{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/american-families-are-paying-the-price-of-the-schumer-shutdown/", "American Families are Paying the Price of the Schumer Shutdown", "2025-10-03", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cWe are about to vote today on a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government. Republicans are going to vote for it. Democrats have the opportunity to do the right thing for the American people.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Whip, today spoke on the Senate Floor about how Americans are feeling the pain of the Schumer Shutdown.\n\nClick HERE to watch Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks.\n\nSen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks as prepared:\n\n\u201cWe are in the middle of the Schumer Shutdown. Two in three Americans oppose it. Democrats are holding the American people hostage. They are demanding $1.5 trillion in permanent new spending. And that\u2019s just to keep the government open for four short weeks. It amounts to $48 billion each and every day. Here is what Democrats are demanding. Democrats are demanding more taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants. At the same time, they take money away from vulnerable hospitals in rural communities.\n\n\u201cUnder Joe Biden, Democrats opened our borders. 10 million illegal immigrants flooded in. Under Chuck Schumer, Democrats have now closed the government. They did it to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, Democrats are demanding the repeal of the $50 billion Rural Hospital Fund. This fund is a lifeline for rural hospitals like the one that just opened in Pinedale, Wyoming. Our first hospital in that county. The nearest hospital is 85 miles away.\n\n\u201cDemocrats are also demanding $350 billion in permanent new spending for Biden Bonus COVID payments. They created these payments in 2021. They promised they would be temporary \u2013 for the COVID emergency. They extended them so they would end at the end of this year. Now, they want to make the Biden Bonus COVID payments permanent. These payments are riddled with waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption. Unlike most insurance, there are no premiums and no deductibles. Democrats also removed the income limit. The money goes straight to insurance companies. The bill goes straight to hard-working American taxpayers. That\u2019s Democrats\u2019 price to reopen the government.\n\n\u201cRepublicans are proposing to reopen the government for seven weeks at current funding levels. The House already passed it. Republicans and Democrats voted for it. President Trump is ready to sign it. It takes 60 votes in the Senate to reopen the government. We have voted repeatedly on this the past several days. Each time, a few level-headed Democrats have joined Republicans in the vote. It is time for more Democrats to join us. The only person standing in the way is the Minority Leader. He is holding the American people hostage. He fears retribution from the radical socialist left. It\u2019s easy to see why. The radical socialist left, including Senator Sanders, Senator Warren, and AOC, have become the Democrats\u2019 leaders in this shutdown.\n\n\u201cWhile the government is stuck in this Schumer Shutdown, American families are paying the price. Veterans will face longer wait times for appointments. Members of the military and Border Patrol agents will continue to protect our nation without pay. Some wildfire prevention will stop. Wildland firefighters remain on the job unpaid. Mothers will lose access to vital programs that help feed their children. Sick patients on Medicare or Medicaid may lose home healthcare services. Small business owners will not receive new federal loans because the Small Business Administration is unable to process them.\n\n\u201cThe American people are feeling the pain. Their request is simple. They are asking Senate Democrats to do what they\u2019ve done 13 times under Joe Biden: to vote for a clean, continuing resolution that will reopen the government. All it takes is a few more Democrats. People who are willing to put country over party.\n\n\u201cWe are about to vote today on a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government. Republicans are going to vote for it. Democrats have the opportunity to do the right thing for the American people.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:32:54Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/american-families-are-paying-the-price-of-the-schumer-shutdown/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6821636818349361, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}