{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=86EA7FB0-59E7-4FBE-93A1-E97B2F01473B", "Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day 16", "2025-10-16", "2025", "2025-10", "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, this morning we will offer my Democrat colleagues yet another opportunity to vote to reopen the government.\n\n\u201cTo vote to reopen the government with a clean, nonpartisan CR.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re not asking Democrats to swallow any new Republican policies.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re not asking them to swallow any partisan policy riders.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re simply asking them to extend current funding levels for a few weeks while we work on full-year appropriations.\n\n\u201cAnd you don\u2019t have to take my word for it.\n\n\u201cEveryone from the president of the Teamsters union to mainstream media outlets has confirmed that the CR Republicans have put forward is a clean CR.\n\n\u201cBut Senate Democrats chose to shut down the government anyway.\n\n\u201cNow, Mr. President, Democrats\u2019 ostensible reason for their 16-day shutdown is because they want Republicans to agree to bail out the health care mess that Democrats created \u2013 first with Obamacare, and then by passing and then sunsetting enhanced Obamacare tax credits that were put in place for the covid emergency, which I think as we all know, is long behind us.\n\n\u201cAnd despite the fact that we\u2019re only in this position because of Democrats\u2019 poor policy choices, Republicans are ready for that discussion.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m ready.\n\n\u201cMy colleagues are ready.\n\n\u201cThe speaker and the president are ready.\n\n\u201cBut, Mr. President, only once we\u2019ve reopened the government.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re not conducting negotiations in a hostage situation.\n\n\u201cAnd we\u2019re not going to pay a $1.5 trillion ransom to get Democrats to reopen government operations.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right, Mr. President \u2013 $1.5 trillion.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s what Democrats are demanding.\n\n\u201cBetween their Obamacare bailout and the other partisan policies that they\u2019ve included, they want a $1.5 trillion ransom to reopen the government for a handful of weeks.\n\n\u201cNow, to put that number in perspective, that\u2019s equivalent to almost one-quarter of the 2024 federal budget.\n\n\u201cAgain, just to reopen the federal government for a handful of weeks.\n\n\u201cNow, think about that, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cTheir proposal: $1.5 trillion in new spending, free health care benefits for noncitizens, to open the government until October 31.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s what their proposal is.\n\n\u201cSo literally, the American taxpayer is supposed to pay $1.5 trillion so that the Democrats can open the government until Halloween \u2013 two weeks from now.\n\n\u201c$1.5 trillion for two weeks. That\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about here.\n\n\u201cNow, just imagine this for a minute, Mr. President, what might happen if we pay that ransom and agree to the Democrats\u2019 $1.5 trillion demand.\n\n\u201cWell, what\u2019s going to happen the next time we need a continuing resolution?\n\n\u201cHow much are Democrats going to demand then?\n\n\u201cWill we have to add another $1.5 trillion every time we want to fund the government?\n\n\u201cAnd they want to do it for two weeks! 1.5 trillion for two weeks.\n\n\u201cI mean, where does this end?\n\n\u201cWhen taxpayers and our economy have been totally destroyed by Democrats\u2019 profligate spending?\n\n\u201cIs that where it ends?\n\n\u201cNo, Mr. President, while I am more than happy to discuss ways to alleviate Democrats\u2019 health care mess, we\u2019re not paying \u2026 a $1.5 trillion ransom to reopen the federal government.\n\n\u201cNow, Mr. President, as frustrated as I am with their continued refusal to reopen the government, I do have to say that I have some sympathy for Senate Democrats.\n\n\u201cWhile they may claim health care is the driver of what they\u2019re doing, we all know that the primary reason we\u2019re in this mess is because Democrats\u2019 far-left base demanded a showdown with President Trump.\n\n\u201cJust seven months ago, the Democrat leader voted with Republicans to keep the government open because, he said, while he didn\u2019t like the CR, a government shutdown would be, quote, \u2026 \u2018far worse.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut he caught a whole lot of flak for that decision from the far left.\n\n\u201cAnd so now he\u2019s leading the shutdown charge.\n\n\u201cAnd he\u2019s not the only Democrat who voted to fund the government in March who\u2019s now a member of the shutdown brigade.\n\n\u201cBut, Mr. President, no matter how much pressure their far-left base is exerting, we still need some Democrats to do the right thing.\n\n\u201cIt would take just a handful of Democrats to reopen the government.\n\n\u201cJust a handful of Democrats to enable us to resume paying air traffic controllers, law enforcement officers, and all of the other federal workers.\n\n\u201cJust a handful of Democrats to get the federal government working again for the American people.\n\n\u201cLater today Democrats are going to have another opportunity to make the right decision.\n\n\u201cTwo opportunities in fact.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re going to have a chance to vote on the clean, nonpartisan CR \u2013 which, as I said in the past, sits right there at the desk, which has passed the House of Representatives.\n\n\u201cWe can pick this up, with five more Democrat votes pass it today, send it to the president, the president signs it into law, and the government reopens.\n\n\u201cSo, they\u2019re going to have a chance to vote on that yet again.\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019re going to have a chance to vote to advance full-year defense appropriations legislation \u2013 so that if we can\u2019t reopen the entire government, we can at least make some progress toward securing paychecks for our troops and for defending our country.\n\n\u201cJust last week the Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act \u2013 which is essential legislation, something that we do every year \u2013 to authorize defense spending and to authorize a pay raise for our troops.\n\n\u201cSo this is Democrats\u2019 chance to make good on that promise by funding the raise.\n\n\u201cThe authorization bill authorized it; the defense appropriations bill that we will vote on here later today will actually fund that raise so our troops can get paid.\n\n\u201cNow, again, I realize that Democrats\u2019 far-left base is rallying in D.C. this weekend, which puts extra pressure on Democrats.\n\n\u201cBut I hope they\u2019ll do the right thing anyway and vote to reopen the government.\n\n\u201cAll we need is five.\n\n\u201cThe bill\u2019s right there.\n\n\u201cGoes to the president, he signs it into law, the government reopens.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the American people are depending on some, I\u2019m hoping, Democrats who are willing to put the interests of the American people ahead of the interests of their far-left base.\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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=86EA7FB0-59E7-4FBE-93A1-E97B2F01473B"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.883753877133131, "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"}