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MITCHELL, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) On Wednesday, Oct. 1, the federal government will shut down if legislation isn’t passed to extend its funding. Important government programs will be suspended, government services will be shuttered and government employees, including military personnel, will temporarily be without a paycheck. Everything from certain veterans’ health care programs to food assistance for needy families could be affected. But there is no reason this needs to happen.
Republicans in Congress have put forward nonpartisan legislation to extend government funding until Nov. 21 to give Congress additional time to work on the yearly appropriations bills. But we’re running into a major problem. After a bipartisan start to the appropriations process this year, with the Senate passing three appropriations bills by strong bipartisan margins, Democrats have decided to abandon the process.
Instead of working with Republicans to extend government funding so that we can continue bipartisan appropriations work, Democrats are holding government funding hostage to a long list of partisan demands, totaling more than $1 trillion. And they’re ready to shut down the government if Republicans don’t comply.
Since I became majority leader of the Senate in January, I’ve made it clear that I am committed to a bipartisan appropriations process, where senators of both parties get to make their voices heard. And, as I said, that’s the kind of appropriations process we’ve been following in the Senate so far. And I’ve made it clear that Republicans are open to discussion and negotiation on a number of issues.
But there’s a difference between careful discussion and negotiation during the appropriations process and taking government funding hostage to jam more than $1 trillion in big-government spending in a funding bill designed to last mere weeks. Major decisions should not be made in haste. And they certainly shouldn’t be made because one party is threatening to shut down the government if it doesn’t get its way.
When we Republicans drafted legislation to extend government funding, we made the deliberate choice to make the bill nonpartisan. Our bill does not include any new Republican policies; it simply extends existing funding levels for a few more weeks to allow us to continue to build on the bipartisan progress we’ve made on appropriations.
Democrats used to advocate for the kind of clean, nonpartisan bill we’ve put forward. In fact, they voted for 13 clean funding bills while President Joe Biden was in office. It’s unfortunate that they’ve chosen now to abandon their commitment to nonpartisan government funding extensions.
We have two days until the government shuts down. Our nonpartisan funding bill is out there, ready to be voted on. It has already passed the House, and it’s ready to be signed by the president. We’re just one Senate roll call vote away from keeping the government’s lights on.
If Democrats would only agree, we can pass the bill at any time and spare the American people all the problems that come with a government shutdown. And then we can get back to bipartisan negotiations on the year-long fiscal 2026 appropriations bills. I hope Democrats will rethink their determination to shut down the government and instead join Republicans in extending government funding and getting back to bipartisan appropriations work.
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