[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 76 (Thursday, April 30, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2159-S2160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I don't know if you remember 1977. But 
since 1977, this body has passed the 12 appropriation bills on time 4 
times since 1977. By the way, this year is not one of them. Since 1977, 
four times the budget process has worked correctly.
  We have had multiple different government shutdowns during that time 
period, but they are getting worse--not better, as this Congress 
continues to be able to find cliffs to be able to stand next to and 
figure out how long we can put our toes over the edge.
  The latest one ended today. It was 76 days long, and it shut down the 
Department of Homeland Security. Now, I remind everyone in this body, 
the first priority of the U.S. Government is defense and security--the 
first priority.
  This body decided not to fund Homeland Security for 76 days. This is 
an issue we have got to face.
  In 2019, my friend Maggie Hassan the Democratic Senator from New 
Hampshire, she and I sat down and said: We have got to figure out how 
to get out of this. This is a cycle that is continuing.
  And since 2019, she and I have worked across the aisle to convince 
our colleagues there is a way to prevent future government shutdowns 
that would hold Congress accountable but the American people and 
Federal workers would not feel the effect of it. And it is a very 
simple straightforward idea that we have worked on now since 2019. It 
is when this body has not finished their work on time, we stay until 
the work is finished.
  But Federal workers and their families and the programs that are all 
connected to those Federal dollars, they continue. They are held 
harmless, while we have to stay until it is done.
  Now, that may seem simple, but around this place, that is a radical 
idea, apparently. We have worked for years to be able to get to the 
point that we can pass it.

  Last session, we brought it to this body and had 57 votes; we need 
60, as this body knows full well. We had 57 supporters last time we 
brought it to this body.
  Now, there has been an election since then. We have also had two very 
long shutdowns since then, and my understanding is there are even more 
of my colleagues that are stepping forward and saying it is time that 
we end the shutdown dramas and actually get things resolved.
  We don't bring a political solution; we don't bring a messaging 
solution; we just bring a solution. This solution had been evaluated in 
previous Presidential time by President Biden's team

[[Page S2160]]

in his Office of Management and Budget. It has been reviewed by now 
President Trump's team, his Office of Management and Budget. Everyone 
has looked at it and said: Yep, that works.
  We have gone through all the technical assistance on it, and now it 
is time to vote to be able to figure out if once and for all we can end 
government shutdowns.
  Now, the idea, as I mentioned, is simple: We stay here until the work 
is done. But let me give you an example of what that would look like 
just in this shutdown. This particular shutdown with Homeland Security, 
we were shut down for 76 days because my Democratic colleagues did not 
want to fund ICE or Border Protection, so we had a 76-day shutdown.
  During that 76-day time period, the Senate was in session 35 of those 
days--less than half. For 76 days, the Department of Homeland Security 
was nonoperable, unfunded. We were here 35 of those days. If you think 
that is bad, let's talk about the House of Representatives. They were 
in session 29 of those 76 days. In other words, the problem was all 
over the country, and Congress was AWOL.
  We have to determine if we are going to stay and fix the problem, or 
if weekend plans or time away from here is more important than Homeland 
Security of all things. We should have never left.
  When we ran out of funding, we should have remained until we solved 
the problem, but everybody left. Let's fix that. Let's make the most 
simple commitment that we can possibly make to the American people, and 
that is, if we get to a moment like this again--and we will--we will 
not leave until the work is done.
  Federal workers will not have to worry about not being paid. 
Contractors will not have to worry about not being paid. Programs will 
be able to continue to operate. We are the ones that will actually have 
to stay after class. They won't feel it there. That seems to be a much 
better option than mass chaos across the country while we suffer no 
consequences for it.
  Now, there has been a lot of conversation in this body, which has 
been good, to be able to talk about how do we actually not have this 
happen again. Part of the conversation has been: Let's just pay the 
employees and not pay the programming but we can still continue to be 
able to leave and come and go like normal but at least people will be 
paid.
  Interestingly enough, we have had an experiment with that, that exact 
principle for the last month. For the last month, President Trump has 
taken some of the emergency funding set aside in the bill we passed 
last year in reconciliation, has used that to be able to pay employees. 
So employees of Homeland Security have been paid, but the programming 
hasn't been done. So literally we have had a test run on that idea. 
What if we just paid the employees but didn't pay the programming, 
wouldn't that solve the problem? What has now been discovered is: Oh, 
no, that definitely doesn't solve the problem.
  CBS News has reported in the last 24 hours that we now have up to 
6,000 different residences for just the Coast Guard that their power is 
being shut off because the bills haven't been paid for the last 2 
months. And, amazingly enough, utility folks like to be paid--
remarkable.
  We have got the Commandant of the Coast Guard who came out and made a 
statement that was pretty bold for the Commandant to be able to make, 
but he is dead-on correct. The Commandant of the Coast Guard made this 
statement about the ongoing shutdown right now of Homeland Security 
including the U.S. Coast Guard. He said:

       It's more than a breach of trust . . . Our Coast Guard men 
     and women, whether they're active duty or reserve military 
     civilians, they've stepped forward and taken an oath to 
     support and defend the Constitution. What they expect in 
     return is just to be paid and [to] provide services.

  They don't expect ``to have to worry about whether their families are 
going to be taken care of.''
  By the way, this is the same commandant at his residence as 
Commandant of the Coast Guard the power was shut off because the bills 
hadn't been paid. If you want to go to the Coast Guard station in 
Hawaii, they were literally working at the station by flashlight.
  Now, everybody was being paid, but contracts weren't being paid, 
contractors were not being paid, and program dollars were not done.
  What does that mean? Simple things, like in FEMA, all the fire 
training centers, all the domestic preparedness conferences, all the 
things that we do to be able to prepare for a hurricane coming up this 
fall, those things couldn't happen. All the work to be able to prepare 
for wildfires, none of that could actually happen. For our 
Cybersecurity professionals, while we have an ongoing conflict with 
Iran, many were furloughed or couldn't do their work. While we were 
preparing for FIFA, for literally the whole world coming to the United 
States, we couldn't do preparation for security for them coming.
  The United States Secret Service, who put their lives on the line to 
be able to protect the President, much of the executive branch and 
reporters this past weekend at the White House Correspondents' Dinner--
thank you for the work that you were doing--but they had no additional 
money to be able to plan and operate because this body chose to go home 
rather than fund them.
  Listen, there is a simple way to be able to resolve this for all of 
us: We stay until the work gets done. And simply saying: We will pay 
people but then walk away doesn't solve the problem because contractors 
don't get paid, utility bills don't get paid, all the grants don't get 
done, the other tasks are still not there. So just paying the employees 
but they can't do anything doesn't solve the problem. It just pays 
people that are sitting at a desk, wishing they could do their job, but 
they have no money to do it, or in this case, for the Coast Guard, they 
are working at their station by flashlight.
  That should not be so in the United States of America. This is not a 
partisan bill. It is not even a partisan issue. Republicans and 
Democrats alike have put a stake in the ground and said: We are going 
to shut the government down because we are mad. We have both done it on 
both sides. Let's just say we are done with it.
  What I would like to happen in the days ahead, years from now, to 
have my grandchildren crawl up in my lap and say: Tell me a story about 
the time when the government used to shut down--because it never 
happens in their generation. Let's find a way to be able to actually 
resolve this like grownups, work out our differences, and not have 
government shutdowns.
  I want to thank my colleague Maggie Hassan and her work for this and 
what she has done to be able to get the text right and to be able to 
get this resolved.
  I want to thank my colleagues in the House that had the exact same 
text: Jodey Arrington,   Jimmy Panetta.
  In a bipartisan basis and bicameral basis, we are dedicated to saying 
government shutdowns need to end. So I am looking forward to us getting 
this finally, finally resolved.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill 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.

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