[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 2, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S2660]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GOVERNMENT FUNDING LEGISLATION
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, I wish to respond to the
President's latest tweets about the bipartisan, bicameral deal we just
reached to fund the government through September.
Members of both parties worked very hard to come to this agreement.
There was a real spirit of cooperation. I thank Majority Leader
McConnell and Speaker Ryan and Leader Pelosi, as well as Senators
Cochran and Leahy and Congress Members Frelinghuysen and Lowey, all who
worked together often until the wee hours of the morning to make this
happen. We all spent a lot of time working on it, and I think we got a
very good outcome. So when the President threw cold water on this deal
and actually recommended a government shutdown, I was deeply
disappointed. Here we saw Democrats and Republicans working together in
the best traditions of the Senate, and the President disparages it in a
way that is destructive, essentially saying: Let's have a shutdown.
The President has been complaining about the lack of bipartisanship
in Washington. Well, this deal is exactly how Washington should work
when it is bipartisan. Both parties negotiated and came to an agreement
on a piece of legislation we each can support. It is truly a shame that
the President is degrading it because he didn't get 100 percent of what
he wanted. Bipartisanship is best summed up by the Rolling Stones: You
can't always get what you want--or at least everything you want.
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