[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 159 (Monday, September 29, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S6824]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Eliminate Shutdowns Act

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this bill has a very nice-sounding name, 
but that is about the only good thing you can say about it because what 
it really does is hand over Congress's power of the purse to Donald 
Trump and Russ Vought.
  If this bill passes, it won't just be Democrats' voice in funding 
that gets squashed; Republicans will be cutting themselves out of 
funding decisions because the bill extends government funding 
indefinitely so Donald Trump and Russ Vought never have to worry about 
Congress again.
  If this bill were to pass, Trump could quite literally refuse to sign 
every funding bill--even a bipartisan bill--unless it met all of his 
demands. And Congress would then have to override his veto with a two-
thirds vote in both Chambers if we ever wanted to get off the ``forever 
CR'' this bill would put in place. No way.
  There is a very simple way to avert a shutdown. It starts with 
Republicans working with Democrats to hammer out a solution. It is time 
to do that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I will ask you, I will ask everybody in 
the Chamber, everybody listening to me on C-SPAN: Aren't you getting 
sick and tired of the shutdown showdowns? I am. In 15 years, we should 
have passed 180 appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year. 
We passed six--3.6 percent. That is a 96.7-percent failure rate.
  I am sorry the appropriations process is broken. This bill does 
nothing to diminish the authority of the appropriators. What it does is 
it removes all the turmoil, all the disruption of people's lives. It 
takes away the partisan bickering, and it just--every 14-day rolling 
appropriations bill to keep any Department open, where we haven't 
passed an appropriations bill, gives appropriators time to find areas 
of agreement and work on compromise in disagreement.
  Let me be clear, a vote against the Eliminate Shutdowns Act is a vote 
to continue the chaos and to continue the partisan game playing with 
people's lives.
  And by the way, this won't be the only time we will vote on this. I 
will guarantee you that if we go into a shutdown. Please, do right by 
the American people. Vote for the Eliminate Shutdowns Act. We can do 
away with shutdowns for all time. A simple vote yes will do that.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________