{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=71F8BA9E-89E4-4A44-95CA-6EA5C9ED035F", "Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day 34", "2025-11-03", "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, it\u2019s November.\n\n\u201cNovember.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s been five weeks since Democrats shut down the government.\n\n\u201cAnd once again, we start this week by asking: Is this the week that Democrats end their shutdown?\n\n\u201cMr. President, I\u2019ve said it before, that there are no winners in a government shutdown.\n\n\u201cThere are no winners, but there are plenty of losers.\n\n\u201cChief among them is the American people.\n\n\u201cAs the senior Democrat from Virginia said just last year, and I quote, \u2018Shutdowns aren\u2019t victimless crimes.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd after five weeks, Mr. President, the victims of the Democrats\u2019 shutdown are starting to pile up.\n\n\u201cMilitary families have turned to food banks in significant numbers.\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019re not the only ones.\n\n\u201cFood banks in this area and around the country have seen an influx of federal workers who are missing paychecks due to the shutdown.\n\n\u201cAnd things are set to get much worse, with SNAP running on limited emergency funds and its future uncertain.\n\n\u201cThanks to Democrats, millions more Americans \u2013 millions, Mr. President \u2013 are now at risk of going hungry.\n\n\u201cAnd yet Democrats\u2019 shutdown marches on.\n\n\u201cAnd of course, letting Americans go hungry is just the beginning.\n\n\u201cThanks to Democrats, Head Start programs are beginning to close.\n\n\u201cHousing assistance programs are at risk.\n\n\u201cSeniors and people in rural areas can\u2019t access telehealth services.\n\n\u201cNational Guard training is on hold.\n\n\u201cVeterans programs are on pause.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry to say I could go on.\n\n\u201cActually, I could go on for a while.\n\n\u201cShutdowns have consequences, and the pain is being felt around the country.\n\n\u201cMr. President, last week, it seemed that Democrats were beginning to acknowledge that their shutdown is having consequences.\n\n\u201cWe even heard Democrats express concern that Americans were suffering.\n\n\u201cBut when they were given the chance to end all of that suffering, the vast majority of Democrats in this body were perfectly willing to prolong the shutdown and the American people\u2019s pain.\n\n\u201cThe vast majority of Democrats voted, once again, against a clean continuing resolution \u2013 the only bill on offer that could end all this suffering, literally, in a matter of hours.\n\n\u201cIt is the only bill in the Senate that would fix every single issue I just mentioned.\n\n\u201cIt would pay our troops.\n\n\u201cFund SNAP.\n\n\u201cHead Start.\n\n\u201cVeterans programs.\n\n\u201cPay our staffers.\n\n\u201cThree Democrat senators already support that clean continuing resolution, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAnd the Democrat from Maine who supported the clean CR in the House said, and I quote, \u2018There\u2019s a lot of important work to be done in Congress, none of which will be any easier if Mainers are suffering the harms of a government shutdown.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Teamsters Union and the American Federation of Government Employees \u2013 more traditionally allies of Democrats, to be frank \u2013 have called for Congress to spare the American people further pain and to pass the clean continuing resolution.\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019re far from the only ones.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it should not be this hard for a handful of Democrats to support a clean bill that simply reopens the government.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very straightforward proposition.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a 24-page bill, sitting right here at the Senate desk.\n\n\u201cNot a single new Republican policy.\n\n\u201cNo partisan policy riders.\n\n\u201cNothing that Democrats haven\u2019t supported before on numerous occasions.\n\n\u201cIt just reopens the government.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s just five Democrat votes away from being sent to the president, who would sign it, literally, in a matter of hours.\n\n\u201cThis bill is also the quickest way to get to discussions about health care \u2013 that is, if Democrats are serious about solving the Obamacare problem and not just interested in using it as a political issue.\n\n\u201cAs I\u2019ve said more times than I can count, Republicans are more than willing to have a health care discussion with Democrats.\n\n\u201cIn fact, had Democrats voted to reopen the government last week, President Trump would be meeting with them this week.\n\n\u201cUnlike Democrats, who want to continue papering over the unaffordability of Obamacare forevermore, Republicans have ideas for actually lowering health care costs.\n\n\u201cAnd lowering costs not just for Americans on Obamacare, but also for seniors, vulnerable Americans, and the majority of Americans who get their health care through their employers.\n\n\u201cAnd so we\u2019re ready and willing to have that discussion.\n\n\u201cBut first Democrats need to stop playing politics with people\u2019s lives and reopen the government.\n\n\u201cMr. President, airline travel is snarled. Small businesses are suffering. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are working without pay. And now 40 million Americans in need are at risk of losing their food stamps.\n\n\u201cSo, the question, Mr. President, is: How long \u2013 how long \u2013 are Democrats going to continue this?\n\n\u201cAnother month? Two? Three?\n\n\u201cHow much suffering is enough for Democrats?\n\n\u201cMr. President, the bill\u2019s sitting right there.\n\n\u201cWe voted on it [13] times already.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ll get that opportunity to vote on it a [14th] time tomorrow.\n\n\u201cAnd for the sake of the American people, let\u2019s hope that at least some Democrats can see their way to ending this, and ending it soon.\u201d", 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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=71F8BA9E-89E4-4A44-95CA-6EA5C9ED035F"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0172950569540262, "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"}