John Thune: Likelihood Of Government Shutdown Is 'Entirely Up To Democrats'

4 hours ago

At today's Senate Republican leadership press briefing, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) put the onus on Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

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Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, everyone. Without action from Congress, the government will run out of funding

00:11come Friday. And I think we all know why we are here. That is because, despite last year,

00:20the Senate Appropriations Committee passing 11 of the 12 appropriations bills, six of

00:28them unanimously, all of those 11 with big bipartisan margins, not a single one of them

00:35was put on the floor last year, quite to be assured. And those bills were all available

00:39at the end of July. Those bills had all been passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee

00:44at the end of July of last year. And so here we are on the brink of a government shutdown,

00:50which will be entirely up to Democrats' making if it happens, because the House today will

00:56be voting on a continuing resolution upon the government throughout the end of the year.

01:02And we'll send that over here to the Senate where we'll have an opportunity to act on it.

01:06A similar continuing resolution passed the end of last year in the Senate with 85 votes.

01:12This one should be no different, honestly. But as you all know, it takes 60 votes in

01:17the Senate to pass an appropriations bill. So we're going to need some Democrats to vote

01:22for it. The Democrats have used the filibuster three times this year already, despite arguing

01:27for its elimination as recently as a few months ago. But three times this year, they've already

01:32filibustered bills in front of the Senate. I think the American people are going to be

01:37interested to see whether the Democrats are going to filibuster in my filibustering shutdown

01:43of the federal government. It is on now. If this happens, there is a funding vehicle

01:48available coming over from the House of Representatives for the government through the end of the fiscal

01:52year, September 30th. And we are prepared to take it up here in the Senate and make

01:57sure that on Friday, the government stays open. But it will be up to the Democrats as

02:02to whether or not that happens. Between now and then, we're working on the Stomp Fentanyl

02:06Act, which is legislation that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's something

02:11that deals with fentanyl prices that we have in this country. And Senator Bill Cassidy,

02:17the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has had a lot to do

02:20with that issue and with that legislation. And I'm going to ask him to come up and speak

02:24to it and try to answer any questions you all have. Senator Cassidy.

John Thune: Likelihood Of Government Shutdown Is 'Entirely Up To Democrats'

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