[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 188 (Tuesday, November 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5481-S5482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, we have until Friday to avert another 
costly, unnecessary, and avoidable government shutdown. Time is a 
luxury that neither side has. If we are going to keep the lights on 
beyond this Friday, our Republican colleagues will have to work with 
Democrats in a bipartisan way to pass a clean extension without hard-
right cuts and without poison pills.
  So far, I am heartened--cautiously so--that Speaker Johnson is moving 
forward with a CR that omits precisely the sort of hard-right cuts that 
would have been nonstarters for Democrats. I certainly don't agree with 
everything the Speaker is proposing, and I can't imagine too many 
Senators would have taken the Speaker's approach in drafting this bill. 
But the proposal before

[[Page S5482]]

the House does two things Democrats have pushed for: It will avert a 
shutdown, and it will do so without making any terrible, hard-right 
cuts that the MAGA rightwing demands. It also eliminates the poison 
pills that so many MAGA Congress Members put in the bills.
  We will see over the course of today how the House moves forward. 
Over the past few days, a significant portion of the Speaker's hard-
right flank has torched his proposal precisely because it doesn't make 
cuts. I hope the Speaker does not yield to the demands of the hard 
right as we try to keep the government open. Instead, I hope the 
Speaker continues to recognize he will need Democratic votes in order 
to avoid a shutdown.

                          ____________________