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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, the American people deserve a government that is fully funded.

Last week, the minority leader claimed on this floor that he wants to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. It is time for him to prove it. His record shows just the opposite.

The appropriations bills have historically passed with bipartisan votes. Yet when Senator Schumer was majority leader during the Biden years, he blocked every single appropriations bill from coming to this floor. Eleven bipartisan appropriations bills that passed out of the committees died in that wastebasket there under the desk of Senator Schumer. When Democrats were in the majority, they literally shut down the entire appropriations process.

After the Democrats lost the elections in 2024, they revolted, and they shut down the government twice. The two Schumer shutdowns broke records. First, in October 2025, Democrats shut down the entire Federal Government. It lasted 43 days--the longest shutdown in the history of our Nation.

During the shutdown, Senator Schumer infamously said:

Every day gets better for us.

Every day didn't get better for the American people all across the country. Federal workers missed paychecks, and there was a huge shutdown of TSA. People missed flights. There were long lines waiting to get to the airports and to get to the flights. Screening lines lasted hours and hours.

Then, in February of this year, Democrats did it again. They shut down the Department of Homeland Security, and that shutdown lasted 75 days.

The shutdown of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol lasted even longer. Democrats voted to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and they voted to defund our Border Patrol. They want wide-open borders.

Democrats vote to protect illegal immigrant criminals but don't seem to care about protecting law-abiding American citizens. Democrats have proven their own willingness to disrupt travel, to delay paychecks, and to endanger our national security, and they will do it when they think it is to their political advantage, not to the advantage of the people of our country.

Senator Schumer may have said on the floor that he wants to avoid a shutdown, but his actions signal that Democrats are getting ready to do it again.

Just last month, Senator Schumer said shutdowns are, in his words, ``strategic decisions''--``strategic decisions.'' Democrats have already shut down the government twice. A third shutdown would be just as painful for the American people and maybe worse. Democrat shutdowns make life less affordable, and they make our communities less safe. The American people deserve better.

Senator Susan Collins, who is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is working very hard to fix what Senator Schumer has broken. She is working to put bipartisan bills on this floor and is working to keep the government open. This is how the appropriations process was designed to work.

House Republicans are soon going to vote on a bill that funds the government until after the elections in November.

Here in the Senate, Senator Collins continues to lead with integrity and with intelligence and by working in bipartisanship. She has a long and respected record of working on both sides of the aisle. She has presented good-faith offers to Democrats. Democrats continue to reject them. They demand more spending on things like these fraud-ridden programs that we have read about. They are threatening to stonewall every single appropriations bill again this year.

Democrats are trying to avoid a shutdown--so they say. But they are not trying to avoid a shutdown; they are preparing for another one.

Here is what another Democrat shutdown would mean to the American people: A Democrat shutdown means longer lines at the airport. A Democrat shutdown means our troops miss paychecks. A Democrat shutdown mean TSA agents miss paychecks. A Democrat shutdown undermines national security. A Democrat shutdown hurts our veterans, and it hurts our seniors.

Senator Schumer says he wants to avoid one. Well, time is going to tell.

Republicans are focused on funding the government in a serious, timely, and bipartisan way. That is what we are intending to do. We will see if the Democrats are willing to meet us along the way.

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