[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 158 (Tuesday, September 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6507-S6508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, you are very aware because in the 
committee that we both sit on, we have worked through a process of 
trying to form an answer to a problem that is coming at us again in 2 
weeks.
  Two weeks from now, we will hit the end of the fiscal year. At the 
end of the fiscal year, according to the Budget Act of 1974, we should 
have already passed 12 appropriations bills out of this body, 12 
appropriations bills out of the House, have conferenced those two 
bills, sent it to the White House for a signature. That is the 
instructions that should be done by the end of the fiscal year.
  The problem with that is the Senate has not passed a single one of 
those appropriations bills even out of committee--not one. So our 
government is not funded 2 weeks from now, which means the countdown 
clock will begin again toward when we are headed to another government 
shutdown, and the conversation will be: Are we going to have another 
government shutdown? Are we going to be open? What is going to happen 
to Federal workers?
  Agencies across Washington, DC, and across the country will shortly 
get instructions for here is what to do in case of a shutdown in your 
Agency. Here is who, of employees, would be nonessential, what needs to 
happen to them; essential, what needs to happen to them.
  And the chaos will begin in all these Agencies because 2 weeks from 
now we are headed toward the end of the fiscal year and not a single 
appropriations bill, of the 12, has been taken up in committee. Not one 
of them is even scheduled even to be debated on the floor of the 
Senate. We will not have appropriations bills done 2 weeks from now. It 
is not going to happen.
  So here are the alternatives: There will be what is called a short-
term continuing resolution of some length or we will have a shutdown 2 
weeks from now.
  For the past 3 years, Senator Maggie Hassan and I have proposed a 
very straightforward solution to end the threat of government 
shutdowns. Our straightforward proposal to stop government shutdowns is 
a simple way to be able to solve this issue. If we get to the end of 
the fiscal year, September 30, midnight, and we have not finished the 
work that needs to be done on those 12 appropriations bills, 
automatically a continuing resolution will kick in to prevent a 
government shutdown. But starting the very next day, October 1, the 
Senate and the House have mandatory quorum calls every single day until 
we finish the 12 appropriations bills. We stay here to be able to 
finish our work. But the work has to be done.
  Why is that important? Because Federal Agencies shouldn't constantly 
be worried about another government shutdown, and the American people 
should be able to interact with their own government. Now, all of us 
know the government actually doesn't shut down, but it moves into 
shutdown mode. Some people have to show up for work; some people do 
not. But everyone is paid. Some people can get access to a permit when 
they contact their

[[Page S6508]]

Federal Agency; some people cannot. Some people can get licensing; some 
people cannot. Some people can work through the process with the Corps 
of Engineers; some people cannot.
  And this chaos for the American people and for people who work for 
the Federal workforce happens all over the country simply because 
Congress did not get its job done.
  Well, the solution is simple. Hold the American people and the 
Federal workers harmless and push Members of Congress to actually 
finish the work. This is not a partisan solution. It is just a 
solution. That is why Republicans and Democrats alike have agreed to 
the simple solution that Maggie Hassan and I have come to, to be able 
to end government shutdowns and to say let's continue the conversation 
that needs to be done, but let's not have yet another shutdown.
  This body knows, in the past 40 years, we have had 21 government 
shutdowns--21. The last one needs to be our last, but I don't know if 
it will be because 2 weeks from now we are headed to the end of the 
year, and there is no solution on the table for how to avoid a 
government shutdown again.
  Senator Hassan and I and multiple others again filed our bill today 
and said: We know how to stop government shutdowns. Keep us at work. 
Hold the American people harmless, and let's get the task done.
  Honestly, I have had people say: That is such a creative solution, 
and it is such a simple process to get done. I have smiled at them and 
said: Actually, it is not all that creative. It is the same thing that 
my mom did when my brother and I were growing up at the house. When my 
brother and I were in an argument, she would put the two of us in our 
room and would say: You guys work it out. When you work it out, then 
you can come out of the room.
  It is really no different than that to say Members of Congress should 
stay at the task until we solve the budget work and we should not leave 
with the budget work undone and leave the American people experiencing 
another government shutdown.
  Let's not have shutdown 22. Let's end government shutdowns, and let's 
get our actual budget work done, on time, as is expected by the 
American people.
  With that, I yield the floor.

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