Here & Now

Deal Reached to Reopen the Government

Frederica Freyberg:
The shutdown showdown is over for now. This afternoon, President Donald Trump announced an agreement that reopens the government for three weeks while negotiations over border security proceed. The deal between the White House and Congress also gets back pay to federal workers who have missed two paychecks during the 35 day shutdown. The president said back pay would be on its way ASAP. The agreement announced today does not include money for the border wall. Even in announcing the deal, the president renewed his pledge to call a national emergency in order to secure wall funds if Congress does not provide the money.

Donald Trump:
Over the next 21 days I expect that both Democrats and Republicans will operate in good faith. This is an opportunity for all parties to work together for the benefit of our whole beautiful, wonderful nation. If we make a fair deal, the American people will be proud of their government for proving that we can put country before party. We can show all Americans and people all around the world that both political parties are united when it comes to protecting our country and protecting our people. Many disagree but I really feel that working with Democrats and Republicans, we can make a truly great and secure deal happen for everyone. Walls should not be controversial. Our country is built 654 miles of barrier over the last 15 years and every career border patrol agent I have spoken with has told me that walls work. They do work.

Frederica Freyberg:
Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson blamed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday for the shutdown impasse, reportedly telling him it was his fault. Senator Johnson is chair of the Homeland Security Committee. Here’s what he had to say on the deal. He said, “I don’t like shutdowns and I don’t like shutdown politics. It wastes money, hurts the economy and harms real people. I hope we can come to a long-term solution to secure the border and keep the nation safe while funding the government.” Green Bay Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher tweeted this following the announcement of the deal. “800,000 federal employees went without pay for over a month. At the end of it,” he says, “we failed to fix border security and are continuing crisis governance. This is insane.” Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said this this afternoon “President Trump’s shutdown accomplished nothing and has hurt a lot of people. Now that he has agreed to end it, we can open the government, make sure workers get a paycheck and work together on bipartisan reform to fund border security and fix our broken immigration system.” We spoke with Senator Baldwin earlier in the day before the agreement to reopen the government was hatched. She had a lot to say about immigration reform and the financial impact of the showdown as she watched developments in Washington.

Tammy Baldwin:
Im here unusually on a Friday on stand-by for a vote, if we can get something done today, great, but Ill be here, you know, at a moment’s notice to get this done. We’re talking about the 2019 fiscal year budget and there was already significant border security funding in that measure, to the tune of $1.6 billion in the Homeland Security funding budget. So, you know, President Trump knows that’s there. That’s what his administration asked for at the very beginning of the budget process. But you know, we can’t have this discussion sort of — there’s like a hostage taking right now and people are suffering. There are federal employees literally at food banks and in food lines and we can’t just suspend that while the president digs in his heels. We need to reopen the government urgently and then have discussions. And by the way, the irony — one of the ironies to me is that when this is about border security, we are hearing more and more reports that our security is at risk because of the shutdown. Whether that’s aviation security or any of, you know, the FBI, the border patrol agents who are working without pay right now.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you think of the idea of the president potentially declaring an emergency, whereby he would just fund the wall with existing funds?

Tammy Baldwin:
You know, I think that we first need to reopen the government. I feel very confident that we have the capacity, Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to find solutions, both on border security and larger immigration issues. My first year in the Senate in 2013, we passed overwhelmingly a comprehensive immigration reform bill that had many border security measures: some human resources, but also using modern technology and surveillance and drones and ways to stop drugs coming in. And we also know that a wall alone is inadequate to that task. President Trump ran on the platform of he’s going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it. Those two pledges, by the way, went hand-in-hand. Now that he wants the taxpayers to pay for it, we have to do what’s smart with taxpayer money. A wall doesn’t stop tunnels. A wall doesn’t stop throwing things over or passing things through. If we want to stop drugs, we have to be compared, or be prepared to work in all of our ports of entry. By way of quick example, the illegal drug Fentanyl, many more times powerful than heroin, much of it is coming through the international mail, which means we have to strengthen security at our international mail facilities, not just on the southern border.

Frederica Freyberg:
Why not just give the president his wall money?

Tammy Baldwin:
You know, because we should never hold people hostage, essentially. You know, we have people who have been working for well over a month now with no pay doing vital security jobs and people are suffering. There’s in some cases going to be permanent harm. People losing homes. Other things that could cause grave danger. We cannot let the president or anyone run a government like this. We need to reopen the government and then we need to have a comprehensive discussion about border security and immigration.

Frederica Freyberg:
What do you say to those who believe the shutdown could be easily weathered or otherwise have down played the consequences of it?

Tammy Baldwin:
You know, I think they’re out of touch with the people of America and the people of Wisconsin. I don’t think enough of my colleagues or people in the administration understand what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. You know, I talked to a mother of a person who serves, her son serves in the Coast Guard. He’s not getting paid. And she is working extra hours to help him meet his bills so that he doesn’t have repercussions afterwards for bad credit or a bad credit report. And so it’s impacting people throughout. That should never be the way, especially when we are talking about men and women in uniform defending our country.

Frederica Freyberg:
You have said that you are calling for comprehensive immigration reform. What does that include?

Tammy Baldwin:
You know, in my mind, the immigration system is broken. We’ve seen plenty of evidence of that. I look back to the measure that we passed in the first year that I served in the Senate. It dealt with visa issues. It dealt with dreamers. It dealt with border security issues, and it did so in a manner where we had to compromise. We had to listen to one another and we had to do everything we can to strengthen our country’s borders and our country’s economy. It recognized unique issues like agricultural visa programs don’t necessarily work for dairy farmers where they need their workers 24, well, 24/7 all year around, unlike crop farmers who need them for planting season and harvest season. So, we fixed a lot of those things and again, it was a very broadly supported bipartisan measure. I have every confidence that if we work together and put solutions first, that we can do that job.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Senator Tammy Baldwin, thank you very much for joining us.

Tammy Baldwin:
Thank you.