The U.S. Senate is slated to vote today on two bills that could conceivably lead to an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
One, put forward by Democrats, would fund government and put federal workers back on the job through Feb. 8 while negotiations on border security and the budget continue. Too few Republicans are expected to vote for it to secure the 60 votes needed for passage.
The other is President Donald Trump’s plan to extend for three years protections against deportation for a limited number of illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Vote for it and Trump will release the 800,000 federal workers and countless others he’s taken hostage, an action meant to force Congress to fulfill his campaign promise to build a big, “beautiful” wall along several hundred miles of America’s border with Mexico.
New Hampshire’s delegation should not give in to Trump’s demand. Building a wall would send a terrible message to the world and, security experts say, do very little to stop migrants or the illicit drugs that mostly come by sea or through legal ports of entry.
Pay Trump’s ransom this time and, as Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia has warned, he’ll pull the same stunt again, perhaps when it’s time to raise the debt ceiling or agree on a new budget. Trump clearly cares far more about what he considers a political win than he does about federal workers, their families, the businesses they support and America’s economy, which has been slowed by the shutdown. He is an unprecedented president.
We support state efforts like the one launched in New Hampshire by Senate President Donna Soucy and House Speaker Steve Shurtleff to extend unemployment benefits to federal workers, both those furloughed and those working without pay. Though the move, which the Trump administration opposes, is not without risk, it is the humanitarian thing to do.
We applaud all efforts to support the federal workers, who could soon go a month without pay, with contributions to food pantries, with forbearance on debts or with interest-free loans. Trump’s tactics could lead to the loss of untold government employees and discourage talented, patriotic young people from seeking careers in public service. Support for federal workers helps show them that America appreciates their contribution to the health and wealth of the nation.
So far, Trump has offered nothing save to return some of what he’s needlessly taken away: protection for the 3.6 million “dreamers” for whom America is the only home they’ve known. Any deal to build the wall, wasteful though that would be, should include protection for all the dreamers and a path, however rigorous, to citizenship. It should include meaningful methods to improve border security and stop the flow of drugs.
More than half the illegal drugs interdicted by federal forces are seized by the Coast Guard, whose members, in head-slapping budgetary incompetence, are working without pay because that branch of the service is funded by the Department of Homeland Security, which is in shutdown, rather than the Defense Department, which is not.
A compromise to end the shutdown should, in the name of homeland security, permanently fund and modernize the Coast Guard, which at the moment is working without pay and with antiquated boats, helicopters and other equipment. The wall is stupid. Trump’s actions are childish. The world is laughing at America’s newfound inability to govern itself. It is laughing at Trump.