{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ricketts-slams-schumer-democrats-shutdown-hypocrisy-on-the-senate-floor/", "Ricketts Slams Schumer, Democrats\u2019 Shutdown Hypocrisy on the Senate Floor", "2025-10-02", "2025", "2025-10", "Republican", "Senate", "NE", "Pete Ricketts", "R000618", "www.ricketts.senate.gov", "ricketts", "https://www.ricketts.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/?jsf=jet-engine:press-list&pagenum=", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 On the second day of the government shutdown, during a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) called out the hypocrisy of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Democrats in voting to shut down the federal government.\n\n\u201cThe government is shut down today, and responsibility lies squarely on the Minority Leader and the Democrats,\u201d said Senator Ricketts. \u201cIn fact, you could call it his shutdown. Republicans have offered a clean continuing resolution that would keep government open to allow us to continue working on the appropriations process. And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have called foul.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Minority Leader himself voted for this very continuing resolution four times in a row before this case,\u201d said Senator Ricketts. \u201cHypocrisy! They are putting these unreasonable radical left demands in front of us instead of keeping government open.\u201d\n\nRicketts called on Senate Democrats to vote to end the Schumer Shutdown.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats should do what they have done 13 times in the Biden administration. Vote for a continuing resolution,\u201d closed Senator Ricketts. \u201cHelp us continue our work on appropriations, because that\u2019s the way the system is supposed to work. We\u2019ve already passed three bipartisan appropriation bills. The Appropriations Committee has more bipartisan bills ready to work on. This could all be over if the Democrats will simply vote for a continuing resolution that they have already voted yes on four times over the last 18 months and 13 times during the Biden administration. If the American public is looking for answers, they have to look no further than the Democrats to find out who is responsible for this.\u201d\n\nWatch the video here.\n\nTRANSCRIPT:\n\nSenator Ricketts: \u201cThe government is shut down today, and responsibility lies squarely on the Minority Leader and the Democrats.\n\n\u201cIn fact, you could call it his shutdown.\n\n\u201cRepublicans have offered a clean continuing resolution that would keep government open to allow us to continue working on the appropriations process.\n\n\u201cAnd my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have called foul.\n\n\u201cSomehow, this is unfair.\n\n\u201cThat we ought to have a negotiation.\n\n\u201cIn fact, they are demanding more than a trillion dollars in new spending to be able to keep government open for just seven weeks.\n\n\u201cThey want money for illegal immigrants to get health care.\n\n\u201cThey want more subsidies for the pandemic era insurance.\n\n\u201cThey want to end the Rural Health Care Fund that Republicans put in place for our rural hospitals.\n\n\u201cThey demand all of this saying the clean continuing resolution that we\u2019ve offered is not sufficient.\n\n\u201cHypocrisy!\n\n\u201cThis is hypocrisy.\n\n\u201c13 times in the Biden administration, Democrats voted for a continuing resolution.\n\n\u201cFour times they have voted for this exact level of spending, this budget, four times in the last 18 months.\n\n\u201cIn fact, I\u2019ve got a chart here that shows the percentage of Democrat senators who supported these continuing resolutions.\n\n\u201cAnd you can see the numbers are almost 100% all the way across.\n\n\u201cAnd when it\u2019s not 100% it\u2019s 98%.\n\n\u201cThe Minority Leader himself voted for this very continuing resolution four times in a row before this case.\n\n\u201cHypocrisy!\n\n\u201cThey are putting these unreasonable radical left demands in front of us instead of keeping government open.\n\n\u201cLet me share with you a quote from our minority leader.\n\n\u201cIn 2013, he said, \u201cWhat if I persuaded my caucus to say I\u2019m not going to pay our bills unless I get my way? It\u2019s a politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis.\u201d\n\n\u201cFurther, the Minority Leader said in January 2024, \u201cPassing the CR, of course, will prevent a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown. No reasonable member on either side, Democrat or Republican, wants a government shutdown. Both sides recognize that a government shutdown would mean crushing delays to veterans programs, delays to nutrition programs for women, infants and children, delayed benefits for our military and so much more.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow, as I mentioned, the Democrats have said this is about health care, but let me read you a quote from the junior Senator from Connecticut.\n\n\u201cHe said, when talking about health care, that \u201cthere is a time and a place to debate health care, but not when the funding of the federal government and all the lives that are impacted by it hang in the balance.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe hypocrisy of the minority leader and the Democrats is breathtaking.\n\nIt\u2019s stunning.\n\n\u201cDuring the Biden administration, they were happy to pass continuing resolutions, happy to, and in fact, when given the very same continuing resolution, they voted yes on four times in a row.\n\n\u201cNow they say no for partisan political reasons driven by their radical left wing.\n\n\u201cAnd again, they say they want to make this about health care. How disingenuous.\n\n\u201cFirst of all, let\u2019s examine the COVID subsidies that they want.\n\n\u201cFirst of all, they\u2019re the COVID subsidies.\n\n\u201cThese are pandemic subsidies meant for a pandemic.\n\n\u201cFolks, news flash, the pandemic has been over for four years.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats were the ones who set the expiration date on it, and the Democrats, if they were so concerned about this, had all of last year to bring it up and address it and extend it once again.\n\n\u201cIf they had chosen to, they chose not to.\n\n\u201cAll of a sudden, crying about these subsidies now just smacks of hypocrisy.\n\n\u201cAnd as I just read you the junior senator from Connecticut\u2019s remark, when it suited them before they didn\u2019t want to talk about health care when they were talking about continuing resolutions and government shutdowns.\n\n\u201cFolks, this shutdown does mean that folks in my home state of Nebraska could see services diminished.\n\n\u201cIt could mean that, for example, Social Security offices may be understaffed.\n\n\u201cSocial Security checks are going to go out, but services may be diminished.\n\n\u201cWomen and children will not be able to enroll in the WIC program.\n\n\u201cThe person who\u2019s supposed to help with IRS questions is not available.\n\n\u201cNational Parks may be closed.\n\n\u201cAll these services may be degraded, and all because the Democrats are holding the American public and Nebraskans in my state hostage for their radical left demands.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats should do what they have done 13 times in the Biden administration.\n\n\u201cVote for a continuing resolution.\n\n\u201cHelp us continue our work on appropriations, because that\u2019s the way the system is supposed to work.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve already passed three bipartisan appropriation bills.\n\n\u201cThe Appropriations Committee has more bipartisan bills ready to work on.\n\n\u201cThis could all be over if the Democrats will simply vote for a continuing resolution that they have already voted yes on four times over the last 18 months and 13 times during the Biden administration.\n\n\u201cIf the American public is looking for answers, they have to look no further than the Democrats to find out who is responsible for this.\n\n\u201cRepublicans have offered this continuing resolution and have voted for it.\n\n\u201cAnd in fact, three Democrats have voted for the continuing resolution, including an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.\n\n\u201cSo we will continue to do our part by voting for this continuing resolution and continuing to put it up to give the Democrats a chance to get government back open so we can continue the people\u2019s business and work on these appropriation bills, which is what we are supposed to be doing.\n\n\u201cThank you, Mr. President. I yield back my time.\u201d", 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.ricketts.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ricketts-slams-schumer-democrats-shutdown-hypocrisy-on-the-senate-floor/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6216689255088568, "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"}