[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 144 (Tuesday, September 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5374]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Madam President, on another matter, we have until the end of the 
month for Members of both parties to work together to fund the Federal 
Government, one of our most basic responsibilities as legislators.
  At the end of July, both parties came together to produce a budget 
deal that set the blueprint for negotiations this fall. The same spirit 
of bipartisanship is required to move forward through the 
appropriations process, and it starts with good-faith discussions on 
how we allocate funding to 12 subcommittees. To be successful, that 
process must be fair, cooperative, and bipartisan.
  Under a partisan process, we know what happens. We all lived through 
it just 9 months ago. The President demanded funding for a border wall 
and then shut down the government when Congress didn't give in to him. 
Now, just 9 months later, I read reports that Republicans are 
considering going down the same path again, potentially risking another 
government shutdown over the exact same issue. I believe there is good 
will on both sides of the aisle. We want to avoid a shutdown. 
Certainly, Republicans learned their lesson; it wasn't very good for 
them the last time. Both sides want to avoid a shutdown and both sides 
would prefer to have a real budget, not a CR. The way to get that done 
is for both parties to work together and keep the appropriations 
process bipartisan, not for the Republicans to tell the Democrats that 
these are the 302(b)s and this is the order in which we will do the 
bill. That is not bipartisan, and that is not what the bipartisan 
agreement called for.