{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=410681F7-AD6D-49FC-80A0-89AD4EC00618", "Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day 37", "2025-11-06", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Clickhereto 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, we are 37 days into an entirely avoidable government shutdown.\n\n\u201cAnd I say avoidable, Mr. President, because it was.\n\n\u201cDemocrats instigated this shutdown by rejecting a clean, nonpartisan funding resolution.\n\n\u201cRepublicans weren\u2019t asking them to swallow a bunch of new conservative policies.\n\n\u201cThere isn\u2019t a single partisan policy in the bill.\n\n\u201cAnd yet Democrats couldn\u2019t bring themselves to take yes for an answer.\n\n\u201cDemocrats, of course, have claimed their decision to shut down the government is about health care.\n\n\u201cThey want Republicans to bail out their Obamacare mess.\n\n\u201cAnd as I\u2019ve said probably a thousand times now, Mr. President, Republicans are one-hundred-percent willing to sit down and talk about the mess that Democrats have created.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re just not going to have that conversation while Democrats are holding the federal government hostage.\n\n\u201cThat was our position in September.\n\n\u201cThat was our position in October.\n\n\u201cAnd, yes, it\u2019s still our position in November.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re just waiting for Democrats to take yes for an answer.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I do know that Democrats have been under a lot of pressure from the far left.\n\n\u201cThe far left pushed them to shut down the government.\n\n\u201cAnd the far left has pushed them to keep it shut down.\n\n\u201cAs one House Democrat told Axios yesterday, and I quote, \u2018There would be hell to pay if Senate Democrats don\u2019t let events play out.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018There would be hell to pay if Senate Democrats don\u2019t let events play out.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat quote, from a House Democrat just yesterday.\n\n\u201cWell, Mr. President, what events need to play out?\n\n\u201cWhat more needs to happen for the far left to be satisfied?\n\n\u201cThe pain this shutdown has caused is only getting worse.\n\n\u201cForty million Americans who rely on food assistance programs are now at risk of going hungry without a resolution to the shutdown.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m sure these Americans are doing everything in their power to feed their families, but they can\u2019t do that forever.\n\n\u201cFederal workers have now gone without pay for more than a month, including the people in this building.\n\n\u201cWill the far left not be satisfied until federal workers and military families are getting their Thanksgiving dinner from a food bank?\n\n\u201cBecause that\u2019s where we\u2019re headed.\n\n\u201cAnd then, Mr. President, there\u2019s air travel.\n\n\u201cYesterday the transportation secretary announced that \u2013 as a matter of safety \u2013 the Department of Transportation is requiring a mandatory reduction in air traffic starting tomorrow because of shutdown staffing issues.\n\n\u201cThat means widespread flight cancellations.\n\n\u201cSupply chain issues.\n\n\u201cHundreds of thousands of passengers dealing with disruptions to travel every day.\n\n\u201cThe impact this will have will be immense.\n\n\u201cAnd all of it because Democrats cannot bring themselves to accept a clean, nonpartisan funding resolution \u2013 something that happened 13 times when they had the majority and President Biden was in the White House.\n\n\u201cSo, I ask the question again, Mr. President: What more do Democrats need?\n\n\u201cThey got their cheers at the left-wing No Kings rally.\n\n\u201cThey kept their base satisfied through the fall campaigns and Election Day.\n\n\u201cAnd, as of Tuesday, they have the extremely dubious honor of instigating the longest and most severe government shutdown in history.\n\n\u201cHow much more do Americans have to endure before Democrats are satisfied?\n\n\u201cMr. President, the Democrat leader said \u2026 that every day gets better for Democrats.\n\n\u201cThe number-two Democrat in the House has said that the American people\u2019s suffering takes a back seat to Democrats\u2019 precious leverage.\n\n\u201cAnd the senior senator from Vermont \u2013 a leading voice on the left \u2013 wrote an op-ed over the weekend calling for Democrats to keep the government shut down forever, as far as I can tell.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I hope that\u2019s not where most Democrats are.\n\n\u201cI hope at least a few Democrats can see that this can\u2019t go on any longer.\n\n\u201cPeople are suffering, and it\u2019s getting worse every day.\n\n\u201cA furloughed federal employee \u2013 a mother of five in Maryland \u2013 told the New York Times last week, and I quote, \u2018I don\u2019t know how to get the mortgage paid.\u2019\n\n\u201cFederal workers are taking on second jobs to make ends meet.\n\n\u201cFood banks across the country are overwhelmed.\n\n\u201cAnd American families are looking to the holiday season with apprehension.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Democrats have a choice to make.\n\n\u201cAre they going to continue to bow to pressure from voices on the far left telling them to keep up their opposition?\n\n\u201cOr are they going to stop the American people\u2019s suffering and end this shutdown?\n\n\u201cI hope enough of them are willing to do the right thing.\n\n\u201cAnd I hope they do it soon.\n\n\u201cThe American people can\u2019t wait for events to play out.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", 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