{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/barrasso-even-democrats-closest-allies-are-begging-them-to-end-the-schumer-shutdown/", "Barrasso: Even Democrats\u2019 Closest Allies Are Begging Them to End the Schumer Shutdown", "2025-10-31", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cThese are working Americans. Their paychecks are missing. Their bills are mounting. Their stress is multiplying. Their message is clear: reopen the government today. Democrats refuse to listen. Instead, they freely admit this is all about politics.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Whip, today spoke on the Senate Floor about how the Democrat Party\u2019s union allies are demanding Senate Democrats support a clean continuing resolution and vote to end the Schumer Shutdown.\n\nClick HERE to watch Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks.\n\nSen. Barrasso remarks as prepared:\n\n\u201cLet me start with a quote. \u2018It is time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.\u2019 Those are the words of the American Federation of Government Employees. Not Fox News. Not National Review. Not the Wall Street Journal. These are the words of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union in America for federal workers.\n\n\u201cThey were proud promoters of the far left\u2019s radical rally held two weeks ago. They are a liberal group that has sued the Trump administration more than a dozen times this year. They endorsed Kamala Harris for President. 100 percent of their 2024 campaign war chest went to Democrats. Even Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois \u2013 the Democrat Whip \u2013 admits, \u2018They\u2019re our friends. We take them seriously.\u2019\n\n\u201cThis labor union is one of the Democrats\u2019 biggest cheerleaders. Today, they\u2019re calling out Democrats for playing politics and holding hostage the paychecks of 820,000 federal workers. If that doesn\u2019t push the Democrats to wake up\n\nand reopen the government, I don\u2019t know what will.\n\n\u201cToday is Day 29 of the Schumer Shutdown. Democrats have set the record for the longest full government shutdown in American history. Union after union is begging Democrats to end it. It\u2019s not only the American Federation of Government Employees.\n\n\u201cThe head of the Capitol Police Union warns, \u2018The longer the shutdown drags on, the harder it becomes for my officers.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe President of the Teamsters Union says, \u2018American workers are not bargaining chips. Senators should stop screwing around and pass the House-passed clean, short-term funding bill.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Union warns, \u2018The message is simple: end the shutdown today. There is no excuse that these hardworking men and women are showing up to do this job and to not ever know when they\u2019re going to get paid again.\u2019\n\n\u201cThese are working Americans. Their paychecks are missing. Their bills are mounting. Their stress is multiplying. Their message is clear: reopen the government today. Democrats refuse to listen. Instead, they freely admit this is all about politics.\n\n\u201cThe Minority Leader Schumer gloated this month in a sit-down interview with Punchbowl News, \u2018Every day gets better for us.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe House Democrat Whip admitted to Fox News, \u2018Of course there will be families that are going to suffer, but it is one of the few leverage times we have.\u2019\n\n\u201cSenator Chris Coons of Delaware just last Thursday told a national television audience on CSPAN, \u2018Frankly, this is our only moment of leverage.\u2019 He calls the shutdown an \u2018unpleasant tool,\u2019 yet he\u2019s voted 13 times to use this \u2018unpleasant tool\u2019 to keep the government closed.\n\n\u201cThose are the words of high-ranking Democrats in both the House and the Senate. Vulnerable mothers and children are leverage so Democrats can give free healthcare to illegal immigrants. It\u2019s reckless, radical, and wrong. The suffering, the unpleasantness is going to get worse as the week goes on. That\u2019s unless Democrats reopen the government.\n\n\u201cAir traffic controllers missed their first full paychecks yesterday. 1.8 million federal workers miss their full paycheck Friday. That includes Border Patrol and TSA agents. By the end of this week, 42 million Americans will lose food assistance. Lines at food banks are already swelling. The New York Times reports food banks are \u2018anticipating an even greater surge in demand.\u2019 Families from New Hampshire to Georgia will go hungry because Democrats chose to close the government and refuse to reopen it.\n\n\u201cDemocrats know the President cannot legally use emergency funds to the tune of $9 billion per month for food assistance. Democrats have one option: vote for a clean continuing resolution and reopen the government.\n\n\u201cOf course, the Schumer Shutdown is not only a financial issue. It is also causing a crisis in national safety. This past weekend, one in six air traffic control centers nationwide was understaffed. Since Sunday, nearly 20,000 flights have been delayed. Some Democrats privately say they won\u2019t budge unless \u2018planes are falling out of the sky.\u2019\n\n\u201cDemocrats continue to embrace the politics of pain. Democrats have chosen leverage over lives, fighting Trump over feeding families, and politics over paychecks. The American people deserve better.\n\n\u201cSenate Republicans have voted 13 times for a clean, short-term continuing resolution. It reopens the government and pays every federal worker. 13 times Senate Democrats have voted no. Under Joe Biden, they voted 13 times for the exact same kind of clean continuing resolution. Here\u2019s the math everyone in this chamber understands. It takes 60 votes to reopen the government. 55 Senators have voted to reopen the government. That means it takes only 5 more Democrats to end the shutdown.\n\n\u201cRepublicans are ready to pay our workers, feed our families, and reopen the government. Democrats voting against this are committed to what the House Democrat Whip admits is suffering \u2013 and what Senator Coons admits is unpleasantness. Democrats need to stop playing this dangerous game of the politics of pain.\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/barrasso-even-democrats-closest-allies-are-begging-them-to-end-the-schumer-shutdown/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.112659927457571, "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"}