Senator Sullivan Message to Alaskans 1.25.19

Hello Alaska today the President announced that he would sign a bill that would open for three weeks the parts of the federal government that have been closed while also providing the room to negotiate border security funding well this was not the proposal I voted for yesterday for the sake of our federal workers and their families I welcome the news and support this bill as we all know in Alaska the federal employees in our state do great work for us there's so many like the ts a the faa noah in the Coast guard who put their lives on the line for us literally every day in Alaska they need to be paid for their work and over the last few weeks that is something I've been advocating for and bills on the Senate floor to get the Coast guard and other federal employees paid for their work that said the debate we're having over board of security is far from over throughout this process I've had ongoing discussions about ending the partial government shutdown and board of security with Democrats and Republican senators and directly with the President including a phone call with him this morning Over the past 25 years every President of the United States Democrat and Republican has attempted to secure our southern border hundreds of miles of barriers fences and walls have been built by Democrat and Republican administrations with the support of Democrats and Republicans in the Congress and these barriers work the President and Republicans have been putting forward various proposals that include priorities from each party now we need the Leaders in the House in the Senate to come to the table in good faith to focus on border security and other immigration reform issues I certainly hope they do thanks for listening