Thune: Democrats Hit New Low on Their DHS Shutdown

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Thune's remarks below (as delivered):

"Mr. President, in just a moment I'm going to move to proceed to a piece of legislation that we have voted on a number of times already, and that is a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security.

"This is now the [25th] day of the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

"And it follows the Democrat shutdown last fall that went for 43 days of virtually the entire government; this applies to Department of Homeland Security.

"And so here we are, 25 days into another government shutdown instigated by Democrats because they want, I guess, changes made to the bill.

"Although it's very hard to know what that is, because at this point they refuse even to meet to talk about this.

"Now, Mr. President, remember how this all began.

"The Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill was negotiated by both the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, and it passed out of the House of Representatives.

"So it comes over here to the Senate, a bill negotiated by Democrats in the Senate, along with our Republican colleagues on our side, and our colleagues in the House of Representatives, and the White House.

"So we had an agreed-upon Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill.

"And then what happened?

"Well, the Democrats decided they didn't like that bill anymore, decided to walk away from it, wanted to renegotiate it - after all that negotiation.

"Which included, I might add, reforms that they had requested specifically as they apply to ICE, including body cameras.

"$20 million in there for body cameras. Deescalation training. Additional oversight of ICE activities. A whole range of things were included in the base bill.

"It's the bill that we will be voting on later this week again … unless they decide to actually come to the table and negotiate.

"So it had all that input from Republicans, Democrats, reforms requested by Democrats, passed out of the House, comes over here to be picked up and passed by the Senate.

"Senate Democrats say, 'Oops, sorry. We're not for this anymore. We want to renegotiate.'

"So in that context, the White House and Senate Republicans have made good-faith efforts to submit proposals, additional ideas that the Democrats had put on their long wish list, which was about 15 items, some of which were not doable.

"I mean, there are certain things on there, obviously - any time you're trying to negotiate a deal, you're not going to get everything you want, right?

"Well, the Democrats had a long list of things, demands that they had wanted, and so Republicans agreed to sit down.

"The White House, to their credit, has submitted now multiple efforts.

"The most recent one has not been responded to by the Senate Democrats.

"But what makes this even more stark, Mr. President, is you have now agencies of government with employees who aren't going to get paid that perform important national security functions.

"Cyber, cybersecurity - you think that's not a problem in a dangerous world?

"Border Patrol! Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol - they're not getting paid.

"TSA. People are starting to travel. They're hitting the airport, and the lines are getting longer and longer and longer.

"Coast Guard, FEMA.

"FEMA, the agency that responds to disasters around this country and has virtually run out of money, is also part of the bill that the Democrats are holding up.

"Now, Mr. President, all that is bad enough, and, frankly, shameful, if you think about it, given what's at stake for this country and for our national security, for our border security, for security in our communities, for disaster assistance, for our cybersecurity.

"Those are all things, Mr. President, that aren't being funded because of the Democrat shutdown, which is bad in and of itself.

"What makes it even worse is they are now saying they don't even want to sit down and talk.

"Overtures were made yesterday to the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"Countless overtures have been made to the Democrat leadership.

"And they have basically said, 'Sorry, we don't want to talk.'

"So here we are, in the [25th] day, now, of a government shutdown instigated by Democrats after they had agreed to the very bill that they are now opposing, and are now opposing even sitting down and talking and negotiating on the things they say they want!

"Explain that one.

"Mr. President, this is borderline obnoxious.

"This is indefensible, it is unjustifiable, and there are American people who are going to hurt as a result of this.

"And those already who work at these agencies - some 120,000 at one agency alone - that aren't going to get paid, who perform critical security missions for this country to keep the American people safe.

"I don't get it. I really don't.

"You want reforms? Our side, the White House have been willing to sit down, have given a number of the suggestions the Democrats had, in addition to the things that were in the original bill that they had negotiated and agreed to - which included reforms, like I said.

"$20 million for body cameras, deescalation training, oversight of ICE.

"There have been a number of additional things the White House has been willing to work with the Democrats on.

"Tom Homan, who's been sort of on the lead in terms of what's going on out there as far as the enforcement issue is concerned, has offered up himself and been willing to talk about some of these requests that Democrats have.

"But frankly, Mr. President, it's hard to get to a solution when you have one party that refuses to even sit down and talk.

"This is kind of a new low, really.

"There are certain things the American people, I think, expect of their elected officials, one of which is to continue the basic functioning of the government.

"Funding government agencies, especially government agencies that have critical national security missions.

"What makes it even worse, Mr. President, is we have tried now on countless occasions to buy additional time to allow for the negotiations to continue and to fund those agencies at least temporarily until there is a permanent solution in place.

"We have now twice come down here on the floor and asked for a continuing resolution - continuing resolution meaning a funding mechanism that will allow these agencies to function and these employees to get paid until such time as there actually is an agreement - and they have objected to that both times.

"So we're going to try again. I'm going to move to reconsider, and we will have another opportunity to vote on that proposal, the original proposal negotiated by House and Senate Democrats and Republicans - unless, between now and the time we vote on this, they decide to engage in conversations and discussions, and we do arrive at some agreement that would enable us to actually fund the government and perhaps include some of the things that the Democrats want included.

"But you can't do that if you're not at the table.

"You can't do that if it's a one-sided negotiation.

"And it's pretty clear at this point that that's what we're talking about here.

"There's no question, Mr. President, about you know, sometimes there is some, 'Who's shutting down the government?'

"My impression, in this case at least, is that the Democrats view this as a political issue and some sort of a political winner for them.

"Otherwise, I can't explain why - why - they won't even sit down at the table and negotiate.

"Not about politics, Mr. President.

"This is people's lives we're talking about.

"These are jobs.

"These are livelihoods.

"These are families.

"And the mission - which is protecting the American people keeping this country safe and secure - there is no higher one.

"You want to shut down Department of Homeland Security, the department that is tasked with defending the homeland?

"Those people aren't getting paid, those programs aren't getting funded, and those functions aren't being performed by the people that we asked to do that job."

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