Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act--Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I have come to this floor several times over the past many years and several times even recently to talk about a bill that Senator Hassan and I have together that we have worked on very hard to end government shutdown threats forever.

This whole conversation that is happening right now in Washington, DC, about a government shutdown is not something that has always happened in our Republic. This conversation of a government shutdown has only really been since the mid-1980s to the present. Before that, there were no government shutdowns. Even when appropriations lapsed-- and we had multiple times when appropriations lapsed in the past--we didn't have government shutdowns at that time. It wasn't until there was actually an executive opinion back in the seventies that there was created this moment to say, no, we are going to end up having a government shutdown if appropriations lapse.

We are in this moment again. This is a distinctly modern issue in American history that we need to bring to a close, this chapter. There is a way to do it.

In conversations that we have had for years of how do we actually stop government shutdowns, there have been very partisan bills on both sides, and Senator Hassan and I sat down 5 years ago and said: Let's just have a dialogue. How can we stop government shutdowns without having a partisan bill at the end of it? It would be a way to be able to fix this that both sides of the aisle can say: That is a good way to be able to end it.

We have a very simple goal: End government shutdowns. Do appropriations bills.

That shouldn't be a radical concept. That should be a head nod from everybody, quite frankly, in this room to say: Sure, we can agree to end government shutdowns and to do appropriations bills on time.

Our simple idea was this: If you don't finish your work during class, you have to stay after class to finish your work. It is just not that hard. It is something all of us experienced growing up in school.

If I can make it even simpler, when my older brother and I would get into an argument, my mom would put the two of us in a room and would say: You two guys have got to go in this room. Once you solve everything, then you can come out.

That is the genesis of this simple bill. It says: If we don't have our appropriations work done and we are still arguing about appropriations, the government continues to function as it has in the past year--exact same budget line. Everything continues as normal. The American people are held harmless. Federal workers, Federal contractors--all of them--still continue as they have.

But we experience the shutdown here in Washington, DC, not the rest of the country. We would be in session 7 days a week. We could not move the bills other than the appropriations bills. So we are locked in a box to say: If you haven't finished your appropriations bills, you have to stay overtime to finish those appropriations bills, and you can't move to something different than appropriations bills. You have got to be able to do those.

But, again, the American people wouldn't feel it. The Federal workers wouldn't feel it. The Federal contractors wouldn't feel it. We would.

If we didn't get our work done, why are the Border Patrol agents along the border--why are they being punished for us not getting our work done, because the Border Patrol agents, if we don't get this done, next week, they don't get a paycheck, when they have been working overtime hours managing 11,000 people a day coming across the border in chaos that is currently on our border. Those folks have been working as hard as they can, but because we haven't gotten our work done on the budgeting, now they don't get paid. Oh, but we are still asking them to go on the line and to risk their life for their country anyway. That doesn't make sense to me.

So our simple bill is: If the problem is up here, then the problem should remain up here, and we should get this resolved but not actually put the consequences on those folks who are serving us all around the Nation.

As I came through TSA, flying back to DC, as probably most of my colleagues did coming back this week, TSA agents whom I pass by every week--and we have great conversation as I pass by them in the airport every week. As my bag is being checked and as I am going through the scanner, like everyone else, the TSA agents were smiling at me saying: Am I going to get a paycheck next week?

It is not an unreasonable question from them. All they want to know is: I am here defending the Nation. Am I still going to get paid?

Listen, right now on the border--right now--they are being absolutely overrun with people coming across the border in big numbers--huge, overwhelming numbers. It used to be a thousand people a day. That was an overwhelming number. Yesterday, there were 11,000 people who crossed our southern border. They were literally just checked in, as much as could be done to be able to manage them and to be able to put them through.

If we have a shutdown, they are going to lose some of their support help, and we are going to have even more people come just across the border.

Here is what is happening. Anytime that the Border Patrol actually comes in and checks in, they are trying to manage the number of people coming between the borders. With the numbers that are coming across right now, those Border Patrol agents who should be in the field--who should actually be monitoring what is happening with the movement of illegal drugs across our border, illegal weapons across our border, and all the dynamics that are there from criminal elements moving across our border between ports of entry--they are not getting the opportunity to be able to chase those down because they are processing individuals.

The vast majority of our Border Patrol agents, by the end of their time each day, are in the station, not on the line. That only gets worse when we have a shutdown, and they lose part of their help.

By the way, during a shutdown, ``nonessential'' is also declared for the recruiting folks, which means we are not out there actually recruiting more agents to be able to join them to be able to get more help. There are more and more administrative duties being done by Border Patrol that we desperately need on the line. And we are grateful for them on the line.

Last week, I got a notification that rail traffic had stopped in Eagle Pass, TX. Most folks don't even know about the truck and train traffic that happens around the country. They just know they go to the grocery store, and they buy groceries. They go to the store and buy clothes and furniture. They just know it is there. But that is being moved by a truckdriver. That is being moved by rail very often.

Last week, in Eagle Pass, TX, DHS shut down all rail traffic there because a thousand migrants were riding the Mexican rail coming up through Mexico. They had climbed on the freight trains, and they were riding it all the way to the north--a thousand. But the response from DHS was just to shut the station down entirely. Then they took the CBP folks who are at that station and normally handle legal traffic coming north and south in and out of Mexico into the United States and out of the United States to Mexico. They took those CBP agents, and they moved them over to driving migrants to different stations for their processing.

So it started out that there were a lot of folks riding the rails to be able to come to the United States, and it ended up being that we have so many people here that they literally shut it down.

What was the effect of that? We had American train traffic going south into Mexico that was backed up from Eagle Pass all the way to Nebraska, before it was said and done.

I was on the phone with Secretary Mayorkas saying: We have to get that station back open again. Do we have people illegally crossing the border riding the rails?

And his answer was: No. But those agents were needed to be able to move migrants who were illegally crossing in other areas.

The migration that is happening right now is not only affecting our national security because of the 11,000 people a day who are crossing our border. Those individuals, by and large, are not being checked. They are not being vetted. We are checking to see if they are on the terror watch list. For many of them, we don't have a name or an ID or a reliable country of origin other than the one they just tell us is their name or tell us is their country of origin. We have no idea.

They are being quickly paroled into the country, awaiting a hearing that is often 8 to 10 years in the future--8 to 10 years before they even get the hearing to determine if they are even eligible to be able to ask for asylum. This is insanity.

But it doesn't get better if Border Patrol loses all of its help during the government shutdown. It gets worse.

So we have got to be able to do a couple of things at once. We have to deal with the real fiscal problems that we have. We have over $2 trillion in overspending this year. That is a real issue we should have grownup conversations about on this floor.

We have to deal with the immigration crisis and call it what it is. When 11,000 people a day illegally enter your country and Members of this body just look the other way, that is a problem. And when there is a national security crisis based on it, and we have Governors and mayors across the Nation crying out to this body and saying, ``Make it stop''--they are not Republican and Democrat Governors and mayors; they are just Governors and mayors who are trying to manage their towns and their States. They are saying: Why isn't the Federal Government doing its job? The Federal Government has a responsibility for managing the border. Do it.

We have got to deal with the issue of government shutdowns. They hurt us more than help us. It spends more money than it saves, and it dramatically affects a lot of Federal workers around the country who just want to be able to serve their neighbors or to be able to do law enforcement and actually get paid for it.

And I hear some of my colleagues and others say: They will eventually get paid.

Do you know what? That might be simple for some Members in this body, that they are not worried about living paycheck to paycheck. But there are an awful lot of folks who live paycheck to paycheck, that just missing a couple of paychecks is a really big deal. And all of those Federal contractors, they don't get backpay. They just don't get paid at all.

So we can't just say: They will all get paid later. They won't. Federal workers will eventually get backpay, but Federal contractors never do, and it really hurts for them. This shutdown is not their fault; it is ours.

So Maggie Hassan and I just have a simple idea: Let's keep working on the problems, but let's not have a shutdown at the same time. Let's actually work out our problems in here and not hurt people all over the country who have no way of affecting what our debate is here. They are just trying to serve their neighbors. That is what I am looking for.

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