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Senate

Government Funding (Executive Session)

2026-07-22 Issue 120 Showing 1–1 of 1

Official Congressional Record ↗

John Thune

Republican

“I want the Senate to pass a bill to keep the government open. We should vote on it soon. I don't want a shutdown. Shutdowns are bad for Americans. Government workers need their paychecks. A shutdown would cause problems. The other party caused two shutdowns before. We should not do that again.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. President, the Senate is in the middle of a busy work period, and we have a lot to accomplish in the coming weeks and months. We have some great opportunities for bipartisan collaboration: market structure legislation; the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act; the National Defense Authorization Act; FISA. But at the top of the list right now is funding the government. If there is any responsibility we have as Members of Congress, it is that. And our country cannot afford another shutdown like the two shutdowns we have experienced over the course of this fiscal year. Shutdowns take a toll on our economy, on our national security. They create havoc at airports. And, of course, they take an incredible toll on hard-working Americans inside and outside the government whose paychecks depend on the government being open. I think a lot of Americans remember pretty clearly what things looked like during the Democrats' two recordbreaking shutdowns this past year: government workers lining up at food banks, charging essentials on credit cards, and taking up any work they could find in hopes of being able to make ends meet; government services reduced; national security Agencies strained. I don't think any American who traveled will forget the effect those two shutdowns had on air travel: hourslong TSA lines snaking around airport concourses and out airport doors; canceled and delayed flights; a nationwide reduction in air traffic, when our air traffic control system could no longer safely maintain regular flight schedules. The list goes on. We cannot--cannot--have this again, and that is why I have asked Appropriations Chair Collins to draft a bipartisan and clean continuing resolution to fund the government until after the November election. I intend for the Senate to vote on that before we head to our States to work during August. The Senate Appropriations Committee is hard at work reviewing anomalies from OMB to ensure we have a bipartisan product ready to move quickly. No one is served by our waiting until the last minute to take this up. And after all that our country has been through with the past two shutdowns, the American people deserve to have confidence that the government will be open and running, not to mention the fact that government employees--like our own staffers and the Capitol Police officers standing guard around this building--deserve to know that their paychecks will be coming. It was not a good year on the government funding front, with two recordbreaking government shutdowns, but we have an opportunity now to chart a new path. I am encouraged that, so far, my Democrat colleagues have signaled that they do not want to force another government shutdown, and I appreciate Chair Collins' work to engage with Democrats and produce a bipartisan continuing resolution. No one--no one--is served by a shutdown, not either political party, and most of all not the people that we represent. So I look forward to bringing up a bipartisan CR in the coming days, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation and give the American people the certainty that they deserve. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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