[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6712-S6713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Government Shutdown

  Mr. SCHUMER. Now, Mr. President, last night was a low point in the 
recent history of this Chamber. With the government shutdown only days 
away and a default crisis coming in a matter of weeks, the Senate was 
faced with a simple and urgent question: Shall the Members of this 
Chamber allow the Federal Government to pay its debt and stay open, or 
will its Members accelerate our country toward a shutdown and a first-
ever default?
  Yesterday, we got our answer. Republicans voted unanimously--
unanimously--to block legislation to keep the government open and 
prevent an unnecessary default on our debt.
  Republicans are now the official party of default, the party that 
says America doesn't pay its debts; the party that runs up the balance 
on the credit card, receives an invoice in the mail, and sends the bill 
straight to the shredder.
  No average family could get away with what the Republicans are trying 
to do; that is for sure. But Republicans here shrug their shoulders and 
say: We incurred the debt, but we don't have to pay it. Republicans 
would let the country default for the first time in history, and it 
will be the American people who pay the price.
  Now, Republicans have said for weeks--for weeks--that the United 
States must never be allowed to default. They said the debt ceiling, of 
course, needed to be raised. They said to do so otherwise was to play 
with fire. But when given the chance to actually put the fire out, 
Republicans chose to spray it with gasoline instead. And now our 
country is staring down the barrel of two Republican-manufactured 
crises: a government shutdown and a default on the national debt.

  But, fortunately, there is an easy way to stave off disaster. Last 
night, the Republican leader--I believe he did again this morning--last 
night and this morning, the Republican leader cited an example from the 
2000s, during which Republicans held unified control of government and 
provided the votes to increase the debt limit. The Republican leader 
said that example was ``exactly the situation we are in now.''
  What Leader McConnell conveniently left out is that back then, there 
was a consent agreement, requested by the Republican majority leader, 
that cleared the path for the Senate to vote to increase the debt limit 
at a majority threshold--only one party--allowing the minority party to 
vote no but also preventing a catastrophic default.
  Let me be clear: I am still of the belief that addressing the debt 
limit, which includes debts incurred by both parties, should be done in 
a bipartisan way. But let's see if Leader McConnell truly wants what he 
is asking for, truly wants what he favorably looked upon as happening 
in the early 2000s to allow to happen again.
  Later this afternoon, I will ask unanimous consent for the Senate to 
hold a vote to increase the debt limit at a majority threshold. In 
other words, we would get consent that you only need 50 votes, not 60, 
on this vote to increase the debt limit. And that is what happened in 
the past.
  It would be very similar to the process that Leader McConnell cited 
yesterday, favorably, which allowed for

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the debt limit to be increased without the minority party providing any 
of the votes needed to do so.
  So if Republicans want to abscond from their responsibilities, not 
vote to pay the debt they incurred, so be it. That is a bad thing. It 
is a bad precedent. But this is the way out. It is a way out. It is a 
straightforward proposition: If Republicans really want to see the debt 
ceiling raised without providing a single vote, I am prepared to hold 
that vote. I can't imagine the Republican leader would object to his 
own request--his own request.