[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 176 (Thursday, October 23, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7721-S7722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, just to remind our colleagues, we have had 
now a series of three votes, with a couple of them on judges, but one 
of the votes in there was on a Senator Johnson proposal that would have 
paid all Federal employees who are currently working in the middle of 
the shutdown.
  Now, I don't know how you explain--if you have any Federal 
employees--how you would vote against something that would make sure, 
in the middle of a government shutdown, that, if they continue to work, 
they will get paid. That is all it was--very simple, very 
straightforward. For the life of me, again, I think the other side is 
in a very bad headspace right now to vote against something like that.
  If you have any Federal employees in your State--obviously, a lot of 
them are here or are in this area, and all of our staffs are currently 
not getting paid--Senator Johnson tried to correct that today by 
calling up a bill, which we just voted on and which, once again, 
Democrats here in this Chamber voted against.
  Now, we have had in front of us a dozen votes now on a continuing 
resolution that would open up the government, and it has been sitting 
at the desk now for some time. The House has passed it. We need five 
Democrats to join us and send it to the President. He will sign it into 
law. The government opens up. It is clean. It is nonpartisan. It has no 
policy riders and no partisan gimmicks attached to it. It is a 
straightforward continuing resolution to fund the government until a 
certain time.

[[Page S7722]]

  Senator Johnson's was even more straightforward than that, really, 
because it simply said, if you are a Federal employee and you are 
currently working today, like everybody here in this Chamber, you will 
get paid.
  Again, I can't explain what is going on on the other side of the 
aisle, but they consistently come down here and vote against paying 
people who are working--who are working every single day--and not 
getting paid. So that was the vote we had just a couple of votes ago.