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“Democrats are so committed to shutting down the government, they’re rejecting a clean – clean, clean – nonpartisan, short-term funding extension – the very same kind of extension that, as I mentioned, they supported 13 times during the Biden administration.”

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):

“Mr. President, we are just 14 hours away from a government shutdown.

“The House has passed a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution to fund the government until November the 21st.

“The president is ready to sign it.

“But Senate Democrats?

“They’re standing in the way.

“Mr. President, I quote, ‘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.’

“Now those last few lines aren’t mine, Mr. President.

“And they’re not a quote from some other Republican.

“They’re a quote from a mainstream journalist, who is acknowledging what everyone knows.

“And that is, Republicans have offered up a clean, nonpartisan funding extension – the same kind of extension Democrats have repeatedly supported in the past – and Democrats are blocking it for their own partisan purposes.

“Mr. President, it’s right here.

“This is what it is.

“This is a partisan CR?

“Twenty-four pages to keep the government open until November the 21st, at which time the Democrats will have almost the same leverage they have right now.

“I mean, hopefully by then we’ll have passed more appropriations bills.

“I’d like it if we passed all of them, but I think it’s reasonable to expect we won’t have them all through conference and ready to place on the president’s desk, so they will have another funding cliff they can take advantage of come November the 21st.

“This is ready to pass right now.

“This keeps the government open.

“This funds the government and protects federal workers and the American people from the hostage-taking that has become, evidently, now the Democrat norm, even though it’s something they decried not that many years ago.

“Right here, Mr. President.

“It’s in front of us right here.

“We can pass this today – pass it right now.

“All we have to do [is] get support from the Democrats.

“House has passed it.

“This is the House-passed bill.

“We take it up in the Senate, pass it, send it to the president, president signs it into law, and the government stays funded.

“Pretty straightforward, right?

“And it’s something that was done many, many times in the past, as I mentioned, by Democrats when they had the majority.

“Now, Mr. President, this right here is a chart – I mentioned, 13 times.

“So when the Democrats were in the majority around here, 13 different occasions, we passed short-term continuing resolutions, funding resolutions to keep the government funded.

“And as you can see, there were a lot of, interestingly enough, Republican votes, Republicans who voted to keep the government open when the Democrats had the majority.

“Thirteen separate occasions.

“You look at the numbers there, the lowest number on any one of those is 65 votes.

“All we need today in the Senate in order for us to keep the government open is to get eight Democrats to vote with Republicans.

“That’s all it takes.

“That’s all it takes – eight of them.

“Doesn’t have to be all of them.

“I mean, I understand the reason, in many cases, the Democrats don’t want to go down this path now has nothing to do with the substance of this.

“I mean, again, look at this.

“They want to argue about the substance of a continuing resolution that funds the government for seven weeks, at which time they’ll have similar leverage.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with that.

“Has everything to do with politics.

“Because when this happened, there was a Democrat president in the White House.

“Now there’s a president, a Republican president, President Trump.

“That’s what this is about.

“It’s about partisan politics.

“Now, there’s another chart, which I will show you here, which I think points out, too, the hypocrisy of the Democrats.

“This is the percentage of Democrat senators who supported Biden-era [CRs].

“Look at that – 100 percent.

“100 percent.

“There were two of them it was 98 percent, so they must have lost one or two on their side on a couple different occasions.

“But 13 times when they had the majority, almost all of them, without exception, voted to fund the government, because that’s kind of simply what we do.

“We try to avoid government shutdowns, because they tend to be disruptive, and everybody knows that.

“In fact, you can go through a long list of quotes, and I’ll just give you a few, give you a frame of reference.

“In 2023, the Democrat leader called a shutdown, and I quote, ‘avoidable, irresponsible and deeply damaging’ and noted that a shutdown would cause, and I quote again, ‘disruptions for millions of New Yorkers to services they rely on, while thousands of federal workers could be furloughed.’

“In 2019, during the midst of a government shutdown, the senior Democrat senator from Hawaii stated, and I quote, ‘while rich people are protected, this shutdown leaves the people who are most vulnerable to fend for themselves.’

“In 2023, the senior Democrat from Massachusetts – who has been one of the biggest voices in support of a shutdown this time around – had this to say, and I quote: ‘Okay, so let’s start with how much pain a government shutdown is going to cause us right here in Massachusetts. … [W]e have about 25,000 federal workers in Massachusetts. These are public servants just trying to do their jobs, trying to help people. They have mortgages, they have childcare bills, they’ve got to put gas in the tank and food on the table, and they’re not going to get their paychecks.’

“Well, that’s a sampling, Mr. President.

“This is an endless video loop of members on this side who’ve been saying these things now for years, if not decades.

“So, I could go on.

“In fact, let me just give you a couple more for some additional perspective.

“We’ve got Democrats as recently as this year talking about the negative effects a shutdown has on American families.

“And now Democrats are so committed to shutting down the government, they’re rejecting a clean – clean, clean – nonpartisan, short-term funding extension – the very same kind of extension that, as I mentioned, they supported 13 times during the Biden administration.

“So what’s changed, Mr. President?

“I think we all know.

“It’s not that the problems with a shutdown have changed.

“All those quotes that they said, I assume that maybe they still believe them.

“It’s that Democrats’ far-left base – and far-left senators – have demanded a showdown with the president.

“And the Democrat leaders have bowed to their demands.

“And apparently – apparently – the American people will just have to suffer the consequences.

“Now, Mr. President, when I took office as majority leader, I made it clear my commitment to regular order – in particular, to a bipartisan appropriations process. 

“And I’ve delivered on that.

“We’ve passed three of the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills with strong bipartisan margins here in the Senate, and I am eager to get back to bipartisan appropriations work.

“And that’s why Republicans have put forward a clean, nonpartisan, short-term funding resolution to keep the government open – to enable us to finish that appropriations work.

“We wanted a completely noncontroversial bill so that no one would be inclined to vote against it, and so that we could get back to funding the government the way it should be funded – not through endless CRs, but through thoughtful, considered, year-long appropriations bills.

“But Mr. President, the Democrats just can’t take yes for an answer.

“They’re rejecting a bipartisan process and attempting to take government funding hostage.

“And I had hoped that yesterday’s White House meeting might mean that Democrats were starting to rethink their plans to shut down the government.

“But it seems that their leadership, at least, is full speed ahead.

“Republicans, Mr. President – House, Senate, and White House – are united in our commitment to fund the government through a clean, nonpartisan funding resolution and then to get back to the business of bipartisan appropriations.

“And so Democrats have a choice to make:

“They can shut down the government and subject the American people to all the problems that come with a shutdown – many of which, as I said, they’ve enumerated in the countless quotes they’ve made in the past.

“Or they can join Republicans to pass a clean, nonpartisan, short-term funding bill and keep the government’s lights on.

“For the sake of the American people, Mr. President, I really hope they choose the latter.”