{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=FFF6A0D9-3F24-499D-8EC6-9C033A2A68E0", "Thune: Democrats Continue to Have Misplaced Priorities", "2021-10-28", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today called out Democrats for prioritizing their radical agenda and government expansion ahead of passing the National Defense Authorization Act or critical legislation to address the energy and border crises. Thune noted that Democrats are continuing to ignore important issues that are impacting Americans and are instead focusing solely on their reckless tax-and-spending spree.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, work continues on Democrats\u2019 socialist spending spree.\n\n\u201cAnd the Senate seems to be on track to vote on their bill in the near future.\n\n\u201cWell, maybe.\n\n\u201cIt depends who you ask at any given time around here these days.\n\n\u201cJust to highlight the high level of uncertainty surrounding this process, President Biden was on Capitol Hill just this morning \u2013 his second visit this month \u2013 to twist the arms of still undecided Democrats.\n\n\u201cAs they continue to see what sticks to the wall, it\u2019s good to know that priorities like government jobs for climate activists, tax credits for \u2018environmental justice\u2019 programs at colleges and universities, and $200 million for a park in Speaker Pelosi\u2019s district may soon come up for a vote in the Senate.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s just too bad that Democrats have been so focused on expanding government that they haven\u2019t actually taken time to do some of the essential business of government.\n\n\u201cMr. President, fiscal year 2021 ended a month ago.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re into fiscal year 2022.\n\n\u201cYet so far the Senate has not taken up a single appropriations bill for the 2022 fiscal year.\n\n\u201cOn the other hand, perhaps it\u2019s not surprising, since the 2022 appropriations bills recently introduced by the committee chair are rabidly partisan productions, packed with poison pills that one can only assume are designed to make the bills fail.\n\n\u201cTaxpayer funding of abortion, a measure that would allow Democrats to use the IRS for partisan purposes, policies that would allow certain criminal illegal aliens to be released into the United States \u2026 we may be better off without these bills.\n\n\u201cOne bill that there\u2019s no question we should have taken up months ago, however, is the National Defense Authorization Act.\n\n\u201cThe NDAA is one of the most important bills we consider each year.\n\n\u201cIt authorizes funding for national defense priorities, like critical upgrades to our defense capabilities, as well as funding for our military men and women, from pay increases to protective equipment to investments in Impact Aid.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a bill we can afford to ignore.\n\n\u201cBut under Senate Democrats, the bill has taken a back seat to Democrats\u2019 pet priority \u2013 their massive, partisan tax-and-spending legislation.\n\n\u201cSo while Democrats focus on expanding the size of government, critical military priorities are going unauthorized and unfunded.\n\n\u201cWithout the NDAA \u2013 and then the defense appropriations bill \u2013 the military can\u2019t sign off on contracts for critical new equipment.\n\n\u201cShipbuilding projects, military infrastructure projects, development of new combat systems \u2026 they\u2019re all having to wait while Democrats negotiate over their socialist spending spree.\n\n\u201cIn my state of South Dakota, Ellsworth Air Force Base is currently preparing to be the first home of the B-21 bomber, where we\u2019ll host both the Formal Training Unit and first operational squadron.\n\n\u201cThe B-21 bomber will eventually replace the Air Force\u2019s aging B-1 fleet and ensure that we have a long-range strike asset and leg of the nuclear triad capable of meeting the threats of the 21st century \u2013 wherever in the world they are found.\n\n\u201cThis year\u2019s NDAA authorizes critical funding for developing the B-21 and starting to transform Ellsworth to prepare for the mission, plus a requirement to maintain the remaining B-1 fleet until the bombers can be replaced by the B-21.\n\n\u201cThis is just one of the many critical national security investments that we can\u2019t afford to delay.\n\n\u201cBut I guess our military men and women will just have to understand that Democrats\u2019 socialist spending spree takes priority.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it\u2019s not just our military men and women or appropriations bills that have had to take a back seat to Democrats\u2019 burning desire to expand the size of government and its reach into Americans\u2019 lives.\n\n\u201cWith their single-minded focus on their tax-and-spending spree \u2013 and, of course, on federalizing election law to give themselves a permanent advantage in future elections \u2013 real crises facing our nation seem to barely register on Democrats\u2019 radar.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re in the midst of a serious, increasingly long-term inflation problem \u2013 a problem Democrats helped trigger by dumping a lot of unnecessary government money into the economy earlier this year \u2013 yet Democrats are not only ignoring this crisis, they\u2019re preparing to make things worse by dumping even more government money into our economy.\n\n\u201cThen there\u2019s the crisis at our southern border.\n\n\u201cMr. President, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 192,001 individuals attempting to cross our southern border in September \u2013 a 233 percent increase from the previous September.\n\n\u201c233 percent.\n\n\u201cCustoms and Border Protection apprehended more than 1.7 million individuals attempting to cross our southern border in fiscal year 2021 \u2013 the highest number ever.\n\n\u201cWe have a security, enforcement, and humanitarian crisis at our southern border.\n\n\u201cAnd there\u2019s no sign that things are getting any better.\n\n\u201cYet you could be forgiven for wondering if Democrats have even noticed.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure the president and his administration spent more time earlier this year fighting against the use of the word crisis to describe the situation at the border than they did actually thinking about how they might deal with the influx.\n\n\u201cThe president\u2019s main response to the situation seems to be ignoring it in hopes it will go away.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s happy to travel all over the place \u2013 whether to a campaign rally in Virginia or a climate change summit overseas.\n\n\u201cBut he can\u2019t seem to find a minute to visit the border.\n\n\u201cAnd the border crisis is not the only crisis the president is ignoring.\n\n\u201cThe president\u2019s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal was a real low point for this country.\n\n\u201cThirteen of our military men and women died in a terrorist attack.\n\n\u201cWe abandoned thousands of individuals who had worked with us in Afghanistan and whom we had promised to protect.\n\n\u201cNot to mention hundreds of Americans still working to find a way home.\n\n\u201cAnd the president who was supposed to restore our standing on the world stage left our allies wondering if our word could be relied on.\n\n\u201cMost of all, the disastrous withdrawal has left our country in a much more precarious national security position.\n\n\u201cAfghanistan is ripe to once again become a terrorist haven.\n\n\u201cJust this week, a Pentagon official testified that ISIS-K \u2013 ISIS\u2019 Afghanistan affiliate \u2013 could be ready to launch terrorist attacks on our homeland in as little as six months.\n\n\u201cSix months.\n\n\u201cAnd al-Qaeda, which looks set to once again find a safe haven in Afghanistan, could be ready to launch attacks in a year.\n\n\u201cYet once again, this barely seems to register on the Biden administration\u2019s radar.\n\n\u201cWe still have no agreements with neighboring countries to establish or make use of bases to launch counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.\n\n\u201cThe administration is apparently working on the situation.\n\n\u201cWell, quite frankly, this is something the administration should have figured out before withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan and destroying our ability to conduct counterterrorism operations within the country.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, the president was more focused on meeting his predetermined, arbitrary deadline than on dealing with the actual situation on the ground \u2013 with predictably catastrophic consequences.\n\n\u201cMr. President, a lot of priorities have had to take a back seat to Democrats\u2019 tax-and-spending spree.\n\n\u201cI only wish the bill were worth it.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, Democrats\u2019 massive spending bill is likely to worsen our inflation crisis, weaken our economy, and increase government intrusion into Americans\u2019 lives.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, I guess our border crisis and national security priorities will have to continue to wait until Democrats find the time to address them.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m not holding my breath.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", 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