McConnell on Emergency Funding for Border Crisis: We Must Pass This Measure This Week
‘…the House has not made much progress toward actually making a law… The Senate has a better and more bipartisan way forward. The bill negotiated by Chairman Shelby and Senator Leahy won huge bipartisan support in committee. It’s a productive compromise that would go a long way to begin addressing the border crisis. No poison pills; just a clean bill to provide the emergency appropriations the White House requested two months ago. We have waited long enough to act.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the humanitarian crisis at our southern border:
“First and foremost, the American people are continuing to hear elected officials talk a great deal about the humanitarian and security crisis on the southern border. Both sides of the aisle have talked a lot about this issue for the past two months. Here’s the difference: It’s Republicans who’ve actually supported giving the administration and the agencies the emergency funding they have begged for. Republicans have raised the alarm about the conditions on the border and have actually wanted to do something about it.
“Our Democratic colleagues have talked a lot about the issue, too. But for weeks and weeks, talk is all the House of Representatives has been willing to do. House Democrats have been consistently uncooperative and uninterested in anything except political posturing. They have talked endlessly about the suffering at the border but have resisted every effort to actually make a law and get help on the way.
“For eight weeks now, the men and women and children on our southern border have learned the hard way that ‘the Resistance’ does not pay the bills. The New York Times editorial board, of all places, wrote seven weeks ago, quote, ‘Congress, give Trump his border money.’ But week after week, from the House, nothing. First they objected to including the funding in the disaster bill. And now that they’ve finally passed something last night, it’s a go-nowhere proposal filled with poison-pill riders which the president would veto.
“They had to drag their bill way to the left to earn the support of most Democrats. As a result the House has not made much progress toward actually making a law. Just more ‘Resistance theater.’ The Senate has a better and more bipartisan way forward. The bill negotiated by Chairman Shelby and Senator Leahy won huge bipartisan support in committee. It’s a productive compromise that would go a long way to begin addressing the border crisis. No poison pills; just a clean bill to provide the emergency appropriations the White House requested two months ago. We have waited long enough to act. We should not wait any longer. We must pass this measure this week.”
Related Issues: Immigration, Homeland Security
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