Business Before the Senate

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. I appreciate my colleague from Texas being willing to turn over the floor so that I can give my remarks.

Mr. President, I am here today to discuss my concerns about the ongoing partisan obstruction in the Senate. First, as everyone here knows, September 30 is the end of the current fiscal year, and without action by the Senate on a continuing resolution--the mechanism to continue to fund the government--our government is going to shut down at midnight on the 1st.

So what happens if we don't pass that continuing resolution and the government shuts down? Well, critical operations will shutter. We have seen this picture before. Our national parks will close. We can tell our government researchers, including Nobel Prize-winning scientists, to leave their labs, and we would be doing this in the middle of the greatest health crisis of our lifetime.

A government shutdown also means that we ask essential Federal workers to work without pay. FBI agents, Border Patrol agents, TSA workers, weather forecasters, and others would be forced to continue their essential work, and they would be doing it for IOUs. We would promise them we would pay them, but there is no guarantee.

Now, it is puzzling to me because other countries don't do this to themselves. Government shutdowns put America behind. Look at the government shutdown that we had that went from December 2018 to January 2019, the longest government shutdown in our history. While our space scientists were at home, China landed the first rover on the dark side of the Moon--something that we had not done.

The continuing resolution before us also includes resources that will help Americans whose homes were flooded, homes were destroyed by raging wildfires or by hurricanes, including Hurricane Irma. They deserve our help, not more political infighting or partisan bickering.

We also owe it to our Afghan allies, who put their lives on the line to assist U.S. soldiers, to pass this bill. It contains critical assistance to help them resettle after facing imminent danger from the Taliban.

So from emergency housing assistance to resources for health screenings, job training, and other essential services, we can't let our allies down. We have already let some of them down because we weren't able to get everyone out of Afghanistan, and we are still working on that. But to then say ``You are on your own'' despite years of helping the United States? That is just patently unfair.

Secondly, as we are discussing the continuing resolution and keeping the government open, one of the things that our colleagues, our Republican colleagues, have said is that they are not going to increase the debt limit. I think we in Congress have a solemn obligation to protect the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government.

Treasury Secretary Yellen has told Congress that the Treasury will exhaust extraordinary measures that they have been using to pay our Nation's bills sometime next month. And let's be clear. The prospect of the first-ever default on our Nation's debt obligations would be disastrous for our economy at a time when we can least afford it.

Raising the debt ceiling is not about whether or not we should spend more money or incur more debt; raising the debt ceiling is about paying the bills we already owe, the bills that come due from the previous administration.

Minority Leader McConnell himself has voted to increase or suspend the debt limit 32 times. And when President Trump was in office, Democrats in this Chamber--and I was one of them--supported raising the debt ceiling three times because we understand that it is grossly irresponsible for us to renege on obligations that our government has already incurred.

As a former Governor, one of the worst fears I had as New Hampshire went through challenging times during a recession, during a court- ordered change in how we funded our schools, was that the State would have its bond rating lowered. That would mean we would have to pay more on money owed. It would have an impact on everyone in New Hampshire. This is sort of the equivalent of having the bond rating lowered for New Hampshire, only 100 times, 1,000 times over. No; this is that on steroids.

Now, because we have a Democratic President, Republicans are saying they won't lift a finger to prevent this catastrophic outcome for our economy, for our currency, for the full faith and credit of the United States of America. This is not a game. The stability of our economy and the financial security of working Americans are at stake, and we have an obligation to pass legislation that has been sent to us by the House to keep our government open and to raise the debt limit. This isn't just about the United States; this has implications for our entire global financial system.

Sadly, Mr. President, the partisan brinkmanship and obstruction doesn't end with domestic and economic matters. I am also very concerned about the dangerously slow confirmation process of our State Department nominees and Ambassadors. What we have seen is a few Members of this body who are threatening our national security by slowing the process to schedule nomination hearings for qualified nominees, preventing votes on those State Department nominees who have been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Today, only two Ambassadors have been confirmed by the Senate. This administration has had to wait over 200 days for its first Ambassador to be confirmed, compared to only 62 days for the previous administration. For the first 300 days of the previous administration, 55 State Department nominees were confirmed by the Senate, and now, as we approach the first 300 days of the Biden Presidency, this Senate has only confirmed 14 appointees.

Now, I agree with my colleague from Texas about the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. I think we need to sanction it. But I am not willing to shut down the government, to allow the actions of this government to grind to a halt because I am concerned about that issue.

If Senators are concerned about our national security, they would match deeds with words and confirm career State Department nominees who have been waiting for months. When we look at the increasing global threats to the United States, operating with a depleted diplomatic corps jeopardizes our national security, U.S. interests, and the safety of Americans at home and abroad.

These political games are really risking serious consequences. It must stop. I know we can work together in a rational, bipartisan way to address the country's needs. I have seen it. I believe my colleagues who are holding things up love this country, but I am concerned that their actions don't show that they love the country.

There is no excuse for delaying or hindering the basic functions this legislative body is constituted to perform, and I urge all of our colleagues to join us, to get to work. Let's get this done. Maybe, if we do that, we can address some of the other concerns that we have that we ought to be able to work together and compromise to get done. That is what I am going to continue to try to do, Mr. President.

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