{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/barrasso-blasts-democrat-talk-a-thon/", "Barrasso Blasts Democrat Talk-A-Thon", "2025-10-22", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Whip, today blasted Senate Democrats\u2019 22-hour talk-a-thon:\n\n\u201cOne of our colleagues just spent over 22 hours on this Floor reading from a book, reciting poetry \u2013 one poem at least four times \u2013 and talking about renovations currently going on at the White House.\n\n\u201cIt was 22 hours of what I can only describe as rubbish. I come to the Floor today to ask a simple question: What did Democrats actually accomplish? The government is still closed. Capitol Police Officers and Senate support staffers \u2013 who were here for the entire 22 hours \u2013 are still not getting paid.\n\n\u201cThe facts speak for themselves. Americans deserve better than Democrats\u2019 rubbish.\u201d\n\nSenator Barrasso also read into the record a recent article from the Daily Caller highlighting how Senate Democrats forced Capitol Police and Capitol support staff to work through the night \u2013 despite the fact that they are not receiving paychecks during the Schumer Shutdown.\n\nDemocrat Forces Unpaid Capitol Police To Stay Up All Night So He Can Rail Against Republicans\n\nDaily Caller\n\nOctober 22, 2025\n\nDemocrats are refusing to pay support staff and Capitol Police during the government shutdown, but still forced them to work overnight Wednesday so a lawmaker could rail against the Trump administration from an empty Senate chamber.\n\nDemocratic Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley took to the Senate floor for a 14-hour-long and counting screed against President Donald Trump beginning early Tuesday evening. His overnight talk-a-thon, which was still ongoing at the time of publication, forced floor aides and Capitol Police to work throughout the night despite staffers missing their first full paycheck due to the funding lapse on Monday \u2014 and Capitol Police poised not to receive their salary later this week.\n\nMerkley blasted Trump\u2019s decision to deploy National Guard to Portland, Ore. over the objections of state and local officials during his marathon speech. He also denied that violence had occurred outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland despite at least 195 rioters being arrested outside the building since June.\n\n\u201cPortlanders have responded in a very interesting way,\u201d Merkley said in the opening hour of his speech. \u201cThey are demonstrating with joy and whimsy.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey want to make it clear to the world that what Trump is saying about there being violent protests or a rebellion in Portland,\u201d Merkley continued. \u201cIt\u2019s just not true.\u201d\n\nDemocratic New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim also joined Merkley on the Senate floor in the 10 p.m. hour, praising the Oregon senator for shining a light on the Trump administration\u2019s alleged \u201cauthoritarianism.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s important that we don\u2019t underestimate the fragility of our democracy,\u201d Kim said.\n\nSenate staffers missed their first full paychecks on Monday after Democrats consistently rejected a House-passed bipartisan spending bill to fund the government. A wide swath of federal employees will not receive their salary on Friday if Democrats do not supply the votes to end the shutdown.\n\nMerkley and Kim have voted with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on eleven separate occasions to keep the government shuttered during the 22-day long funding lapse.\n\nJust three Democratic Senate Caucus members have thus far crossed party lines to fund the government, leaving the spending measure short of the necessary 60-vote threshold to move most legislation in the Senate.\n\nRepublicans blasted Merkley\u2019s overnight speech during the shutdown, arguing the move was unfair to floor aides and Capitol Police officers working unpaid because Democrats refuse to fund the government.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats are going to make Capitol Police and Capitol support staff \u2013 who they refuse to pay \u2013 work all night so they can give speeches patting themselves on the back for shutting down the government and hurting the American people,\u201d Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso wrote on X. \u201cHow ridiculous is that?\u201d\n\nSenators, whose pay is protected by the U.S. Constitution, received their salaries on Monday.\n\nThe Senate is expected to vote on legislation this week sponsored by Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson to pay military personnel and federal employees who are reporting to work during the shutdown.\n\nDemocrats are expected to filibuster the bill. Several members of their caucus have argued that every federal worker should be paid during the shutdown despite repeatedly voting against reopening the government.\n\nMerkley\u2019s overnight remarks follow other Senate Democrats staging all-night speeches to protest the Trump administration this year. In April, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker delivered the longest Senate floor speech in history to attack the president and his policies.\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/barrasso-blasts-democrat-talk-a-thon/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9232000447809696, "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"}