Speech #CREC-2018-01-18-pt1-PgS266_t0

Now, Mr. President, on an urgent matter, Congress is fast approaching our Friday deadline to fund the government. The choice before us is quite simple: We can pass a noncontroversial, bipartisan bill to keep the government open, or Democrats in Congress can manufacture a crisis and force a government shutdown over the entirely unrelated issue of illegal immigration, which we have until March, at the very least, to resolve. Leaders in both parties have engaged in constructive talks on the best solution for those who fall under the Obama administration's illegally established DACA Program, along with other important immigration issues. The President has made it clear that any immigration bill must not only treat the symptoms of illegal immigration but also address the conditions that cause it. His four pillars for reform are increasing border security, reforming chain migration, resolving the DACA issue, and addressing the visa lottery. Those are the four pillars. My position is straightforward. When negotiators produce a compromise that the President supports, it will receive a vote here in the Senate. No such solution yet exists, so the negotiations continue. The DACA issue does not face urgent deadlines until March at the very earliest. Our deadline to fund the government is tomorrow. One is an emergency, and one is not.