[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 163 (Friday, October 3, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6923-S6925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Government Funding
Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, we are now in the third day of this
government shutdown, and once again, our Democratic colleagues are
going to have the opportunity to vote for a clean, nonpartisan
continuing resolution that would open the government and allow us to
continue working on the appropriations process.
Just to kind of give a little perspective on that, here are the
statistics showing all of the Biden-era clean CRs that were passed.
There were 13 of them--13 of them during the Biden administration, and
96 percent of the Democrats voted for it. Now they can't vote for a
clean resolution. How do you explain that?
Unfortunately, Democratic leadership is demanding more than $1
trillion in new spending just to keep the government open. So instead
of voting for this clean CR, they want more than $1 trillion in new
spending in a CR that--the CR has no Republican priorities in it; it is
just a clean CR.
So how is it we are supposed to put trillions of dollars of Democrat
priorities in a CR that goes until November 21? That is what Leader
Schumer has said, and that is exactly why this is the Schumer shutdown.
They have taken our government hostage with a list of demands that is
really quite astonishing. They want funding for healthcare for illegal
immigrants, and they want more subsidies for pandemic-era health
insurance, all while actually repealing a $50 billion healthcare fund
for rural hospitals that was put in the One Big Beautiful Bill. How
does that make sense? In the meantime, vital programs that support
hard-working American families have either been shuttered or are very
nearly out of money.
Let's end this Schumer shutdown and pass a clean, short-term CR--the
same kind of clean CR, mind you, that, as I said, 96 percent of
Democrats voted to support 13 times during the Biden administration.
That is what this shows.
Let's pass this clean CR, get back to work, and move our
appropriations bills through regular order. That is how we are supposed
to do it--through regular order. Already, we have made progress in this
Congress by doing just that. The Appropriations Committee has passed 8
of the 12 approps bills on a bipartisan basis. As a matter of fact, we
just approved, not too long ago, three of them--one of them was my Ag
appropriations bill--by big bipartisan majorities here on the floor in
the Senate. Compare that to last Congress,
[[Page S6924]]
when Leader Schumer refused to allow us to bring any of the
appropriations bills to the floor.
In fact, nearly a month ago now, the House requested a formal
conference on the three bills that I just referenced that we passed
across the floor with large bipartisan majorities, and we are ready to
go to conference with them and finish our work on those appropriations
bills through regular order, as I just said.
Our majority leader has said very clearly that he is ready to bring
Defense appropriations and the Labor-Health bill, which would actually
get us up north of 75, maybe even 80 percent of the appropriations
process finished. He is ready to bring those two bills to the floor as
soon as we are open and operating.
We need to reopen the government to return to our bipartisan
appropriations work and get back to conducting the business of the
American people.
Another good example is the work we are doing for our ag producers,
and I know the Presiding Officer knows about that very well. Every
American depends every single day on the high-quality, low-cost food
supply that our farmers and ranchers provide.
At the same time, our farmers and ranchers depend on access to
markets to ensure they get good prices for the high-quality crops they
produce. This is particularly true, for example, for soybean farmers in
my State of North Dakota, where we export 90 percent of what we grow--a
lot of that going to markets like China.
With harvest season underway, the Trump administration continues to
fight for better markets for our farmers and ranchers, but in the
meantime, our producers need a bridge to stronger markets and the
updated farm safety net which we included as part of the One Big
Beautiful Bill.
Due to China's efforts to reduce commodity prices and push up the
cost of production, our farmers are having a hard time right now, as
you well know.
As the administration works to secure better trade deals for our
Nation, it is critical that we don't allow China to use our farmers as
a pressure point in those negotiations. That is why I have been
working--along with others--with this administration on emergency
assistance to bridge that gap while we seek better trade agreements and
more export sales for our farmers.
Along with Senate Ag Committee chairman Senator Boozman, we have done
a lot of work, and we are ready to go when the President and the
Secretary decide it is time to move forward with a plan that will help
bridge that gap and keep our producers afloat. Doing so will give the
administration's trade team needed leverage in these negotiations with
China.
U.S. producers deserve to be treated fairly in the global
marketplace, not to be used as a tool by China in their negotiations on
fair trade, which we demand.
The administration's efforts are all about securing better trade
terms that not only reduce foreign tariffs but eliminate the nontariff
trade barriers that other countries use to lock out American farmers
and ranchers.
By acting now and providing assistance to our producers during these
negotiations, we will send a very strong signal to China that their
tactics will not work.
That is how we secure better market access for our producers for the
long term. That is exactly what President Trump did in his first term
in the negotiations with China. We worked with him on the Market
Facilitation Program to keep our farmers in the game. The result was
that President Trump secured a $50 billion agreement from China to
purchase our ag commodities.
That is what we are working to do again. So let's get this government
back open so we can continue that hard work. You know, that is just one
example of the work that needs to get done for the American people.
So, again, we are going to have a vote here in a little bit, and once
again, I ask that our Democrat colleagues join with us and vote to get
this government open. It is a clean, short-term resolution so that we
can do the work of the American people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are 3 days into a government shutdown,
and we are in the middle of a healthcare crisis entirely of
Republicans' making. A new poll shows that nearly 80 percent of
Americans--that is 4 in 5--want Republicans to work with us to stop
their premiums from doubling.
So what is the holdup? After all, as we speak, health plans are in
the middle of locking in massive rate increases, and those notices will
be in the mail any day now.
These are two serious issues facing our country. Yet Trump and
Republican leaders are refusing to take any of them seriously. On
healthcare, they have decided to shut down the government rather than
work with us, and they have decided they would rather make up lies
about illegal immigrants than to talk about the actual issue at stake:
the reality that Republicans are letting premiums more than double.
News flash: Republican areas are actually going to face some of the
biggest price jumps if they refuse to save healthcare.
Small businesses are going to take a hit, not to mention farmers.
One-quarter of our farmers are covered on the ACA exchanges, so this
healthcare crisis is a big concern for them.
Millions of families across the country are about to see their
monthly healthcare costs jump by hundreds, if not thousands, of
dollars, and the Republicans' plan here seems to be, I hope no one
notices.
That is out of touch. Maybe a couple thousand dollars here and there
seems like no big deal when you take your marching orders from
billionaires like Donald Trump, but if Republicans talked to everyday
families and fewer rich billionaires, they would understand that the
healthcare crisis Republicans are ignoring is going to devastate folks
back home.
Millions of people are going to be priced out of their insurance.
They will skip their basic healthcare. They will skimp on their
medication. They will miss out on lifesaving treatments. It is no
exaggeration to say people will die. There is no avoiding that reality,
although Republicans seem determined to try.
On the shutdown, Trump and Republican leadership are not taking this
seriously. President Trump has made clear that he doesn't see this
shutdown as a problem to solve; he sees a shutdown as an opportunity to
hurt people. He sees a shutdown as an opening to make good on even more
of the awful promises of Project 2025. Trump sees a shutdown as an
excuse to harm whoever he wants and do whatever he wants, even and
maybe especially if it hurts folks back home.
The Trump administration actually isn't even trying to hide that
fact. They are targeting their cuts at blue States, they are talking
about canceling Democratic priorities, and they are threatening our
constituents if we do not bend the knee.
No one can believe President Trump is serious about ending this
shutdown when he is more focused on tweeting out fake sombrero pictures
and showing Russ Vought as the Grim Reaper than he is on working on a
deal.
No one can believe President Trump seriously cares whether he is
hurting everyday Americans when the only thing he is focused on is
taking the opportunity to punish the American people with cruel cuts
and cruel firings, which don't just hurt Democrats, they hurt his own
voters as well.
I should mention that no one can believe Republican leadership is
serious about ending the shutdown, either, when Senate Republicans are
holding the same vote over and over while refusing to start serious
negotiations.
By the way, House Republicans are not even here in town. Instead of
talking about addressing healthcare, they are just saying ``wait'' or
``later.'' Democrats have been waiting. We have been trying to save the
healthcare tax credits for months. We cannot wait any longer. ``Later''
is too late.
The irony of Republicans telling us to wait on healthcare is as rich
as the people they shoveled tax breaks on earlier this year, because,
let's not forget, earlier this year, Republicans chose to spend a lot
of time here and a lot of effort extending the tax cuts for wealthy
CEOs.
Those tax cuts were set to expire at the end of this year, just like
the ACA tax credits we are talking about now. What did Republicans do?
Did they tell the billionaires to wait? No. Republicans moved Heaven
and Earth to save
[[Page S6925]]
the tax cuts for those billionaires, but now they won't move a muscle
to save families from skyrocketing healthcare costs.
Republican leaders can't be bothered. When billionaires have a tax
cut expiring at the end of the year, it is all hands on deck for
Republican leadership, even if it means throwing working families
overboard with a trillion dollars in healthcare cuts families will need
to cover out of their own pocket or go without coverage.
But when healthcare is on the brink, when healthcare premiums are
being locked in right now--right now--and when they are going to double
for our families, Republicans are nowhere to be found. I mean that
literally. House Republicans have not been here all week. They are
missing in action. They should be rushing back to work on a solution.
But Republican leaders seem to be moving in the opposite direction,
forcing a vote on the same failed partisan bill for the fourth time.
Mr. President, we are at the table. We want to be here. We want to
find a solution. We want to reopen the government. We want to prevent
families' costs from skyrocketing. I hope Republicans decide they are
ready to join us.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.