[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 153 (Thursday, September 18, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6706-S6708]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President yesterday, Democrats released our bill to 
extend government funding and meet the needs of the American people. 
The contrast between the Republican bill and the Democratic bill is 
glaring.
  The Republican bill is more of the same failed status quo of Donald 
Trump's failed policies: more high costs, healthcare cuts, and premiums 
up.
  Democrats have a different option. We address the crises Americans 
face in healthcare, in Medicaid, in inflation, and in higher costs.
  The House is expected to vote on their partisan, status quo bill 
either later today or tomorrow. If the bill passes the House, the 
Senate should take up the issue immediately afterward. We could do it 
quickly so we don't interfere with anyone's travel plans to Arizona.
  We would ask for limited debate and just two votes: the House status 
quo bill, which delays any sort of healthcare relief; and the 
Democratic alternative, which would lower healthcare costs for millions 
of Americans.
  I urge Republican leaders to speed up these votes.
  One of the oldest sayings in politics is from the great Abraham 
Lincoln. He said that ``public sentiment is everything.'' That is 
certainly true in this debate. The American people will look at what 
Republicans are doing and what Democrats are doing, and it will be 
clear that public sentiment is on our side.
  Public sentiment will be on our side for at least three reasons:
  First, the American people want both sides to work together. We have 
made

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it clear we want a bipartisan negotiation, but Republicans don't. The 
American people detest seeing Republicans being so intransigent. 
Republicans are governing like their view is the only view. That is, of 
course, not true. We are a split country, half and half. And to cut one 
half out entirely--no talk, no negotiation--is unacceptable for the 
American people. That won't win public sentiment in any way.
  The second reason public sentiment is on our side: Americans are 
tired of the failed, chaotic, high-cost status quo, which decimates 
their healthcare, which raises their costs, and which Republicans are 
defending in their bill.
  Tens of millions of people are going to lose coverage. Starting in 
October, millions will receive notices that their healthcare insurance 
premiums are going to go up $400, $500, $600--not a year; a month. The 
average working family can't afford that. Premiums are skyrocketing. 
Hospitals from Virginia to Nebraska, from Maine to California are 
shutting down now--not later. People won't be able to see a doctor or 
access affordable medication.
  I met a woman whose daughter had cancer. She said to me that they 
depend on Medicaid for her recovery. What is she going to do? Wait? 
Delay? See what the Republicans want to do, if anything, when they 
haven't said they would do anything at all and they decimated 
healthcare themselves?
  Now nursing homes are going to close down, and many, many American 
families are not going to know what to do about taking care of their 
elderly parents. They may not have room at home to have them move in, 
and even if they did, they can't give them the kind of healthcare their 
parents got in nursing homes. But nursing homes, one after the other, 
are going to close. They depend on Medicaid.
  This is all chaos. This is suffering.
  Medical research, which can cure cancer or Alzheimer's--millions are 
alive because we invested in medical research--cut it off? stifle it? 
don't send the money out for it? This is chaos. This is suffering.
  These are the results of Donald Trump's policies, which the status 
quo, partisan Republican bill maintains, and Americans are tired of 
this status quo. All the data shows it. Even Leader Thune called the 
Republican bill status quo--the status quo option--on the floor 
yesterday.
  America, do you want the status quo on healthcare? Leader Thune says 
his bill is status quo.
  Today, I was amazed to hear that Leader Thune called our bill filthy. 
Is it filthy to provide healthcare for sick Americans? Is it filthy to 
prevent premiums from going up $400 or $500 a month? Is it filthy to 
prevent rural hospitals from closing? That is why Republicans are so 
out of touch. That is why.
  The American people desperately want change. They don't think our 
country is headed in the right direction, and they need help in 
bringing healthcare costs down, providing better healthcare. They need 
help maintaining coverage. They need help for the essentials. The 
Republican status quo bill doesn't do any of this, but the Democratic 
bill does--the second reason that public sentiment is on our side, not 
theirs.
  Finally and just as importantly, it is unacceptable that Donald Trump 
has told Republicans not to negotiate with Democrats, and Donald Trump 
is heading America toward a shutdown by not negotiating.
  Look. Here is what he said. These are Trump's words, not mine. I will 
remind everybody of his words last week: ``Don't even bother'' to deal 
with Democrats. When Donald Trump says ``don't even bother'' to deal 
with Democrats, he says he wants a shutdown, plain and simple. And 
again, that is the last thing the American people want--a President who 
says: My way or the highway, and shut the government down if I don't 
get my way. That is what he said.
  The public is on our side. The public is on our side. Public 
sentiment is everything. They don't like Republican partisanship, they 
don't like the status quo bill, and they certainly don't like Donald 
Trump refusing to even have Democrats be part of the decision.
  He says he doesn't need us? Well, Donald Trump either doesn't know 
how to count or doesn't understand a modicum of Senate procedure, which 
most Americans do.
  You need 60 votes, Mr. President, Donald Trump. You have 53. You need 
our votes. To say not to bother with us is saying you want a shutdown, 
plain and simple. The American people see that.
  Finally, Leader Thune has spent a lot of time talking about the past. 
He has quoted me. I want to remind Leader Thune--I want to remind my 
Republican colleagues--when Democrats were in the majority and I was 
majority leader, every year, we did not see a shutdown. I was majority 
leader for 4 years--no shutdowns. Why? Because we sat down with the 
other side and negotiated. We knew that the majority had to work with 
the minority. Like now, we knew then we had to get 60 votes. And 
bipartisanship ruled the day. It had to if you wanted to avoid a 
shutdown.
  Why is that not happening now? Well, frankly, Leader Jeffries and I 
were befuddled for about a month because in late July, we asked Thune 
and Johnson to sit down with us--late July. We heard nothing from them, 
crickets. We asked again in early September; nothing, crickets.
  But now it has become clear why they wouldn't sit down with us. Here 
is the reason: Donald Trump. Donald Trump made it clear: ``Don't even 
bother'' dealing with the Democrats. Thune and Johnson listen to Trump. 
They are not independent actors. They don't represent an independent 
Congress, an independent House, or an independent Senate. And when 
Donald Trump says don't negotiate with Democrats, they don't and come 
up with 20 excuses why.
  The single biggest reason that we are on the brink of a shutdown is 
Donald Trump's refusal to let Republicans even negotiate.
  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. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, keeping the government open is a 
fundamental responsibility of elected officials. It always needs to be 
bipartisan, and today, that requires cooperation by the Democrats.
  Right now, the Democrats are threatening once again to shut down the 
Government of the United States. We are trending toward another Schumer 
government shutdown. Democrats are in the minority in the Senate; they 
are in the minority in the House. Yet they have come up with what looks 
to me like a half-hearted bait-and-switch plan. It is a plan that is 
designed and is an attempt to deceive the American people. Democrats 
are trying to avoid being blamed for their reckless obstruction. The 
American people are not going to be deceived.
  Let's be clear. The Schumer plan is a shutdown plan. It is far from a 
clean extension of current funding. In fact, it is a Trojan horse--a 
Trojan horse packed with reckless and radical liberal fantasies.
  It is not serious, and the Democrats know it. The Democrats want a 
ransom payment--a ransom payment of over $1 trillion to keep the 
government open for just 4 weeks.
  So let's take a look at it. There is more than a trillion dollars in 
more spending in what the Democrats are proposing. At the same very 
time, they are proposing eliminating the $50 billion rural hospital 
stabilization fund.
  That is a lifeblood for rural hospitals in my communities and in your 
communities. The Schumer shutdown plan reads like a draft of the future 
platform for the 2028 Democrat National Convention. There are COVID 
bonus payments--this is in spite of the fact that the COVID crisis 
ended years ago. Liberal States are being rewarded for giving taxpayer-
funded healthcare to illegal immigrants.
  They want able-bodied, working-age individuals who refuse to work to 
continue getting Medicaid. Remember, these work requirements are 
overwhelmingly supported by hard-working Americans of all political 
persuasions.
  They want to send taxpayer dollars overseas to pay for climate 
projects. This is fantasyland. They want taxpayer dollars to keep going 
towards $40

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million for low emissions development in West Africa. They want 
taxpayer dollars to keep going towards $25 million for climate 
resilience in Honduras. They want the taxpayer dollars to keep going 
towards $13.4 million for civic engagement in Zimbabwe.
  The Democrats have a long and spirited history of wasting American 
taxpayer dollars. This plan is no different. The Schumer shutdown plan 
seems designed to score political points on the far, far left.
  This is a clarifying moment for the American people. Democrats know 
they can't have any hope of passing this fantasy plan. They know it, 
and they know it because they want government to close.
  Republicans are proposing a clean short-term extension of funding 
designed to keep the government opened and functioning. A clean short-
term continuing resolution would easily pass the Senate in normal 
times. A clean CR keeps the government open. A clean CR gives 
appropriators from both parties the time to complete their work in 
regular order.
  Let me point out that the Appropriations Committee is already 
producing bipartisan bills. Let me also point out that under Joe Biden, 
Democrats supported 13 short-term continuing resolutions to keep the 
government open, and 96 percent of them voted for them.
  So times really are different under this Democrat leadership in their 
efforts to obstruct this President. Democrats once again are putting 
politics ahead of the essential work of governing. Senator Schumer is 
clearly making unreasonable demands knowing that his proposal can never 
pass the Senate. All Republicans are proposing is to continue to fund 
the government for the next 7 weeks. This is going to allow us to 
continue the appropriations process and keep the government open during 
that time.
  Senator Schumer himself said last year that passing a clean CR ``will 
avert a harmful and unnecessary shutdown.'' Now he wants to cause a 
harmful and unnecessary shutdown. At that time, he said passing a clean 
CR gives appropriators ``time to finish drafting all 12 bills.'' Let me 
point out that those bills were then stuck in Senator Schumer's drawer, 
and he kept them there and never brought them to the floor of the U.S. 
Senate.
  He even said, back then, if both sides work together, if we reject 
poison pills--of which his bill now is completely loaded with--if we 
reject poison pills, he said, that can never become law, then the task 
before us becomes much, much easier.
  They want to shut down the government. That is what they are 
proposing. Senator Schumer needs to listen to his own advice from a 
year ago. But then he was majority leader; now they are in the 
minority. The proposal that he came out with last night is loaded with 
poison pills, and he knows it.
  Let me repeat: 13 short-term continuing resolutions under President 
Biden. Schumer was the majority leader at the time; 96 percent of 
Democrats voted for them.
  Voting yes for a short-term continuing resolution was not considered 
controversial for the Democrats a year ago.
  Now, I recognize that the minority leader today has a political 
problem. His radical base is demanding a government shutdown. They 
expect it, they insist on it, they command Senator Schumer to deliver 
that. His political problem may soon turn into a major problem for 
American families, for our soldiers, for our Border Patrol agents, for 
seniors living on a fixed income.
  As Senators, our job is to keep the government open, and Senate 
Republicans are ready to keep the government open. Democrats can either 
join us or drag the Nation into another Schumer shutdown. That is their 
choice.