[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 215 (Friday, December 18, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7700]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  The other thing that is going on tonight--I will say, I guess it is 
obvious--is that we are about to hit the government shutdown time 
period again. I mean, we are only about 6\1/2\ half hours from another 
government shutdown. That is totally unacceptable. We should never have 
these shutdowns. They don't make any sense. By the way, to my 
Republican friends who think these shutdowns are good because you shut 
down a lot of government, and it seems like you would save money--we 
never save money. The taxpayers always pay more. You go back and 
provide backpay even for services that aren't provided.
  I think we have to figure out a way, when we can't get our work done 
here--and that is why this is happening. We have not gotten our 
spending bills, appropriations done here. Therefore, we are facing a 
government shutdown again. At midnight, we turn into pumpkins. It means 
the government starts to get shut down.
  By the way, it creates confusion and uncertainty for Federal workers, 
of course, who are wondering, are they going to have their job and are 
they going to get paid, but also confusion and uncertainty for a lot of 
citizens who are depending on the services that would otherwise be 
provided. It is so inefficient. If you believe in the efficiency of 
government and you believe in, you know, not wasting money, you 
shouldn't want these government shutdowns.
  My hope is that we do pass a continuing resolution at least to kick 
us into the next couple of days so that we don't have a shutdown 
tonight. That would be such a disaster for so many people. And it could 
last a long time, by the way, as these shutdowns did over the last 
couple of years. It doesn't just mean it is a few days. Let's just not 
go into shutdown at all.
  I have introduced legislation called End Government Shutdowns for 10 
years now. I have introduced it in five different Congresses. We have 
33 cosponsors. I think it has more cosponsors than any other bill like 
it, but there are other ideas out there, and I am open to them--just 
some way to get away from these shutdowns. Our bill says you just can't 
shut it down. When you are going for a shutdown, instead, you just do a 
continuing funding from the previous year. And then, by the way, over 
time, you reduce that by 1 percent every 90 days and every 60 days to 
get the attention of the appropriators to get them back to work. Other 
people have other ideas. Our bill has been bipartisan in the past. I 
don't believe it is today, but it does have 33 cosponsors.
  My hope is that we can figure out a way to end these government 
shutdowns with simple legislation that says: Let's just not do it. I 
don't think it provides healthy leverage. I think it provides, again, 
uncertainty and confusion.