 25 years American jobs. at Newark, NJ, and the largest The terrain in the 1,200-mile border military readiness because they would fentanyl seizure ever at any port of between Texas and Mexico varies sig- derail carefully laid plans to upgrade entry in the U.S. in Arizona. Despite nificantly. What works well in one sec- aging infrastructure. Delays in projects this reality, President Trump insists tor does not work well in another. that support the shipyard’s mission on having our military bear the burden What I continue to hear from my con- threaten to exacerbate the Navy’s al- to fulfill his campaign promise. stituents, including elected officials at ready high demand for submarine His insistence that the situation at the border, is that if this is the Border maintenance and the projected sub- the border requires the military to pay Patrol telling us what they need in marine shortfall in the coming years. for his wall runs counter to what I have order to succeed to do the job we have I recently sent a letter to President heard in the Senate Armed Services asked them to do, we are all in, but if Trump and spoke with the leaders at Committee from our military leaders. this is just politics and elected officials DOD urging them to protect these im- In a recent Senate Armed Services in Washington trying to micromanage portant projects at the shipyard, but Committee hearing, General the solution along the border, we are the only way to ensure that these O’Shaughnessy, Commander of U.S. skeptical. This is what they tell me, projects move forward is to terminate and I don’t blame them. the emergency declaration. Northern Command, testified that the I think we need to take action to In addition to projects at the ship- threats to our Nation on our southern adequately fund our border security yard, the emergency declaration could border are not military in nature, and missions, and I hope our discussions in also impact New Hampshire’s National he has never advised the President that the coming months will be more pro- Guard readiness centers, which are in a border wall is necessary to support ductive than they will be this year. desperate need of modernization. A 2014 his mission. Just this morning, we I will vote against the resolution of report from the Army National Guard heard testimony at our SASC hearing disapproval today and encourage my ranked the condition of New Hamp- with Secretary Shanahan and Joint colleagues to instead ask my col- shire’s National Guard facilities 51 out Chiefs Chairman Dunford that we have leagues to focus their energy on re- of 54 States and territories. more troops on our southern border forming the legislation that got us into Our National Guard has been forced with Mexico than we have in all of Eu- this situation to begin with. to shoulder an enormous burden since rope, on Europe’s eastern border with The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Serv- Russia, and we have almost as many on ator from New Hampshire. icemembers have often faced multiple our southern border, and one-quarter Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I deployments, and they still had to re- as many as we have on the DMZ on the am here this afternoon to support the spond to national disasters at home border with North Korea. By any meas- resolution that would terminate the and to other personal crises. The New ure, North Korea and Russia pose a President’s unconstitutional emer- Hampshire National Guard can’t afford greater threat to our national security gency declaration. It is a declaration further delays to the readiness center than Mexico. It is a policy that does that would take money away from crit- improvements because of President not make sense. Yet we have more ical military construction projects to Trump’s emergency declaration. troops on the southern border now than fund a costly and ineffective border These military construction projects we do in Eastern Europe and in Syria. wall. in New Hampshire are at risk because The fact is, the men and women at Congress did not provide these funds President Trump wants to score polit- the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and at for a border wall that President Trump ical points by building a wall rather the New Hampshire National Guard

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.022 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1870 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 and men and women serving in our who are hard at work enriching our denly taken away, physically taken military across this country should not communities. away and sent back to Liberia, because be forced to sacrifice readiness for an Today, I met with several Liberians for all of them, since the early 1990s, unnecessary border wall that takes from Rhode Island. I hope my col- America has been their home. funding away from projects that this leagues similarly meet with Liberians In the years since 1989, Liberians Congress has already approved that are from their States so they can hear have become our neighbors and friends, going forward. firsthand about what would be lost if pastors, soldiers, police officers, health I urge my colleagues on both sides of these members of our communities are workers, and many more professions. the aisle to protect Congress’s con- deported. They are an important community stitutional authority and defend our Beginning with its founding in the that contributes a great deal of diver- national security by supporting the early 19th century by freed American sity and prosperity in States like resolution to terminate President slaves, our country has had deep ties Rhode Island, Minnesota, Idaho, and Trump’s emergency declaration. with Liberia. It goes without saying other places around the country. It Thank you. that when Liberians faced tragedy, would do our country no good and I yield the floor. with their country engulfed by a civil would be simply cruel to uproot these The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ma- war that would last from 1989 to 1997, Liberians from their families, employ- jority leader. claiming the lives of thousands, dis- ers, and communities. ORDER OF BUSINESS placing more than half the country’s Moreover, deporting these Liberians Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, population, halting food production, would be contrary to the national in- I ask unanimous consent that there be collapsing the economy, and destroying terest of the United States and desta- 90 minutes of debate, equally divided, its infrastructure, that our country bilizing to the already fragile West Af- remaining on the joint resolution. would open its arms. rican region. We must pursue all pos- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there By 1991, an estimated 14,000 Liberians sible efforts to ensure regional sta- objection? had fled to the United States. In March bility by fostering Liberia’s continuous Without objection, it is so ordered. of that year, the Attorney General post-war and post-Ebola crisis recov- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- under President Bush granted them the ery. We must also continue to build on ator from Rhode Island. opportunity to register for temporary our country’s substantial foreign pol- LIBERIAN-AMERICANS protected status, TPS. icy investments over the past years, in- Mr. REED. Madam President, I come Before the prospects for a safe return cluding U.S. bilateral assistance and to the floor today to plead on behalf of could be realized, Liberia plunged into peacekeeping investments in the re- Liberians who face the immediate a second civil war from 1999 to 2003. gion. threat of deportation from the only This horrific conflict ended with the Given Liberia’s precarious condition home many of them have known. departure from power of former Presi- and lack of resources, the sudden de- I have come to the floor many times dent Charles Taylor, who is currently portation of as many as 4,500 affected over the last two decades to highlight serving a 50-year prison sentence by people to Liberia would overburden the the plight of Liberians, who, after flee- the Special Court for Sierra Leone for country’s limited infrastructure and ing civil wars, political turmoil, eco- war crimes. ability to maintain peace and deliver nomic instability, and deadly disease, In 2014, still poverty-stricken and essential services, all the while sabo- were given the ability to stay in the struggling to recover, Liberia found taging the hopes for progress following United States and work, pay taxes, and itself plunged into an extensive out- the country’s first democratic transi- contribute to our country and local break of the Ebola virus. Ebola killed tion of power in years that occurred communities by successive Republican an estimated nearly 5,000 of the over last year. Deporting this population and Democratic administrations—that 10,000 persons in Liberia who con- would also cause Liberia economic is, until last year, when this President tracted the disease. The outbreak over- harm by curtailing crucial private sec- terminated deferred enforced depar- whelmed the country’s already fragile tor investment and socioeconomic as- tures, DED, the most recent status of- healthcare system, infrastructure, and sistance that Liberians in America fered to Liberians. I urge the President economy while exacerbating social ten- have long provided in the form of re- to reconsider his decision and reinstate sions. DED by March 31 to save Liberians Throughout these tragic conflicts mittances to their relatives in Liberia. from being forced to leave their jobs, and challenges, Liberians who fled to I again plead with the Trump admin- their families, and their homes. the United States have been granted istration to reinstate DED. Please Moreover, the Liberian community the ability to stay here either under don’t separate and uproot hundreds of deserves a long-term solution. That is TPS or DED while conditions remain Liberian-American families from their why I also urge my colleagues to take unstable in Liberia. In order to partici- jobs and homes and force them to re- up S. 456, the Liberian Refugee Immi- pate, these Liberians had to submit to turn to a country that is unrecogniz- gration Fairness Act, to end the per- vigorous vetting, pay hefty fees, and able for many of them. These Liberians petual limbo for Liberians here in the stay out of trouble with the law. are Americans in every sense of the United States and ensure our national While unable to access earned bene- word except for a piece of paper. security interest in fostering Liberia’s fits available to American citizens, While discussions continue about the recovery. This bill provides legal status these statuses at least allowed Libe- best path forward for Dreamers and and a pathway to citizenship for quali- rians to apply for work authorizations TPS, Liberians cannot wait another fying Liberians. I have introduced so they could join the workforce or month or another year. They have just similar legislation continuously since start their own businesses, pay taxes, over 2 weeks before their time may be coming to the Senate and have worked and raise families. Once again, they up. to include its key objectives in com- work, but they do not earn any of the In my view, with each year that has prehensive immigration reform bills benefits other Americans earn. passed since the first of these Liberians that passed the Senate in years gone They have found themselves and arrived, the case has grown stronger by, only to die in the House of Rep- their communities have found them to that they should have the option to ad- resentatives. be some of the most responsible, hard- just their status and remain in the I have been joined in this mission by working, and decent people we see communities where they have made countless advocates and many col- throughout our communities. Many of their homes and raised their families. leagues, including my Rhode Island these individuals have American cit- We have long since reached the point colleague, Senator SHELDON WHITE- izen children who attend American where simple justice requires that Con- HOUSE, as well as Senators KLOBUCHAR, schools and serve in our military. gress extend this option to these Libe- SMITH, DURBIN, CARDIN, VAN HOLLEN, These children have known no home rians. So in addition to urging Presi- and others. I thank them for their sup- other than America. They are Ameri- dent Trump to reinstate DED, I also port and urge the rest of our colleagues cans, and it would be a tragedy if their urge my colleagues to take up and pass to join us in supporting the Liberians parents and grandparents were sud- the Liberian Refugee Immigration

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.023 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1871 Fairness Act and put an end to uncer- dent’s tenure up until January 3, he would need to do is cannibalize other tainty for this population after decades had two Republican Houses. There were accounts to fill up that account to $2.5 of displacement. two Republican Houses and a Repub- billion to then take out. Those are the I yield the floor. lican President. Why should he be un- important funds—military construc- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- happy with the budget? He would have tion and drug interdiction—the Presi- ator from Virginia. had the ability to convince Republican dent is proposing to raid. H.J. RES. 46 majorities to do what he wanted, but I think it is important to notice this: Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I rise, he could not. So he is unhappy with The President’s emergency declaration as colleagues of mine have earlier what Congress, the appropriating is not just about tapping the budget today, to talk about the President’s branch, has put on the table. We put this year for $6.1 billion. Earlier today, emergency declaration. Before I do, I billions of dollars on the table for the in an Armed Services hearing, I asked will just say that this declaration deals border, but he is unhappy with it, and Secretary Shanahan: Doesn’t this with budgetary matters at the end of so now he is going to declare an emer- emergency declaration last until the the day, whether the President should gency. President declares it is over? If we be able to take $6.1 billion this year It raises two important questions. don’t rebut the emergency, it will not and possibly more in future years from Can a President just declare an emer- just be fiscal year 2019; it will be fiscal the Pentagon’s budget to deal with a gency every time he is unhappy that year 2020 or 2021 and beyond. It will en- nonbudgetary emergency. Congress doesn’t accept his budgetary able the President to tap a spigot into I want to acknowledge that today is proposals? Second, can the President the MILCON budget and draw out mon- the last day of my budget staffer, my use the declaration of a nonmilitary eys this year, next year, and in future right hand on all Federal budget mat- emergency to just tap a spigot into the years. So it is $6.1 billion that he is ters for the last 61⁄2 years, Ron Pentagon’s budget? That is exactly asking for this year, but unless Con- Storhaug. I am going to miss him. I what President Trump is trying to do gress asserts its article I power to say, will start there. I will miss Ron. He has in this case. no, we are the appropriators, we will done such a good job. My only good The President has declared an emer- basically be allowing the President to feeling is that he is staying right here gency that all agree is a nonmilitary tap into this fund in perpetuity, there- in the Senate and moving to work with emergency. The President said: I want by affecting important military con- the senior Senator from Maryland. to take $6.1 billion from the Pentagon’s struction priorities that would be good I want to talk about the declaration budget to deal with this emergency. for the military families and our Na- and urge my colleagues to vote to re- He wants to take $3.6 billion from tion’s defense. ject what I believe is the President’s military construction. Military con- Which military construction projects unwise use of his power to raid the struction are the funds we use to build might be compromised by the Presi- Pentagon’s budget. facilities on our military bases across dent’s use of this $6.1 billion? Is there an emergency at the border? the United States and across the world When the President declared the There is a serious issue at the border— or to rebuild facilities, like the airbase emergency, I wrote a letter to Sec- a whole series of serious issues, nega- at Tyndall or the big sections of Camp retary Shanahan on February 15 and tive but also positive. Trade happens Lejeune that were hit in hurricanes asked: Can you give us a list of the across all the borders of the country. last year. That is what the MILCON projects that will be compromised by But all the testimony before the Armed budget is supposed to do. this $6.1 billion raid on the Pentagon’s Services Committee, where I sit, says This morning, I toured Fort Belvoir budget? I have not received a response. there is no military emergency at the to visit with Army families living at That was 27 days ago. border. We heard testimony from Gen- Fort Belvoir in Fairfax County, VA. This morning, before the committee, eral O’Shaughnessy, who is the com- They shared with me atrocious stories Secretary Shanahan was asked: Why mander of what we call NORTHCOM— about the condition of the housing haven’t we received a list? If the Presi- everything in the Americas north of they are living in. These are atrocious dent wants to take $6.1 billion out of Mexico’s southern border. General stories of rodent infestation, black the Pentagon’s budget, give us a list of O’Shaughnessy said there is no mili- mold, lead, and asbestos. I drove by one the potential projects that could be af- tary emergency at the border between military house at Fort Belvoir that fected. the United States and Mexico. We had a big warning sign on the door: I wrote a letter on the 15th, and staff- heard the same testimony this morning ‘‘Poison.’’ You could not enter it be- ers have been reaching out to the Pen- from Defense Secretary Shanahan and cause of efforts at asbestos and lead re- tagon. If you do not know precisely the the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mediation. projects, give us the universe—all un- General Dunford. So there is no mili- The families told me about the poor obligated MILCON projects on your tary emergency at the border. physical conditions of their properties. priority list that could possibly be af- Compared to other significant chal- They told me about the fact that they fected. Today, after not responding to lenges we deal with—70,000 drug over- couldn’t get a response when they were the requests, Secretary Shanahan said dose deaths a year, climate change, trying to get help. Then they told me, that he will send us a list at the end of 40,000 deaths a year from gun violence, tragically, about the illnesses of their the day: I will send you a list, basi- including both homicides and suicides, children, hospitalizations, and having cally, after you vote this afternoon. homelessness, lack of medical care, to move out of their homes and apart- The vote that we will be casting this military housing—it is hard to see why ments. One mother of a 10-year-old afternoon is about whether the Presi- the border issue would be an emer- talked about the fact that her 10-year- dent should be able to raid the Penta- gency that would rise to the top of any old daughter, because of mold in her gon’s budget for $6.1 billion. For a list. I can certainly assert this: There military housing unit, missed 45 days month, we have been asking what are much higher priorities for Vir- of school in the last school year. Her projects might be affected, and they ginians. daughter had to be absent for a quarter are now proposing to give us an answer While we could argue about whether of the school year because of the poor to the question after the vote. They it is an emergency, one thing I think is physical conditions of military hous- have had the list since the very day we pretty clear—it is inarguably a Presi- ing. asked them. They keep a list every day dential power grab. The President is The MILCON budget is there to deal about unobligated MILCON projects, unhappy with congressional appropria- with issues like these. Yet the Presi- but the service secretaries are not al- tions for the border, so he is declaring dent wants to take $3.6 billion out of lowed to share those lists with Con- an emergency to take $6.1 billion this the MILCON budget. The President gress until the Secretary of Defense al- year and possibly more in future years wants to take $2.5 billion out of the lows them to, and he is going to allow from the Pentagon’s budget. This will drug-interdiction budget within the us to see it today. establish a very dangerous precedent. Department of Defense. Press reports Everybody is voting to cannibalize First, let’s focus on the President’s suggest that account only has about the Pentagon’s budget to the tune of being unhappy. For all of this Presi- $85 million available, so what they $6.1 billion. All of the Senators should

VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.024 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1872 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 be interested in what projects might be struction dollars on the Appropriations wildfires, or saving families from nat- affected in their own States that are Committee to meet the needs of the ural disasters. necessary to the Nation’s defense be- Malmstrom Air Force Base. I led a bi- In Montana, they have asked for lit- fore they vote to give the President partisan effort to deliver more than $19 tle in return. They have asked for the this power. million to construct a new Tactical Re- construction of a new aircraft apron to In conclusion, I hope, today, we will sponse Force Alert Facility. That facil- park and store the Guard’s C–130 fleet. stand up against the President’s power ity was a top priority for Malmstrom Once again, we got to work, and we se- grab. We shouldn’t let the President because the current facility is old, cured the money—$9 million—to make tap a spigot into the Pentagon’s budget laden with asbestos and lead-based sure that our C–130s would stay in good to deal with an emergency that all paint, and this has complicated efforts shape for years to come. Max Baucus have agreed is a nonmilitary emer- to secure the base’s missile sites. and I fought hard to bring those C–130s gency. We shouldn’t let him tap a spig- I also helped to secure some $14.6 mil- to Montana, which is why I am so out- ot that is not just for this budgetary lion for the construction of a missile raged that the President’s emergency year but for future fiscal years, as well, maintenance dispatch facility. This fa- declaration puts this funding at risk. I which is the effect of the vote today. cility will allow the base to more prop- know that nobody in this body takes We are the article I branch, and erly and efficiently store critical com- the decision of sending young men and under that section of the Constitution, ponents and equipment for the missile women to war lightly, but when those we set the spending priorities. Because field and to retrofit its hangar so we difficult decisions are made, we had he is unhappy with our work product, can ultimately house the replacement better deploy them with the best and the President should not be able to fleet for its Vietnam-era Hueys, which the safest equipment. overturn the spending priorities that should be replaced in the next couple of The debate today is clear: A vote we have established in our appropria- years. Unfortunately, the construction against the President’s disaster dec- tions bills and raid the Pentagon’s of these facilities and of many others laration is a vote to protect our co- budget without telling us where the around the country is at risk because equal branches of government, our sys- moneys will come from. of the President’s decision. tem of checks and balances, and our I yield the floor. More alarmingly, Malmstrom is in Constitution. A vote for the Presi- The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. critical need of a weapons generation dent’s power grab is a vote for Federal CRUZ). The Senator from Montana. facility, and I have been fighting for overreach and is a violation of our oath Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I rise to years to ensure that this project is in- of office. talk a little bit about the emergency cluded among the Air Force’s top mili- I hope my colleagues who vote for declaration by the President. It is a tary construction priorities. Just yes- this plan are on the first plane back bad idea. I think everybody in this terday, the Secretary of the Air Force home to explain to their constituents body knows it is a bad idea, and we will confirmed that the funding for the fa- why they are shirking their basic du- see how many people will vote to over- cility has been included in the fiscal ties. I hope they explain to their com- ride that bad idea. It is a bad idea for year 2020 Air Force budget request. munities—and there are many like a number of reasons. This investment represents a signifi- Great Falls, MT—why they are ripping The President says it is for this coun- cant step forward for Malmstrom Air those investments out of their towns try’s safety, but he is robbing from our Force Base, for the Air Force, and for and out of our military. I hope they ex- military to build a wall on the south- our national security. It is important plain to our future leaders why it is OK ern border. Yet, I might add, most of because this is where ICBM warheads to follow the Constitution only when it the money that we allocated in the last are maintained and stored. is expedient. fiscal year is still there—$1.3 billion— As a result of the deterioration of This disaster declaration undermines plus the $1.375 billion that was author- this facility, airmen and missileers the bipartisan work that the Repub- ized by the conference committee, must confront numerous safety and se- licans and Democrats have done to re- made up of a group of Democrats and curity challenges while carrying out build our military. It sets a dangerous Republicans from the House and the their missions every day. Yet now we precedent that, no doubt, will be Senate, which means it was passed by have to tell them that this critical abused by future Presidents, and every- both bodies. It was money that he re- project, which the Air Force has said it body in this body knows that. ceived but to which he said ‘‘I don’t desperately needs and which it does We have an option here. We have the like it’’ and declared an emergency desperately need, could very well get ability to stand with our troops and to declaration. kicked down the road and down the list stand with the Constitution and reject Look, Montana is no stranger to of priorities because the President this declaration. It is critically impor- military service. We are home to the would rather spend billions of the mili- tant if we are going to have a strong second-most veterans per capita of any tary construction money on the con- military. I think we decided in the last State in the country. Every time our struction of his wall. Congress to make investments into our Nation is in need, Montanans step up The same is true for other critical in- military that were much needed, and to the plate and answer the call to frastructure investments at now the President is pulling those dol- serve. That is why, today, I rise to Malmstrom, including a new security lars out. It is nothing short of ridicu- fight back against the President’s dec- forces compound, but the President lous. laration, for it will be shortchanging doesn’t care. He is more interested in I yield the floor. our troops in favor of a campaign robbing taxpayer funds to build an un- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- promise to build a wall that he said necessary wall on the southern border, ator from Ohio. Mexico would pay for. but Congress has rejected the Presi- GM CLOSURES The President’s plan to raid our mili- dent’s request on a bipartisan basis. Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I concur tary resources would directly hurt His defiance of that rejection comes at with the comments of my friend from Montana’s military community and its the expense of my State’s defense in- Montana. I know what this President men and women in uniform. The heart stallations. wants to potentially do to the Wright- of the Air Force’s Global Strike Com- Great Falls is also home to the Mon- Patterson Air Force Base and to the mand is located in Great Falls, MT, at tana Air National Guard. My older air bases in Springfield, in my home- Malmstrom Air Force Base. The 341st brother was in the Air Guard for 35 town of Mansfield, in Youngstown, and Missile Wing at Malmstrom is a crit- years, and I have seen their work up in Toledo in my State and so much ical component of our Nation’s nuclear close. Since we entered the Middle East more. triad. It is our great deterrent against conflict 17 years ago, this country has Last week, we got yet another clear adversaries who would do us harm. As used the Guard like never before. They illustration of whose side President President Kennedy said, it is our ace in have asked a lot of our citizen soldiers Trump is on. All week, we got news of the hole. and airmen, and they have always de- favor after favor from the Trump ad- Over the past few years, I have been livered whether that be when they were ministration in what it is doing for fighting to secure the military con- deploying to war, fighting against Wall Street. The White House looks

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.026 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1873 like a retreat for Wall Street execu- So you take a worker, you pay that Again, these aren’t rich executives tives except on the days it looks like a worker $45,000 a year, $40,000 a year, who are working. I am sure the Pre- retreat for drug company executives. the owners of the company classify siding Officer, the Senator from Texas, Wall Street banks have complained them as management, and they can most of us work well over 40 hours in to the President about the Volcker refuse to pay them for the extra 10 or these jobs. We get paid a salary; it is a rule. That is the rule that stops the big 15 hours. That is 10 or 15 hours without good salary. We shouldn’t get paid banks from taking big risks with pay or it is 10 or 15 hours away from overtime; neither should a corporate American families’ money. Wall Street family, away from raising your kids, lawyer who is working more than 40 didn’t like it, but it had passed this and the administration, of course, hours overtime, and neither should an Congress a decade ago. The rules were sided with the companies. Of course, executive nor should a doctor who being written far too slowly because of they sided with Wall Street. Of course, works more than 40 hours get over- Wall Street’s influence even during the they betrayed workers. They never time. But these are workers who are Obama years, but because Wall Street ever side with workers. making $30,000 and $35,000 and $40,000 a didn’t like it, the Trump administra- Look at Youngstown, OH, right now. year, and you classify them as manage- tion agreed to rewrite them. The Wall This President stood by while General ment, so you refuse to pay them over- Street banks complained that even the Motors closed the Chevy Cruze plant. It time. That is what this rule is about. It rewrite was not weak enough, so the had been there 53 years—Lordstown, means that millions of ordinary work- administration reportedly is going to OH, a valley of about 400,000 people. ers are not getting the pay they have water it down even further. This is 5,000 jobs. There are probably earned. Secretary Mnuchin, the Secretary of another 4,000 to 5,000 jobs for people As if the richest 1 percent aren’t the Treasury—another Wall Street guy who worked in the supply chain and doing well enough without this rule, who was appointed by this President— made components that go into the President Trump again—President announced he is going to go easier on Chevy Cruze. I asked the President per- Trump again—betrayed workers. Again shadow banks, and the Fed announced sonally—first, he didn’t even know he stood with the billionaires. Again he it would make it easier for big banks to about the plant closing when I talked stood with the largest corporations pass the annual stress test. It is like to him, even though by that time they that ship jobs overseas. this body and Senator MCCONNELL, who had laid off about half of the workers. It comes down to whose side you are is down the hall, have forgotten what Then I asked him face-to-face, and I on. Are you on Wall Street’s side? Are happened 10 years ago. It is this collec- asked him on the phone to actually you on the side of Senator MCCONNELL, tive amnesia that has worked its virus call the CEO of GM to make an appeal who responds to every special interest through this body and through the ad- to say: Instead of using your huge tax in this country that wants something ministration so that people forget what cut that you got from the White House from this Senate? Are you on their side happened 10 years ago with regard to to build more jobs overseas and to do or are you going to be on the side of our economy. stock buybacks so the executives are My wife and I live in Cleveland, OH— the American workers? getting richer, how about investing in This President came to Youngstown. ZIP Code 44105. In the first half of 2007, this General Motors plant, how about He promised to fight for American that ZIP Code had more foreclosures retooling, which this company has than any ZIP Code in the United workers. He breaks that promise damn done many times in the past? near every single day. He breaks it States. I see what happens when people I remember one of the best days, lose their homes. I think about what over and over and over. other than the birth of six of my grand- If you love this country, you fight for happens to families who have to ex- children during my last term in the the people who make it work. I wish plain it to their children, who have to Senate, during that several years—I re- President Trump would understand give away their pets, who have to move member the best day of that last term to new school districts—all the things that. was when President Obama, Secretary I yield the floor. that happen to families when their of Labor Perez, and I stood together in The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- homes are foreclosed on or when they Columbus, OH, at Jeni’s ice cream, and ator from Ohio. are evicted from their apartments. Yet we announced that the Obama adminis- H.J. RES. 46 none of these executives seem to mind. tration was going to update that salary Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I am None of these executives have to have threshold on the overtime rule. If you here to talk about the vote that we those conversations. Nobody in the work extra hours, you get extra pay, will take later today on this floor re- Trump administration has to have you get time and a half under the law— garding the President’s national emer- those conversations with one’s kids. under the law the way that President The Trump administration is weak- Obama did it. gency declaration. ening the stress test. It is weakening The Obama rule would have meant From the outset of this process, I some of the capital. It is simply doing that more than 4 million Americans— have had two objectives. One is to sup- Wall Street’s bidding over and over— 130,000 people just in my State, 130,000 port the President on the crisis at the and that was just last week. Of course, people, if they work 10 hours, they get border. I believe his plan to address we know that comes after 2 years of hundreds of dollars in overtime pay. If that crisis is a good one, and we should this President’s and this Congress’s they are working 50 hours instead of 40, support it. But, second is to do it in the doing Wall Street’s bidding. they literally would get—depending on right way, without setting a dangerous To me, the one what was even more their wage, of course—at least another new precedent counter to a funda- personal was how this administration $100 in their pay. mental constitutional principle, with- decided to weaken the overtime rule. Now, because of Trump and the Sec- out tying up the needed funds for the Here is how it works. If somebody is retary of Labor in this administra- border in the courts, and without tak- making $40,000 a year and is working as tion—first because of some judges and ing funds away from important mili- a night manager at a restaurant, say, now the President—those workers tary construction projects for our or at any kind of job in which one may never got that raise. troops. manage a few people and is making Attorneys general around the coun- Unfortunately, despite a sincere ef- $35,000 or $40,000 or $45,000 a year, if the try, Republican, far-right attorneys fort by the administration as recently top people of the company give this general, including one in the Presiding as this morning to try to work with me gentleman or gentlewoman who is Officer’s State, are always glad to do and other colleagues, including the doing this job the title of management, the bidding of their corporate sponsors. Presiding Officer, we were not able to then they don’t have to pay him or her They are always glad to do the bidding agree on a path forward that addresses overtime. of billionaires. They are always glad to those concerns that I just outlined. They can work them 45, they can do the bidding of the richest 1 percent I am going to lay out in a minute work them 50, they can work them 60 in this country. They blocked it. how I think we can better achieve the hours a week and pay them not a dime Now President Trump has come up President’s goals of strengthening our of overtime—nothing. They get a sal- with a new rule that leaves most of border security without invoking the ary for 40 hours. those workers behind. national emergency and the funding he

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Accord- and less expensive; it is cheap. is also a significant part of the plan. ing to Customs and Border Protection, Law enforcement tells me that on But erecting more barriers and fenc- in February—last month—76,000 illegal the streets of Columbus, OH, pure crys- ing in key areas along the border will immigrants arrived at our southern tal meth is now plentiful and less ex- help stem the tide. It will ease the bur- border. That is an average of about pensive than marijuana—and far more den on our Border Security personnel 2,000 every day. Since October of last dangerous. Where is this coming from? and allow them to focus their resources year, we have apprehended more than It is coming from Mexico. more effectively. 268,000 people at the border. That is Even with limited resources, in fiscal It is time to listen to the experts and about a 100-percent increase over the year 2018, Customs and Border Protec- give them what they need to carry out same period last year. We have also tion seized almost a half million their important mission, but we have seen a 300-percent increase in families pounds of marijuana and 11,000 pounds to do that in the right way. arriving at the border compared to this of methamphetamine between ports of As we all learned in high school, our time last year. By the way, the vast entry. At the ports of entry, they government has a system of checks and majority of those are from three coun- seized over 1,700 pounds of fentanyl—by balances. It gives some powers to the tries in Central America. the way, that is enough to kill about 3 President; it gives some powers to Con- This is a humanitarian crisis. The billion people—1,700 pounds of fentanyl, gress. Our Constitution explicitly gives journey to the United States from three flecks of which can kill you, the U.S. Congress what is called the these so-called Northern Triangle 56,000 pounds of meth, and nearly 52,000 power of the purse. Congress, not the President, has the countries is incredibly dangerous, espe- pounds of cocaine. sole authority to determine how to cially for women and for children. They Frankly, that is the tip of the ice- spend taxpayer money, and that is ap- face violence from gangs and traf- berg. Most of it is getting through. propriate. After all, we are here to rep- fickers and hunger and dehydration in They are checking only a small per- resent the people. We are most ac- the rough terrain. Many of them arrive centage of shipments, meaning the vast countable to the taxpayers. Once we at our border traumatized, hurt, sick, majority of drugs are coming across appropriate the money for a specific and often we don’t have the resources our borders undetected. We need to do purpose, then it is the President and more. to provide for those needs. the executive branch that are respon- There is also a growing human traf- There is no question we need strong- sible for administering those programs. ficking crisis. Our lack of border secu- er border security. Again, I support the We had our spending fight here in rity allows these smugglers—human plan the President has outlined, includ- Congress. I thought we should give the smugglers—to move across the border ing the $5.7 billion the President has President the full amount of money he unchecked. Increasingly, they are tak- requested for walls and other barriers. requested for barriers, and I voted that ing advantage of these flows of individ- That $5.7 billion number, by the way, way. At the end of the day, Congress uals to traffic women and children. wasn’t just picked out of thin air. It decided to give him only some, not all, In particular, I will say the Border funds the top 10 priorities of the Cus- of the funds he requested. Patrol resources are spread thin trying toms and Border Protection Border Se- Under current law and current con- to monitor these areas that do not curity Improvement Plan. The experts gressional approval and authorities, have barriers. have given us a plan, and the Presi- without declaring a national emer- Third, this is a drug crisis. The Drug dent’s $5.7 billion simply funds what gency, President Trump can actually Enforcement Agency has said that the the experts have said. access additional funds that get him to southwest border ‘‘remains the pri- This plan, by the way, the expert’s the $5.7 billion he requested. As the mary entry point for heroin into the border security plan, has been em- Wall Street Journal said in a recent United States.’’ That is not a debatable braced by this Congress in the last two editorial opposing a national emer- point. I am told that with regard to appropriations bills. They pointed to gency, ‘‘The President doesn’t need to Ohio, where we have been devastated that plan and said: This is the path for- invoke a national emergency to build by the opioid epidemic, over 90 percent ward. These are the experts. It is not his wall along the southern border.’’ of the heroin is coming across the controversial. Declaring a national emergency to southern border. By the way, the experts have rec- access different funds sets a dangerous Fentanyl, the deadliest drug of all, ommended not that we build a wall new precedent. The use of national which comes primarily from China and from sea to shining sea—it has been emergency powers to circumvent primarily through the U.S. mail sys- mischaracterized as that—but 234 miles Congress’s explicit decision on funding tem—50 times more powerful than her- of barriers, walls, and other fencing at is unprecedented. No President has oin—is increasingly coming across the places where people cross the border ever used what is called the National southern border too. Yesterday I most frequently, primarily in the State Emergencies Act in this way. As a re- learned from Customs and Border Pro- of Texas, primarily in the urban sult, it opens the door for future Presi- tection that fentanyl seizures along areas—places where it will make the dents to implement just about any pol- the border between the ports of entry most difference. icy they want and to take funding from have increased by 400 percent between Funding for these types of barriers other areas Congress has already de- 2016 and 2018. has been included in the budget re- cided on without Congress’s approval. As we are finally beginning to make quests from previous administrations, Once a President declares an emer- progress on the opioid crisis in my of course. Previous administrations gency, he or she has access to a lot of home State of Ohio and around the have built hundreds of miles of fenc- power. Some would say nearly unlim- country, finally reducing the number ing—over 500 miles. ited power. A future President could of heroin and other opioid overdose It has also been included in appro- seize industries or could control means deaths for the first time in 8 years, we priations bills passed by Congress dur- of communication. Think of the inter- are seeing a reduction in those deaths, ing the last two appropriation cycles net. A future President may well say but crystal meth and the devastation it by both Republicans and Democrats. that climate change is a national causes is coming back—coming back Why is it that this administration emergency and use emergency authori- with a vengeance. It is more pure than can’t build the barriers that other ad- ties to implement the Green New Deal. ever, more powerful than ever, and it is ministrations have and that Congress By the way, according to a new study coming from Mexico. in the past has supported? by Douglas Holtz-Eakin at the Amer- Some of you may remember in your Of course it is not just about more ican Action Forum, the proposed poli- own communities the issue of crystal physical barriers, and the President’s cies in the Green New Deal would cost

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I believed it was dents could actually use this emer- of situation, it is imperative for the wrong then. gency authority to tear down the very President to honor Congress’s constitu- I believe the President’s use of the wall we are now constructing, and tional role to make policy and appro- national emergency declaration to ac- some Democrats running for President priate money. A national emergency cess already approved military con- have said that is what they intend to declaration is a tool to be used cau- struction project funding is wrong now. do. That is what they want to do. tiously and sparingly. That is why I co- I support his goals. President Trump is The President is using the National sponsored legislation, authored by Sen- right that we have a crisis, and I sup- Emergencies Act to take funds away ator MIKE LEE, to amend the National port his plans to secure the border, and from a particular area of spending. It is Emergencies Act to ensure that Con- he can fully fund it in a more reliable called military construction funds. gress does have more control over way. By the way, anyone who cares Only twice before have Presidents de- these decisions in the future. about getting that money to the border clared a national emergency in order to So in my view, the best resolution to build walls ought to want that cer- transfer military construction funds here is for the President to use that tainty. away from congressionally designated nearly $6 billion in funding that he has Each one of us in this body has sworn projects into other priorities. In both at his disposal to implement his plan, an oath to support and defend the Con- of those situations, we were at war, and and, then, ask Congress for additional stitution of the United States. So the Secretary of Defense transferred funding during the next appropriations today I will vote to support the dis- the funds to support the war effort, and cycle, which, by the way, begins on Oc- approval resolution that is before us. Congress did not object. Although tober 1 of this year. I know the President has the votes to there is a crisis at our southern border, This approach, again, has three dis- pursue his approach. Even if the dis- we are not in wartime, and there are tinct advantages. One, it would not set approval resolution passes, he can veto funds available to address border secu- the dangerous precedent we discussed it, and his veto will be sustained. I rity. today. Second, the funds could actually know that, but I continue to hope that The President wants to do more to get to the border because they will not the President uses the funds he has address the crisis at the border, and I be tied up in litigation. Third, it would available to him without creating a do, too, and he can do more. The Presi- fully protect important military con- bad precedent, having some of the dent has available to him enough struction projects in Ohio and around needed funds tied up in the courts, and funds, right now, to begin building all the country—including, by the way, taking money from important military the barriers he has requested without funding for the National Air and Space projects. resorting to national emergency funds. Intelligence Center, or NASIC, at the President Trump is right about the I support his using those funds to get Wright-Patterson Air Force Base; an crisis at the border, and the approach I to the full $5.7 billion he requested for automated, multipurpose machine gun outlined today would enable him to ac- barriers on the southern border. range at Camp James A. Garfield; a fire complish his policy objectives on the Here is how we could access it with- station replacement at Mansfield border and honor our Constitution. out using the national emergency. Lahm Airport; a small arms range at I yield the floor. First would be the $1.375 billion appro- Rickenbacker International Airport, The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- priated by this Congress for the bar- and a main gate relocation project at ator from Maryland. riers. By the way, that is the most that Youngstown Air Reserve Station. All Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise in has ever been appropriated in a fiscal of those are things in the current fiscal strong opposition to President Trump’s year, ever, for the purpose of barriers. year Military Construction appropria- so-called emergency declaration of a Second, he can access, as he intends to tions bill that benefit Ohio. I am a crisis and invasion on our southern do, $601 million from the Treasury For- strong supporter and advocate for border, an attempt to misappropriate feiture Fund. He could do that without Ohio’s military facilities and our re- funds to build the President’s border a national emergency. Third, he could search institutions, and I will continue wall. The President’s actions here are access funding through the DOD to work to ensure that our key mili- an affront to the constitutional separa- counter-drug account. He has said that tary construction projects at these tion of powers, our checks and bal- he would like to access about $2.5 bil- strategic facilities can continue to ances, and the congressional power of lion from that account, but he could move forward. the purse to set appropriation levels. actually access, under our laws that we I have worked on both ends of Penn- The very nature of how President have passed here—and we have given sylvania Avenue. I have had the honor Trump decided, finally, to declare a so- him authority to access—up to $4 bil- of being a Senator and a Congressman called emergency at our southern bor- lion. This adds up, as we can see, to on this side, and I have worked for two der shows that he, too, knows that over $5.7 billion—almost $6 billion— White Houses. In fact, I was Associate there is no real national emergency at which is at the President’s disposal Counsel to President Bush 41 in his our southern border. President Trump without moving to the national emer- White House Counsel’s office. I know himself admitted, in announcing this gency that he has invoked. My hope is how hard it can be for the executive so-called emergency in the Rose Gar- that the President will take this ap- branch, the President, and Congress to den: proach. find the balance that our Founders in- I could do the wall over a longer period of I think using those funds is a better tended between the executive branch time. I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather way to accomplish our border security and the legislative branch, but our do it much faster. goals. Precisely because the President Founders drew a clear line on at least It doesn’t sound like a national emer- does not need to declare a national one thing: Congress, closest to the peo- gency. We know that a medieval border emergency, these funds are far more ple, would have the power of the purse. wall would be a tremendously wasteful certain. The $3.6 billion the President When President Obama bypassed expenditure of resources, as opposed to takes from the military construction Congress and took executive action to smarter border security technology projects is uncertain because these create new immigration policy back in that would enhance screening at our funds are likely to be tied up in con- 2012, I spoke out. I criticized him be- ports of entry and specifically target stitutional litigation for months, prob- cause of the constitutionality issue. I transnational criminal operations ably years. By the way, the President said I agreed with President Obama smuggling contraband into the United has rightly acknowledged that. that our immigration system was— States. Under the National Emergencies Act, and, by the way, still is—broken. I The Constitution gives Congress, not Congress has given the President flexi- agreed we needed to work together to the President, the power of the purse.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.032 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1876 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 Article I, section 9, clause 7 provides purse rests with Congress. . . . If you allow a Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, dur- that ‘‘No Money shall be drawn from president to ignore Congress, it will be not ing the recent government shutdown, the Treasury but in Consequence of Ap- your authority but that of your constituents there were a lot of budget issues that propriations made by Law.’’ that is deprived of the protections of true were negotiated. It was a wide-ranging representative government. Article I, section 8, clause 1 provides bill of over 1,000 pages, when it was all that ‘‘the Congress shall have Power Let me just add that, in addition to said and done, but the most conten- To . . . provide for the common what was said in that letter, we have tious number in all of the negotiations Defence and general Welfare of the made appropriations here. We expect circled around a barrier on our south- United States.’’ those appropriations to be carried out. ern border in the highest drug traf- Additionally, the presentment clause We are the representatives of the peo- ficking corridor in the country. of the Constitution requires that the ple. In my own State of Maryland, we The President requested $5.7 billion President either approve or veto a bill, have many military construction con- to build a barrier fence in 10 locations and it does not give him the power to tracts on many of the military instal- that the Customs and Border Patrol change the text of a law or appropria- lations that could be put at jeopardy. had identified as the top 10 points of il- tion levels or to cast a line item veto Maryland is the proud home of major legal drugs entering our country. That for certain provisions. military installations, including Pax study had been requested by Congress The Supreme Court held in the line- River, Indian Head, Andrews, Fort before they fulfilled that study of iden- item veto case of ‘‘Clinton v. City of Detrick, Fort Meade, and the APG, or tifying the highest profiled drug traf- New York’’ in 1998: the Aberdeen Proving Ground. It is our ficking corridors. They brought that There is no provision in the Constitution responsibility to make those appropria- back to Congress. The President then that authorizes the President to enact, to tions. If you let this emergency power requested funding to build fencing in amend or to repeal statutes. . . . Our first go, that action could be compromised those areas of the highest trafficking President understood the text of the Pre- by the President of the United States, areas. sentment Clause as requiring that he either denying the people of this country His request was not for a 2,000-mile- ‘‘approve all the parts of a bill, or reject it in their representative government. toto.’’ long wall. It was only to replace some Let me continue the letter from our of the sections of the 650-mile-long bar- The courts have regularly upheld the former Republican colleagues. The let- authority of Congress by statute—and rier that already exists—areas that ter continues: were old and ineffective—or to put new not the President by fiat—to set fund- The second argument goes directly to the ing levels. As the Supreme Court said fencing in high drug trafficking areas. question each of you must face: how much In a highly partisan debate, Congress in Hooe v. United States, in 1910, ‘‘it is are you willing to undermine both the Con- eventually appropriated $1.375 billion for Congress, proceeding under the stitution and the Congress in order to ad- to DHS for the construction of addi- Constitution, to say what amount may vance a policy outcome that by all legiti- tional barriers. It is not even close to be drawn from the Treasury in pursuit mate means is not achievable? The current issue—a wall on our southern border—has what the President and what Customs of appropriations.’’ gone through the process put in place by the The Ninth Circuit held in United and Border Patrol said they needed to Constitution. It has been proposed by the protect the Nation and members of law States v. McIntosh, in 2016, that if the President, it has been debated by Congress, executive branch spends money in vio- enforcement. and the representatives of the people allo- During those negotiations, the Presi- lation of appropriations law, ‘‘it would cated funding at a level deemed appropriate dent announced he would declare a na- be drawing funds from the Treasury by Congress. We understand that there are tional emergency if he didn’t get the without authorization by statute, and many Members of Congress who disagree funds needed to secure the Nation. At thus violating the Appropriations with the final funding compromise reached that point, there were two options for Clause.’’ by a bipartisan group of legislators. The Supreme Court held in the Office And it was approved overwhelmingly people who don’t want the President to of Personnel Management v. Rich- by Congress. secure our border. One was to include mond, in 1990, that ‘‘any exercise of a To you, we ask this question: what will language in that appropriations bill be- power granted by the Constitution to you do when a president of another party fore it was passed to prevent the Presi- one or the other branches of Govern- uses the precedent you are establishing to dent from declaring an emergency ac- impose policies to which you are unalterably ment is limited by the valid reserva- tion and using any of the funds for opposed? There is no way around this dif- that. The second one was to wait until tion of congressional control over ficulty: what powers are ceded to a president funds in the Treasury.’’ after the bill was passed and declare a whose policies you support may also be used disapproval resolution to stop the Beyond the legal challenges in court by presidents whose policies you abhor. to the President’s emergency declara- President after the bill had already The letter then concludes: passed. tion, Congress has a responsibility to We who have served where you serve now act, as well, and rein in the President’s Those who oppose border security call on you to honor your oath of office and chose the second option—to fight the abuse of power in order to maintain the to protect the Constitution and the respon- proper separation of powers and checks sibilities it vested in Congress. We ask that President after passage, which brings and balances under our Constitution. you pass a joint resolution terminating the us to today. Former Republican Members of Con- emergency declared by the President on Feb- After signing the funding bill to re- gress recently wrote a powerful open ruary 15, 2019. open the government, to deal with the letter to the current Republican Mem- Congress should therefore take all humanitarian crisis, and the flow of il- bers of Congress on this issue. Signato- necessary action to overturn this un- legal narcotics coming into our coun- ries include former Members John Dan- lawful Presidential declaration on bor- try, the President declared a national forth, Mickey Edwards, Chuck Hagel, der security under the National Emer- emergency in two areas. He has over Jim Kolbe, Olympia Snowe, and Rich- gencies Act or other authorities. In- 100 authorities; he declared it in two. ard Lugar. Let me quote: stead of trying to raid funds that have One was this. He wanted to replace some of the National Guard members Our oath is to put the country and its Con- been designated for critical military stitution above everything, including party construction and environmental with members of the Reserve. You have politics or loyalty to a president. . . . That projects, the President should work to declare a national emergency to call is why we are coming together to urge those with Congress to enact comprehensive up the Reserve members. So his first of you who are now charged with upholding reform. request was to call up some of the Re- the authority of the first branch of govern- The Senate should vote to uphold the serves to swap out some of the Guard ment to resist efforts to surrender those Constitution and its legislative prerog- members who were already serving at powers to a president. atives, including the power of the the border. We offer two arguments against allowing a The second one was that in one of the president—any president, regardless of purse, and to cancel the President’s party—to circumvent congressional author- emergency declaration. accounts that deal with military con- ity. One is the constitutional placing of all I yield the floor. struction, if needed, he wanted to tap lawmaking power in the hands of the peo- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- into some of those funds. He was also ple’s representatives. . . . The power of the ator from Oklahoma. very clear. There are four accounts

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.033 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1877 they would have access to. Three of For the vast majority of people, they To tell you how it has accelerated, in them don’t need an emergency declara- do see an importance in Congress work- 2 years, that is a 269-percent increase tion. Let me run through those. ing on national security and securing of fentanyl being captured between The first is the $1.375 billion Congress our borders. Then we have the argu- ports of entry. allocated in the government shutdown, ment about how serious is this. Yes, we have an emergency. Yes, we ending debate. There is no question I have had folks who have said to me: have people dying in this country due that $1.375 billion has been approved by It is really not that bad because we to overdoses from fentanyl, heroin, co- Congress. have individuals coming but not as caine, and methamphetamine, and the There is a second fund where there is high of a number as what it used to be. problem is not static. The problem is $600 million. It is in the Treasury Asset Twenty years ago, we even had more accelerating. Forfeiture Fund. That fund specifically people crossing the border illegally. Last year, we had one of the high- notes that those funds can be used for That is not the question that is in est—highest—rates of cocaine being any reason for Federal law enforce- front of us. The request from Customs picked up between ports of entry that ment. It is very clear. It has wide dis- and Border Patrol is specifically for has ever existed in our country. cretion—any use for Federal law en- the 10 areas with the highest drug traf- Last year, U.S. Customs and Border forcement. There is no legal question ficking along all of our southern bor- Patrol seized a total of 11,000 pounds of that it can be used by Customs and der. That is the request. methamphetamine coming across that Border Patrol or to do construction of The question is, Do we have an emer- border. That is the highest year ever of any kind of barrier. gency dealing with illegal drugs cross- that drug coming across our border. There is a third fund that already ex- ing our border after the Customs and Undeniably, there is an emergency. ists within the Department of Defense. Border Patrol has said to us that we The question is, Do we agree or dis- There are $4 billion set aside in this need barriers to slow down the flow of agree that when the statute says a fund, and it can be used for wide-rang- illegal drugs? Are they right or are President has the ability to do a con- ing issues dealing with counter- they wrong? struction, it means he can also con- Among those areas, right now the narcotics. There is no question the struct a barrier? I believe it does. President can act on anything dealing Rio Grande Valley sector is the highest We have those two questions. Is it an with counternarcotics with that fund. area for movement of illegal drugs emergency, and does the statutory au- crossing into our country. It is 16 per- In fact, in that fund itself, there is thority exist? specific language already included in cent of the border miles, but it is 40 Interestingly enough, there are some that—and this is up to $4 billion—say- percent of the illegal border and illegal of my friends who are adding a third drug trafficking coming in. ing it can be used for construction of question. Should the President have Last year, just in that one sector, 550 roads, fences, and installation of light- that authority? pounds of methamphetamine were ing to block drug smuggling corridors That is a different question, and I un- seized. This is not at the port of entry. across international boundaries of the derstand that question. Interestingly This is between ports of entry, in that United States. open area that doesn’t have a fence. enough, just a few hours ago, the Presi- Let me run through this. There is up There were 550 pounds of methamphet- dent of the United States tweeted out— to $4 billion the President can ask for amine seized. There were 1,500 pounds as he is infamous for doing—if Congress that he doesn’t have to ask for emer- of cocaine and 64,000 pounds of mari- wants to discuss should a President gency authority at all on. That is juana that were seized in that one sec- have this authority in the future, I am counternarcotics, counterdrug smug- tion without a fence. open to discussing that, but that is not gling. There are $600 million that have The question is, Is that an emer- pertaining to today. been allocated that the President can gency? I think that is an interesting ques- use because it deals with law enforce- Last year, 70,000 Americans died from tion we should address as a nation— ment. There is $1.375 billion that Con- overdoses from drugs that came from what and how broad should an Execu- gress also allocated. There is no legal and through Mexico—70,000. If we had tive authority be for a President—but question on any of those. any—any—issue in America where the debate we have today is plain and At the tail end of that, the White 70,000 people died, I can assure you this simple. Is it an emergency, and, under House has also said, after all three of Congress would stand up and say we current law, does the President have those funds are expended—which, by have an emergency, but, for some rea- statutory authority? the way, those three funds exceed the son, there is a dispute on whether it is My answer to both of those questions $5.7 billion the President says he important we stop the flow of illegal is yes. needs—the President’s request is, if we drugs coming from Mexico into the I hope we continue to do drug inter- go through all of those, and we are not United States. I don’t think that diction, continue to work through the able to close that section down, at should be in dispute. issues that need to be addressed, con- some future point, he wants to be able To give an example of how fast this is tinue to do recovery, and continue to to access this other fund. changing and how much of an emer- help people who are fighting through They have also made it very clear it gency this is, people would say: This addiction because we need a healthy would be past October. That would not has been going on for years. Why is it nation and also a secure Nation. even be in this fiscal year. So really different now? Just in the last 2 years, For those 10 areas that are the high- the debate about funding is next year’s between ports of entry—again, not at est drug trafficking areas in the entire issue, what is called the 2808 funding on the ports of entry but in that open area country, I hope we close those doors, military construction. where there is no barrier. Last year, and I hope we protect lives in the days That leads us again to this. An emer- our Customs and Border Patrol seized ahead. gency declaration really has two ques- 388 pounds of fentanyl. That may not I am going to choose to oppose a res- tions in it. Is it an emergency, and does sound like much, but only a couple of olution of disapproval today that says the President have statutory authority grains of it—as in a couple of grains of the President doesn’t have the author- to take this action? Those are the only sand—is enough to kill a person. ity to protect the American people. two questions on the table. Fentanyl is highly addictive and an With that, I yield the floor. Is it an emergency is in dispute. exceptionally powerful drug. It is 100 The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who There are some folks who would say: I times more powerful than morphine. It yields time? don’t think what is going on at the bor- is being laced into heroin and laced If no one yields time, time will be der is an emergency. There are some into cocaine. It is a mass killer. charged equally to both sides. folks—some in this Chamber and some Last year, almost 25,000 people in the The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. in the other Chamber—who want to country died from an overdose of YOUNG). The Senator from Utah. abolish ICE, dismantle a wall, and open fentanyl. Knowing it only takes two or Mr. LEE. Mr. President, significant, the borders. Thankfully, that is a small three grains to be too much to kill a the very first clause of the very first group of people who do not see our na- person, 388 pounds of it were seized be- section of the very first article of the tional security as important. tween ports of entry along our border. Constitution consists of the words ‘‘all

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.034 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1878 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 legislative Powers herein granted shall power into Washington and within gration laws. I support a biometric be vested in a Congress of the United Washington to the less-accountable entry-exit system. I support the Presi- States, which shall consist of a Senate branches of the government—that is, dent’s new ‘‘Remain in Mexico’’ policy and the House of Representatives.’’ to the other two branches that are not that would keep asylum seekers south The Founding Fathers wasted no this branch—we are governing. No, of the border while they await proc- time in getting right to the heart of that is not governing. It is ruling. essing if they come from a noncontig- the matter, which is to say that the With centralization, we empower and uous country. I support the President’s legislative powers within the Federal enrich the political and corporate calling up military Reservists to sup- Government—that is, the power to classes at the expense of the working port border agents in their dangerous make law within that Federal system— and middle classes. Centralization is and underappreciated work. would themselves be exercised only by not unity. It is surrender—surrender to I support the President’s invocation the branch of that government most exactly the kind of monarchical and of 10 USC section 284(b)(7), which un- accountable to the people at the most abusive sort of government our Found- equivocally authorizes him, in certain regular routine intervals. ing Fathers were trying to protect us instances, relevant here and present This system of government, of from. here, to authorize funding for the con- course, involved three branches—one Political elites often reassure us and struction of a fence along international that would make the law, one that reassure each other that these devi- boundaries as a means of combating would enforce the law, and one that ations from constitutional norms are the illegal international drug trade. would interpret the law. That system somehow victimless endeavors. No one I support the President’s use of up to of government relied, necessarily, and cares about the process, they insist, $601 million from the Treasury For- quite appropriately, on the fact that but the Constitution is all process. feiture Fund and $2.5 billion from the each branch of government would oper- That is the whole point is process. The 284 fund I mentioned a minute ago, and ate within its domain and would jeal- Constitution doesn’t resolve our polit- I support the administration’s work, on ously guard the powers reserved to it, ical differences. It lays out the proc- a diplomatic level, with Mexico to re- neither exceeding the powers granted esses by which we are to resolve them. duce the flow of migrants to the United it, nor accepting a diminution of those Brushing that process aside does not States. I have supported all of these powers. override our disagreement. It intensi- things in this administration, and I It is with that topic in mind that I fies them. It escalates them— have for years—during this administra- rise today, reluctantly, in support of ratcheting up our politics into an all- tion and prior to that—and I will con- the resolution before us. When I consuming war of outrage and con- tinue to support these policies. speak—and some of my colleagues tempt. An emergency declaration, in accord- might even say nag—about our con- My Democratic colleagues, some of ance with the National Emergencies stitutional framework, when I insist them, at least, would have us believe Act, in this instance, is different. The that every word, every clause, and this vote is about President Trump and White House is asserting authority to every principle does, in fact, matter, President Trump alone. It is not. It is spend money on projects and priorities that we take oaths to support and de- about much more than him. It is about in a manner not themselves directly fend the Constitution of the United much more than them. It is liberal authorized by Congress. Congress di- States—we do so, in fact, right here on elites’ cult-like zeal for centralized rectly refused a request to appropriate these very steps in this very Chamber power and their furious entitlement to the specific amount of funds we are when we start each term of office—we wielding it that has led us to this very dealing with. are dutybound to adhere both to the vote. At the end of the day, it is not the letter and to the spirit of that docu- Now, I am not sure the Democratic White House, it is not this President, it ment, and we should do everything we Party cares immensely, as an institu- is not other Presidents who are at fault can to avoid straying from it. tion, about Presidential overreach. I for this; it is, in fact, Congress. Con- When I say some of these things, I will leave that to them to decide and to gress was the institution that chose am sometimes accused by some of na- exhibit. Some simply believe that voluntarily to relinquish this power. ivete. I am told the old ‘‘Schoolhouse abuse of constitutional power should be Congress, as an institution, adopted Rock’’ version of how a bill becomes a a one-way street. and enacted legislation that was so law works in theory, sounds nice in In many instances, we have had broad as to take basically all the theory, but it is somehow passe in a Members of this body support previous guardrails off the legislative process. vast, diverse, continental nation in- Presidents of both political parties in Congress, as an institution, in 1976, cluding about 230 million people today. engaging in acts of overreach. The real adopted the National Emergencies Act I am told that given the responsibil- source of outrage here is not constitu- and said the President may declare an ities of the United States as now a tionally mandated procedure but sim- emergency with almost no standards, vast, global, and economic power and ply that we, as an institution, have and then, once a President declares an Congress’s inability to get things done, voluntarily surrendered—we have re- emergency, there are some estimated we have no choice but to accept and linquished our legislative power. 128 different provisions of law that can even encourage a system of govern- In this instance, this happens to be be looped in and made effective as a re- ment in which we are relegated to the an exercise of power in an area in sult of the declaration of that emer- backseat, to the backseat of the very which many on the other side of the gency. things we were supposed to be doing in political aisle happen to disagree. To At the time Congress did this, Con- the first place, which is passing law, make clear, a border fence—a border gress left its foot in the door, saying which is setting policy within the Fed- barrier is a policy I support whole- that Congress unilaterally could veto eral Government. heartedly and unequivocally. I agree the President’s actions by passing a This faux sophisticated analysis gets with the need to secure our border. I concurrent resolution not itself subject things exactly backward. It is the ad- agree with the President that there is to Presidential veto. For reasons hav- vocates of Executive overreach and ju- a crisis unfolding on our border endan- ing to do with a subsequent Supreme dicial supremacy who are naive. They gering men and women and children Court ruling that occurred 7 years believe that given our Nation’s size and and endangering many of those who after the enactment of the National diversity, only centralized government were most affected by the communities Emergencies Act in 1983, a case called can rise above partisan, ideological, re- who are themselves in the direct path INS v. Chadha—a case, coincidentally, gional, practical differences, and unite of these caravans. I support a border argued by my late father. If he were us behind one policy, but this function wall, and I encourage full congressional here today, perhaps I would half-jok- now strangling this city and strangling funding for it. ingly acknowledge that maybe he is in this body, toxifying our political dis- I think it is a tragedy and really some ways to blame for this. course, is directly related to this re- something of an outrage that we After the Supreme Court concluded lentless march toward centralization. haven’t done that as a Congress. I sup- in INS v. Chadha that the legislative We think, somehow, that by pulling port workplace enforcement of immi- veto was unconstitutional, Congress

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.036 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1879 went through and systematically re- So today, I come to the floor to say a prolonged and worsening security and moved, from about 450 statutes, the that I do not intend to vote for the res- humanitarian crisis on our southern legislative veto provisions, replaced olution of disapproval, and here is why. border. Lethal drugs are flooding them with resolutions of disapproval, A lot has changed over the last 3 across the border at an alarming rate. replaced them with a procedural mech- weeks—a discussion with the Vice Just last year, enough fentanyl to kill anism whereby Congress may signal its President and a number of senior ad- 88 million Americans was seized by bor- disapproval, but that disapproval is ministration officials, a lot of collabo- der patrol agents between our ports of still subject to signature or veto by the ration with my colleague from Utah. entry. We are also witnessing unprece- President. There is serious discussion about dented levels of illegal immigration This is where we have a problem be- changing the National Emergencies and are on track for the highest level cause that converts, effectively, legis- Act in a way that will have Congress of illegal immigration in more than a lative power by handing it over to the speak on emergency actions in the fu- decade. That means more human traf- Executive and then leaves the Congress ture. ficking, more forced labor, and more without an opportunity to signal how The White House has been very gra- exploitation of people along the dan- it feels about this beyond adopting a cious and I should say very patient, gerous journey to the United States. resolution of disapproval, which is given my initial position, in working Failures by Congress to adequately ad- itself subject to a Presidential veto. with us and as late as today having the dress our immigration and border secu- That is why I am concerned about President make a statement that he is rity issues have only exacerbated this this. I have concerns about this legal willing to work with us. I suspect that crisis. framework. This is not about the Presi- we will hear more from the President. Here is just a sample of the data from dent. This is not about my disagree- We also heard today from Leader our Federal authorities. The total vol- ume of illegal immigration is increas- ment with or disapproval of the Presi- MCCONNELL. I was trying to remem- ing. Illegal immigration is on pace to dent or his approach to border security ber—I don’t know whether it has been exceed the highest level in more than or his desire to build a barrier along done before—Leader MCCONNELL took 10 years. There has been a 338 percent our southern border. I think all those to the floor this morning and said that increase in family units from the things need to happen. he encourages this discussion through Northern Triangle apprehended thus This law is wrong. It is not President the regular order and working on a bi- far in fiscal year 2019 compared with Trump’s fault. It is Congress’s. We need partisan basis to move a measure for- same period in fiscal year 2018. There to change it. I look forward to working ward through the Homeland Security was 54 percent increase in unaccom- with my colleagues on both sides of the Committee and to this floor for a vote. panied minors apprehended thus far in aisle to reform the National Emer- I, for one, am going to work on that fiscal year 2019 compared with same pe- gencies Act. We need to get this done. and hopefully get consensus on a bipar- riod in fiscal year 2018. This is an issue that is neither Repub- tisan basis after the temperatures have Additionally, drug seizures are in- lican nor Democratic, neither liberal cooled and we can move on. creasing between ports of entry. In fis- nor conservative. It is simply an Amer- In the meantime, I think we have to cal year 2018, U.S. Border Patrol inter- ican issue. recognize that we have a crisis at the cepted 388 pounds of fentanyl between I yield the floor. border, with 76,000 people crossing ille- our ports of entry. That is enough to The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- gally in February alone. We have nar- kill 88 million Americans; that is right, ator from North Carolina. cotics flooding our country, poisoning 88 million Americans. Fentanyl sei- Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask our children and adults of all ages. A zures increased 73 percent between fis- unanimous consent that I have up to 5 lot of it has to do with the porous bor- cal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018. Her- minutes to make comments on the res- der and the seemingly unending and oin seizures also increased 22 percent olution. spiraling-out-of-control crossings. between fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there One of the challenges that I have to 2018. Methamphetamine seizures in- objection? communicate to my constituents, and I creased 38 percent between fiscal year Without objection, it is so ordered. am sure everyone does, is how do I rec- 2017 and fiscal year 2018. Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, a few oncile—first, I should say that my col- As I have said repeatedly, even weeks ago, I was talking with my staff, leagues on this side of the aisle who though the President is using the au- in advance of the President issuing the will vote for the resolution of dis- thority given to him by Congress, I emergency order, and I told them I approval I think to a person also recog- share my colleagues’ concerns that too wanted to put together an op-ed to nize that there is a crisis. I respect much authority has been delegated to really express two things; one, my con- them for their decision; it is just not a the executive branch. In 1976, Congress cern with the manner in which funds decision that I can take. gave the President the authority to de- were being appropriated but also that Over the course of the next few clare national emergencies, so we there is a real crisis we have to ad- months, I look forward to working shouldn’t be surprised when he seeks to dress. In fact, I am very sympathetic to with the administration to talk about use it, just as others have done. For what the President did, and the only boundaries that we are very close to this reason, I will continue working to question is how he went about doing it. getting agreement on and making pass meaningful legislation, like the I received a lot of feedback over the changes to the National Emergencies ARTICLE ONE Act, to reclaim con- past few weeks, but what it allowed me Act that will make sense. gressional power from the executive to do was to engage in a discussion The fact that this President is pre- branch and improve congressional with some of my colleagues here and pared to transfer power back to the ar- oversight of the National Emergency with the White House over the past ticle I branch—by his statements, ei- Act. I encourage my colleagues to join couple of weeks that have been very ther publicly or through his adminis- in this effort, which takes real action, productive. tration—is extraordinary. That we as opposed to symbolic show votes that My main concern with this Executive have a leader, with a Republican down don’t address the root of the problem. action is future potential abuses. I the street, willing to move this Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the have a concern with the Executive ac- through the regular order is extraor- President often claims that he knows tion the President took, the emergency dinary. how to make deals, but when it comes order, and that is why I voiced it, but For those reasons, I will be voting to the border, he seems uninterested in I am sympathetic to what he was try- against the resolution of disapproval, a good deal, a deal to provide effective ing to do. and I encourage my colleagues to do border security, and he is hurting our I think we can view this as an oppor- the same. military in the process. This week’s tunity—I thought we could view this as Thank you. vote to repeal the President’s national an opportunity where maybe we could Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, emergency is a vote to restore sanity have a discussion about the National today, I am voting against the resolu- to our border security debate and re- Emergencies Act and potentially make tion to end the national emergency. store Congress’s constitutional power a real difference. Make no mistake: Our Nation is facing of the purse.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MR6.037 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE S1880 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 14, 2019 We all remember Donald Trump’s istic look at whether the wall is needed eled Tyndall Air Force Base, in Flor- idea that we need a 2,000-mile concrete or if it’s simply an unnecessary quest ida. Both of them could use billions wall from sea to shining sea and his to satisfy his ego.’’ That is common right now for repairs. claim that Mexico would pay for it. He sense, but then common sense seems to I am also told that the Navy needs said it some 200 times on the campaign be in short supply in this White House. hundreds of millions of additional dol- trail and in the Oval Office. In Decem- Not only is the President declaring a lars for unexpected ship maintenance. ber, after asking and failing to receive fake emergency, but he is using that We can’t afford not to make sure our funding from Congress for this wall, crisis to take money. The President sailors are safe on deployment. The Na- the President said, ‘‘I am proud to shut has told us that he will take $6.5 billion tional Guard has 2,100 personnel on the down the government for border secu- that Congress gave to our troops and border, but it is starting to run low on rity.’’ spend it instead on a wall on the south- its pay account. Unless DOD finds $150– What followed was the 35-day Trump ern border. He is proposing to delay or 300 million this year, the Guard will shutdown, the longest government cancel $3.6 billion in military construc- have to cut short its summer trainings shutdown in U.S. history. It cost our tion projects—projects that our mili- in all 50 States to pay for this. country $11 billion, according to the tary told Congress it needed less than a My subcommittee has identified al- Congressional Budget Office. After the year ago—and divert it to his wall. most $5 billion in military priorities President finally agreed to reopen the Last Friday, Senator SCHATZ and I that need attention now, but after the government, Congress provided funding sent a letter to Acting Secretary of De- President takes $2.5 billion to pay for to the Department of Homeland Secu- fense Patrick Shanahan demanding to his border wall, which priorities will rity for smart and effective border se- know which projects have been deemed, get cut? curity measures, including technology due to political interference, as less This week, Republicans and Demo- and additional Customs personnel. We important than the President’s wall. crats in the Senate should join the did this because the President’s own There are almost 400 military projects House in rejecting the President’s administration has stated that the vast at risk. They cover 43 States, the Dis- phony emergency declaration, and the majority of lethal narcotics that cross trict of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Senate should reject any effort by the our southern border come through and more than a dozen foreign coun- President to take money from our legal ports of entry. tries, including strong U.S. allies like troops to build the wall. But within hours of signing this bill, Japan and the United Kingdom. Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I President Donald Trump announced The President will have to cancel or rise today to speak on the resolution of that it wasn’t enough. The President postpone approximately 20 percent of disapproval before us that would termi- went on television to announce that he these projects for his wall. What are we nate President Trump’s phony national was declaring a national emergency talking about?—$800 million for essen- emergency. over the border, and he announced that tial training facilities like National President Trump’s national emer- he was taking $6.5 billion from our Guard Readiness Centers, simulators, gency declaration, which he attempts military to build it. and firing ranges in Alaska, Arizona, to justify using falsehoods about immi- Presidents of both parties have de- Colorado, and Montana, to name a few; gration and the Southern border, pre- clared national emergencies. Each $1.4 billion worth of maintenance-re- sents a serious threat to the separation time, it was done in response to a spe- lated projects, such as aircraft hang- of powers and the rule of law. cific crisis, in order to unlock certain ars, and vehicle maintenance shops in First I would like to speak about how statutory authorities. President Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Okla- there really isn’t an emergency at the George W. Bush declared a national homa, and elsewhere; $1 billion worth border, then I would like to get into emergency after the 9/11 terrorist at- of projects for medical and dental care the constitutional problems with the tacks. In the 1970s, President Carter de- facilities, schools for military families, President’s actions. clared a national emergency as it per- military barracks and dining facilities While illegal border crossings do tained to Iran. Presidents of both par- in Arizona, Missouri, Texas, and be- occur, all of the numbers refute Presi- ties have declared and updated emer- yond. dent Trump’s claim that there is a cri- gencies relating to instability in Syria. For instance, the Marine Corps needs sis at the border. Those claims simply What Presidents did in those situa- a new rifle range at Parris Island, SC. don’t hold up. tions varied—sometimes levying sanc- This base trains 20,000 new Marine re- Unauthorized border crossings have tions, sometimes seizing assets—but cruits every year. Also on the list is been at their lowest levels in years. each time, it was accepted on a bipar- new training center at Fort Bragg, NC, In 2000, border agencies reported tisan basis as necessary, legitimate, to provide top-notch training and pre- more than 1.6 million apprehensions. and in defense of our national inter- vent injuries among our special oper- In 2017, the agency reported just ests. What President Trump did was ations forces. They are using old ware- 303,916 apprehensions, one-fifth of the different. For the last 2 years, he has house right now. Are we really going to level just two decades ago. struggled to fulfill a campaign prom- tell our military that their needs are It is clear that investments in border ise, so when he didn’t get his way, he being put on hold so the President can security have worked. Those include created a fake crisis and declared a fulfill his campaign promise to build a additional border patrol agents, fenc- phony emergency. wall? I hope those aren’t our priorities. ing in urban areas, ground sensors, The good news is that the American In addition, the President also an- drones, and increased use of E-Verify. people aren’t buying it. A poll con- nounced that he would take $2.5 billion In addition, since 2014, two-thirds of ducted earlier this month by in other military funds for his wall. undocumented immigrants have come Quinnipiac University found that 66 The Pentagon tells me that they may to the United States legally but then percent of voters oppose the Presi- take some of this money from excess overstayed their visas, more than dent’s end-run around Congress and op- military pay and pensions. Meanwhile, 500,000 per year. A border wall would do pose his fake emergency declaration. each of the military services—Army, nothing to curb visa overstays. Newspapers around the country have Air Force, Navy, and Marines—have Dangerous criminals aren’t over- concluded the same thing. The Tampa met with me to discuss a long list of running our country. Bay Times editorial board said it clear- urgent, last-minute needs, but with $2.5 Immigrants commit fewer crimes ly a few days after the President’s an- billion being diverted for the wall, than native-born citizens. Data col- nouncement, ‘‘Border wall is no emer- none of those leaders were able to say lected in Texas show the arrest rate for gency.’’ In their words, ‘‘It is not a na- whether or not they would get the undocumented immigrants in 2015 was tional emergency just because Presi- funding they need. 40 percent lower than for the native- dent Donald Trump didn’t get his Last year, Hurricane Florence dam- born population. way.’’ aged 800 buildings at Camp Lejeune, Additionally, many immigrants are West Virginia’s Herald Dispatch New River, and Cherry Point, causing actually legally seeking asylum newspaper concludes much the same, $3.6 billion in damage from wind and through the process already in place. urging the President to ‘‘take a real- flood waters. A similar hurricane lev- There are often families with young

VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Mar 15, 2019 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A14MR6.005 S14MRPT1 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with SENATE March 14, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1881 children fleeing persecution and vio- border wall that won’t stop drugs or The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without lence in Central America who have a crossings is the pots of money from objection, it is so ordered. legal right to petition our government which he is drawing. Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you, Mr. for asylum. First, the White House said it would President. Under current law, they can apply for pull $2.5 billion from a counter- Today, the Senate will vote on the asylum by presenting themselves at a narcotics program that is used to sup- resolution to terminate the President’s U.S. port of entry. Unfortunately, by port international law enforcement declaration of a national emergency. focusing on a border wall instead of in- interdiction and apprehension efforts, Let me begin with a quotation. vesting in modernizing entry points, as well as to fund National Guard sup- Revelations of how power has been abused President Trump’s policies force many port for State drug law enforcement by high government officials must give rise of these families to turn themselves operations, including in California. to concern about the potential exercise, un- into Border Patrol in between ports Second, the White House said it checked by the Congress or the American would take another $3.5 billion from people, of this extraordinary power. The Na- and ask for asylum or wait for long pe- tional Emergencies Act would end this riods in Mexico in dangerous condi- military construction projects. These are programs that actually threat and ensure that the powers now in the tions. help improve our national security, hands of the Executive will be utilized only The timing of the President’s dec- in a time of genuine emergency and then and the President wants to take bil- laration also undercuts his claim that only under safeguards providing for congres- lions of dollars from them to build a this is an emergency. sional review. wall—incredible. President Trump kicked off his Pres- The long-term danger here is that Let me repeat that. ‘‘[T]he powers idential campaign nearly 4 years ago President Trump will set a precedent now in the hands of the Executive will by claiming that immigrants were that a Commander in Chief can inter- be utilized only in a time of genuine bringing drugs and crime to the United pret the Nation’s laws and the Con- emergency.’’ That is from the special States. Despite this, he decided to wait stitution any way he wants. This can’t committee report on the National until more than halfway through his be allowed to stand. Emergencies Act, which was passed term to declare his emergency and only The National Emergencies Act of 1976 decades ago. then after Congress refused to give him does allow the President to reprogram The bottom line is very simple. We the money he wanted. funds appropriated by Congress in case all know the other arguments—that If there were truly an emergency, the of a national emergency, like a hurri- this is not an emergency. The Presi- President should have declared it on cane or earthquake, but it is clear that dent himself said so. He said he didn’t day 1. He did not. the law was never intended to be used have to do this if he didn’t want to. In Trump also emphatically rejected a to explicitly overrule the will of Con- previous emergencies, it was either ap- bill that would have given him $25 bil- gress, which is how President Trump parent, like 9/11, or it was a disease or lion for a border wall in exchange for wants to use it. some other immediate disaster, and providing Dreamers a path to citizen- During the Korean war, the Supreme there was a long explanation as to why. ship. Clearly, there was no emergency Court struck down a similar attempt We have gotten no explanation as to then either. by President Truman to use emergency why this is an emergency. But the most clear statement that powers to seize privately owned steel The second reason, of course, is the there is no emergency came from mills, an action inconsistent with laws money that might be taken away from President Trump himself, who after de- passed by Congress. the military—our brave men and claring the emergency, said this in a Even if there were an emergency— women in uniform not getting the dol- Rose Garden speech: ‘‘I didn’t need to which there isn’t—President Trump lars they need—for this wall. do this, but I’d rather do it much fast- still wouldn’t have the authority to re- The third, of course, is that the er.’’ program Federal funds in this context. President couldn’t get his way through We shouldn’t judge the President’s Specifically, the statute that Presi- Congress even when we had 2 years of attempt to divert appropriated funds to dent Trump relies on, 10 U.S.C. § 2808, Republican leadership in the House, his border wall through a partisan lens, allows the President, in a national Senate, and White House, couldn’t get but rather view it as a radical depar- emergency that ‘‘requires the use of his way this time, and is now simply ture from our constitutional separa- the armed forces,’’ to spend unobli- going around Congress to declare an tion of powers. gated military construction funds for emergency. Through its appropriations clause, military construction projects ‘‘that But those reasons pale for the most the Constitution provides Congress, are necessary to support . . . use of the important reason. This is a momentous not the President, with the power of armed forces.’’ day. The balance of power that the the purse. Congress decides how to The situation at the border does not Founding Fathers put in place, so ex- spend taxpayer dollars. ‘‘require the use of the armed forces,’’ quisitely designed, has served this Na- By providing Congress with this and it is unclear how the wall would be tion extremely well for over two cen- power, our Founding Fathers imposed a ‘‘necessary to support’’ them. turies. That balance of power was in If anything, the President’s use of key check on the President, a check large part motivated by the fear of an the military at the border to enforce that President Trump is trying to do overreaching Executive. The patriots the law raises additional questions away with. had just fought King George. They under the Posse Comitatus Act, which Congress exercised its power of the knew what it was like to have an Exec- has prohibited the use of the Armed purse last month in a spending bill to utive who would go too far, and they Forces for domestic law enforcement keep the government open by including put in precautions to make sure that for well over a century. $1.35 billion for border barriers, rather In sum, President Trump is relying didn’t happen. than the $6 billion the President on an incredibly frail legal argument Today, we are being asked, in a way sought for a border wall. to justify this blatant power grab. It is that we haven’t been asked in decades, The Constitution gave the President incumbent upon Congress to hold this maybe even longer, to change that bal- two options at that point: sign the bill President accountable as he attempts ance of power. And make no mistake or veto it. President Trump tried to to seize one of our most important about it—it will set an awful precedent create a third path, saying he would powers. for the future, no matter who is Presi- sign the bill but still divert additional I urge my colleagues to support this dent. It will change it. If a President Federal dollars to the wall, his so- resolution of disapproval and cancel can invoke an emergency because he called emergency. President Trump’s phony emergency. didn’t get his way or she didn’t get her In essence, the President decided to Thank you. way, without real cause, without a real violate the Constitution so he could The PRESIDING OFFICER. The emergency, woe is our Republic in more quickly fulfill a campaign prom- Democratic leader. many ways—the ways the Founding ise to build his border wall. Mr. SCHUMER. We have 1 minute re- Fathers feared. One of the ironies of President maining, I think. I ask unanimous con- I know this is a very difficult vote for Trump’s decision to divert funds to a sent to speak in leader time. my friends on the other side of the

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I Braun Graham Roberts take my hat off to those Members on Burr Grassley Rounds Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I Capito Hawley the other side of the aisle who have let Sasse send a cloture motion to the desk. Cassidy Hoeven Scott (FL) The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clo- principle rise above party, who under- Cornyn Hyde-Smith Scott (SC) Cotton Inhofe ture motion having been presented stand what the Constitution requires Shelby Cramer Isakson under rule XXII, the Chair directs the Sullivan this afternoon and have agreed to vote Crapo Johnson Thune clerk to read the motion. against this emergency. Cruz Kennedy The legislative clerk read as follows: I would plead with those others who Daines Lankford Tillis Enzi McConnell Young CLOTURE MOTION haven’t made up their minds to look at We, the undersigned Senators, in accord- this moment in history. This is not an The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 46) ance with the provisions of rule XXII of the immediate moment. You can be for the was passed. Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby wall or against the wall, you can think The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ma- move to bring to a close debate on the mo- that what we are doing at the southern jority leader. tion to proceed to Calendar No. 27, S.J. Res. 8, a joint resolution recognizing the duty of border is inadequate, but that issue f pales before the issue before us; that is, the Federal Government to create a Green how far an Executive can reach when EXECUTIVE SESSION New Deal. Mitch McConnell, David Perdue, John Congress does not want to do what that Boozman, Johnny Isakson, John Cor- Executive wants. EXECUTIVE CALENDAR nyn, Pat Roberts, Mike Crapo, Thom This is a crucial moment. This is a Tillis, Mike Rounds, Roger F. Wicker, moment historians will look back on. Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I John Thune, Richard Burr, Steve This could be a moment that changes move to proceed to executive session to Daines, John Hoeven, John Barrasso, the fundamental balance of power in consider Calendar No. 20. James E. Risch, Roy Blunt. our government. So I would ask my The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Mr. MCCONNELL. I withdraw the colleagues—I would really plead with question is on the motion. motion to proceed. my colleagues. I understand the poli- The motion was agreed to. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- tics are difficult—much harder for you The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ator has that right. than for me—but our Nation, our Con- clerk will report the nomination. f stitution, the beauty of this govern- The legislative clerk read the nomi- SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ment demands that we rise to the occa- nation of Bridget S. Bade, of Arizona, ACT, 2019—Motion to Proceed sion this afternoon. Please join us in to be United States Circuit Judge for rejecting this emergency and keeping the Ninth Circuit. Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 15, our government with the same balance CLOTURE MOTION of power that has served us so well for H.R. 268. Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I The PRESIDING OFFICER. The two centuries. send a cloture motion to the desk. clerk will report the motion. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clo- The legislative clerk read as follows: The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under ture motion having been presented Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 15, H.R. the previous order, all time has ex- under rule XXII, the Chair directs the 268, a bill making supplemental appropria- pired. clerk to read the motion. tions for the fiscal year ending September 30, The joint resolution was ordered to a The legislative clerk read as follows: 2019, and for other purposes. third reading and was read the third CLOTURE MOTION CLOTURE MOTION time. We, the undersigned Senators, in accord- Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I The PRESIDING OFFICER. The joint ance with the provisions of rule XXII of the send a cloture motion to the desk. resolution having been read the third Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clo- time, the question is, Shall the joint move to bring to a close debate on the nomi- ture motion having been presented resolution pass? nation of Bridget S. Bade, of Arizona, to be under rule XXII, the Chair directs the Mr. CARDIN. I ask for the yeas and United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth clerk to read the motion. nays. Circuit. The legislative clerk read as follows: Mitch McConnell, David Perdue, Roy CLOTURE MOTION The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a Blunt, John Cornyn, Joni Ernst, We, the undersigned Senators, in accord- sufficient second? Lindsey Graham, John Boozman, Mike ance with the provisions of rule XXII of the There appears to be a sufficient sec- Rounds, Thom Tillis, Steve Daines, Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby James E. Risch, John Hoeven, Mike ond. move to bring to a close debate on the mo- Crapo, Shelley Moore Capito, John The clerk will call the roll. tion to proceed to Calendar No. 15, H.R. 268, Thune, Pat Roberts, Jerry Moran. The bill clerk called the roll. making supplemental appropriations for the The result was announced—yeas 59, f fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for nays 41, as follows: other purposes. LEGISLATIVE SESSION Mitch McConnell, David Perdue, John [Rollcall Vote No. 49 Leg.] Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I Boozman, Johnny Isakson, John Cor- YEAS—59 move to proceed to legislative session. nyn, Pat Roberts, Mike Crapo, Thom Alexander Feinstein Moran The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Tillis, Roger F. Wicker, John Thune, Baldwin Gillibrand Murkowski Richard Burr, Steve Daines, John Bennet Harris Murphy question is on agreeing to the motion. Hoeven, James E. Risch, Roy Blunt, Blumenthal Hassan Murray The motion was agreed to. Susan M. Collins, Lisa Murkowski. Blunt Heinrich Paul Booker Hirono Peters f Mr. MCCONNELL. I ask unanimous Brown Jones Portman consent that the mandatory quorum RECOGNIZING THE DUTY OF THE Cantwell Kaine Reed calls for the cloture motions be waived. Cardin King Romney FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO CRE- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without Carper Klobuchar Rosen ATE A GREEN NEW DEAL—Motion Casey Leahy Rubio objection, it is so ordered. Collins Lee Sanders to Proceed The Senator from Nebraska. Coons Manchin Schatz Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I NEBRASKA’S BOMB CYCLONE Cortez Masto Markey Schumer Duckworth Menendez Shaheen move to proceed to Calendar No. 27, Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I Durbin Merkley Sinema S.J. Res. 8. would first like to address the harsh

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