[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 171 (Thursday, October 16, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7155-S7156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Executive Calendar No. 373, Stephen Chad Meredith, of 
     Kentucky, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern 
     District of Kentucky.
         John Thune, Markwayne Mullin, John Barrasso, Tim Sheehy, 
           Pete Ricketts, Ted Budd, Bill Hagerty, Bernie Moreno, 
           John R. Curtis, Jon A. Husted, Jim Justice, Ashley B. 
           Moody, Roger Marshall, Joni Ernst, Ron Johnson, John 
           Boozman, John Kennedy.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, first of all, I would like to compliment 
the majority leader, the Senator from South Dakota, for his continued 
efforts to have the Senate return to the days in which we were the 
greatest deliberative legislative body, assuming that was ever true. It 
is hard to find evidence that it is true today. And, certainly, a basic 
function of the Congress is to do appropriations bills.
  I have heard a number of my colleagues, particularly Democratic 
colleagues, complain about the appropriations efforts by the White 
House, by the administration. They remind us that the Constitution puts 
in the prerogative, it is the Congress that appropriates. Here we are 
trying to appropriate, to do our constitutional duties, and the vast 
majority of Democrats stand in the way on one of the most important 
appropriations bills that we could consider, the Defense appropriations 
bills.
  Our adversaries, our allies, again, wait and watch for signals that 
the United States of America is the country it needs to be to defend 
freedom and liberty around the world. As of today, we are incapable of 
funding our Department of Defense.
  I highlighted yesterday in remarks that those who had come to the 
floor and worried and complained about the

[[Page S7156]]

military men and women during the shutdown who are not receiving 
compensation for their service to our Nation, the most straightforward 
way to make certain that those who serve are compensated is to pass the 
Defense appropriations bills authorizing and appropriating the money to 
make those payments. Yet, today, there are those who stood in the path 
to prevent that from happening.