WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) issued the following statement on the Senate voting on two separate proposals to end the shutdown:
“President Trump’s proposal to re-open the government and take a positive step to secure our borders and provide a degree of certainty to the DACA and TPS populations is a good faith effort to compromise and end the current political stalemate.
“The President’s request for increased border security is reasonable, ensuring we have the personnel, technology, and infrastructure needed to have 21stcentury border security and effectively combat human and drug trafficking. It would also set the stage for a major immigration reform deal to be stuck in the future, one that could finally provide long-term certainty to DACA recipients, including a merit-based path to citizenship, an initiative I’ve been leading for the last several years.
“In addition to ending the shutdown, the President’s compromise would also reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, appropriate additional funds for North Carolina’s Hurricane Florence recovery efforts and bring federal relief to the state faster, and provide more than $30 million for North Carolina State University to build the much-needed Plant Sciences Laboratory.
“While this proposal is not perfect, it’s a good starting point to build consensus, and I encourage my Democratic colleagues to vote in favor of advancing to the bill so all senators can propose amendments to improve it and build the bipartisan support it needs to pass and end the partial shutdown.
“The reason I plan to vote against Senator Schumer’s proposal is because it’s the exact opposite of a good faith proposal and makes no attempt to try to bridge the gap between President Trump and Democrats. The President has already made clear he would veto it. I’m interested in re-opening the government, not political posturing.
“In the event both proposals fail, my hope is that Democratic leaders will finally be willing to come to the negotiating table and strike a bipartisan deal. The President has already shown he is willing to accept less than perfect in order to achieve the good, even at the cost of receiving criticism from some of his supporters. It’s time for Democratic leaders to start doing the same.”
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