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Shutdown Looms on Capitol Hill as Dems and Republicans Blame Each Other; Trump Blames Dems, Pushes Ahead to Midterms; Top Trump Aides Give White House Briefing as Shutdown Looms. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired January 19, 2018 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar in for Kate Bolduan.

The breaking news this hour, you are looking at live pictures coming to us from the White House briefing room. Two top Trump aides expected to speak with just hours to go until the government runs out of money. And right now on Capitol Hill, the Senate gavels into session, facing long odds and little time.

Lawmakers have just 13 hours to fund the government or face a shutdown at midnight. With Democrats and Republicans already blaming each other, it is clear that optimism is fading. And one big reason is simple math. Republican leaders in the Senate need 60 votes, meaning they need support from Democrats.

President Trump acknowledging that those crossover votes aren't likely and laying blame, tweeting this, "Now Democrats are needed if it is to pass in the Senate - but they want illegal immigration and weak borders. Shutdown coming? We need more Republican victories in 2018."

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is on Capitol Hill live for us with the very latest on this.

So, Sunlen, Republican senators met last hour behind closed doors. What were the marching orders?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Brianna, very much the phase that many members are here right now at this moment is in the phase of waiting. Waiting for some direction from their leadership. What's the plan forward? What the path forward is?

It is certainly not a good sign when both sides are not talking to each other and we know according to sources telling CNN that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, they have not spoken as of now since last night.

Now we do expect to see both of them on this Senate floor just a few minutes when they gavel in and certainly the tone of those remarks will be so important, we say a lot of back and forth finger pointing late last night in the Senate on the floor from these two leaders, certainly that not helping anything also not helping in anything as you said the math here for Republicans, they don't have the numbers to put the short term spending bill forward.

So likely we'll see at the course of a day today, the cloture vote fail, they won't get the 60 votes they need and then the big question is what next? Already, there are certainly been no absence of blame to go all around, we heard from many of the speakers this morning calling this reckless on the part of the Senate Democrats, but certainly Senate Democrats pushing it back on others saying that they are going to stand their ground and demand what they want of DACA.

So certainly, Brianna, here under 14 hours to the potential of a government shutdown at midnight tonight and there is no clear path forward here in the Senate.

KEILAR: No clear path forward. All right, Sunlen is going to standby for us as we watch to see what is happening here moment by moment. I do want to direct your attention to these live pictures coming to us from the White House which is where we find Kaitlan Collins.

So Kaitlan we're waiting on this briefing there at the White House, we're going to hear from the director of legislative affairs of the liaison between the White House and Congress and we're also going to be hearing from the President's budget director.

What are you expecting to hear?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right Brianna. Probably a lot of messaging to come out at this briefing, we've already seen the White House start to say that this is going to be at the hands of Democrats if the government does indeed shutdown here in the next 13 hours. And likely placing the overall blame on Congress, but the President has certainly played a role in this as you saw on Twitter yesterday he criticized a key aspect of this Republican proposed plan to prevent the government from shutting down.

That was the Children's Health Insurance Program, the President said he wanted to see a longer deal on it even though this plan was extended up for the next six years, but I actually spoke with Marc Short, the Legislative Director here on the White House driveway just a short time ago before his schedule to come out on brief reporters and he said he hasn't even spoken to the President today, which is a little odd given that the government is going -- is scheduled to shutdown here in the next 13 hours.

But we've seen the White House really try to crack themselves around this potential shutdown, they said that their president will not go to West Palm Beach Florida as scheduled today for an event, at his Mar-a- Lago Club if they cannot reach an agreement over on Capitol Hill to keep the government funded.

Now that decision came after a senior staff meeting this morning because it doesn't take P.R. genius to tell you that it would be bad optics as the President travel to South Florida and to attend this fund racer on a day of his one year mark of his anniversary here being president where the tickets are costing $100 thousand per couple, so the White House developing a contingency plan for that.

We're waiting to see them come out at this briefing today to tell us what they think is going to happen here and if the government is going to continue to be funded, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Kaitlan Collins for us at the White House, thank you so much. And as I understand it we're looking now at Mitch McConnell there on the Senate Floor, let's listen to what he is saying.

MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Last coverage for 9 million children and low income families for six years. This vote should be a no-brainer, and it would be except the Democratic leader has convinced his members to filibuster any funding bill that doesn't include legislation, they are demanding for people who came into the United States illegally. What has been shoe hardened on this discussion is an insistence that we deal with an illegal immigration issue.

[11:05:23] He's insisted that we won't support -- that he won't support any legislation at all for the American people now matter how, non-controversial or how about partisan unless we pass a bill on illegal immigration first. That means shutting down the funding for veterans? Military families, Opioid treatment centers and even federal grants to his home state of New York, so be it.

If it means destroying a wrench and to the gears of the U.S. economy just as Americans are starting to feel the benefits of historic tax reform so be it. If it means failing to renew the Children's Health Program which the house passed bill funded for a full six years? That's just fine with those on the other side.

Nearly every Democrat in the House made the same demand, that's been their state of position, nothing for hundreds of millions of Americans and no healthcare for 9 million vulnerable children until we solve a non-immanent issue related to illegal immigration. Madam President to even repeat this position out loud is to see how completely ridiculous it is.

Now that we're 13 hours away from a government shutdown that Democrats would initiate and Democrats would own, the craziness of this seems to be dawning on my friend the Democratic leader, perhaps he is remembering his own works from 2013. Here is what he said back then about threatening a government shutdown.

No matter how strongly one feels about an issue you shouldn't hold millions hostage, that's wrong. A few days later the Democratic leader added is sort of like this, someone goes into your house takes your wife and children hostage and then says let's negotiate over the price of your house.

You are on to say "We're shutting down the government. We're not going to raise the death ceiling until pass immigration reform. It would b governmental chaos".

Now maybe, may be he is remembering those words today because now he is saying never mind I really didn't meant it and I'm self calling for an even shorter -- short-term funding bill.

Of course his last ditch proposals will do nothing for the children's health program or the 9 million children that are way down on us to renew it. And what is more the incredibly short-term continue resolutions he's now proposing do not made any of that advance, no, no. That he and his own conference and Democrats on the House have been making for weeks. None of that would be solved in a short-term a few day C.R. the stuff they've been calling for.

So apparently now he wants his members to default on their own demands. He's spent days apparently persuading all of his colleagues who insist we cannot pass another continuing resolution, now he wants them to pass one.

He spent weeks getting his members to reclaim that we should not do anything to fund the government unless we address the DACA issue, and now apparently calling on them to do just that. This incredibly short-term extensions would not even give us enough time to actually write the legislation. The Democratic leader is demanding.

One extremely short-term C.R. would lead to another and another, exactly the outcome Democrats have declared they cannot accept. I'm not impressed. I wish for all of our sakes that the Democratic leader would figure out what he actually wants.

I feel bad for his own members. He has paid them into a corner. But I specially feel bad for the American people whose government the Democrats are threatening to shutdown and the 9 million children whose health insurance could be thrown into jeopardy because Senate Democrats cannot get their story straight.

[11:10:18] Now my friend, the Democratic leader, now wants his members to pass a bill that allows SSHIP to expire. Apparently he now wants every Democrat in the House of Representatives to break their word and pass a separate funding bill of his own that does not address the LAL immigration issue they said they must have.

So let's think about this for a minute. Or he lays his own troops into a box canyon then tells them it was really all of nothing maybe it's time to comeback to reality. We already have a bill that we know can pass the House because it already did. We have a bill that we know the President will sign under law because he's already committed to do just that.

We know that with one non controversial and by partisan vote we can keep the government up and running. We can fund the children's healthcare program for six years and we can give ourselves the time we need to finish ongoing negotiations on DACA, water security and the long term needs of our military and madam President we could do all of that today. All of it. Or our Democratic friends can continue to take the Democratic leaders advice and both shutdown the government. They stabilize funding for our troops, shutdown the children's healthcare program and still not get what they're demanding on LAL immigrations. It's really up to them.

I look forward to voting soon on cloture on the House bill. The American people, the citizens who actually elected us will be watching, they will say which senators makes the patriotic decision, stand up for the American people and vote to continue government funding and extend children's healthcare while we continue our by partisan talks. And they will see which senator's vote to shove aside veterans, military families and vulnerable children to hold the entire country hostage, hold the entire country hostage until we pass on immigration bill, they haven't even written yet.

This is completely unfair and uncompassionate for my Democratic colleagues to filibuster government funding, harm our troops, and jeopardize health coverage for 9 million children because extreme elements of their base want illegal immigration to crowd out every other priority. Apparently they believe that the issue of illegal immigration is more important than everything else.

All the government services the American people depend on. I would recommend stop the wild goose chase. Don't to a destination that cannot be explained. Let's fulfill the core responsibilities of Congress. Let's fund the government. Provide for the American people and then resume serious negotiations on the issues that matter most. Let's fund the government for a full month so we can actually get something done.

KEILAR: All right, that was the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressing the Senate floor and obviously a lot of people far beyond the Senate floor as a government shutdown looms. He is really ratcheting up the pressure on Democrats. We are waiting to hear perhaps from the Democratic Leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer and we also are expecting that there's briefing on the left side of your screen that the White House is about to get underway.

[11:15:04] We're going to hear from Marc Short, the Legislative Director and Mick Mulvaney, the President's Budget Director as they try to ratcheting up the pressure as well on Democrats, because a short-term measure has passed the House, it doe include a provision that would extend the Children's Health Insurance Program for poor Americans for six years and Republicans are saying that should be enough to get Democrats to go along.

Let's listen now to Dick Durbin, a top Democrat in the Senate on the Senate Floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS SENATOR: In other words when you look across the spectrum of the three branches of government the Republicans are in control. What are they offering us? The fourth C.R.. Now CR is Washington talk. It's a continuing resolution. What does it mean? It means that the Republican --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And now let's go to the White House where this briefing is about to begin with the Budget Director and the Legislative Director.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MICK MULVANEY, OMB DIRECTOR: -- folks up to speed on where things stand regarding the potential lapse in funding -- the shutdown.

OMB is preparing for what we're calling the "Schumer shutdown." It still surprises me -- and I've been through some of these before -- that the Democrats in the Senate are opposing a bill that they don't oppose. They're for clean CRs; they're for the extension to the CHIP program. Many of them support the delay in some of the taxes, most specifically the medical device tax, the Cadillac tax, especially. They don't oppose anything in the bill, but they are opposing the bill.

I just want to let everybody know that we don't want this. We do not want a shutdown. But if Mr. Schumer insists on it, he is in a position to force this on the American people.

From an OMB perspective, because we're involved in managing a lapse or a shutdown -- and we want to make folks understand that it will look very different than it did under the previous administration.

One of the things that I've learned since I've been in this office is that -- there's no other way to describe it -- but the Obama administration weaponized the shutdown in 2013. What they didn't tell you was that they did not encourage agencies to use carry forward funds, funds that they were sitting on, nor did they encourage agencies to use transfer authority.

They could have made the shutdown in 2013 much less impactful, but they chose to make it worse. The only conclusion I can draw is they did so for political purposes. So it will look different this time around. We've also got -- we can answer questions -- take your questions about specifics on that. Marc Short is also here to give you a very brief update on where we stand, and then we'll take your questions for a few minutes.

You want to go ahead?

MARC SHORT, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS: Thank you all for your time this morning. As Mick said last night, the House passed a bipartisan bill with 230 votes. The President stands ready to sign that bill to keep the government functioning and afloat. It appears, unfortunately, that Senate Democrats are entrenched in forcing a shutdown.

I think that there's obviously a lot of hypocrisy in this town. I think there's some ironies to point out. As the Director said, Nancy Pelosi a couple years ago called them, "I call them legislative arsonists" --

MULVANEY: That was me.

(LAUGHTER.)

SHORT: -- in referring to those who were voting for a shutdown at the time, commenting that, "They're there to burn down what we should be building up, in terms of investments in education and scientific research."

Chuck Schumer said at the time, "It's sort of like this. Someone goes into your house, takes your wife and children hostage, and then says, let's negotiate over the price of your house." In essence, that's the same tactic they're deploying.

Last night, I'm sure many of you know, you all asked Senator Feinstein her position, and she said that if the government shuts down, people will die. And as a follow-up question on how she's going to vote, she said she hasn't decided yet; people are going to die, I don't know how I'm going to vote on this.'

So here we are. I think the reality is that this is not about policy, it's about politics. As Mick said, we're not familiar with anything in this CR that Democrats are opposing. In fact, they champion and support the CHIP program. This will reauthorize it for six years. I believe a new study says there are 9 million children now getting health insurance through that program. The reality is that we will jeopardize payments for our military and our troops and those serving on the frontline of our country, both at Customs and Border Patrol, ICE, those who are trying to protect our borders and protect our country.

This is a serious issue. We are frustrated, obviously, because Mick's job is to submit a budget to Congress. Let's keep that in perspective. Mick does that in February. Congress has months to complete appropriations process. The fiscal year ends on September 30th; we're now in mid-January. It is frustrating to all of us that we're in this position.

[11:20:04] But what's unclear is, what is it that Democrats are asking in order to get out of a shutdown? It seems that they are just hell- bent on getting to a shutdown. We are anxious to make sure that our troops and those serving on the frontlines of our country continue to get paid.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, Marc, a couple things on that. I think we know what the Democrats are asking for; they want a deal on DACA.

The President, on the other hand, tweeted last year that, "Our country needs a good 'shutdown'." Isn't he getting exactly what he asked for? And it was the President, as I'm sure you know, the last time we had a government shutdown, who said it is the President's responsibility to lead. He needs to get the players in the room; he needs to lead. So how is he going to lead on this?

SHORT: Jon, couple points there. One, the President was very active yesterday in bringing together the House votes to get 230 votes. He was speaking to Freedom Caucus members. I think that was where we had the best challenge yesterday, and he helped get that bill accomplished.

I think he's making continued calls this morning. He's called both bipartisan members today. He will continue to do that. He is leading on this issue.

Regarding DACA, we feel that the administration has put forward our plans on this. Keep in mind that Secretary Kelly, a year ago, went to Congress and said: We need a solution on DACA. We asked Congress to fix it. We knew what was going to happen when several states sued the federal government over Obama's unconstitutional policy here. We gave them plenty of heads up and warning on this.

Back in the fall, we submitted our priorities to Congress, in October. We then refined those, at their request, to say, "This is too much." We basically negotiated against ourselves and winnowed down that list for them, to say, here are practical things that are necessary to get to a deal on DACA. We have put forward that plan.

We think that, right now -- you just saw a study a couple days ago that showed 2,500 people on the terror watch list are trying to get into this country every year. That is seven per day -- seven per day. We think it's time to fix the immigration problems in our country, and we have put forward a proposal to do exactly that.

We're continuing to have conversations. I think we had productive conversations yesterday with Leader McCarthy, Steny Hoyer, Senator Durbin, and Senator Cornyn. We're about to go back up to the Hill to continue those conversations. I think they're making progress.

What doesn't make sense is to say we're going to shut down the government just because you're making progress, but I need something else.

(OFF-MIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you a couple questions, to Director Mulvaney, if I may. To the President's comments about s-hole countries, what responsibility does he bear for the challenges there have been to try to come to some deal?

MULVANEY: Yeah, go back to what Marc just said. Let's make one thing clear about -- one of the differences between where we are now and where we were in 2013. The President is actively working right now to try to prevent a shutdown. I will contend to you that is dramatically different than what President Obama was doing in 2013. I was there, okay? I was involved heavily in this in 2013, and I will tell you that it's absolutely my belief that President Obama wanted a shutdown in 2013 because he thought Democrats would -- excuse me, Republicans would get blamed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's talk about today.

MULVANEY: So let's talk about today. The President, as Marc just pointed out, actively worked all day yesterday to try and get a bill through the House, and continues conversations today. So there's no way you could lay this at the feet of the President of the United States. He is actively working to try to get a deal. That's one of the differences.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So why not bring leadership here as a last ditch effort?

MULVANEY: I think the President's continued bipartisan conversations, I don't -- I'm not privy to his --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But why not do a conversation in person?

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Again, I'm not privy to the meetings the President may or may not be having.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a question for Marc. Marc, I know we're talking government shutdown, but this is an important topic for the expected 100,000 or more people taking part in the March for Life today. So I want to ask, the Pain-Capable 20-week abortion ban that fast-tracked in the Senate, when do you expect the vote? And why does the White House want a vote if it's likely to die?

SHORT: I think this administration has continued to defend life from the very beginning. The Vice President, last year, was the first Vice President to speak to the March for Life. The President is hosting people here to protect life. It's an important issue for this administration. You saw, with the reversal of the Mexico City policy, the President has looked to make sure that we are making sure that taxpayer dollars are not used overseas to fund abortions. That is a commitment of this administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But when will the Senate vote?

SHORT: We don't have a date as to when the Senate will vote. But to your question about whether or not it fails or passes, we think it's important for this administration to be on record in support of life.

If I could go back to the second-to-the-last question about bringing leaders over here. Keep in mind, just last week, we had a bipartisan meeting here that the President organized with leadership to try to get to a resolution on DACA.

Out of that meeting, discussion was, after the press had departed, discussion was that the four leaders -- McCarthy, Durbin, Cornyn, and Hoyer -- would be the ones organizing the meetings moving forward to get to the solution. That's what we've been part of.

So when you ask, why isn't the President bringing members over here -- he did. He has tried to reach -- the biggest issue, they say, is their question, which is shutting down the government over illegal immigration -- he is trying to solve that problem, and brought them here for that conversation.

[11:25:09] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I could just ask about your comment at the beginning of this. You said this was the "Schumer shutdown." How can it be the Schumer shutdown when Republicans control the White House, the House, and the Senate?

MULVANEY: Come on, you know the answer to that as well as anybody. I mean, I have to laugh when people say that. "Oh, well, you control the House, the Senate, and the White House -- why can't you get this done?" UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you do. You do.

MULVANEY: You know as well as anybody that it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill. Right? You know that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:: I know that.

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: OK, so when you only have 51 votes in the Senate, then you have to have Democrat support in order to keep the government -- to fund the government. So that's the answer to your question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the President asked Congress to come up with a solution for the DREAMers, Congress was in the room -- members of Congress were in the room with the President last week. It seemed to be a fairly productive meeting. And then the whole process got blown up. And it seems --

MULVANEY: Republicans tried to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if I may, it seems that the whole process was blown up by the President's comments. So why not just give the Democrats the DREAMers, and you can get out of this?

MULVANEY: When Republicans tried to add a discussion about Obamacare to the funding process in 2013, we were accused by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer of inserting a non-fiscal -- a non-financial issue into the spending process in order to shut the government down. How is that not exactly what is happening today? There is no reason that you have to deal with DACA this week. There's no reason you have to deal with DACA before the end of February -- excuse me, the middle of February. DACA doesn't expire until March 5th. This is purely an attempt by the Senate Democrats, led by Mr. Schumer -- it's why we call it the "Schumer shutdown" -- in order to try and get a shutdown that they think this President gets blamed for.

Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're saying that you need Democrat support in the Senate. So are there --

MULVANEY: We got it in the House.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So are there any concessions that this White House is willing to make to possibly try to get support from those Democrats that you need?

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: Again, go back to what I said at the opening. They don't oppose anything in there. They support CHIP. In fact, every member of the Finance Subcommittee or something like that, voted -- a Democrat has voted for this exact CHIP extension. They don't want the Cadillac tax to go into place. They've always supported clean CRs. Why would you have to -- those are concessions. Ordinarily, you would just simply put up a clean CR and let them vote it. And again, it worked in the House; there were several Democrats who voted for it. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So is it take-it-or-leave-it on the bill that passed the House? They have to take -- so Democrats have to support the bill in the House to avert a shutdown?

MULVANEY: Democrats should support the bill in the Senate. Again, the House has passed a bill, okay? The Senate has a couple different choices. They cannot take it up. This is basic civics, right? Either they take it up and pass it, take it up and don't pass it, or they change it and send it back to the House.

The point of the matter is, though, there are things on this bill that they like. They have nothing in this bill that they do not like. The only reason they are not voting for it is that they want other things to be added to it and they want a shutdown. That's the only explanation we have.

Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The main thing Democrats want added is DACA.

MULVANEY: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you've said before -- many of you have said, everyone agrees they want a solution on DACA. So what is the big sticking point, then, on your end about including a DACA fix in this bill?

DIRECTOR MULVANEY: I think Marc mentioned that earlier. The bill is simply not ready. You don't get to vote on a summary. You don't get to vote on --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) months to work on this.

MULVANEY: There have been months of work. As you see with any major piece of legislation, it doesn't and shouldn't come together overnight. There's no DACA bill to vote on and there's no emergency in terms of the timing on DACA. DACA does not expire until March 5th. So there's absolutely no reason to tie these two things together right now.

SHORT: If I follow up on that one question. Again, I think it's important to remember that, yes, we're approaching the March 5th deadline, but the President put forward what he asked for last fall. We've been asking Congress to address this.

And, Jim, back to your question -- the reality is, there is no legislation for them to pull up. They say there is this Flake-Durbin- Graham proposal; there is not legislation to vote on. So when they say we need to have DACA solved before you do a continuing resolution to keep the government open, there isn't actually a bill for them to even vote on -- which I think shows that this is really about politics and not really about policy.

MULVANEY: And I think General Kelly will also tell you that he actually mentioned this to the senators during his confirmation process. So this administration has been trying for at least a year now to get some progress on DACA and it's Congress that's taking that --

Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could I start with Marc, if I could, and then I got a question for you as well, Mick. You've been the one who's been up there on Capitol Hill every day. What I'm getting from the podium today is, if this happens, it's the Democrats' fault. What, as a practical matter, can you do between now and midnight tonight to change the equation and get people onboard the CR?

SHORT: Well, John, I think, again, one of our challenges is, I don't think it's clear what the Democrats are asking for. I accept that you're saying they want a solution to DACA, but there is not bill text that they're asking Republicans to bring up. So I think that they really believe for political reasons it's better for them to force the shutdown.

The President is continuing to reach out to them, and he will continue to do so throughout the day. He is actively on the phone. That's what we will continue to try to be saying, "What is a solution that you guys think would be necessary?"

We, frankly, think that giving the Children's Health Insurance Program -- something the Democrats have asked for reauthorizing it for six years -- was something that would attract Democrat votes. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that's the case.

[11:30:13] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, Mick, if I could to you -- because the other big story of the week has been the CFPB and your request for zero funding. Are you working to reduce spending there? What's the future of the CFPB? What's Leandra English's current role there? And does she continue to draw a salary?

MULVANEY: Six questions at once.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:: It's all about the same thing.

MULVANEY: It is. I won't speak to litigation, but with Ms. English, we do intend -- we've asked for no money this quarter over at the CFPB simply because we didn't think it was necessary. CFPB has $177 million in its reserve fund, and we're able to operate next quarter off of that. So that was the reason that we asked for no money this quarter.

We intend to continue to fulfill the statutory mission of the CFPB. I've told people from the day I walked in there -- I wasn't there to shut the place down or blow it up, but we will focus on the statutory mission and we have plenty of money in the bank to do that.

Yes, sir. And this will have to be the last. Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.