John Thune Issues Blunt Message To Chuck Schumer Over Possible Government Shutdown

3 days ago

On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) warned Democrats not to block a CR and cause a government shutdown.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. President, as the expression goes, it's time for Democrats to fish or cut bait.

00:07We have two days until government funding expires.

00:11Democrats need to decide if they're going to support funding legislation that came over from the House

00:16or if they're going to shut down the government.

00:19So far, it's looking like they plan to shut it down.

00:22The Democrat leader came to the floor yesterday afternoon and had the nerve to complain about the House bill.

00:28He wants yet another short-term piece of funding legislation to be, as he said,

00:34give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass, end quote.

00:41Well, Mr. President, I'm not sure how long the Democrat leader thinks we should drag out the funding process for fiscal year 2025.

00:50Until fiscal year 2026, beyond, we are already nearly six months into the 2025 fiscal year.

01:00In other words, we are halfway through, halfway through this fiscal year.

01:05And it is past time to get fiscal year 2025 funding situated.

01:12You know, I'd like to suggest to the Democrat leader that if he has problems with the current situation,

01:17maybe, just maybe, he should have funded the government when he was in charge.

01:23The reason we're stuck here voting on a CR for the rest of 2025 is because the Democrat leader

01:29refused to consider appropriation bills last year.

01:33Senators Murray and Collins, then chair and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee,

01:37did a lot of work to deliver the fiscal year 2025 appropriation bills.

01:43In fact, they had moved 11, 11 of the 12 bills out of the Appropriations Committee

01:51by the end of August last year, or I should say the end of July last year.

01:57And six of those bills, six of the 11 that the Appropriations Committee passed by the end of July last year,

02:05passed unanimously, coming out of the committee.

02:11The others were passed with big bipartisan majorities.

02:16And then what happened?

02:19Well, then the Democrat leader just sat on them.

02:22In his remaining five months as majority leader,

02:26he didn't bring single fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill to the floor.

02:31And so it is absolutely rich for him to be coming down to the floor now

02:37to call for a short-term CR, another short-term CR,

02:43to negotiate fiscal 2025 legislation.

02:48Mr. President, he had his chance for months.

02:53I'm no fan of continuing resolutions.

02:55In fact, I intend to do my very best to ensure that from here on out,

02:58the government is funded through appropriation bills that proceed through regular order.

03:04But at this point, our best option is a continuing resolution to fund the remainder of fiscal year 2025

03:09and clear the decks for the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process to begin.

03:18Because while the Democrat leader may have forgotten,

03:20given his decision to ignore regular order appropriations last year,

03:24it is almost time to start considering fiscal year 2026 appropriation bills.

03:31And I fully intend for us to consider them on the floor.

03:36My goal is to schedule floor action for every fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill

03:41that comes out of the committee where they can be debated, amended, and passed

03:46for further negotiation with the House.

03:49And that, of course, will require cooperation from Democrats.

03:54But I hope, I really hope, that Democrats will remember this situation

04:01and others that we've been placed in,

04:03and work in partnership with Republicans to restore the regular order appropriations process.

04:09Continuing resolutions are never the preferred option.

04:13But thanks to the Democrat leader's decision to abandon the fiscal year 2025 appropriations process,

04:18the continuing resolution we have before us is the best option we have

04:23to fund the government for the balance of this year.

04:27And so, Mr. President, it's time for the Democrat leader to acknowledge

04:31that it's his decisions that put us here,

04:34and urge his colleagues to accept the situation and vote to fund the government

04:38rather than to let it shut down at midnight on Friday.

04:43And if he doesn't, he'll have the American people to answer to.

John Thune Issues Blunt Message To Chuck Schumer Over Possible Government Shutdown

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