{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-democrats-have-abandoned-common-sense/", "Thune: Democrats Have Abandoned Common Sense", "2026-09-30", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, the theme in the Senate this week is common sense.\n\n\u201cToday we\u2019ll be voting on two eminently commonsense pieces of legislation \u2013 the Stop Insider Trading Act, and the Ratepayer Protection Act.\n\n\u201cThe Stop Insider Trading Act, Mr. President, actually pairs two commonsense measures \u2013 a stock purchase ban for members of Congress, and a voter ID measure.\n\n\u201cNeither requires much explanation, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cTo ensure that members of Congress and their families are not benefiting financially from insider knowledge of the markets, the stock purchase ban would prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, or their dependent children from purchasing stocks issued by public companies while the member is in office.\n\n\u201cIt would also ensure transparency when it comes to stock sales by requiring members of Congress and their immediate family to provide advance, public notice of any stock sale.\n\n\u201cAnd these rules are enforced with real penalties.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty simple measure, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cBut an important way to ensure that members of Congress are held to the standards that Americans should be able to expect of their representatives.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the other half of the Stop Insider Trading Act is also pretty simple.\n\n\u201cIt would do nothing more than require that Americans present a photo ID when they go to vote.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s it.\n\n\u201cVery simple.\n\n\u201cAnd something that has the overwhelming \u2013 overwhelming \u2013 support of the American people.\n\n\u201cAnd when I say the American people, I mean the American people.\n\n\u201cRepublicans. Democrats. Independents.\n\n\u201cEveryone.\n\n\u201cBut while this vote should be a no-brainer, Mr. President, I do have some concerns.\n\n\u201cBecause while the American people overwhelmingly support a photo ID requirement, for some bizarre reason congressional Democrats have decided that photo ID for voting is a step too far.\n\n\u201cI say bizarre, Mr. President, because I haven\u2019t seen Democrats crusading against showing ID in any of the other situations where Americans are required to present their photo identification.\n\n\u201cMy Democrat colleagues don\u2019t seem to have a problem with showing photo ID to board an airplane.\n\n\u201cTo rent a car.\n\n\u201cTo start a new job.\n\n\u201cThey don\u2019t seem to have a problem with showing photo ID at the doctor\u2019s office.\n\n\u201cOr when buying alcohol.\n\n\u201cOr when opening a bank account.\n\n\u201cThey don\u2019t seem to have a problem \u2013 Mr. President, if you can believe this \u2013 they don\u2019t seem to have a problem with photo ID, having a requirement to show a photo ID at their own political events!\n\n\u201cThink about that, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s only when it comes to voting that congressional Democrats suddenly, inexplicably see photo ID as a terrible problem.\n\n\u201cEven though not only the majority of Americans but the majority of Democrats support photo identification.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it\u2019s pretty hard to explain the Democrats\u2019 position.\n\n\u201cBut I suspect one of two things is going on here.\n\n\u201cEither Democrats are just reflexively opposing this proposal because it came from Republicans.\n\n\u201cOr Democrats believe that there are in fact people out there voting illegally and that it\u2019s benefiting Democrats.\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019d like to keep that going.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I will say that thirteen House Democrats found voter ID and the stock purchase ban to be so commonsense that they broke with their party and supported the Stop Insider Trading Act when it moved through the House.\n\n\u201cAnd I would love to see Senate Democrats follow their example.\n\n\u201cI guess we\u2019ll see soon enough.\n\n\u201cMr. President, in addition to the Stop Insider Trading Act, the Senate will be voting on the Ratepayer Protection Act this week, as well.\n\n\u201cI know I\u2019ve used the word commonsense a lot lately.\n\n\u201cBut as I said, it is the theme of this week\u2019s legislation.\n\n\u201cAnd the Ratepayer Protection Act is as commonsense as it gets.\n\n\u201cIt would simply promote the adoption of a standard that would require data centers to shoulder the electricity costs associated with their operation and construction.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s it, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cA simple piece of legislation designed to protect hardworking Americans from the increased energy costs associated with data centers.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the Ratepayer Protection Act passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives, with almost every Democrat \u2013 almost every Democrat \u2013 as well as Republican supporting it.\n\n\u201cSo you\u2019d think it would have had a pretty easy passage through this chamber as well.\n\n\u201cBut when we brought this legislation up here in the Senate a couple of weeks ago, Democrats objected.\n\n\u201cFor what reason, Mr. President, I don\u2019t know \u2013 presumably a political one.\n\n\u201cGiven the overwhelming support for this measure in the House, it\u2019s difficult to conclude that Senate Democrats blocked this bill for any reason other than the desire to deny Republicans another win in an election year.\n\n\u201cWhich is a pretty poor reason for opposing a measure to protect Americans from higher energy costs.\n\n\u201cBut they have another chance this week, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAnd I guess we\u2019ll see.\n\n\u201cWill Democrats support commonsense measures like a stock purchase ban, photo ID to vote, and protection from higher energy costs?\n\n\u201cOr will they continue to play politics?\u201d", 1, "2026-10-01T11:23:28Z", "2026-10-01T11:25:15Z"]], "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.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-democrats-have-abandoned-common-sense/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.30362918227911, "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"}