[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 49 (Friday, March 14, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S1754]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, well, as everyone knows, government 
funding expires at midnight tonight. As I announced yesterday, I will 
vote to keep the government open.
  I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump 
administration will do to the American people. Clearly, this is a 
Hobson's choice. The CR is a bad bill. But as bad as the CR is, I 
believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a 
government shutdown is a far worse option. A shutdown would allow DOGE 
to shift into overdrive.
  Let me repeat: A shutdown will allow DOGE to shift into overdrive. It 
would give Donald Trump and DOGE the keys to the city, State, and 
country. Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be free to destroy vital 
government services at a much faster rate than they can right now and 
over a much broader field of destruction that they would render.
  In a shutdown, Donald Trump and DOGE will have the power to determine 
what is considered essential and what is not, and their views on what 
is not essential would be mean and vicious and would decimate vital 
services and cause unimaginable harm to the American people.
  Making matters even worse, in a shutdown, there is no check on their 
determinations, Trump and DOGE's determinations on what is essential 
and what is not. In fact, on February 26, OMB, led by Russell Vought, 
told Agencies to work with DOGE to create a list of nonessential 
workers so that they could reduce staffing even faster in a shutdown.
  They are already preparing for a shutdown. Musk has told everybody he 
wants a shutdown because he knows it will help him achieve his horrible 
goal of just decimating the Federal Government from one end to the 
other. In other words, if government were to shut down, DOGE has a plan 
in place to exploit the crisis for maximum destruction.
  In a shutdown, American families would be hurt in ways they almost 
have never been. It could disrupt regional Veterans Affairs offices, 
curtail mental health services, and accelerate plans to slash staff at 
Social Security offices. The list goes on and on and on of the damage--
the severe damage--they could do, virtually unchecked.
  They can stay in a shutdown as long as they want. There is no off-
ramp unless they decide to take that off-ramp, and they won't because 
this is their best tool for achieving their goal: slash government, 
slash spending, and use that money for tax breaks for billionaires.
  So a shutdown would be the best distraction Donald Trump could ask 
for--distraction from his awful agenda. Donald Trump owns the chaos in 
government. He owns the chaos in the stock market. He owns the damage 
happening to the economy. But he knows that if government shuts down 
and all the fighting is over which Agencies should be kept and which 
shouldn't and Republican Senators and Congressmen in just obeisance to 
Trump keep putting bills on the floor to decide that, it will totally 
distract from the most important fight of all: fighting Republicans for 
eviscerating Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid while giving 
trillions in tax cuts to the ultrarich. That is the fight American 
people must know about. A shutdown will be a costly distraction from 
this all-important fight.
  Finally, I want to close by reminding everyone it was Republicans who 
pushed this false shutdown choice. Their inability to govern has led us 
to this precipice. Our caucus Members have been torn between two awful 
alternatives, and my colleagues and I have wrestled with which 
alternative would be worse for the American people. Different Senators 
come down on different sides of this question, but that does not mean 
that any Senate Democrat supports a shutdown.
  Whatever the outcome, our caucus will be united in our determination 
to continue the long-term fight to stop Donald Trump's dangerous war on 
our democracy and on America's working families.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.