{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-on-ndaa-democrats-latest-national-security-hostage-taking-exercise/", "Thune on NDAA: Democrats\u2019 Latest National Security Hostage-Taking Exercise", "2026-07-15", "2026", "2026-07", "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, Americans tend to trust Republicans more than Democrats when it comes to national security, and boy oh boy, do Democrats seem determined to demonstrate why that is the case.\n\n\u201cYesterday afternoon, Democrats voted against the National Defense Authorization Act \u2013 the annual bill that authorizes spending for our nation\u2019s defense.\n\n\u201cTheir ostensible excuse was the conflict in Iran.\n\n\u201cWell, in case they were operating under a misconception, I am happy to tell them that this year\u2019s National Defense Authorization Act is not an Iran funding supplemental.\n\n\u201cIt is the annual \u2013 annual \u2013 legislation authorizing the basic needs of our military and the basic needs of our men and women in uniform.\n\n\u201cNeeds that exist no matter what is happening in Iran.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s just talk about what Democrats voted against yesterday.\n\n\u201cThey voted against a pay increase for our troops.\n\n\u201cThey voted against quality-of-life improvements for our troops.\n\n\u201cThey voted against the reform of the Pentagon\u2019s acquisition process.\n\n\u201cThey voted against funding for unmanned systems, like drones and counter-drone measures \u2013 an essential security need in this day and age.\n\n\u201cThey voted against shipbuilding efforts to strengthen our naval fleet.\n\n\u201cThey voted against measures to maintain our nation\u2019s air power.\n\n\u201cThey voted against including 38 of their own amendments!\n\n\u201cI could go on here, Mr. President, but you get the point.\n\n\u201cOnce again, Democrats are playing fast and loose with our nation\u2019s security.\n\n\u201cI say once again, Mr. President, because Democrats have been playing fast and loose with our nation\u2019s security all year.\n\n\u201cFirst there was their record-breaking full-government shutdown last fall, which affected our military and all of our nation\u2019s security agencies \u2013 to say nothing of the impact that it had on air travel.\n\n\u201cThen there was their record-breaking shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which lasted a staggering 76 days.\n\n\u201cThen, after that, Democrats refused to reauthorize a critical intelligence-gathering tool, which the Democrat leader himself has described as, I quote, a \u2018very important tool for ensuring our national security.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd now they\u2019ve blocked the Senate from considering the National Defense Authorization Act.\n\n\u201cAnd who knows what\u2019s next?\n\n\u201cMr. President, in either a fit of self-delusion or an attempt to distract from their actions, Democrats are trying to peddle the narrative that somehow they can\u2019t agree to anything because Republicans are trying to make things partisan.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cWell, let me spend just a minute correcting the record here.\n\n\u201cThe National Defense Authorization Act that Democrats voted against yesterday?\n\n\u201cBipartisan.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cThe National Defense Authorization Act is bipartisan legislation.\n\n\u201cFour Democrats voted for a bill \u2013 for a bill \u2013 at the committee markup.\n\n\u201cDemocrats\u2019 record-breaking full-government shutdown in the fall?\n\n\u201cWell, that was because they wouldn\u2019t accept a nonpartisan, short-term, clean government funding extension to allow bipartisan negotiations to continue.\n\n\u201cThe Democrats\u2019 record-breaking Department of Homeland Security shutdown?\n\n\u201cWell, that was also because Democrats couldn\u2019t take yes for an answer.\n\n\u201cDemocrats and Republicans had agreed on a bipartisan DHS funding bill; Democrats reneged on that agreement because they wanted to negotiate for more; and Republicans said yes to negotiation \u2013 and then Democrats shut down the department anyway.\n\n\u201cEven though Republicans were willing to negotiate further.\n\n\u201cEven though the White House repeatedly offered a robust package of reforms.\n\n\u201cSo as I said, Mr. President, I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s self-delusion or deliberate deception, but I have heard few things more ludicrous than Democrats\u2019 narrative that they can\u2019t agree to legislation because Republicans are being partisan.\n\n\u201cHere are the facts, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cDemocrats can\u2019t bring themselves to authorize funding for our nation\u2019s security \u2013 whether that\u2019s security at our border, funding for our military, or paychecks for our troops.\n\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how bipartisan the bill is.\n\n\u201cDemocrats can\u2019t bring themselves to support our nation\u2019s security.\n\n\u201cIs it politics, Mr. President?\n\n\u201cDo Democrats think that voting against our national defense and our nation\u2019s military will gain them points with their base?\n\n\u201cOr do they simply think they can afford to ignore our nation\u2019s defense needs until some hostile actor takes advantage of our weakness?\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cBut I do know that our nation is less safe because of Democrats\u2019 actions.\u201d", 1, "2026-07-16T07:21:44Z", "2026-07-16T07:23:13Z"]], "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-on-ndaa-democrats-latest-national-security-hostage-taking-exercise/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.40713294968009, "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"}