Murray Floor Remarks on National Security Supplemental and Bipartisan Border Compromise

Floor Speech

"We recently released the text of the supplemental, and this bill is about our national security, our national credibility, and our future. That's why Democrats have been glued to the table, negotiating in good faith every step of the way--because the stakes could not be higher.

On Sunday, we rolled out a bipartisan, compromise package with $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel, $4.8 billion to support our allies in the Indo-Pacific, $10 billion for humanitarian assistance, $20 billion for operational needs at the border, and more.

Now, I want to be clear: this is not the bill I would have written on my own. It's compromise legislation that came out of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans.

As I've said before: I never believed we should condition emergency aid for our allies to unrelated partisan priorities. But Republicans demanded that.

They insisted we needed not just executive action on the border--or new resources--but policy changes. So my colleagues, the junior Senator from Connecticut and senior Senator from Arizona, worked around the clock. And now we have a bipartisan set of proposals--just as our Republican colleagues demanded.

Now, before I say anything else, this will not be the last word on immigration reform. I will keep fighting day in and day out until we deliver on comprehensive immigration reform that creates a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in America and makes our system work better and more fairly.

I know we need to finally pass the DREAM Act. We need an immigration system that creates new pathways for legal status, and eliminates dysfunction and backlogs, and recognizes that immigrants do make America great.

Immigrants are not just crucial to our economy--though they absolutely are--they enrich our communities, and strengthen the fabric of our country in countless ways, and we should of course be inviting the world's brightest minds and hardest workers to make America their home!

That will remain a North Star for me as we push to make the system work better, and meet new needs as more folks come to our country fleeing persecution and seeking opportunity.

We also have to address the root causes of migration in a way that promotes stability and mutual economic prosperity for everyone. Now, the bipartisan compromise before us does not accomplish all this.

Border policy and immigration reform is a tough issue--and in divided government, compromise is required. So what we have in front of us is a tailored package aimed at addressing some of the challenges before us, and one that can win passage in both chambers.

I am not thrilled with several of the provisions--but there are some important steps in this, like: a quarter of a million new family and work visas over the next five years, and pathways to citizenship for the brave Afghans who worked alongside our servicemembers during the war in Afghanistan.

This bill would help speed up the processing of asylum claims and ensure for the first time everyone gets a written explanation of their asylum decision and provide an important down payment on new resources to clear the backlog.

It would provide immediate work permits for folks who passed through the asylum screening--so they can provide for their families and build a life in our country. This bill enshrines--for the first time--a legal right to representation for all asylum seekers in expedited removal. And especially important to me: it provides legal counsel for the youngest kids who arrive at our border--without a parent--seeking relief in the United States.

It protects the President's parole authority--another means of preventing chaos at our borders. It helps ensure that "Documented DREAMers,' the children of H-1-B visa holders, are not deported. And it provides those critical new resources--a 75 percent boost--for our cities and our states and organizations around the country to provide lifesaving support to migrants who are already here. It also includes funding to help resettle refugees fleeing Putin's war and other horrific conflicts across the globe.

And it has significant new investments to not just detect and stop fentanyl at our borders--but to stop the chemicals used to create it way up the supply chain.

So this bill does leave a lot to be desired--but it is a bipartisan compromise. It takes some really important steps, gets urgently needed aid to our allies and innocent civilians, and is crafted to win broad bipartisan support.

M. President, I will be voting for this package because American leadership is on the line, and because aid to our allies--including in Ukraine--and humanitarian aid to Gaza cannot wait a moment longer.

I have tremendous appreciation for the tireless efforts my Democratic colleagues put into negotiating away some of the worst and most partisan proposals. I'm not new to brokering deals here in the Senate, and I understand that in negotiations, you don't always get exactly what you want. But I also know that after a bill passes, you don't stop pushing for the progress you want to see--and that's certainly the case here.

But when it comes to the bill before us, there is no reason--none whatsoever--for further drama or delay or partisanship. Funding for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific all have overwhelming bipartisan support--and Senate and House Republicans alike were some of the loudest voices calling for changes to border policy in the first place.

So, despite the flurry of statements from Republicans we've seen in the past 24 hours rushing to judgment, I hope they will join us in moving the very steps that they demanded.

After all, if Republicans kill this deal, without even a vote--throwing out border policies they demanded, throwing their Senate colleagues under the bus, and throwing in the towel to dictators like Putin--how are they going to have any sort of credibility on addressing the border? They won't. The American people will rightly see it for the kind of naked, partisan politics most people can't stand.

We have a bill here that is serious, bipartisan, and urgently needed by our allies, especially Ukraine.

If we do not fully meet this moment--and soon--we are going to leave families living in a more dangerous world: a world where dictators like Putin trample democracies without consequence. A world where civilians caught in crossfire have less hope of getting basic aid--like food, water, medical care. And a world where allies don't trust our promises and adversaries don't heed our warnings.

That is unacceptable to me. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in passing this bill through the Senate, and in pressing the House to vote on this bill without any further delay. Thank you."

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