National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, once again, Senate Democrats are threatening to shut down the government. A government shutdown is bad for everyone. The cost of a Democrat shutdown is staggering.

Reopening the government after a shutdown is even more costly. And who pays the price of a Schumer shutdown? Well, it is the American people.

It is not the people in this room. No. It is hard-working Americans. It is seniors who rely on Social Security; they are going to be impacted. People living on a fixed income; they budget down to the last dollar. They need to pay for rent; they need to pay for groceries; they need to pay for prescriptions. Democrats don't seem to worry about that. Oh, they say they can wait.

Because a Democrat shutdown means that customer service applications to the Social Security Administration--well, they will be delayed.

Now, many military families also live paycheck to paycheck. They are going to face a lot of uncertainty. The men and women who protect our families will be left to wonder how they can protect their own families. Border Patrol agents, they put their lives on the line every day to protect the American people. They are going to be forced to live without a paycheck.

Democrats already tried to defund the Border Patrol. Now they want Border Patrol agents to go home without a paycheck until the government reopens.

National parks, they risk being closed as well. In my home State of Wyoming, we have Yellowstone National Park; we have the Grand Teton. These are more than parks; they are part of our State and our Nation's rich history and heritage.

Families from across America and around the world visit Wyoming, our national parks, and other national parks. They do it every year.

Under a Schumer shutdown, those plans will be forced to be canceled.

Local businesses like hotels, restaurants, they will lose revenue. Park staff are reduced to skeleton crews. Trash piles up. That is not stewardship. That is neglect.

That is what the Democrats are risking. It is what Democrats are threatening with this reckless talk of a shutdown.

The American people shouldn't be forced to pay the cost of Democrats' political games. That is what it is. Shutdowns are political games. Political acts are choices.

Congress has the tools to avoid this chaos. It requires, however, cooperation from the Democrats.

The appropriations process, it exists. It exists for a reason. It is how Congress fulfills its basic mission--the power of the purse. That is our duty, and that is what Republicans are doing.

For the first time in 4 years, the Senate passed bipartisan appropriations bills before the August recess.

More are on the way.

Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins is working hard to get each and every bill passed. That is something that the current Minority Leader refused to do when the Democrats were in the majority.

Last year, 11 out of 12 funding bills passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. They passed many along bipartisan ways, many were unanimous, all done in regular order. That was last year when Schumer was, at that time, majority leader, but he refused to bring a single one of them to the floor of the U.S. Senate for a vote. He let those 11 bipartisan appropriations bills die in the drawer of that desk rather than let the Senate vote on them.

He shut down the appropriations process, and now he and the Senate Democrats are threatening to shut down the government. He himself has recently suggested a shutdown. He said: It is preferable to accepting bipartisan solutions.

Senator Cory Booker, who is another member of the Senate Democrat leadership, went even further. When asked about a short stopgap measure that we are talking about now to keep government open so we can proceed with additional appropriations bills, he said:

I am going to block it.

That is what he said--block the normal process to regular order.

And it is not just the Democrat-elected officials calling for a shutdown. Liberal columnist Ezra Klein recently wrote in the New York Times and he was on television urging Democrats to shut down the government. He did it despite the costs and consequences to the American people, but that is where the radical left is.

He said joining Republicans to fund this government is worse, he said, than failing at opposition.

That is what they think their job is: to disrupt, to make it harder on the American people's lives. That is not what we ought to be doing here in the U.S. Senate. Democrats are ignoring the needs of keeping the essential functions of our Nation open. And what are those essential needs? Securing the border, Social Security, supporting our military--doesn't seem to care if you are a Democrat these days. What is so wrong with doing the job voters elected us to do?

To my Democrat colleagues, I would say: Stop this political theater. The Republican message is simple: Let's fund the government; protect Social Security; keep servicemembers and border agents paid; keep the government open in order to serve the American people.

Senate Republicans are ready. Ready to keep the government open. Senate Democrats are bragging about being ready to shut it down. The choice is theirs, and the consequences of that choice will be felt by the people of our Nation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source