{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/its-not-about-them-and-its-not-about-me-its-about-the-people-we-represent-warnock-urges-colleagues-to-come-together-to-end-shutdown/", "\u201cIt\u2019s Not About Them, and It\u2019s Not About Me, It\u2019s About the People We Represent:\u201d Warnock Urges Colleagues to Come Together to End Shutdown", "2025-11-07", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "GA", "Raphael G. Warnock", "W000790", "www.warnock.senate.gov", "warnock", "https://www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "***WATCH HERE***\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2013 Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) urged his Senate colleagues to come together and work towards an agreement to re-open the government and restore expiring health care premium tax credits on behalf of the 22 million Americans at risk of losing coverage under Washington Republicans\u2019 One Big Beautiful Bill. The compromise proposal would add a clean, one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credit and reopen the government. This proposal ensures working families who get their coverage through the ACA marketplace would see minimal disruption to the cost of their monthly premiums in 2026.\n\n\u201cWe come to our sisters and our brothers on the other side and we extend the hand of compromise,\u201d said Senator Warnock. \u201cBecause it hasn\u2019t taken me long to learn that really that\u2019s the only way you get anything done in this body. I work all the time with colleagues with whom I disagree about 90% of the time. Because it\u2019s not about them, and it\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s about the people we represent.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn the words of Scripture, \u2018let us reason together\u2019,\u201d continued Senator Warnock. \u201cLet us have a conversation. Let\u2019s re-open the government. Let\u2019s extend health care to folks who \u2013 in real time \u2013 are opening up the portal, and they have sticker shock. And then let\u2019s sit down and figure it out, because if we\u2019re honest, the status quo is not working very well for anybody. Anybody who\u2019s just trying to defend the status quo has not been talking to ordinary people. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed, and we can do that, but we got to re-open the government and give the people a little bit of hope.\u201d\n\nRead the full transcript of Senator Reverend Warnock\u2019s remarks below and watch HERE.\n\n\u201cI believe in health care. Your health, my mother told me a long time ago, is everything. So, take care of your health. It is vital. It is essential. And I believe that health care is a human right, and it is certainly something that the wealthiest nation on the planet and in the history of humankind can and ought to provide for all of its citizens. It is right, it is fair, but it is also smart. A healthy nation is a strong nation. Healthy children are ready to learn, and so that\u2019s why I\u2019ve worked so hard and so long with my colleagues on this issue.\u201d\n\n\u201cMatter of fact, long before I came to the Senate, I\u2019ve been focused on this issue of health care, trying to get my home state of Georgia to expand. And I keep preaching that sermon, because right now, there are more than 500,000 Georgians who are in the health care coverage gap.\u201d\n\n\u201cI came here in 2017 to this place, not as a senator, but as a pastor and as an activist. And I remember getting arrested, I believe in 2017 when they were major health care cuts on the table, and as I began to make my argument and gathered with other pastors in the rotunda. The Capitol Police \u2013 very professionally \u2013 began to say to us, \u2018Pastors, you can\u2019t gather and pray in the rotunda. We\u2019ll have to arrest you.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat they didn\u2019t understand is that I had already been arrested. My mind and my imagination had been arrested by this idea that surely the American nation can do better than this. Health care is a human right. Dr King \u2013 who led the church that I am still honored to lead \u2013 said that of all the injustices, inequality in health care is the most shocking and the most inhumane. That\u2019s why I was proud to join my colleagues, and I am proud to stand with my colleagues in this fight.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is about 22 million Americans who will see their health care premiums double, some triple, some quadruple. And this is not theoretical stuff for me. These are the people in my community. These are folks sitting in the pews of my church, and many of them will lose their health care if something doesn\u2019t happen\u201d\n\n\u201cA few weeks ago, I was at the Evans County Memorial Hospital in Evans County, and I got to tell you, that\u2019s a red district. I don\u2019t have a whole lot of votes \u2013 I got some. Claxton, Georgia, known for the fruitcakes. And I was at that hospital, and I can tell you that those folks were already worried because of the draconian cuts to Medicaid in the One Big, Beautiful Bill \u2013 so called Beautiful Bill. 15 million Americans already standing to lose their health care, and then the premiums raised for 22 million Americans? While giving Elon Musk and people like him a tax cut? That\u2019s beyond the pale of partisanship.\u201d\n\n\u201cFor me, that\u2019s not about Democrats and Republicans. You ask ordinary people on the street if they think that\u2019s fair. I can tell you that those folks in Evans County, many of whom who did not vote for me, but I am fighting for them because I am their senator too. They\u2019re worried about it. And so that\u2019s why we\u2019ve been in this fight. And that\u2019s why we continue to stand to this very day.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s day 38 and we\u2019re holding vigil because of the pain of the people we represent. And there\u2019s a lot of pain to go around. 22 million whose premiums may go up have gone up. They\u2019re seeing it on the portals right now, federal workers who have been furloughed. Me, the kids who were like me, are in Head Start. We got Head Start centers that are about to shutter because of the government shutdown. And let\u2019s be honest, the folks on SNAP were dragged into this fight. They were not a part of this; they were dragged into this fight. There are already legal provisions to make sure that they are cared for, and this administration \u2013 right now \u2013 is defying a court order to feed America\u2019s hungry people.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll of that pain from the crisis in health care from the ongoing government shutdown. We come to our sisters and our brothers on the other side, and we extend the hand of compromise, because it hasn\u2019t taken me long to learn that really that\u2019s the only way you get anything done in this body. I work all the time with colleagues with whom I disagree about 90% of the time. Because it\u2019s not about them, and it\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s about the people we represent. And the founders were wise to organize our government in such a way that that\u2019s the only way to have sustainable change is to do it in a bipartisan basis.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo, my colleagues have taken their position, we\u2019ve taken ours, and here we are at an impasse, but I represent a state that elected me and Donald Trump, and so they expect us to figure it out. Sometimes, when I\u2019m driving my car, I\u2019ve got a nine-year-old and a six-year-old, nine-year-old daughter, six-year-old son. Sometimes they\u2019re in the back seat having a disagreement: \u2018He looked at me\u2019. \u2018She touched me\u2019. And then they say, \u2018Daddy\u2019 \u2013 you know, they call on me. And here\u2019s what I say more often than not: \u2018Figure it out. The two of you on the back seat of the car, that\u2019s your sister, that\u2019s your brother. We\u2019re all in the same car. We\u2019re trying to get to the same destination. Figure it out.\u2019 We\u2019re all in the same car tonight.\u201d\n\n\u201cDemocrats and Republicans \u2013 there\u2019s a way in which the poor and the wealthy, there\u2019s a way in which they\u2019re all in the same car. COVID reminded us of that. Before we had a vaccine, if my neighbor had the virus, I too, was in peril. That didn\u2019t make my neighbor my adversary. That means that I have a vested interest in making sure that my neighbor has coverage.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd so, here\u2019s the proposal, one-year clean extension of the ACA subsidies. That\u2019s not what we want. If we had it our way, we would make it permanent. That\u2019s not what we fought for, 38 days for a one-year extension, but we\u2019re offering that after standing for 38 days. A one-year extension. And then let\u2019s sit down, and in the words of Scripture: \u2018Let us reason together.\u2019 Let us have a conversation. Let\u2019s re-open the government. Let\u2019s extend healthcare to folks who \u2013 in real time \u2013 are opening up the portal, and they have sticker shock. And then let\u2019s sit down and figure it out. Because if we\u2019re honest, the status quo is not working very well for anybody. Anybody who\u2019s just trying to defend the status quo has not been talking to ordinary people. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed, and we can do that, but we got to re-open the government and give people a little bit of hope. Give those 22 million Americans hope. Give the 44 million Americans who need SNAP some hope. Give our federal workers some hope.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s an African proverb that says: \u2018When the elephants fight, it\u2019s the grass that suffers.\u2019 It\u2019s the grass roots in Georgia and all across the nation right now who are suffering because too often the politicians make the politics about the politicians rather than about the people. Let\u2019s center the people, and if we center the people, we will compromise and we\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn closing, Mr. President \u2013 nobody believes the Baptist preacher when he says, \u2018in closing\u2019. I\u2019ve worked with members of your party on a whole range of things, and at the risk of embarrassing him, Ted Cruz and I even work together every now and then. And I mentioned him because early in my tenure here, he and I worked on a little thing, just a little provision, to try to get a little bit closer to building out this interstate I-14 that would run through Georgia all the way to Texas. Same road that runs through Texas runs through Georgia. And if we get that road built out, when it\u2019s time to get on that road, nobody asks you, \u2018Are you a Democrat or are you a Republican?\u2019 Nobody asks you about your religion or if you have a religious tradition at all. Nobody asks you. Some folks are going to church, some are going to the mosque, some are going to temple, some are going to the park, some are going to the beach, but they all get on the same road trying to get to wherever they\u2019re going.\u201d\n\n\u201cThere is a road that runs through this American experience. There is a road that runs through our humanity that ought to connect all of us together, that ought to remind us that we all want our children to thrive and we all want our families to have a future. Let us make haste to that road and walk towards a brighter American future. I yield the floor.\u201d\n\n###", 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.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/its-not-about-them-and-its-not-about-me-its-about-the-people-we-represent-warnock-urges-colleagues-to-come-together-to-end-shutdown/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9119370952248573, "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"}