{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases/video-capito-delivers-speech-on-day-39-of-schumer-shutdown", "VIDEO: Capito Delivers Speech on Day 39 of Schumer Shutdown", "2025-11-08", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "WV", "Shelley Moore Capito", "C001047", "www.capito.senate.gov", "capito", "https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "To watch Senator Capito\u2019s remarks, click here or on the image above.\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nSenator Capito\u2019s remarks as prepared for delivery:\n\n\u201cMadam President,\n\n\u201cWell, here we are again. Day 39 of the Schumer Shutdown. And what is there to show for it?\n\n\u201cFamilies anxious about their next paycheck, federal workers unsure when they\u2019ll be back on the job, SNAP recipients worried about whether they\u2019ll be able to put food on the table, travelers stranded in airports, veterans facing delays.\n\n\u201cThe American people don\u2019t deserve this. And West Virginians certainly don\u2019t deserve this.\n\n\u201cYet, instead of ending the shutdown, Democrats have come forward with their so-called \u2018offer,\u2019 a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies.\n\n\u201cLet me be very clear: this proposal is absurd.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats\u2019 plan is a $35 billion handout to insurance companies.\n\n\u201cIt benefits the wealthy, it includes no fraud protections, and it does nothing \u2014 absolutely nothing \u2014 to lower the actual cost of health care.\n\n\u201cWhile Americans are feeling the consequences of this shutdown, our Democrat colleagues feel the answer is to shovel $35 billion to the insurance industry.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s not compassion. That\u2019s fiscal insanity.\n\n\u201cAnd, let\u2019s not forget, these subsidies were born out of the pandemic and from the health care they created and proudly call Obamacare.\n\n\u201cFormer President Biden\u2019s COVID bonuses were never meant to be permanent.\n\n\u201cDemocrats themselves set them to expire at the end of this year.\n\n\u201cNow, instead of doing their job and reopening the government, Democrats want to make those temporary giveaways permanent.\n\n\u201cThey want to double down on the failures of Obamacare, a system that they themselves have admitted isn\u2019t working by these irrational demands.\n\n\u201cThese so-called \u2018premium subsidies\u2019 don\u2019t lower the cost of healthcare. They simply shift that cost onto the taxpayer.\n\n\u201cAnd under the Democrats\u2019 proposal, wealthy families, people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, would now qualify for taxpayer-funded healthcare.\n\n\u201cHow is that fair to a coal miner in Logan County, or a nurse in Morgantown, or a teacher in Wheeling?\n\n\u201cThese West Virginians work hard, pay their taxes, and they expect government to live within its means \u2014 not hand out bonuses to big insurers and the wealthy.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, because of this Senseless Schumer Shutdown, real people are paying the price.\n\n\u201cIn my state of West Virginia, thousands of families rely on SNAP benefits to put food on the table.\n\n\u201cThose benefits are at risk because Washington Democrats refuse to act.\n\n\u201cFederal employees, park rangers, mine safety inspectors\u2014people who keep our communities safe\u2014they\u2019re being forced to wait, to wonder, and to worry.\n\n\u201cIn many ways, I don\u2019t what is worse: all those who are forced to sit at home when they would rather be working, or all those such as in law enforcement who have to work without pay.\n\n\u201cBoth of these circumstances are insulting to so many.\n\n\u201cFamilies trying to fly home for the holidays are seeing longer lines, canceled flights, and growing frustration.\n\n\u201cAll of this chaos and uncertainty is completely avoidable.\n\n\u201cSenate Republicans have made clear: we are ready to negotiate.\n\n\u201cWe are ready to debate how to actually lower health care costs and increase transparency.\n\n\u201cBut, we cannot\u2014and will not\u2014negotiate with the government held hostage.\n\n\u201cTo Leader Schumer and his colleagues: take yes for an answer.\n\n\u201cOpen the government first. Then let\u2019s have an honest conversation about healthcare, about real solutions that actually help working families.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve talked a lot about the financial cost that this shutdown has brought forth on the American people, but there\u2019s another no-so-hidden cost\u2014 one that\u2019s harder to measure.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s the uncertainty and anxiety this brings to families and businesses across this country.\n\n\u201cThe worry of not knowing when your next paycheck will come, when you\u2019ll be able to return to work, when things will go back to normal.\n\n\u201cThose costs can\u2019t quite be measured, but they are very, very real.\n\n\u201cAnd, I have a hard time believing my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have truly grasped the impact. Because if they did grasp the impact, they wouldn\u2019t have dragged this out for 39 days.\n\n\u201cWe can do better. We must do better. We owe that to the men and women we represent.\n\n\u201cI am a member of the Appropriations Committee, and I have to say, after too many years of neglect by Senate leadership, we have shown the ability to legislate.\n\n\u201cWe have passed bills out of committee\u2014including my bill to fund the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Labor.\n\n\u201cIt is historically a challenging bill to pass, but we passed it in committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve passed bipartisan bills through committee, we\u2019ve passed three bipartisan bills through the full Senate, and Leader Thune has fulfilled a commitment to bring these bills to the floor, with more to come.\n\n\u201cThat is what legislators do.\n\n\u201cOne of the great frustrations to me in this whole process is that members who supported these bills in committee\u2014and on the Senate floor\u2014now aren\u2019t allowing us to move forward to do more.\n\n\u201cSo today, I urge my Democratic colleagues: stop with the gimmicks. Stop with the political theater. Stop holding the government and the American people hostage to your partisan wish list.\n\n\u201cWest Virginians don\u2019t want political games.\n\n\u201cThey want their government open, they want their benefits secure, and they want their leaders focused on results.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s reopen the government, let\u2019s restore certainty, and then let\u2019s do the hard work of reforming healthcare in a way that lowers costs and empowers patients.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s what leadership looks like, that\u2019s what governing looks like, and that\u2019s what the American people deserve.\n\n\u201cThank you, Madam President. I yield the floor.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "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.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases/video-capito-delivers-speech-on-day-39-of-schumer-shutdown"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7697390392422676, "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"}