Funding the Government

Floor Speech

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I won't use a lot of time here this morning because we have a lot to do.

We worked for a long time yesterday, into the late hours of the night, trying to secure an agreement to vote on a long-term government funding bill. I was last talking to the chairman of the Appropriations Committee at 11 o'clock last night.

Regrettably, a small group of Senate Republicans has determined it is in their political interests to hold this legislation hostage. They objected to an agreement that would allow us to vote on Monday night. We are now relegated to watching time tick away on our clocks just so we can keep the government open and funded. I remind everyone that at 12 o'clock midnight--12 a.m.--the U.S. Government, tonight, runs out of money.

We even tried to get an agreement last night to extend government funding for a few extra days while we worked to pass the long-term funding bill, but the Republicans wouldn't let us do that.

So now we wait. But while we wait, we shouldn't waste time. Republicans and their leader have known for weeks, if not months, that we intend to vote on the President's nominations. So it is clear that this impasse we are having here today is not about nominees, it is about preventing us from funding the government. So now, on the eve of our government running out of funding, Senate Republicans are forcing completely unnecessary procedural votes just to waste time and slow us down from funding the government.

It doesn't have to be this way. We can still come to an agreement to take care of funding for our great country right now.

Mr. DURBIN. Will the majority leader yield for a question?

Mr. REID. I will yield for a question.

Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the majority leader for some clarification.

Is my understanding correct that at midnight tonight officially the funding of our government ceases?

Mr. REID. Absolutely true.

Mr. DURBIN. And the majority leader asked the Republican side of the aisle to at least extend it several days while we completed our work on the omnibus budget bill sent to us by the House?

Mr. REID. Yes, we had yesterday evening a piece of legislation from the House doing just that--extending the time for a few days.

Mr. DURBIN. Was there an objection by the Republicans to the short-term extension so our government would continue operating?

Mr. REID. We were told it wouldn't be necessary to do that because we couldn't get agreement to do it. So the answer is yes.

Mr. DURBIN. Late last night, the junior Senator from Texas came to the floor. Is he part of the group that is objecting to moving forward on the omnibus bill?

Mr. REID. Well, it appears so. At 10 o'clock or so last night he gave a relatively extended speech. If someone looks at that speech, he wasn't critical of me. Most of his criticism was for the Speaker and the Republican leader here. He was challenging whether they were people of their word as to what they were going to do.

Mr. DURBIN. I might just ask the majority leader, this is the same Senator who shut down the government last year in protest over the Affordable Care Act?

Mr. REID. The very same man. Now he is hung up on not only the Affordable Care Act but the President's action to give 5 million people relief in this country so they can come out of the shadows and make our country a more productive place.

Mr. DURBIN. I thank the majority leader and hope we can find some support to moving forward to fund the government and accept our responsibilities.

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