SCHUMER. Madam President, we Democrats sent a letter to our
Republican colleagues laying out our principles on appropriations so
that Republicans would know exactly where we stand and we could avoid
the possibility of their shutting down the government. We have three
principles: relief from damaging sequestration cuts, parity between
defense and jobs and economic growth funding, and no poison pill
riders, like the ineffective border wall. These are the same principles
we laid out during the last budget negotiation, which resulted in a
strong and bipartisan package. But on Tuesday--which is why I am on the floor speaking--the House
Appropriations Committee released a draft of its Homeland Security
bill, which includes funding for an unnecessary, ineffective, and
expensive border wall with Mexico, paid for by American taxpayers,
breaking the President's promise, repeatedly given, that Mexico would
pay for it. The bill also funds an unacceptable deportation force and
unnecessary detention beds. The President's budget calls for funding a new eminent domain strike
force--a team of Trump lawyers that the administration wants to send to
the border to take private land away from the American people to build
this wall. This proposal has met with stiff resistance from homeowners
living in border communities.
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