Republican Charlie Dent is a former U.S. congressman from Pennsylvania who served as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies from 2015 until 2018. He is currently a CNN political commentator and a senior policy adviser at DLA Piper, a global law firm. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) With this government shutdown now the longest in American history, it's time to bring it to an end.

The simplest way to end the shutdown is for the Senate to pass, as the House has already done , the six appropriations bills for the remainder of the fiscal year, along with a continuing resolution on the homeland security appropriations bill for two months. President Donald Trump should then sign those bills into law.

Charlie Dent

Once enacted, the House and Senate should negotiate a responsible border security package combined with protections for the Dreamers -- the young adults brought into this country illegally as children through no fault of their own -- and a permanent solution for the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) population, or people who fled natural disasters or armed conflict in El Salvador, Haiti and a limited number of other countries.

That's how a functional government would proceed -- through negotiation and compromise.

Of course, this is Washington, and Trump and his administration have other ideas. He and members of his team have toyed with the idea of declaring a national emergency, though Trump has said he is not quite ready to do so. Trump has also been presented with proposals to redirect military construction or disaster emergency funds to build a wall -- without congressional authorization.

Read More