{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/barrasso-the-american-people-deserve-to-know-what-democrats-are-demanding/", "Barrasso: The American People Deserve to Know What Democrats Are Demanding", "2025-09-29", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cLet\u2019s be honest. Democrats have a political problem. The far-left demands a shutdown. Their caucus is divided. The American people overwhelmingly want their government to remain open.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Senate Majority Whip, today spoke on the Senate Floor to condemn Senate Minority Lead Schumer\u2019s reckless shutdown plan.\n\nClick HERE to watch Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks.\n\nSen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks as prepared:\n\n\u201cThe government is on the verge of a Democrat-caused shutdown \u2013 a shutdown of the government of the United States of America. Senator Schumer has sent us a ransom note. It\u2019s not about a negotiation. It\u2019s a shakedown. Schumer\u2019s ransom note is not about keeping the government open. It is about caving to the far-left wing of the Democrat party. It is pure politics. It\u2019s political theater. And every Democrat in this body knows it.\n\n\u201cThis afternoon, my colleagues are meeting with President Trump. The American people deserve to know what Democrats are demanding. Democrats are demanding more than $1 trillion in new spending to keep the government open for just four weeks. They want permanent new spending to continue the Biden COVID bonus payments. They want sanctuary states to continue to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants. At the same time, they threaten to defund Border Patrol agents. They want to send billions of dollars to foreign countries, but slash billions of dollars to help rural hospitals in our country. They want to subsidize free healthcare for people who refuse to get jobs, yet threaten the paychecks of the people whose job it is to keep our country safe. They demand this far-left wish list \u2013 or else they will shut the government down at midnight tomorrow.\n\n\u201cThe biggest scam in this ransom note is the COVID-era Biden Bonus Payments. Democrats are demanding $400 billion to continue these subsidies forever. Democrats created the Biden Bonus COVID Payments in 2021. It was part of their reckless tax and spending bill. They passed it when they controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House. At the time Biden started the payments, most people realized COVID was behind us. Democrats extended the payments in 2022. They set an expiration date: December 31, 2025. That is three months from now. Democrats promised the Biden Bonus COVID Payments would be temporary. Now, Democrats want them forever.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m holding the House Report that came out on Democrats\u2019 2021 reckless tax and spending bill. This is the official report of the Committee on the Budget in the House of Representatives from February 24, 2021. Page 215 says these Biden Bonus COVID Payments applied \u2018during the public health emergency.\u2019 It says payments would go up \u2018temporarily. \u2018Those are their words, not mine. Well, COVID is over. Joe Biden lost. Democrats are in the minority. The Biden Bonus COVID Payments must not become another permanent government giveaway. Temporary means temporary. Yet that is what the Democrats are demanding to keep the government open for just the next month.\n\n\u201cTwelve years ago, in 2013, America faced another shutdown. At the time, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut sent out a press release. In his press release, Senator Murphy said, \u2018There is a time and place to debate health care\u2026 but not when the funding of the federal government \u2013 and all the lives that are impacted by it \u2013 hang in the balance.\u2019 Today, Democrats like Senator Murphy are doing the very thing they condemned.\n\n\u201cStunningly, Democrats want to eliminate the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund. This is the fund Republicans created to keep community hospitals open. I\u2019m a doctor. I practiced medicine in Wyoming for more than 20 years. I know what affordable, reliable, quality local care means for our communities. They are lifelines. Last week, I was home in Wyoming. I attended a ribbon cutting in Pinedale for a new hospital. This is the first hospital ever in Sublette County, Wyoming. The nearest hospital is 85 miles away. Another is 100 miles away. This is going to help the community of Pinedale in so many ways. It will save lives. Yet Senator Schumer\u2019s ransom note would shut down Sublette County Hospital and other rural hospitals like it.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s be honest. Democrats have a political problem. The far-left demands a shutdown. Their caucus is divided. The American people overwhelmingly want their government to remain open. There is a clean, bipartisan continuing resolution. It has already passed the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote. It keeps the government open for the next seven weeks. It gives Republicans and Democrats on the Appropriations Committee time to finish their bipartisan work. President Trump is ready to sign it. It\u2019s time for the Senate to pass it.\n\n\u201cSenator Schumer has repeatedly bragged that Democrats never shut down the government when they were in the majority. I would remind the Minority Leader that 13 times under Joe Biden this Senate passed a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. We should do the same right now. Senator Schumer ought to remember those 13 times. Today should be no different. If this government shuts down, and it should not, it will clearly be a Schumer Shutdown.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "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-the-american-people-deserve-to-know-what-democrats-are-demanding/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8892882615327835, "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"}