[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 12, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1685-S1686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, last night, the House of Representatives 
passed a short-term government funding bill that would extend funding 
through the end of this fiscal year. That is the end of September.
  I was surprised to see only one Democrat in the House, Jared Golden 
from Maine, saw the light that a shutdown is a bad choice. 
Nevertheless, 212 Democrats voted against the continuing resolution, 
effectively voting to shut down the government.
  It remains to be seen whether our colleagues here in the Senate, our 
Senate Democrats, will vote for a Schumer shutdown or not. The 
cognitive dissonance, though, is striking and I think worth commenting 
on.
  If I listen to our colleagues across the aisle, they claim to have a 
lot of

[[Page S1686]]

concern for the Federal workers that depend on government funding. They 
talk a pretty good game. So I find it interesting that so many of them 
in the House cast a vote that would put thousands, even hundreds of 
thousands, of Federal workers out of work, which is what results when 
the government shuts down.
  Of course, I don't like continuing resolutions any more than the next 
person. They are certainly not the ideal way to govern, and I will talk 
about that in a minute. But it remains the second worst choice, a 
shutdown being the worst of all.
  So let's take a look at how we got here in the first place. Last 
year, the Senate Appropriations Committee, on a bipartisan basis, 
passed all but 1 of their 12 appropriations bills. What did the 
majority leader--Senator Schumer at the time--what did he do? He simply 
refused to schedule any of those appropriations bills for a vote.
  So it is because of Democratic dysfunction that we find ourselves now 
in a continuing resolution situation rather than having already 
attended to what in effect was last year's business and passing 
appropriations bills for the entire fiscal year.
  Well, if our Democratic colleagues don't like voting for another CR, 
I would encourage them to take that up with their now-minority leader, 
as this falls squarely on his shoulders.
  But the truth is, most of all, our Democratic colleagues are just mad 
about the outcome of the November 5 election.
  Here in the Senate, I am glad that Senate Republicans are working to 
pass this necessary CR that will ensure that we prevent a government 
shutdown.