[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 12 (Friday, January 19, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H558-H559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      THE FILIBUSTER NEEDS TO END

  (Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Madam Speaker, as you just heard from 
the previous speaker and you read often in the press about a potential 
government shutdown, let me just tell you how this works.
  The House passes a bill, then the Senate considers a bill. In the 
Senate, you either vote on the bill with majority vote or the minority 
party may choose to filibuster that bill. If the minority party chooses 
to filibuster the bill, which requires 60 votes for cloture, that shuts 
down that bill from passing.
  We have passed 12 appropriations bills out of this Chamber right here 
that are still sitting in the Senate waiting to be taken up. One, the 
Democrats need to drop the filibuster.
  I wish the majority party over there would actually put the bills on 
the floor and make the country see the filibuster live for all to view. 
You might see that over the weekend. I hope the majority leader does 
that.
  What would cause a lack of funding for the government is simply the 
minority party, which is the Democrats, in the Senate abusing the 
filibuster and causing the government not to be funded. That is what is 
causing it. That is a fact.
  You may have different opinions on other issues, but the fact of the 
matter

[[Page H559]]

is this is the way the process works. A filibuster means you can't even 
get a vote on the bill. That is being done by the Democratic Party in 
the Senate right now. They have done it all year. It is dysfunctional. 
It needs to stop.

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