Jan 24

Senator Kamala Harris Statement Opposing Stopgap Spending Bill


Senator Kamala Harris Statement Opposing Stopgap Spending Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2018
CONTACT: Tyrone Gayle, 202-897-6212

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement today on her vote against the motion to invoke cloture on the stopgap spending bill:

“Our government made a promise to our Dreamers and it is long past time that we kept that promise. These are young people who are Americans in every respect except on paper. They have been waiting far too long to live securely in the only place they have ever called home.

“The Majority Leader’s comments last night fell far short of the ironclad guarantee I needed to support a stopgap spending bill. I refuse to put the lives of nearly 700,000 young people in the hands of someone who has repeatedly gone back on his word. I will do everything in my power to continue to protect Dreamers from deportation.

“It is also time that we stop governing from crisis to crisis and ensure that priorities critical to Californians are funded for the future. I will continue to work with my colleagues to find a long-term solution that supports members of our military and national security priorities, funds children’s health insurance and community health centers, provides resources for those recovering from disasters like the California wildfires, and guarantees a future for young immigrants who are as American as all of us.”

Jan 24

California Democratic Party Statement on the Vote to End the Shutdown

When Congressional Republicans shut down the government, their goal was clear: use the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as leverage to destroy any compromise on protecting Dreamers. Despite widespread, bipartisan support among everyday Americans for preserving both the DACA and CHIP programs, the GOP showed the world that its priority is pandering to its xenophobic base. 

As California Democrats, our goal is also clear: we refuse to trade children’s healthcare for humane treatment of our Dreamers. That’s what being an effective and principled opposition to Trump and the GOP looks like.  We are proud that our leadership here in Sacramento has taken this responsibility seriously, passing tough protections for our communities and our environment and pledging to fight the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back hard-won progressive victories. 

But we also need strong leadership from Democrats in Washington. Unfortunately, today Senate Minority Leader Schumer gave the GOP exactly what they wanted, and despite strong opposition from both Californians in the Senate, made a deal with one of the most unstable and incompetent GOP teams in American history. Without securing an agreement to protect Dreamers, Schumer’s deal kicks the fiscal can down the street to another inevitable showdown in February.  We don’t trust Mitch McConnell, and we don’t trust Donald Trump.

Lets stand together as Californians and demand that legislation preserving DACA be part of any future reconciliation agreement in Washington. All governance takes compromise, but it cannot be on the backs of hard-working young people who have broken no laws and are asking only for an equal shot at the American dream.  

Call Senator Schumer and tell him that California Democrats are united behind Dreamers and want leadership in Washington that shares that commitment.     

Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer
Washington, DC Office Phone:
(202) 224-6542 

In Solidarity,

Daraka Larimore-Hall, Vice Chair
California Democratic Party

Jan 22

Duckworth slams Trump: I won’t be lectured on military needs by a ‘five-deferment draft dodger’ | TheHill

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) tore into President Trump on the Senate floor Saturday, calling him a “five-deferment draft dodger” and slamming him for his comments toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.“Does he even know that there are service members who are in harm’s way right now, watching him, looking for their commander in chief to show leadership, rather than [trying] to deflect blame?” Duckworth said. “Or that his own Pentagon says that the short-term funding plans he seems intent on pushing is actually harmful to not just the military, but to our national security?”“I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible,” she continued. “Sadly, this is something that the current occupant of the Oval Office does not seem to care to do — and I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.”“And I have a message for cadet bone spurs: If you cared about our military, you’d stop baiting Kim Jong Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops, and millions of innocent civilians, in danger.”Duckworth, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, lost both of her legs when a rocket-propelled grenade shot down the helicopter she was piloting over Iraq in 2004. Duckworth’s comments come after the federal government shut down Friday at midnight after the Senate failed to pass a short-term funding bill.

Source: Duckworth slams Trump: I won’t be lectured on military needs by a ‘five-deferment draft dodger’ | TheHill

Jan 19

BREAKING: Republicans shut down the government

364 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes into the Trump Administration, the government shut down.

Just before midnight Friday, the Senate voted 50-49 on the continuing resolution to keep the government funded for a few more weeks (remember when we did this in December, too?). But this vote required 60 votes to pass — that means it failed because Republicans couldn’t put forth legislation that could pass with the required votes from Republicans and Democrats.

In the entire history of our country, the government has NEVER shut down when one party controlled the Congress and the White House. It’s called “governing,” and apparently the GOP government can’t do it.

How did we get here?

Trump launched an attack on Dreamers. In September, Trump announced he was unilaterally ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that provides deportation relief and job permits for 800,000 young immigrants after an extensive (and expensive!) application and vetting process. When he rescinded DACA, Trump created a crisis that only his party could fix.

A week later, Democratic leaders Pelosi and Schumer met with Trump to strike a deal to fund the government until December, promising that Dreamers would be protected by that time. No deal was passed to protect Dreamers at that time and they kicked the can to January.

Last week, Trump and other Republicans blew up an existing bipartisan agreement to avert a shutdown, in service to their most racist ideas about America. This happened just one day after Trump said he would sign whatever agreement Congress sent him. Not once in the ongoing budget negotiations did Republicans put forward legislation that could pass both of the chambers of Congress… that they control! It’s clear that after months of negotiations to protect Dreamers, Democrats are working with a President that is negotiating in bad faith.

Now that Republicans just shut down the government over Trump’s bigoted agenda, here’s what you can do to take action:

 

  1. Visit DreamerPledge.org to read Indivisible’s latest analysis. Find out if your members of Congress (MoCs) were Dream Heroes or Dream Killers tonight.
  2. Call your Senators using Indivisible’s toll-free line at 1-855-980-2355 . Use the Dream Hero call script if your Senator voted to protect Dreamers. And use the Dream Killer call script if your Senator voted to fund the government without protecting Dreamers. You’ll be prompted for your zip code and immediately connected to one of your Senators. Call back again and you’ll be connected to your other Senator!
  3. Chip in to support Indivisible’s organizing to hold Republicans who shut down the government accountable. 45 Republicans (5 Democrats!) sided with Trump’s racist agenda over 800,000 immigrant youth, the overwhelming majority of Americans who stand with Dreamers, and government employees who don’t know where their next paycheck will come from. Indivisibles are already holding them accountable and will continue to do so today, tomorrow, and on election day in November.

Immigrant youth have waited too long for a permanent solution to the crisis created by Trump’s vicious deportation agenda and terrible deal-making. 122 Dreamers lose their protection every day, and more than 16,000 have lost their DACAmented status since September. Dreamers’ lives shouldn’t be in limbo because Republicans can’t govern.

Republicans caused this shutdown. And it’s their responsibility to fix this mess by voting on bipartisan legislation — that we know will pass both chambers of Congress — to protect Dreamers and end the Trump Shutdown.

Jan 19

Senate in disarray with shutdown hours away – POLITICO

Politico reports that things look “grim” in the Senate Chamber Thursday night, “as the countdown continued toward a shutdown at midnight Friday: The chamber struggled to even schedule a vote to fund the government, let alone cobble together the votes to actually pass a bill.

After the GOP House passed a partisan monthlong spending bill Thursday, senators in both parties appeared increasingly dug in. A spat on the Senate floor between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer culminated in the chamber adjourning with no clear path to avoid a shutdown in barely 24 hours.