[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 153 (Thursday, September 21, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S4638]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the CR, an ominous case of deja vu is 
playing out this week in the House of Representatives. A national 
crisis is around the corner. The solution demands bipartisanship, but 
Speaker McCarthy is wasting precious time catering to the hard, hard 
MAGA right. Catering to the hard right didn't work during the default 
crisis, and it will not work here in the shutdown crisis.
  It has been a troublesome, vexing week for the House of 
Representatives. A few days ago, House Republicans released what they 
called the deal on a CR but which, in reality, read like a House 
Freedom Caucus screed. It called for a devastating 8-percent cut on 
virtually all nondefense spending. It would have gutted law enforcement 
funding, border protection, nutrition benefits, and so much more. But 
that still wasn't extreme enough for MAGA Republicans.
  The House GOP's latest proposals are even more extreme, call for even 
greater cuts, and stand even less of a chance of passing the U.S. 
Senate. House Republicans are still trying to appease the most hard-
right elements of their conference. It is almost as if a small handful 
are deciding what the whole body of 435 Members should do. It makes no 
sense. And the hard right, many of them, publicly say they want the 
government to shut down, despite the fact that it would hurt so many.
  So that is what seems the Republican leadership is doing, instead of 
pursuing the one path we all know will work: bipartisanship. Instead of 
decreasing the chances of a shutdown, Speaker McCarthy is actually 
increasing it by wasting time on extremist proposals that everyone 
knows--he knows--cannot become law.
  Let me say that again. Instead of decreasing the chance of a 
shutdown, Speaker McCarthy is actually increasing it by wasting time on 
extremist proposals that cannot become law.
  In the Senate, many of us are united in the need for more Ukraine 
aid, but the hard-right proposals in the House fail to provide any. In 
the Senate, only an agreement that can get votes from both parties will 
be able to pass, but the hard-right proposals have all been drafted 
with zero Democratic input and zero effort to even appear bipartisan.
  So for all the efforts Speaker McCarthy has spent on trying to find 
something that makes MAGA Republicans happy, there is no scenario where 
we avoid a shutdown without a bipartisan agreement. If the Speaker 
continues down on the path he is on, the odds of a shutdown, sadly, go 
up, and Americans will know that the responsibility of a shutdown will 
be on the Republicans' hands.

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