{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=EF79E111-4237-4BDE-A092-34BDDCE746AB", "Thune: Senate Democrats Are Doubling Down on a Summer of Show Votes", "2024-06-18", "2024", "2024-06", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "\u201cThe Democrat leader knew that Republicans were not going to support a border bill that had previously been rejected, a contraception bill that would jeopardize the religious freedom of health care providers, or an IVF bill that would allow for human cloning and the genetic engineering of human embryos.\u201d\n\nClick here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor about Leader Schumer\u2019s ongoing plan to score political points on the campaign trail by prioritizing show votes over meaningful legislation on the Senate floor. Thune noted that while Senate Democrats continue to waste time by forcing votes on bills that are designed to fail, Senate Republicans will continue to expose the left\u2019s extremism and their out-of-touch policies that are hurting families across the country.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, with Election Day approaching in less than five months, Democrats are getting understandably concerned.\n\n\u201cAfter all, a historic, three-year-plus border crisis and a historic, three-year-plus inflation crisis are not exactly an ideal record on which to run.\n\n\u201cAnd so Democrats have been doing what they can here in the Senate to brighten their election prospects with a series of show votes designed to put Republicans in a difficult position \u2013 or so the Democrat leader hopes.\n\n\u201cI said show votes.\n\n\u201cAnd I say that because all of these votes were clearly designed to fail.\n\n\u201cThe Democrat leader knew that Republicans were not going to support a border bill that had previously been rejected, a contraception bill that would jeopardize the religious freedom of health care providers, or an IVF bill that would allow for human cloning and genetic engineering of human embryos.\n\n\u201cThese were not serious attempts by the Democrat leader to legislate. These were future campaign talking points.\n\n\u201cIf the Democrat leader really wanted to legislate, he would be bringing up something like Senator Ernst\u2019s legislation to promote access to contraception, which has a number of Republican cosponsors.\n\n\u201cOr any one of the numerous commonsense border proposals Republicans have advanced, like Senator Blackburn\u2019s measure to allow state and local law enforcement to detain criminal illegal aliens for ICE to deport.\n\n\u201cBut that\u2019s not the legislation the Democrat leader is bringing up.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s not interested in legislating; he\u2019s interested in boosting Democrats\u2019 electoral chances \u2013 he hopes \u2013 this fall.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I know the Democrat leader is trying his hardest to put Republicans in a difficult spot.\n\n\u201cBut as I\u2019ve said before, if he hopes to have us quaking in our boots over taking these votes, he should think again.\n\n\u201cBecause Republicans are happy to have the chance to talk about the Democrat agenda.\n\n\u201cTo talk about the disaster President Biden created at our southern border \u2013 a disaster he allowed to thrive unchecked, for years, despite the serious danger to our national security.\n\n\u201cOr to talk about how, under the guise of protecting access to contraception \u2013 something that is not under threat \u2013 the Democrat leader brought up legislation that would not only funnel money to Democrats\u2019 allies at Planned Parenthood but would wipe out conscience protections for health care providers.\n\n\u201cDemocrats\u2019 bill specifically targets the Religious Freedom Restoration Act \u2013 bipartisan legislation passed in 1993, back when Democrats actually believed in defending our First Amendment freedoms.\n\n\u201cAnd this is not Democrats\u2019 only attempt to target this legislation and dictate how and when Americans can live according to their faith.\n\n\u201cTake, for example, Democrats\u2019 so-called Women\u2019s Health Protection Act \u2013 more accurately called the Abortion on Demand Act \u2013 which would prevent health care providers from claiming protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act if their faith prevents them from performing abortions.\n\n\u201cApparently the \u2018personal freedoms\u2019 the Democrat leader mentioned earlier this month don\u2019t include religious freedom \u2013 at least not when your faith conflicts with Democrats\u2019 policy positions.\n\n\u201cAnd speaking of the Abortion on Demand Act, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cI find it very interesting that in a month the Democrat leader intended to be dedicated to \u2018reproductive freedoms,\u2019 he chose not to bring up Democrats\u2019 signature abortion legislation.\n\n\u201cIs it possible he thought that in a month in which he hoped to paint Republicans as extremists, it might not be a great idea to bring up Democrats\u2019 radical abortion legislation, lest Americans see just how extreme Democrats are on this issue?\n\n\u201cIn fact, Mr. President, Democrats\u2019 bill might be the most extreme abortion legislation ever considered by Congress.\n\n\u201cThe so-called Women\u2019s Health Protection Act would not only allow abortion through all 40 weeks of pregnancy, it would sweep away almost every commonsense restriction that has been upheld under Roe, and would make abortion on demand, at any time, for essentially any reason, the law of the land.\n\n\u201cNeedless to say, this is far out of step with the American people, a majority of whom believe abortion should generally be illegal during the second three months of pregnancy, and 70 percent of whom believe abortion should generally be illegal during the final three months.\n\n\u201cNot to mention the fact that it\u2019s also out of step with European abortion law, with 46 out of 50 European U.N. member countries restricting abortion on demand after 15 weeks.\n\n\u201cBut that\u2019s certainly not stopping Democrats from pursuing one of the most radical abortion regimes in the world.\n\n\u201cMr. President, in the coming weeks, I expect we will see Democrats\u2019 summer of show votes continue.\n\n\u201cBut I suspect the American people will not be fooled by Democrats\u2019 politicking.\n\n\u201cAnd as for Republicans \u2013 well, we\u2019re happy to discuss the Democrat agenda any time Democrats would like to bring it up.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:24:47Z"]], "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=EF79E111-4237-4BDE-A092-34BDDCE746AB"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0576739441603422, "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"}