WATCH: John Cornyn Speaks About Possible Government Shutdown

Madam president today is the 23rd anniversary of the tragic death of about 3,000 Americans at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon as well as in Shanksville Pennsylvania it's a sobering and solemn day it's one of the occasions uh the 9/11 is one of those occasions that you remember during your life because you remember where you were and what you were doing when this terrible tragedy came on the news I remember I was on the telephone talking to my governor and um my wife said you need to see this and I turned to watch the TV as the second plane hit the World Trade Center we had no idea what was going on but as I've often said this day is a dividing line in our history there's before 9911 and then there's after 911 it's a reminder of our commitment as a country to carry out the promise that we made in the Wake to never forget so today we remember the First Responders who ran toward the danger the families who lost loved ones and the commitment of the United stes States armed forces to combat terrorism around the globe each and every day M president on another matter since the Senate gaveled out nearly six weeks ago I like the rest of my colleagues have traveled all around our states my state is a little bit bigger than the average State we have 30 million people 254 counties I don't claimed to have gone to all of them but I tried my best to cover as much ground as I could and of course it's a great opportunity to get outside the bubble of Washington DC and this is indeed a bubble this is not the real world I tell my constituents who come to Washington DC I say this is like Disneyland it's not real it's fascinating it's intriguing and important things happen here but it's not real what happens outside of this bubble that's real for example at Memorial High School in Houston Texas I join Online safety experts education leaders Advocates parents to discuss more ways that we can help protect our children from online threats this includes the kids online safety act and the children and teens online privacy protection act both of which passed the Senate with huge margins before we broke in August and I hope the house will take these nonpartisan non-controversial bills up soon I remember thinking as I met with the principles and talked to some of the parents about what our young people are exposed to on their cell phones and online on a daily basis and thinking I'm glad my daughters are grown because growing up is hard enough without the being under constant attack by people who want to entice you to do things that you should not do or uh share with you information you just as soon not see then I went to Austin where I met with my former colleague on the Texas Supreme Court Nathan HEC and Travis County District Judge Julie curich judge curich was actually a survivor of an assassination attempt she was a district judge in St Anton excuse me in Austin Texas Travis County and somebody who was a defendant a criminal defendant in on her docket decided he wanted to assassinate her but we met with her as well as other local leaders in a Roundtable to try to figure out what we can do to try to keep our judges our court personnel and the public that gain need needs to have access to our courts how we can keep them safe and this include my countering threats and attacks on our judges act which passed the senate in June and would establish a state judicial threat intelligence and Resource Center to provide technical assistance training and threat monitoring for state and local judges and Court Personnel we all know the federal government only handles a small fraction of what the judicial branch handles and most of that is handled by the Judiciary at the state level so it's really important to provide best practices and and resources to our judges and Court personnel and the public that needs to have access to courts and access to Justice around our country I was then glad to join our good friend Senator John Bosman from Arkansas who was the ranking member of the Senate agriculture Committee in the Rio Grand Valley that's the southernmost tip in the middle of Texas and it's one of the most prolific regions for agriculture in our state but we heard from Farmers and ranchers about the importance of passing a timely and strong farm bill and in particularly we heard about the challenges they face because Mexico continues to withhold water that it owes the United States under a 1944 water treaty then in Round Rock just outside of Austin I visited with Business Leaders and community members on economic issues important to Central Texas including the looming deadline to fund the federal government then I had a chance to travel to Parkland Hospital in Dallas Texas Parkland Hospital is famous because that's where John F Kennedy was treated after he was shot tragically in Dallas but it it's a huge huge Health Care Enterprise and I joined healthc care leaders law enforcement as well as two mothers who tragically lost their daughters to fentanyl poisoning to discuss the impact of my f fight illicit pill presses act which would have which would have a positive impact on our efforts to eradicate this silent killer from our communities I introduced this bipartisan legislation last month to make it easier for law enforcement to take action against criminal cartel's use of illicit pill presses by requiring that those presses be engraved with serial numbers so that law enforcement can better track them and while I'm glad the Online safety bills and my countering threats and attacks on judges act have advanced out of this chamber there's still a lot of work that Senator Schumer who sets the schedule in the Senate has left until the last minute as I heard from my constituents about some of these events in the state Texans are rightly concerned about the Senate's inaction on critical priorities like the farm bill like additional legislation to combat the scourge of fentanyl poisoning fentanyl actually now is responsible the main leading cause of death for Americans between the age of 18 and 45 years old and then they're also worried about whether the government's going to remain open and be appropriately funded and they understand the impact of short-term funding bills and its negative impact on our military and our our national security so that's why I don't understand why Senator Schumer continues to waste our time on show votes and ignoring predictable deadlines that lead to inevitable drama about a potential shutdown when none of that is necessary so I hope Senator Schumer will take advantage of the next 10 days that remain this month to do something about rather than just kick the can down the road once again and I'd yield to my colleague from Missouri [Music]