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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, keeping the government open is a fundamental responsibility of elected officials. It always needs to be bipartisan, and today, that requires cooperation by the Democrats.

Right now, the Democrats are threatening once again to shut down the Government of the United States. We are trending toward another Schumer government shutdown. Democrats are in the minority in the Senate; they are in the minority in the House. Yet they have come up with what looks to me like a half-hearted bait-and-switch plan. It is a plan that is designed and is an attempt to deceive the American people. Democrats are trying to avoid being blamed for their reckless obstruction. The American people are not going to be deceived.

Let's be clear. The Schumer plan is a shutdown plan. It is far from a clean extension of current funding. In fact, it is a Trojan horse--a Trojan horse packed with reckless and radical liberal fantasies.

It is not serious, and the Democrats know it. The Democrats want a ransom payment--a ransom payment of over $1 trillion to keep the government open for just 4 weeks.

So let's take a look at it. There is more than a trillion dollars in more spending in what the Democrats are proposing. At the same very time, they are proposing eliminating the $50 billion rural hospital stabilization fund.

That is a lifeblood for rural hospitals in my communities and in your communities. The Schumer shutdown plan reads like a draft of the future platform for the 2028 Democrat National Convention. There are COVID bonus payments--this is in spite of the fact that the COVID crisis ended years ago. Liberal States are being rewarded for giving taxpayer- funded healthcare to illegal immigrants.

They want able-bodied, working-age individuals who refuse to work to continue getting Medicaid. Remember, these work requirements are overwhelmingly supported by hard-working Americans of all political persuasions.

They want to send taxpayer dollars overseas to pay for climate projects. This is fantasyland. They want taxpayer dollars to keep going towards $40 million for low emissions development in West Africa. They want taxpayer dollars to keep going towards $25 million for climate resilience in Honduras. They want the taxpayer dollars to keep going towards $13.4 million for civic engagement in Zimbabwe.

The Democrats have a long and spirited history of wasting American taxpayer dollars. This plan is no different. The Schumer shutdown plan seems designed to score political points on the far, far left.

This is a clarifying moment for the American people. Democrats know they can't have any hope of passing this fantasy plan. They know it, and they know it because they want government to close.

Republicans are proposing a clean short-term extension of funding designed to keep the government opened and functioning. A clean short- term continuing resolution would easily pass the Senate in normal times. A clean CR keeps the government open. A clean CR gives appropriators from both parties the time to complete their work in regular order.

Let me point out that the Appropriations Committee is already producing bipartisan bills. Let me also point out that under Joe Biden, Democrats supported 13 short-term continuing resolutions to keep the government open, and 96 percent of them voted for them.

So times really are different under this Democrat leadership in their efforts to obstruct this President. Democrats once again are putting politics ahead of the essential work of governing. Senator Schumer is clearly making unreasonable demands knowing that his proposal can never pass the Senate. All Republicans are proposing is to continue to fund the government for the next 7 weeks. This is going to allow us to continue the appropriations process and keep the government open during that time.

Senator Schumer himself said last year that passing a clean CR ``will avert a harmful and unnecessary shutdown.'' Now he wants to cause a harmful and unnecessary shutdown. At that time, he said passing a clean CR gives appropriators ``time to finish drafting all 12 bills.'' Let me point out that those bills were then stuck in Senator Schumer's drawer, and he kept them there and never brought them to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

He even said, back then, if both sides work together, if we reject poison pills--of which his bill now is completely loaded with--if we reject poison pills, he said, that can never become law, then the task before us becomes much, much easier.

They want to shut down the government. That is what they are proposing. Senator Schumer needs to listen to his own advice from a year ago. But then he was majority leader; now they are in the minority. The proposal that he came out with last night is loaded with poison pills, and he knows it.

Let me repeat: 13 short-term continuing resolutions under President Biden. Schumer was the majority leader at the time; 96 percent of Democrats voted for them.

Voting yes for a short-term continuing resolution was not considered controversial for the Democrats a year ago.

Now, I recognize that the minority leader today has a political problem. His radical base is demanding a government shutdown. They expect it, they insist on it, they command Senator Schumer to deliver that. His political problem may soon turn into a major problem for American families, for our soldiers, for our Border Patrol agents, for seniors living on a fixed income.

As Senators, our job is to keep the government open, and Senate Republicans are ready to keep the government open. Democrats can either join us or drag the Nation into another Schumer shutdown. That is their choice.

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