{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=CECC17C5-3377-4E27-8985-C7A945774D88", "Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day 35", "2025-11-04", "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, \u2018Every day gets better for us.\u2019\n\n\u201cThose were the words of the Democrat leader a week into this shutdown, reflecting on the supposed benefits \u2013 political benefits \u2013 for Senate Democrats.\n\n\u201cWell, Mr. President, I guess it\u2019s nice that every day is getting better for Senate Democrats.\n\n\u201cBecause it sure isn\u2019t getting better for anyone else.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re in the sixth week of the Democrats\u2019 shutdown, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right, the sixth week.\n\n\u201cAnd Democrats\u2019 victims are everywhere.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s just go through a few headlines.\n\n\u201cThese are some headlines from newspapers and news outlets around the country:\n\n\u201c\u2018Some Head Start preschools shutter as government shutdown continues\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Shutdown crushes small business owners as losses hit billions \u2014 industry leaders beg Congress for \u201cclean CR\u201d\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018\u201cEveryone is worried\u201d: Dallas SNAP recipients navigate uncertainty, dwindling funds\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s the Democrats\u2019 shutdown at work, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s another headline: \u2018After a month of the shutdown, workers face mounting bills, car repossessions\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd the subhead to that article said this: \u2018Finances are becoming dire for the more than 750,000 government workers who have been going without pay for a full month.\u2019\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s some more headlines, Mr. President: \u2018Flight delays pile up as government shutdown enters second month\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Worst weekend for air traffic controller staffing since start of shutdown\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Flight delays could worsen as government shutdown drags on\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Could worsen,\u2019 Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAnd we\u2019re entering one of the busiest travel seasons of the year, with people making holiday plans with their families.\n\n\u201cMr. President, there are a lot more headlines where those came from.\n\n\u201cPeople are suffering.\n\n\u201cAll because Democrats can\u2019t bring themselves to accept a clean, nonpartisan funding bill.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the list of people begging Democrats to pass a clean government funding extension is long and it\u2019s growing longer.\n\n\u201cThe Teamsters union.\n\n\u201cThe New York City Steamfitters union.\n\n\u201cThe American Federation of Government Employees.\n\n\u201cMultiple airline pilot unions.\n\n\u201cThe National Air Traffic Controllers Association.\n\n\u201cBusiness organizations, like the National Restaurant Association.\n\n\u201cAnd Mr. President, I could go on.\n\n\u201cAll of these organizations are begging Democrats to take yes for an answer and support a clean, nonpartisan bill \u2013 the one sitting right there at the desk that is available to be picked up and passed today, sent to the president, signed into law, and the government opens.\n\n\u201cBut Democrats are recalcitrant.\n\n\u201cMr. President, for a party that claims to represent working people, it is striking to me how very little Democrats seem to care about working people during this shutdown.\n\n\u201cThe senior Democrat from Vermont published an op-ed this weekend in which he calls for this shutdown to keep going \u2013 forever, as far as I can tell.\n\n\u201cOf course he attempts to claim that Democrats are doing this for working people.\n\n\u201cTo which I say, Mr. President, give me a break.\n\n\u201cDemocrats are injuring working people with their shutdown.\n\n\u201cMaybe Democrats have no idea what it\u2019s like to live paycheck to paycheck, like so many Americans \u2013 including many government employees.\n\n\u201cBut let me just tell them, there are a whole lot of working people out there who can\u2019t afford to miss a single paycheck \u2013 much less the multiple paychecks that they\u2019ve now missed thanks to the Senate Democrats.\n\n\u201cAnd beyond the people Democrats have directly deprived of paychecks, there are a lot of other people whose livelihood is being affected by this shutdown.\n\n\u201cLike small business owners and employees whose income has declined because the federal workers who usually patronize their businesses are out of work.\n\n\u201cThere is really nothing Democrats can do to make that right.\n\n\u201cBut they can at least make sure that they don\u2019t extend the pain that people are experiencing.\n\n\u201cLater today, we\u2019re going to vote once again on a clean, nonpartisan funding extension.\n\n\u201cThe one we\u2019ve voted on [13] times already, the one sitting right at the desk, Mr. President, that would open up this government today and make sure that all of those Americans will get paid.\n\n\u201cWe need just five Democrats to join the three who are already voting with us, and we could end all this pain and reopen the government.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s all it takes, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cFive Democrats.\n\n\u201cEverybody knows who follows our government and this process that, in the Senate, it takes a supermajority \u2013 it takes 60 votes \u2013 to do virtually anything.\n\n\u201cSo we need help. We need help from some Democrats with a backbone who are courageous enough to take on their left-wing base and do the right thing for the American people.\n\n\u201cAnd I do realize, Mr. President, that Democrats are facing tremendous pressure from the far-left wing of their party, which is apparently content to see working people suffer as long as Democrats make a good show of opposing President Trump.\n\n\u201cBut I hope \u2013 I hope \u2013 that there are at least those five Democrats out there who will look at the pain that people are experiencing, and will say enough is enough.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re in the sixth week, now, Mr. President, of this shutdown.\n\n\u201cThe sixth week.\n\n\u201cAnd while every day may be getting better for Senate Democrats, thanks to Senate Democrats every day is getting worse for the American people.\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=CECC17C5-3377-4E27-8985-C7A945774D88"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.544953091070056, "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"}