[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 19, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4567-S4568]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, we are days away from another MAGA 
government shutdown. Avoiding one will require the House majority to 
quickly accept a bipartisan solution. Yet, this week, House Republicans 
are trying everything but bipartisanship.
  Everyone knows that the GOP's proposed CR is a nonstarter here in the 
Senate. Let me say that again. Everyone knows that the House GOP's 
proposed CR will not pass the Senate because, instead of even 
pretending to aim for bipartisanship, this bill had zero--zero--
Democratic input. It calls for a crushing 8-percent cut to virtually 
all nondefense spending--8 percent. The House Republican proposal, 
drafted and put together by the MAGA hard-right wing is slapdash, 
reckless, and cruel.
  It includes cutting investments to the Social Security 
Administration, to law enforcement, to nutrition assistance, to K-12 
education, to small business, to rural communities, to protections for 
drinking water, to lifesaving medical research--cancer and other 
research--and much more.
  The American people need to know just how bad this MAGA Republican CR 
truly is. This slapdash CR would decimate investments in lifesaving 
research, hollowing out the National Institutes of Health.
  This reckless CR would lower public safety, cutting back on drug and 
food inspection; weakening wildfire prevention; and eliminating law 
enforcement officers in the Federal Government, weakening our battle 
against violent crime and the scourge of fentanyl.
  And this cruel CR would gut investments in K-12 education, slash 
resources for suicide support services, upend Tribal investments, and 
cut loans to small businesses and rural communities.
  Slapdash, reckless, cruel--that is the hallmark of this MAGA 
Republican proposal in the House.
  Then there is Ukraine, which the House GOP bill completely abandons. 
At the very same time that President Zelenskyy comes to the United 
States to make the case for standing firm

[[Page S4568]]

against Putin, the Republican leadership in the House of 
Representatives is essentially telling him: You are on your own.
  Nothing would make Putin happier right now than to see the United 
States waver in our support for the Ukrainian people. Nothing would 
make Putin happier. Providing aid is not just a matter of Ukrainian 
security but of American security, too, because a victorious Putin 
would be an emboldened Putin. That would make the world less safe for 
democracy and for America. For MAGA House Republicans to oppose 
Ukrainian aid is a terrible, dangerous mistake that could come back to 
haunt U.S. security.
  Ukrainian aid could have been an opportunity for bipartisanship, but 
the hard right--against what, I imagine, is the majority of Republicans 
in the House--has prevented that from happening, too.
  So let me say it again: The House package is slapdash, reckless, and 
cruel, and everyone knows it has no chance of passing the Senate.
  The more time House Republicans waste trying to pass this MAGA wish 
list, while ignoring chances for real bipartisanship, the greater the 
odds they will push us into a costly government shutdown.
  The last government shutdown lasted 35 days and began when then-
President Trump said to me and Speaker Pelosi in the Oval Office: ``I 
am proud to shut down the government.'' That is what he said.
  In the 2 years that Democrats held the House, the Senate, and the 
White House, we didn't have a government shutdown. We didn't have a 
debt limit crisis. We didn't have the kind of chaos that we see when 
MAGA Republicans seem to control so much of the Republican agenda. And, 
this year, we have already seen both: a debt limit crisis and a looming 
shutdown crisis, just months apart.
  Only one thing has changed since last year, when there was none of 
this chaos: a House controlled by MAGA Republicans. They are back to 
their old ways.
  And, of course, former President Trump is trying to add to the 
crisis--it is typical of what he always does--practically commanding 
his MAGA House sycophants to ``shut down the government if they can't 
make an appropriate deal--absolutely.''
  This is the problem with MAGA extremism: It is not capable of 
governing. It is only capable of chaos, and this year, sadly, chaos has 
reigned in the House.
  It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be a MAGA 
Republican-only bill. It doesn't have to be the MAGA way or a shutdown. 
House Republicans have a choice in the matter, between pursuing real 
chances for bipartisanship and catering to the hard right. Each time, 
they have chosen to empower the hard right. They have chosen 
dysfunction and chaos. They have chosen to ignore bipartisanship.

  But what was true months ago remains true today: There is no scenario 
where we avoid a shutdown without bipartisanship. If Democrats tried to 
do it only our way, there would be no bill. But now Republicans are 
trying to do it their way; Democrats are not. And there are plenty of 
Members on both sides of the aisle who, despite our disagreements, 
would like to give bipartisanship a chance, and that is what the 
American people would want us to do as well.
  We only have a few days left for House Republicans to come to their 
senses and choose the more fruitful way. I urge them to reject chaos 
and choose to work with Democrats.
  There are real people with real lives at stake here. Hundreds of 
thousands of Federal workers all across the country could be 
furloughed. Services that millions of Americans count on could be 
disrupted. Our communities will be less safe and our fellow Americans 
suffering from disasters less provided for. Those are a few of the 
tragic and unnecessary outcomes if the Republicans in the House let the 
MAGA extreme control their agenda.
  The matter is simple. If both sides embrace bipartisanship, a 
shutdown will be avoided. If House Republicans reject bipartisanship, 
if the hard right is given license to run the show, a MAGA shutdown 
will be almost inevitable.