Urgent Need to Address Crisis at Our Southern Border
‘Senate Republicans will not be deterred. The crisis at the border hasn’t gone anywhere and neither has our resolve to address it. Next week, the Senate will move forward. The Appropriations Committee will vote again. And I hope Democrats in the House of Representatives will finally, finally realize that “The Resistance” doesn’t pay the bills. No more political posturing. No more automatic, knee-jerk opposition to absolutely everything the administration asks for. It is way past time for action.
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:
“All this week, I’ve been calling attention to the fact that Democrats in the House have spent six weeks ignoring the urgent need for more funding for the crisis on our southern border. I have recited one quotation after another from the administration leaders who are responsible for securing our nation and caring for individuals while they’re detained. They’re pleading with Congress to act.
“‘We are at a full-blown emergency… the system is broken.’ That’s the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. ‘We are running out of money. We are functionally out of space.’ That one’s from the Secretary of Health and Human Services. I’ve also run down the underlying statistics. The flood of people attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border has continued at historic levels. Our border agents are overwhelmed. Our facilities are filled beyond capacity — in some cases, with more than seven times more men, women, and children than their intended capacity. Seven times more than their intended capacity.
“This is a full-fledged crisis and everybody knows it. The status quo cannot hold. Already, the Department of Homeland Security is having to move people and money away from other important efforts to triage more help toward the border. The administration has been saying this is a crisis. The officials on the ground have been saying this is a crisis. My Republican colleagues and I have been saying this is a crisis.
“And lest anyone think this is some partisan exercise, the New York Times editorial board has been saying it’s a crisis. Two editorials over the last several weeks: ‘Congress, Give Trump His Border Money.’ And ‘When Will Congress Get Serious About the Suffering at the Border?’ Those are headlines in the New York Times – not frequently allied with this administration. Everyone seems to understand this – except Democrats over in the House.
“It’s not like our House colleagues are too busy working on pragmatic, bipartisan legislation with any shot at becoming law. No, here’s what they’re up to: One House committee spent yesterday holding a hearing on pathways to single-payer health insurance. In other words, barking up the tree of ‘Medicare for None,’ their big proposal to take away every American’s private health insurance, take away Medicare as we know it, and force everyone into a new, untested, one-size-fits-all government system. That’s what they’re up to over there. That’s the score. They have no time for the border crisis, but plenty of time for socialist daydreams.
“Even my colleague the Democratic Leader has admitted the Democrat-controlled House is the problem here. We’ve even heard it from House Democrats themselves. One told reporters that his progressive colleagues weren’t convinced the emergency funding was necessary. So it seems ‘The Resistance’ has convinced Washington D.C. Democrats that they need to come down to the left of the New York Times editorial page. There’s not much space to the left of the New York Times editorial page.
“But Senate Republicans will not be deterred. The crisis at the border hasn’t gone anywhere and neither has our resolve to address it. Next week, the Senate will move forward. The Appropriations Committee will vote again. And I hope Democrats in the House of Representatives will finally, finally realize that ‘The Resistance’ doesn’t pay the bills. No more political posturing. No more automatic, knee-jerk opposition to absolutely everything the administration asks for. It is way past time for action.”
Related Issues: Homeland Security, Immigration
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