[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 48 (Thursday, March 13, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1723-S1724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, as the expression goes, it is time for 
Democrats to fish or cut bait. We have 2 days until government funding 
expires. Democrats need to decide if they are going to support funding 
legislation that came over from the House or if they are going to shut 
down the government. So far, it is looking like they plan to shut it 
down.
  The Democratic leader came to the floor, yesterday afternoon, and had 
the nerve to complain about the House bill. He wants yet another short-
term piece of funding legislation to, as he said, ``give Congress time 
to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass.''
  Well, I am not sure how long the Democratic leader thinks we should 
drag out the funding process for fiscal year 2025: Until fiscal year 
2026? Beyond?
  We are already nearly 6 months into the 2025 fiscal year. In other 
words, we are halfway through--halfway through--this fiscal year, and 
it is past time to get fiscal year 2025 funding situated.
  I would like to suggest to the Democratic leader that, if he has 
problems with the current situation, maybe--just maybe--he should have 
funded the government when he was in charge. The reason we are stuck 
here voting on a CR for the rest of 2025 is because the Democratic 
leader refused to consider appropriations bills last year.
  Senators Murray and Collins, then chair and vice chair of the 
Appropriations Committee, did a lot of work to deliver the fiscal year 
2025 appropriations bills. In fact, they had moved 11--11--of the 12 
bills out of the Appropriations Committee by the end of August, last 
year--or, I should say, the end of July, last year--and 6 of those 
bills, 6 of the 11 that the Appropriations Committee passed by the end 
of July, last year, passed unanimously coming out of the committee. The 
others were passed with big bipartisan majorities.
  And then what happened? Well, then, the Democratic leader just sat on 
it. In

[[Page S1724]]

his remaining 5 months as majority leader, he didn't bring a single 
fiscal year 2025 appropriations bill to the floor. So it is absolutely 
rich for him to be coming down to the floor now to call for a short-
term CR--another short-term CR--to negotiate fiscal 2025 legislation. 
He had his chance for months.
  I am no fan of continuing resolutions. In fact, I intend to do my 
very best to ensure that, from here on out, the government is funded 
through appropriations bills that proceed through regular order. But at 
this point, our best option is a continuing resolution to fund the 
remainder of fiscal year 2025 and clear the decks for the fiscal year 
2026 appropriations process to begin, because, while the Democrat 
leader may have forgotten, given his decision to ignore regular-order 
appropriations last year, it is almost time to start considering fiscal 
year 2026 appropriations bills.
  And I fully intend for us to consider them on the floor. My goal is 
to schedule floor action for every fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill 
that comes out of the committee, where they can be debated, amended, 
and passed for further negotiation with the House.
  And that, of course, will require cooperation from Democrats. But I 
hope--I really hope--the Democrats will remember this situation, and 
others that we have been placed in, and work in partnership with 
Republicans to restore the regular-order appropriations process.
  Continuing resolutions are never the preferred option, but thanks to 
the Democrat leader's decision to abandon the fiscal year 2025 
appropriations process, the continuing resolution we have before us is 
the best option we have to fund the government for the balance of this 
year.
  So it is time for the Democrat leader to acknowledge that it is his 
decisions that put us here and urge his colleagues to accept the 
situation and vote to fund the government rather than let it shutdown 
at midnight on Friday. If he doesn't, he will have the American people 
to answer to.

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