Speech #1140007196

Mr. President. the distinguished majority leader has stated that it is possible within the procedures of this Senate to pass a homeland security bill. as negotiated by our Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairsand I see the able head of the subcommittee here on the floor. the Senator from New Hampshireand then move to immigration and bring it to the floor. So all of his arguments that we are afraid to debate immigration. that we dont want to debate immigration are false. There is not one choice. there are two. One is to debate immigration fully and openly. The other is to a play a game of hostage. to say: We are kidnapping Homeland Security. and now lets have a debate on how much the ransom should be. No one in America wants us to legislate that way. I know my colleagues in the Senate didnt do that. It was the House that did it. led by thinking by the junior Senator from Texas. His view. as I have heard him say. is that what the President did on immigration is so awful that we should shut down the Department of Homeland Security as a way of forcing the President to go along with what the junior Senator from Texas wants. When are our colleagues on the other side of the aisle going to learn? They followed Senator CRuz a year and a half ago when he wanted to shut down the government over ObamaCare.