[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 2, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2671-S2672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Government Funding Legislation

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I rise to talk about the short-term budget 
resolution we will be voting on within the next couple of days and a 
quote the President made this morning.
  The bipartisan agreement we are going to tackle on the floor to 
extend the Federal budget past the CR deadline through the end of 
September is salutary. It is salutary because the two Houses worked 
together to find an agreement.

  I can see things in the agreement I like, and I can see things in the 
agreement I don't like. That is the nature of budget agreements. My 
principal disappointment with the agreement is that we should have done 
it in December. I will actually give credit to my Senate colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle. We were ready to do this deal in December. The 
Appropriations Committees in both Houses had met. We were ready to do a 
deal that would then give everybody in government--but, more 
importantly, all of our citizens and all of our businesses--some 
certainty about what would happen between that vote in December and the 
end of the fiscal year, September 30.
  The incoming administration, not yet in office, dispatched the Vice 
President and others to the Hill and said: Don't do a budget. Don't do 
the omnibus bill. We want to have the ability to work on it ourselves.
  I think this was against the better judgment of both sides in the 
Senate. A decision was made: We won't do an omnibus bill in December. 
We recessed on the 10th. We had plenty of time to get work done. 
Instead, we would do a CR through April 28.
  I think my colleagues were right to want to do it in December. 
Nevertheless, we put everybody through the hoops of this: Is there 
going to be a shutdown, or what are we going to do?
  Now, apparently, we will have a deal. We will discuss it, and I hope 
we will vote in favor of it.
  We could have gotten the same deal in December. We would have given 
people more certainty. They could have adjusted. We could have not 
frightened people about a shutdown and done other productive work. 
Nevertheless, we have a deal which I plan to support.
  But I was very interested this morning--very interested and, I will 
be blunt, very disturbed--with the President's words. At 8:07 this 
morning, he put out a tweet about the deal, about a bipartisan deal 
reached by two Republican Houses, with Democrats included--as we ought 
to be, because we represent a lot of the American public. This is the 
quote:

       Either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the 
     rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good ``shutdown'' in 
     September to fix mess!

  So what I want to talk about today is whether there is a good 
shutdown of the government of the United States--whether there is such 
a thing as a good shutdown. Is it right for the President of the United 
States to hope for a good shutdown of the government of the greatest 
Nation on Earth?
  I can't imagine that a CEO--any CEO we would admire--would call for a 
shutdown of his own company. That is what President Trump now is. He is 
the Commander in Chief and the Chief Executive of the government of the 
greatest Nation on Earth. He apparently believes there could be a good 
shutdown of this government in September.
  I want to take us back to the fall of 2013. In the fall of 2013, the 
government was shut down for about 16 days in October. It was my first 
year as a Senator. That was bad. It was bad in Virginia, a State with 
170,000 Federal employees, who didn't know whether or not there would 
be work to do, when they would return to work, or whether they would be 
paid for those days. It was bad for veterans whose claims to get a 
disability benefit were already too backed up and who couldn't get 
their calls and questions answered. It was bad for veterans whose 
requests for medical appointments were already too backed up and, in 
the uncertainty of a shutdown, they didn't know when they would be 
resolved. It was in October, which is the high season of tourism in 
Virginia. It was bad for one of my smallest communities, Accomack 
County, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, which is adjacent to the 
Chincoteague National Seashore. They count on October tourism as a huge 
part of their local economy, but when the Federal parks shut down, it 
was bad for their economy. It was bad for economies near Shenandoah 
National Park to have that park shut down in the heart of fall leaf 
season, which is the time they count on to help their small businesses 
succeed. It was bad for people on military bases, when DOD civilians 
were being furloughed--civilians like nurses at hospitals, and 
childcare workers who provide childcare to military families on 
military bases. They didn't know when they would be reopening. I see 
nothing good about a shutdown of the Government of the United States.
  In fact, it was the first Republican President in the address at 
Gettysburg who said: The question that we always have to grapple with 
is whether government by, of, and for the people shall perish from the 
Earth. I think the answer to that question is that it should not perish 
from the Earth--not for a year, not for a month, not for a week, not 
for a day, not for an hour. There should not be a shutdown of the 
government of the United States. There is no such thing as a good 
shutdown.
  So I just wanted to come to the floor today and be very, very blunt. 
On behalf of anybody in Virginia and in this country who is afraid of 
how a government shutdown could impact them or their communities; on 
behalf of troops, veterans, military families, and members of our 
Department of Defense who keep us safe every day; on behalf of veterans 
who fought for this country and who need the Federal Government to cut 
the backlog on disability claims or medical appointments at the VA; on 
behalf of every senior citizen or disabled person who has a case 
awaiting resolution by Social Security or Medicare or CMS; on behalf of 
170,000 Federal employees living in Virginia and the people and 
communities they serve; on behalf of cities and counties around 
Virginia that rely on Federal support for infrastructure projects, 
economic development assistance, opioid prevention efforts, export 
promotion, and so many other critical programs; on behalf of Virginians 
struggling with disease and illness who pray for lifesaving cures 
developed through federally funded medical research; on behalf of our 
dynamic businesses and all of their workers, who need certainty from 
Washington in order to create jobs and expand the economy; on behalf of 
Virginia students and families who rely on Head Start Programs or rely 
on federally funded work study programs so they can work their way 
through college; on behalf of all Virginians and all Americans who 
deserve to have clean water, breathable air, beautiful open space, safe 
food and drugs, violence-free communities, a functional immigration 
system, and protection from cyber threats; and on behalf of the 
reputation of this Nation and the values that we proudly claim as 
American values, I will do anything and everything in my power as a 
U.S. Senator to stop any Trump shutdown, to stop any good shutdown of 
the government of the greatest Nation on this Earth, either now or 
during September or during the remainder of his term. I call on all of 
my colleagues to take a similar pledge.

[[Page S2672]]

  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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