[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 160 (Tuesday, September 30, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6867-S6870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS AND EXTENSIONS ACT, 2026
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to proceed to the motion to
reconsider the vote on passage of H.R. 5371.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The motion was agreed to.
Vote on Motion to Reconsider
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote on passage of
H.R. 5371.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The motion was agreed to.
Vote on H.R. 5371, Upon Reconsideration
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Shall the bill pass, upon
reconsideration?
Mr. THUNE. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 55, nays 45, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 535 Leg.]
YEAS--55
Banks
Barrasso
Blackburn
Boozman
Britt
Budd
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cortez Masto
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Curtis
Daines
Ernst
Fetterman
Fischer
Graham
Grassley
Hagerty
Hawley
Hoeven
Husted
Hyde-Smith
Johnson
Justice
Kennedy
King
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
Marshall
McConnell
McCormick
Moody
Moran
Moreno
Mullin
Murkowski
Ricketts
Risch
Rounds
Schmitt
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Sheehy
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Tuberville
Wicker
Young
NAYS--45
Alsobrooks
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt Rochester
Booker
Cantwell
Coons
Duckworth
Durbin
Gallego
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
Kim
Klobuchar
Lujan
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Paul
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schiff
Schumer
Shaheen
Slotkin
Smith
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Welch
Whitehouse
Wyden
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 55, and the nays
are 45.
The 60-vote threshold having not been achieved, the bill, upon
reconsideration, is not passed.
The bill (H.R. 5371) was rejected.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
Government Funding
Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, we for a second time failed to pass a
continuing resolution to allow the Federal Government to continue to
operate. It is because we are coming to the end of the fiscal year. Not
all the appropriations bills have been approved, though most all of
them have been approved by the Senate Committee on Appropriations. In
fact, three have been passed by the Senate.
This makes no sense to me. This is not a shutdown that makes any
sense at all. The American people, Kansans, deserve something different
from the U.S. Senate.
Every city council or commission, every school board, every local
government office in my State passes a budget and then lives within
that budget every year. Every local unit of government can figure this
out, and the U.S. Senate is failing one more time.
[[Page S6868]]
A shutdown means uncertainty. A shutdown means dysfunction. The issue
to me is this continuing resolution that would fund the Federal
Government until November 21--a short period of time--is designed to
avoid that dysfunction, to avoid that uncertainty. All that is required
is that we pass the continuing resolution, 60 votes in the U.S. Senate,
to keep the government functioning so--and this is the reason it makes
no sense to me--so that we can pass the remaining appropriations bills,
all but one of which have been passed by the Senate Appropriations
Committee and most in a bipartisan manner. For whatever purpose and for
whatever reason, that seems beyond our capability.
I understand there are those who wish to bring other issues to this
bill. Could we do one thing at a time, and when that one thing is as
important as this continuing resolution, to do it now? to do it
yesterday? to do it tomorrow?
We can't pass a continuing resolution because there are those who
want to bring other issues into the bill. Could those other issues not
be considered at a later time?
It seems to me that appropriating, passing appropriations bills,
keeping the Federal Government functioning, is one of the primary
necessities and responsibilities of the Congress of the United States.
This is simple and straightforward. Give us a few more weeks to process
the remaining appropriations bills, and the government continues to
function while we do so.
A continuing resolution, particularly long term, is a crazy thing
because it says we are going to fund the Federal Government at the same
level, in the same way that we did last year. And if it is multiple
years of continuing resolutions, the same way we funded the government
the year before that. Does anyone believe that the priorities of this
country are identical to last year? Does anybody believe that they are
identical to 2 years ago? Aren't there things that deserve a higher
priority? Aren't there things that deserve no money? Aren't there
things that deserve less money or maybe even the same?
A long-term continuing resolution is a crazy idea, but the short-term
resolution that we are dealing with now is a necessary solution. It is
necessary because we can pass the appropriations bills and avoid a
long-term CR. And we just need the time to do it.
So pass a short-term continuing resolution, do it, take up the
appropriations bills as this majority leader has promised to do--and
this majority leader has demonstrated he is willing to do it--is a
straightforward solution. Give us a little more time--a few more
weeks--immediately begin the consideration of the appropriations bills
that have been reported by the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and
at the end of that period of time, we won't need a continuing
resolution. We will have done our task.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Kansas. And at
the risk of getting him into political trouble, I am a huge fan of his,
but I want to address the question that he asked, which I think is a
legitimate one, which is: What is the hurry on the Affordable Care Act
premiums?
There is a really straightforward answer, which is that people are
getting letters tomorrow from their insurance carriers. Around 24
million people are going to get letters anytime from now until mid-
November, and they are going to pay. Now, 24 million Americans are
going to be told that because of the last tax bill that was just
enacted by Trump and the Republicans, people are going to be paying an
average of 114 percent more per person per month.
It is not like we just went into a lab and cooked up an issue to try
to hijack some unrelated moving legislative vehicle. The reason for
this is that 24 million Americans are specifically on the ACA exchange,
and they are absolutely going to get hosed. And because we are all in
the same risk pool, it is not just people on the ACA exchange that are
going to see massive increases in their healthcare premiums; almost
every American is about to see a spike in their healthcare premiums,
just like they have seen electricity rates going up at double the rate
of inflation, just like they have seen the price of vegetables go up by
39 percent, just like they have seen shortages of lumber and labor.
We have an opportunity to do something because our Republican
colleagues--at least some of them--understand the magnitude of this
problem for their constituents. So the normal thing to do in a
functioning legislative body, where the President of the United States
does not believe that he is an elected Monarch, is to try to negotiate
some accommodation. After all, these are all of our constituents. It is
not like they are exclusively in urban areas or something. They are not
exclusively Democrats. In fact, there are slightly more Republicans
than Democrats on the ACA exchange.
So if this were a normal functioning time in American-style
democracy, the President of the United States would convene what they
call the four corners--majority and minority leaders of the Senate;
Speaker and minority leader of the House--and we would try to figure
out whether there was an accommodation to be made to save our
collective constituents from all this pain.
When Democrats had the trifecta--when Democrats had the House and the
Senate and the Presidency--we didn't have any shutdowns. It wasn't
because there is more good will on the Republican side toward
continuing resolutions than there is on the Democratic side toward
continuing resolutions. The reason is because Chuck Schumer and Nancy
Pelosi sat down with Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy--or whomever it
was--and the President, and they figured out a deal. Even to raise the
debt ceiling, Kevin McCarthy said: Not for free.
So this idea that the minority party, only this minority party, only
in this time in the U.S. Senate history--we are to shut up and do
whatever we are told. What is worse is they are asking the majority
party to do the same thing.
This President believes that he is a Monarch. This President finds
the legislative branch to be a nuisance. And you know what? The
legislative branch is a nuisance. That is the architecture of the
Constitution of the United States. We are supposed to be in a struggle
with each other. We are supposed to argue and fight. And then we are
supposed to come to an accommodation.
But we can't come to an accommodation until there is a meeting. So we
are going to be here fighting for healthcare, and we are also going to
be here fighting to reopen the government. If the clock strikes
midnight and we are not able to avert this shutdown, then we are going
to be here, ready to deal.
We understand we are not going to get everything we want. We
understand we are in the minority. We understand we are out of power.
But understand this: We are not powerless. We still represent,
pessimistically, 47 percent of the--certainly, 47 percent of the Senate
seats. But something like half the country wants us to represent their
point of view. And the point of view that we are representing, by the
way, is shared by most of the constituents who are represented by
Republicans too.
And so there is still a pathway, but it has to be pursued. So the
onus is on the President of the United States and the majority leader
and the Speaker to find that pathway.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
Ms. ROSEN. Mr. President, we are just a few hours away from the start
of a government shutdown that could have been prevented by Washington
Republicans just talking to us, but Donald Trump and Washington
Republicans chose to, once again, put politics ahead of the American
people. They won't come and talk to us.
After slashing Medicaid and taking healthcare away from families who
need it the most, Donald Trump and Washington Republicans are now
shutting down the government because they refuse to come to the table,
they refuse to have a conversation, and they refuse to work in a
bipartisan way to stop a massive spike in healthcare costs for hard-
working families--for all of you. And that is it. That is it. This is
why Trump is about to shut down the entire Federal Government.
You know, my dad often said: If you don't have your health, you don't
have
[[Page S6869]]
anything. And it is clear that Donald Trump and Washington Republicans
want you to have nothing--nothing--because they are doing everything
they can to take away healthcare from as many Americans as possible.
And for every American, everyone out there: Your healthcare premiums
are about to double--about to double--for everybody, across the board.
So while Republicans, those folks here in Washington, fight for
billionaires, Democrats are here fighting for you--for your healthcare,
for your ability to see a doctor, to see a doctor and get your
prescriptions without breaking the bank.
In my State of Nevada, over 110,000 Nevadans get their healthcare
coverage through the Affordable Care Act's marketplace. We know it as
Nevada Health Link. Nearly 95,000 of those families are able to afford
their premiums using Nevada Health Link thanks to what we call the
enhanced premium tax credits.
So I want to be clear because there is a lot of misunderstanding
here. It is not a handout. It isn't welfare. It is just a tax break
that helps lower the costs for nearly 95,000 Nevadans so they can
afford to buy an insurance policy, so they can go to the doctor when
they are sick and have a copay and go to the pharmacy to get their
medication for a copay, so they can just afford their insurance. And we
are talking about hard-working families, small business owners, and
workers who don't get healthcare through their jobs--so many of them.
And these enhanced tax credits, they are about to expire. They are
about to expire this year. And if Congress fails to act, healthcare
costs across the board will double for everyone--everyone. So when
premium costs go up, many families won't be able to afford it any
longer, meaning they will lose their care. And for the ones who can
afford it, their deductible is going to be so high they are never going
to meet it, and they are still going to be paying out of pocket in ways
they can't afford.
You know, more than 38,000 people in my State alone are probably
going to lose their coverage right away, all because Washington
Republicans just refuse to extend this tax credit allowing them to
purchase their own insurance.
Families, sadly, are going to be forced to make impossible choices.
They will be forced to delay care. They will skip doctor visits. They
will cut their medications in half. They will cut those pills or give
themselves half a shot of insulin to make ends meet. These choices are
real. They are real for these families, and sometimes they have tragic
consequences.
Since the beginning of this year, Democrats have been trying to work
in good faith with Washington Republicans to extend these ACA enhanced
premium tax credits and protect Americans' healthcare coverage. We have
even introduced bills to extend the tax credits. We have tried to pass
them right here on the floor. And at every turn, Washington Republicans
have refused. They have refused to hear your voice, refused to listen
to you.
My phone is ringing off the hook about people scared to death about
losing their health insurance. And earlier today, when given an
opportunity to keep the government open and extend the credits, every
Republican voted no.
Instead of working with Democrats to keep healthcare affordable,
Washington Republicans are holding the government and the American
people's health hostage to score political points.
So I am going to be clear here. We will not be bullied by Donald
Trump, and we will not be bullied by Washington Republicans into
sacrificing your healthcare--the healthcare of American families, of
our children, of our seniors, of our friends and neighbors--not now,
not ever. Trump can't bully us into taking away your healthcare.
Nevadans sent me here to fight for them, not to cave and let
Washington Republicans and Donald Trump take away your ability to go to
the doctor and get your medication.
Everyone--everyone--should have access to affordable, quality care.
Healthcare is not a bargaining chip. It is not a political weapon. It
is a lifeline. And Washington Republicans have the power--they have the
power--to prevent this shutdown today. Just come and talk with us.
So I urge them to do their jobs: Come to the table. Have a
discussion. Have a negotiation. Extend the ACA premium tax credits. Put
people over politics. The time is now.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, my thoughts tonight are with the
millions of Americans who will bear the brunt of this shutdown: the
families in the path of hurricanes who will go without the services of
FEMA, the veterans who will lack many of the helping hands in the VA,
the recipients of Social Security who will be unable to verify their
cards or perhaps receive payments that they have been denied, and
others--millions of other Americans--who unnecessarily will be hurt,
perhaps people who depend on the social safety net that we have
established and may be torn by this shutdown.
And I am thinking about the millions of Americans--about 24 million
in total, 139,000 in Connecticut alone--who will be notified that they
can buy health insurance as a result of open enrollment, but what they
lack in information is whether or not that health insurance will be
affordable because they have no way of knowing whether it will extend
beyond the end of the year, those subsidies that are so essential to
their affording healthcare.
And our Republican colleagues--we just heard the Senator from Kansas
say there is no hurry. Well, Americans can't get sick on Donald Trump's
timetable. When people are told there is no hurry, if you get sick, for
medical care, that sounds cruel because it is cruel. And it is stupid.
People who go without health insurance may lack the healthcare that can
save costs of preventing more serious illness, and those costs
eventually are borne by all of us. So this misguided denial of the
certainty people need that healthcare insurance subsidies will be
extended beyond the end of the year really affects all of us. Premiums
are rising already for all of us by 18 percent this year alone because
the healthiest people are deciding they are not going to buy health
insurance, and insurance companies are predicting they will have to
increase their costs to cover the sicker people who will buy the health
insurance because they need it.
But the simple fact is, nobody is invincible. All of us need
healthcare. And the Affordable Care Act recognizes that healthcare in
America, aspirationally, should be a human right. And our failure to
provide it to those millions of Americans who will find healthcare
insurance unaffordable is unacceptable, and that is why we are taking
this stand and why America can't wait for Donald Trump to tell them
that they are sick enough now to be given this subsidy, which they
deserve.
I am here to urge my Republican colleagues to stop rolling over for
Donald Trump. Their constituents, as well as ours, are affected by this
delay in providing affordable health insurance. For months we have been
calling attention to the need to act now, and this shutdown was
avoidable. The path to stopping it was available. And shortening it,
assuming it will occur, is still a possibility, if we come together, if
Republicans are willing to negotiate, if they come back to town. House
Republicans are out of town. They are out of touch with reality. The
way forward is simply bipartisan negotiations, coming together,
reaching a solution, as is the way shutdowns have been avoided in the
past.
The fact is that Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill--
actually a big, blatant betrayal--along with inaction and avoidance by
Republicans, is already wreaking havoc on America. In Connecticut,
health insurance rates for 2026 have increased by nearly 18 percent,
the largest increase in the last 6 years. Without the subsidies,
consumers with ACA coverage will see premium increases in the range of
75 percent.
I have visited with hospitals, community health centers, physicians,
and many more who have raised their deep concerns about the impending
cuts in Medicaid.
The budget bill Republicans passed in July is also threatening
Medicaid coverage for 158,000 Connecticut residents. Anyone lucky
enough to keep their coverage will see reduced benefits as the State
struggles to make up the difference in lost Federal revenue.
[[Page S6870]]
Americans and our healthcare system simply can't afford to be nickel-
and-dimed like Republicans are forcing them to do. The ACA premium tax
credits have protected millions of Americans from higher healthcare
costs, they have reduced the number without healthcare insurance, and
they have provided robust choices for consumers and provided stability
for healthcare providers, particularly in rural areas, and there are
rural areas affected in Connecticut.
In addition to the impending cuts in Medicaid, Republicans are
refusing to extend these subsidies. It is cruel. It is unnecessary. It
is dumb.
So I am here to advocate for the 139,000 Connecticut residents who
depend on these credits and the 24 million Americans who are making
decisions about healthcare insurance coverage right now at their
kitchen tables, in their living rooms, in their homes.
It should not be a partisan issue. At the end of the day, it is a
choice: Do we choose a highly successful solution that has reduced
healthcare costs for the whole Nation or do we allow the clock to run
out and raise healthcare costs for families in every State in this
country?
That choice can still be made in the next 24 hours, in the next 2
days, to shorten and lessen the pain that will be felt by Americans.
I choose to stand with working families. I will fight, and we are
unified in our fight. As a matter of conscience and conviction, we will
not be bullied.
Donald Trump should know that we will stand strong for working
families in America. They deserve healthcare. It is about saving
healthcare and holding Donald Trump accountable to follow the law. When
there is a budget, when it is passed by Congress and signed by the
President, he cannot be allowed to simply ride roughshod over it and
disregard it.
It is the rule of law and healthcare that are at stake here. I will
fight for it.
I yield the floor.
____________________