{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=EB35F2E3-E4C4-4EE3-B6AC-943165E474F6", "Thune: Schumer\u2019s Show-Vote Summer Quickly Turning into Show-Vote Fall", "2024-09-19", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor about the latest installment of Majority Leader Schumer\u2019s season of political show votes that is consuming valuable floor time that could be otherwise used to consider important legislation like the National Defense Authorization Act and annual appropriations bills.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, it was another installment of Show-Vote Summer in the Senate this week.\n\n\u201cReally, the Senate is starting to feel like an arm of the DNC.\n\n\u201cI say show votes, Mr. President, because of course this week\u2019s vote \u2013 and the other show votes we\u2019ve taken this summer \u2013 had nothing at all to do with legislating.\n\n\u201cThese were not attempts to pass bills.\n\n\u201cThese were future campaign talking points and television commercials.\n\n\u201cHad the Democrat leader really wanted to pass legislation, I can think of a number of bills he would have brought up.\n\n\u201cBut he isn\u2019t actually interested in getting anything done.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s interested in \u2013 he hopes \u2013 getting votes in November.\n\n\u201cNow, Mr. President, with rare exceptions, the Senate has spent essentially the entire summer confirming Biden nominees and conducting show votes.\n\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s not because there hasn\u2019t been important legislation for us to take up.\n\n\u201cIn fact, it\u2019s quite the opposite.\n\n\u201cThe Senate has crucial legislation it should have been considering.\n\n\u201cThe National Defense Authorization Act, for one thing \u2013 one of the most important pieces of legislation we consider each year.\n\n\u201cDefense appropriations.\n\n\u201cVeterans appropriations.\n\n\u201cAll appropriations.\n\n\u201cThe end of the fiscal year is almost upon us \u2013 we have 11 days left \u2013 and yet we haven\u2019t taken up a single appropriations bill on the Senate floor.\n\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s not because the Appropriations Committee hasn\u2019t been doing its work.\n\n\u201cAgain, quite the opposite.\n\n\u201cBy the beginning of August, the Senate Appropriations Committee had passed 11 out of the 12 yearly appropriations bills \u2013 several of them unanimously.\n\n\u201cJust yesterday, Senator Collins, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was on the floor urging the Democrat leader to take action on the appropriations bills.\n\n\u201cThere is zero reason why we shouldn\u2019t have taken up these bills on the Senate floor.\n\n\u201cAnd the only reason we haven\u2019t is because the Democrat leader has been more interested in scoring political points than in doing the job we were all sent here to do.\n\n\u201cI hope these hypothetical political points were worth the costs to our military that come with continuing resolutions \u2013 which is what we are going to be forced to resort to now to keep the government running.\n\n\u201cMr. President, in a properly functioning Senate, committee work would be reflected on the Senate floor \u2013 for example, by taking up the appropriations bills a committee has produced.\n\n\u201cBut in the Schumer Senate, leadership is top-down.\n\n\u201cAnd so the actual work of the Senate \u2013 and the hard work of the committees \u2013 has taken a back seat to the Democrat leader\u2019s political machinations.\n\n\u201cAs I said, he\u2019s currently ignoring the National Defense Authorization Act and 11 appropriations bills, all passed out of the committee.\n\n\u201cAll available for floor consideration, in some cases for months.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s ignored some of those bills for months.\n\n\u201cAnd in addition to ignoring committee work, the Democrat leader is also happy to interfere with \u2013 or go around \u2013 committees when it suits him.\n\n\u201cThe Commerce Committee\u2019s final release of the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill was delayed for months because the Democrat leader objected to an amendment that was likely to pass in committee on a bipartisan basis.\n\n\u201cRather than letting the democratic process play out, the Democrat leader chose to call a halt to committee consideration of the bill, bringing the Commerce Committee\u2019s work to a standstill literally for months.\n\n\u201cAnd while he did finally allow the Senate to take up the bill, we passed the bill a total of eight months after the previous reauthorization had expired \u2013 again, solely because the Democrat leader didn\u2019t like an amendment that was likely to pass with bipartisan support.\n\n\u201cI was not surprised to learn last week that the leader may proceed right to an informal conference on the National Defense Authorization Act, bypassing consideration of the Senate version of the bill on the floor of the United States Senate.\n\n\u201cAgain, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation that we do on an annual basis, and which should have allowed to have every member have a voice through an amendment process on the floor.\n\n\u201cBut he\u2019s made it very clear that member input is not one of his priorities.\n\n\u201cAnd as if the Senate weren\u2019t dysfunctional enough, if Democrats win the majority the Democrat leader intends to destroy perhaps the most important Senate rule we have, the Senate filibuster \u2013 permanently diminishing, if not eliminating, any meaningful voice for the minority in the United States Senate.\n\n\u201cWhich is what this institution was created to represent.\n\n\u201cMr. President, my great hope is to see a properly functioning Senate again.\n\n\u201cOne where, for starters, we actually take up each year\u2019s appropriations bills after they come out of the committee.\n\n\u201cI want to see a Senate where committee work is recognized and serves as the basis for the floor schedule, and where committee chairmen are empowered.\n\n\u201cA Senate where members have the opportunity to have their voices heard through a robust amendment process, from committee to final consideration here on the floor of the Senate.\n\n\u201cAnd a Senate where the role the Senate plays in the legislative branch is respected and protected \u2013 starting with safeguarding the filibuster rule, which helps preserve the Senate\u2019s role as the, as the Founders said, \u2018cooling saucer of democracy.\u2019\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t have much hope that we\u2019ll see this type of Senate if Democrats are reelected and the current Democrat leader continues in his role.\n\n\u201cBut it\u2019s the kind of Senate that I will continue to work for, and that I hope a majority of senators aspire to.\n\n\u201cIn the meantime, I guess we\u2019ll continue with the Democrat leader\u2019s show votes.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "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=EB35F2E3-E4C4-4EE3-B6AC-943165E474F6"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8707770612090826, "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"}