Majority Leader | Remark | Remarks | THE NEWSROOM | Repub...Skip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNE×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUFacebookXInstagramFacebookXInstagramVisit Leader Thune's South Dakota Site Here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER THUNExxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMRemarks10.08.25Thune: Schumer Shutdown Day Eight“[I]f the Democrat leader is too worried about his polling to vote to reopen himself, he could allow Democrat senators who do care about the functioning of our government to join Republicans to reopen.” Click here to watch the video.WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):“Mr. President, we are now in day eight of a government shutdown, which is truly unfortunate and unnecessary, and totally at the behest of left-wing Democrat special interest groups who have pressured the Democrat leadership into a position that makes absolutely no sense to any thinking person.“I want you to think about where we are. Think about this scenario.“You have a bill passed by the House of Representatives over here in the Senate.“Twenty-four pages long, clean, short-term, nonpartisan, no policy riders, no Republican priorities.“A clean resolution to fund the government, which there are 55 senators – 55 out of 100 senators are voting for the clean, short-term funding resolution that would open up the government.“The president of the United States has said that, as soon as it is passed in the Senate, he will sign it into law.“So what you have is complete unified support for a short-term funding resolution to keep the government open and make sure that all the government employees who are currently being impacted and their families can get back to work and get paid again.“And so it’s always interesting when the Democrat leader comes down here and describes this fantasy world where the bill that they proposed – which would only get 47 votes here in the United States Senate, not even 50, not 51, not a majority, and certainly not the 60 that are necessary to pass consequential legislation in the Senate.“It wouldn’t get a single vote in the House of Representatives.“So they’ve got a bill, a proposal that they say keeps the government open, that can’t pass the Senate, wouldn’t pass the House, and wouldn’t be signed into law by the president.“Now, you tell me – you tell me – who is responsible for the government shutdown.“Republicans passed a bill in the House, over here in the Senate, 24 pages long, sitting right at the desk.“We can pick it up and pass it today, send it to the president, who will sign it into law, the government opens up again.“Or, you can take this proposal the Democrats have – which has $1.5 trillion in new spending, allows for free health care coverage for noncitizens, completely obliterates the $50 billion rural hospital fund that we put in place to support rural hospitals in this country who are struggling – and they think that would pass.“Doesn’t pass here, doesn’t pass the House, wouldn’t get signed into law [by] the president.“So just a logical person – think about this.“Think about the juxtaposition of those two positions, and you tell me who is shutting the government down.“We have a straightforward, simple proposition: a 24-page funding resolution to keep the government open with no partisan policy riders, no gimmicks, short-term, funds the government through November the 21st to give us an opportunity to continue to do the government funding the way we should do it, through the appropriations process, where we have the committees meeting and Republicans and Democrats contributing, and then bring it to the floor and have an open amendment process here.“That’s the way the government should normally be funded.“And so what this does is provides a short-term extension in order for all that to happen.“That’s all that we’re talking about.“Now, they have other issues they want to bring up, which I’ve said before, we’re happy to discuss.“And yes, there are some things that I think there is interest on both sides in trying to address when it comes to health care in this country.“But you can’t take the federal government hostage and expect to have a reasonable conversation on those issues.“The government needs to be funded.“Federal employees need to go back to work.“Federal agencies and departments need to be open and providing the services that the American people expect.“It’s that simple, and that’s really what this is all about.“Again, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.“It’s whether or not they want to support a 24-page funding resolution that keeps the government open, or continue to vote for $1.5 trillion in new spending, free health care for noncitizens, and completely wiping out a $50 billion rural hospital fund that’s designed to support rural hospitals in this country.“Something that would get 47 votes here in the Senate and not a majority in the House of Representatives, wouldn’t get a single vote, honestly, among Republicans in the House of Representatives, and would not be signed into law by the president – versus something, again, passed by the House, here at the Senate.“All we need is five more votes.“There are a majority of United States senators today who support the short-term funding resolution – 55 out of 100.“We need five Democrats.“You tell me who shut the government down.“And Mr. President, I think that the public is … coming wise to this debate and this argument and these fallacious arguments that are being made by the Democrats.“In fact, there’s a new Harvard-Harris poll that came out Monday that found that 70 percent of voters oppose a government shutdown.“70 percent.“And of interest to my Democrat colleagues, 65 percent of voters – including 63 percent of independents – think Democrats should end the shutdown by accepting a continuing resolution like the clean funding resolution I just described that’s in front of us. “So what are my Democrat colleagues doing?“Well, after their resounding defeat in the presidential election last November, you’d think they might be paying attention to the strong majority of voters who would like the shutdown to end, as well.“Now, you’d think they might notice that 63 percent of independents – voters I’m sure Democrats would like to capture in the next election – want Democrats to accept a resolution like the clean CR in front of us.“But you’d be wrong.“Because, Mr. President, Democrats are still deeply in thrall to the far left.“And they’re taking their marching orders for this shutdown from far-left interest groups.“And I mean that literally.“A recent Axios article reported, and I quote, ‘Progressive grassroots groups are blasting congressional Democrats on speed dial to “hold the line” in any negotiations to reopen the government.’“Now, that followed an Axios report that found, and I quote again, ‘Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his staff are closely coordinating their government shutdown strategy with outside liberal groups … Backing down and helping fund the government, like Schumer did in March, is unacceptable, the groups have told his team.’“‘Backing down and helping fund the government, like Schumer did in March, is unacceptable, the groups have told his team.’“And so the liberal groups say ‘Jump,’ and Democrat leaders say, ‘How high?’“Forget the robust majority of independents who want Democrats to end this shutdown.“You know, Mr. President, back in the day – and by back in the day I mean as recently as six months ago – the Democrat leader was a pretty passionate opponent of government shutdowns.“Yeah, he was an opponent.“So much so, that even though he didn’t like the continuing resolution we passed in the spring, he voted for it anyway, because, in his words, and again I quote, ‘a government shutdown would be far worse.’“But then progressive groups got big-time mad.“And now the Democrat leader is leading the charge to keep the government shut down – indefinitely apparently.“And all those federal workers and hardworking Americans he was so worried about before seem to have just slipped his mind.“In fact, Democrats have barely reacted to the fact that federal workers are going to start missing pay.“Mr. President, when we realized that we were going to need a continuing resolution to allow us more time to complete the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills, Republicans wanted to do everything we could to ensure that there was no government shutdown.“Which is why we put forward a clean continuing resolution, with no new Republican policies or partisan policy riders.“We knew a shutdown would be costly and disruptive for hardworking Americans, and we were determined to ensure that Democrats had no reason – no reason – to oppose our CR. “But Democrats weren’t deterred by the fact that there was nothing for them to object to in our bill.“And they decided to oppose it anyway. “Now, Mr. President, Democrats will get another chance this week to vote to keep the government open.“And I hope the Democrat leader and Democrat senators can summon up some of that concern they used to have about shutdowns, and vote to reopen the government.“At the very least, if the Democrat leader is too worried about his polling to vote to reopen himself, he could allow Democrat senators who do care about the functioning of our government to join Republicans to reopen.”PrintEmailTweetNextPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER THUNEFacebookXInstagram
