{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=B6DCE19C-3301-4168-BE93-3D9D61A5B4EC", "Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day 23", "2025-10-23", "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, there was a time when Democrats opposed government shutdowns.\n\n\u201cAnd not just opposed.\n\n\u201cDemocrats were critical of holding government funding hostage to political demands.\n\n\u201cOur Democrat colleague from Michigan said that funding the government is \u2018Congress\u2019 most basic responsibility.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe senior senator from Massachusetts \u2013 a leading Democrat \u2013 said, and I quote, \u2018The least we can do \u2013 the bare minimum that we can do \u2013 would be to pass a \u201ccontinuing resolution\u201d to keep the doors open and the lights on.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd the Democrat leader \u2013 just last year \u2013 decried the \u2018chaos and pain and needless heartache\u2019 that a shutdown brings to American families.\n\n\u201cSo, what\u2019s changed?\n\n\u201cWhy are Democrats in 2025 suddenly comfortable shutting down the government and subjecting Americans to all that chaos, pain, and heartache that the Democrat leader described?\n\n\u201cWhy did Democrats instigate the longest full government shutdown in history?\n\n\u201cWell, they\u2019d like you to believe that it\u2019s about health care.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not.\n\n\u201cRepublicans have been perfectly clear that we\u2019re willing to have a discussion about health care \u2013 just not while government funding is being held hostage, and all the federal employees that come with that.\n\n\u201cSo if this were really about health care, Democrats would be voting in favor of the clean CR as the quickest way to reopen the government and start the discussions.\n\n\u201cBut that\u2019s not where we are.\n\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s because what\u2019s really driving Democrats isn\u2019t health care.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a desire for negotiations.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s politics and far-left activists who demanded a showdown with President Trump.\n\n\u201cThe real reason we\u2019re now in the longest full government shutdown in history is because Democrats are afraid of backlash from the far left if they stand down.\n\n\u201cOne Democrat senator was quoted this week saying, and I quote, \u2018\u201cPeople are going to get hammered\u201d if they vote for the House-passed bill to reopen the government and keep it funded through Nov. 21.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018People are going to get hammered\u2019 if they vote for the clean continuing resolution.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s from a Democrat senator, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cHammered by outside groups.\n\n\u201cHammered by left-wing political activists.\n\n\u201cOr take it from one of the organizers of Saturday\u2019s No Kings rally who said, and I quote, \u2018I\u2019m telling every elected I talk to:\u2019 \u2013 that is, every elected official that I talk to \u2013 \u2018millions will be out cheering you on, or they\u2019ll be calling for new leadership.\u2019\n\n\u201cDemocrats, Mr. President, are keeping the government shut down because they\u2019re scared.\n\n\u201cScared of a primary from the left.\n\n\u201cScared of losing fundraising dollars.\n\n\u201cScared that the far left will punish them if they don\u2019t appear to be fighting President Trump hard enough.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, Mr. President, Democrats\u2019 political games are having real consequences.\n\n\u201cAirport tower staffing shortages have caused thousands \u2013 thousands \u2013 of flight delays nationwide.\n\n\u201cMedicare patients and people in rural areas are dealing with the elimination of telehealth services.\n\n\u201cMilitary families have turned to food banks in \u2018unprecedented\u2019 numbers.\n\n\u201cAnd things are about to get worse.\n\n\u201cThe nutrition assistance programs that millions of Americans depend on to feed their families are in jeopardy.\n\n\u201cAnd tomorrow, federal workers will miss a full paycheck because of the Democrat shutdown.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cTomorrow, federal employees will miss a full paycheck thanks to Senate Democrats.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Republicans want to do something about this.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019d love to pass the clean, continuing, nonpartisan resolution, which would pay everyone.\n\n\u201cPassed the House a long time ago, we\u2019ve voted on it 12 times here now.\n\n\u201cThey continue to, with three exceptions, to block vote against it.\n\n\u201cTwelve times now, Democrats have blocked just paying our federal employees.\n\n\u201cAnd Mr. President, it\u2019s federal employees all throughout the federal workforce, which literally is millions of Americans.\n\n\u201cBut it\u2019s people right here.\n\n\u201cPeople in this chamber, people in this building, had to stay here night before last, all night \u2013 all night \u2013 to listen to some Democrats drone on.\n\n\u201cOne Democrat senator read the same poem four times.\n\n\u201cThey were here all night, not getting paid \u2013 335, exactly, federal employees \u2013 in this building, had to stay here all night, work through the night and into the next day so [the Democrats] could make some campaign political speech or point in the middle of the night.\n\n\u201cThat nobody\u2019s listening to, obviously, which is why I guess you read the same poem four times, four different times, reading from books while the people sitting here doing the work aren\u2019t getting paid.\n\n\u201cAnd so today, Mr. President, we\u2019re going to have a vote on Senator Ron Johnson\u2019s bill that would guarantee pay for federal employees who are working through the shutdown.\n\n\u201cThe 335 people who had to be here night before last to listen to that, they would finally get paid.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s also people like air traffic controllers, TSA agents, park rangers.\n\n\u201cFederal law enforcement, ICE, Border Patrol \u2013 people putting their lives at risk to keep Americans safe.\n\n\u201cSo we\u2019ll see what Democrats do.\n\n\u201cDo they think that people that are working ought to get paid?\n\n\u201cWell, to date Democrats have rejected every opportunity they\u2019ve been given to put the American people ahead of their far-left base.\n\n\u201cAs I said, they\u2019ve rejected a clean CR, now, 12 times.\n\n\u201cA CR, a continuing resolution that would fund the government until November the 21st to give us time to finish the appropriations process.\n\n\u201cA clean CR, a nonpartisan CR, a CR that has no partisan riders, no policy gimmicks.\n\n\u201cThat came over from the House, just clean, just fund the government straight-up, sitting right here at the desk of the United States Senate.\n\n\u201cFive Democrats could help us pass it today.\n\n\u201cWe could send it to the president.\n\n\u201cHe would sign it into law.\n\n\u201cThe government opens up.\n\n\u201cAnd all the people here and across our federal government would get paid.\n\n\u201cLast week, the Democrats blocked the bipartisan defense appropriations bill that would have paid our troops.\n\n\u201cIt came out of the Senate Appropriations Committee by a vote of 26-3.\n\n\u201cVery bipartisan on the floor \u2013 should have been, usually is, usually gets 80-plus votes on the floor of the Senate.\n\n\u201cBut they blocked it.\n\n\u201cWould have paid our troops, defense appropriations bill.\n\n\u201cSo today [they\u2019re] going to have another opportunity to show whether they stand on the side of hardworking Americans or remain beholden to their far-left base.\n\n\u201cNow, Mr. President, we\u2019ve heard Democrats this week criticize Senator Johnson\u2019s bill because it would provide pay only to workers who continue to work through the shutdown.\n\n\u201cThey say they want everybody to get paid.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve got great news for them:\n\n\u201cThe clean continuing resolution sitting at the desk would pay everybody!\n\n\u201cEverybody!\n\n\u201cWe just need five more Democrats to support it.\n\n\u201cFive more gets us to 60. Takes a supermajority in the Senate.\n\n\u201cDemocrats are the only thing standing in the way of the outcome that they say they want \u2013 which is for everybody to get paid.\n\n\u201cSo Mr. President, the clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sits right there at the desk.\n\n\u201cThe president, President Trump, is ready to sign it.\n\n\u201cThe shutdown could be over in a matter of hours if just five Democrats would agree.\n\n\u201cBut unfortunately, the shadow of Democrats\u2019 far-left base continues to stand in the way.\n\n\u201cAnd you don\u2019t have to take it from me.\n\n\u201cAs one source familiar with Democrats\u2019 thinking told The Hill this week, and I quote, \u2018\u201cWe would have enough votes\u201d to reopen the government \u201cif people were not terrified of getting the guillotine.\u201d\u2019\n\n\u201cWe would have enough votes to reopen the government if Democrats were not terrified of getting the guillotine.\n\n\u201cMr. President, we just need five Democrats to show some courage.\n\n\u201cThis was a statement made yesterday by a Democrat House member.\n\n\u201cAnd sometimes people around here say the quiet part out loud, sometimes they just, it\u2019s just kind of subconsciously.\n\n\u201cAnd this is what she said \u2013 she\u2019s a member of the Democrat leadership in the House of Representatives \u2013 \u2018Of course there will be families that are going to suffer \u2026 but it is one of the few leverage times we have.\u2019\n\n\u201cBoy, just take that in.\n\n\u201cTake that in.\n\n\u201c\u2018Of course there will be families that are going to suffer,\u2019 but we don\u2019t want to give up our leverage!\n\n\u201cLeverage for what? Leverage for what?\n\n\u201cMr. President, we need five Democrats to show a little courage.\n\n\u201cReopen the government, and let\u2019s get to work.\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=B6DCE19C-3301-4168-BE93-3D9D61A5B4EC"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8328249678015709, "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"}