[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 6 (Thursday, January 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S79-S80]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as the Senate begins its work for the 
year, the most immediate need on the calendar is avoiding a government 
shutdown and fully funding the government for fiscal year 2024.
  A shutdown is looming over us starting on January 19, about a week 
away. For the most part, both parties--Democrats and Republicans--agree 
we don't want a shutdown. Instead, we want to work together to pass the 
12 appropriations bills based off top-line funding levels that 
Congressional leadership agreed to last Sunday.
  Chair Murray, Vice Chair Collins, Chair Granger, and Ranking Member 
DeLauro are all committed to working as quickly as possible to make 
that happen. Unfortunately, it has become crystal clear that it will 
take more than a week to finish the appropriations process.
  So, today, I am taking the first procedural step for the Senate to 
pass a temporary extension of government funding, so the government 
does not shutdown on January 19. What I am doing today is filing 
cloture on a shell bill we can act on next week. Members should be 
ready to take the first procedural vote on this vehicle upon our return 
after the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. I am taking this step 
because even a temporary extension of government funding takes about a 
week to pass through the Senate. So we want to act with enough time 
before the January 19 deadline.
  I urge my Republican colleagues in the Senate to work with us to keep 
this process moving quickly on the floor. Leader McConnell and I are in 
discussions about this very issue. The vast majority of us are all on 
the same page that a government shutdown would be a recipe for chaos.
  Now, there are those on the hard right, over in the House, who think 
they can bully their colleagues and the House and the country into a 
shutdown. Amazingly, this band of hard-right extremists actually say a 
shutdown would be a good thing.
  But to those 30 or so hard-right extremists, how on earth would it be 
good for the country to freeze, for example, nutrition programs that 
benefit 7 million women, infants, and children--many of those women 
pregnant? How would it be good for the country

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to close regional VA offices and keep our veterans who served us--many 
of whom risked their lives for us--waiting in line to get the benefits 
they are entitled to? How would it be good for the country to furlough 
food inspectors to ensure that the groceries we buy don't make us sick, 
or delay new applicants for military retirement benefits?
  These are just a few of the things that will happen if we shut down 
next week. When the hard right says they want a shutdown, they are 
saying they want these things--VA closures, no food inspections, 
delayed military benefits, and so much more. This shows you that the 
hard right is not serious about governing. The only tactic in their 
playbook is to try and bully the rest of Congress and the country to 
bend to their extremist views.
  But here is the incontrovertible truth. The White House is controlled 
by a Democrat. The Senate has a Democratic majority. And the Republican 
majority in the House is about as narrow as it can get. So it takes 
compromise to get anything done in these conditions of divided 
government. The top-line agreement we reached last week has borne that 
out. And I am hopeful that reasonable Members, on both sides of the 
aisle, in both Chambers, are ready to work together to ensure a 
government shutdown is avoided.