[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 164 (Monday, October 6, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6943-S6944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
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NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026--Resumed
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of S. 2296, which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 2296) to authorize appropriations for fiscal
year 2026 for military activities of the Department of
Defense, for military construction, and for defense
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other
purposes.
Pending:
Wicker-Reed amendment modified No. 3748, in the nature of a
substitute.
Wicker (for Ernst) amendment No. 3427 (to amendment No.
3748), to require the Comptroller General of the United
States to conduct a study on casualty assistance and long-
term care programs.
Thune amendment No. 3863 (to amendment No. 3427), relating
to the enactment date.
Thune amendment No. 3864 (to the language proposed to be
stricken by amendment No. 3748), relating to the enactment
date.
Thune amendment No. 3865 (to amendment No. 3864), relating
to the enactment date.
Motion to recommit the bill to the Committee on Armed
Services, with instructions, Thune amendment No. 3866,
relating to the enactment date.
Thune amendment No. 3867 (to (the instructions) amendment
No. 3866), relating to the enactment date.
Thune amendment No. 3868 (to amendment No. 3867), relating
to the enactment date.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Agriculture
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, there is a not-so-perfect storm brewing
for farmers in my State of Iowa and in agricultural States generally.
Many factors are coming together--and all at once--like low grain
prices, high input costs, consolidation in the industry, and
uncertainty from trade and tariffs. It is beginning to look more and
more like the 1980s to me.
One thing that concerns me is the lowering of land values in Iowa.
Land value has gone down 3 percent since last year and down 5.4 percent
since the same time in 2023. That is not as bad as it was in the 1980s.
There was a very catastrophic drop in prices compared to what I just
quoted you for now. And in the 1980s, that didn't happen overnight; it
kind of crept up on us very slowly. We don't want to let that happen
again, so we need to be vigilant today.
When it comes to land prices, as you know, if farmers lose too much
land value, they won't be able to leverage against it for debt to cover
their expenses. That happened in the 1980s, and as I said, it kind of
crept up on us at that particular time, and Congress didn't see it
coming soon enough. Congress waited too long to act. Farmers had been
pleading with Congress for 2 or 3 years in the 1980s before Congress
was able to pass some help for the farmers. In the meantime, farmers
went bankrupt, and a lot of farmers were lost due to suicide.
Now, that may sound like everyday business, but if you have been
operating a family farm and you were the fifth or sixth generation
doing that and you lost it because of bankruptcy, low prices, land
values going down, you become depressed and ashamed, and I am sure that
is why a lot of people committed suicide.
Now we have a farm safety net in place. We have tried to be on top of
farmers' mental health to a greater extent than in the past. So
hopefully all these bad things that happened in the 1980s won't happen
again. But I am here saying I don't want to see it happen again. We
can't be complacent, knowing the history of Congress being too slow to
act. So Congress ought to act now, before it is too late.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
[[Page S6944]]
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Majority Leader
The majority leader is recognized.
Government Funding
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we are now in day 6 of the Democrats'
government shutdown--day 6--and I am wondering just what exactly
Democrats think they are gaining from all of this. I guess they are
getting points from the far-left interest groups that they have been
coordinating their shutdown strategy with, but I highly doubt they are
earning a lot of points with everyday, hard-working Americans, like the
voters they lost in the last election.
A Reuters headline from Thursday noted ``US government shutdown
threatens food-aid program for low-income Americans.''
Let me just read that again: ``US government shutdown threatens food-
aid program for low-income Americans.''
The article noted that while the Trump Agriculture Department is
doing its best to continue administering the Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children--more commonly known
as WIC--the program is ``critically low on funds.'' And it won't get
new funds until Democrats agree to reopen the government.
Democrats own this. They own any lapse in funding for critical food
aid programs, just as they own every other negative effect of the
shutdown because--let's remember--the only reason the government is
shut down is because Democrats refuse to accept a clean, nonpartisan
funding extension--a clean, nonpartisan funding extension.
We didn't ask Democrats to swallow any new Republican policies. We
didn't ask them to swallow any partisan riders. We simply asked them to
agree to a clean, nonpartisan bill.
The same kind of bill, I might add, that they voted for 13 times--13
times--during the Biden administration. But Democrats said: No. And I
should note that you don't have to take my word for it on the facts of
the bill. Republicans aren't the only ones pointing out that this is a
clean CR.
Here is what the president of the Teamsters Union had to say the
other day:
A shutdown will hurt working people. Period. . . . Senators
should . . . pass the House-passed clean, short-term funding
bill.
``Senators should pass the House-passed clean short-term funding
bill.''
Again, that was the president of the Teamsters Union.
Or, you know, you could take the word of a mainstream journalist who
recently noted:
In a vacuum, this CR would get almost every Democratic
vote. It just would. This is a clean CR that has no partisan
riders, extends a bunch of programs that are Democratic
priorities . . . it's clean.
``It's clean.''
So to summarize, Democrats have shut down the government because they
refuse to accept a clean, nonpartisan bill. And why are they refusing
to accept it? After all, as I mentioned, they supported similar bills
13 times during the Biden administration.
The reason that they refuse to accept it is that Democrats still
cannot get over the fact that the American people elected President
Trump. And when their far-left base demanded a showdown with the
President, the Democrats fell in line. And now it is the American
people who are suffering the consequences.
I quote again. ``U.S. government shutdown threatens food-aid program
for low-income Americans.''
``[T]hreatens food aid program for low-income Americans.''
Three Democrats have rejected their party's shutdown politics and
voted with Republicans to reopen the government. All Democrats will get
another chance to vote to reopen the government later today, and for
the sake of the American people, I hope at least a few more Democrats
will join us to pass this clean, nonpartisan CR and let the Senate get
back to work.
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