John Barrasso

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, the government is on the verge of a Democrat-caused shutdown, a shutdown of the Government of the United States of America. Senator Schumer has sent us a ransom note. It is not about a negotiation; it is about a shakedown. That is what we are facing here today in the U.S. Senate. Schumer's ransom note, it is not about keeping the government open; it is about caving to the far left, the radical wing of his party. It is pure politics; it is political theater; and every Democrat in this body knows it. This afternoon, my colleagues are going to be meeting at the White House with the President of the United States. The American people deserve to know what the Democrats are demanding. So let's take a look at this trillion-dollar demand note. They are demanding more than a trillion dollars in new spending to keep the government open for just 4 weeks. They want permanent new spending to continue the Biden COVID bonus payments. If you could believe it, they want sanctuary cities to continue to give free healthcare to illegal immigrants. At the same time, they threaten to defund the Border Patrol. They want to send billions of dollars to foreign countries, but they want to slash billions of dollars to help rural hospitals right here in America. That is what the Democrats are proposing in their ransom note. They want to subsidize free healthcare for people who refuse to work, who are working-age individuals and are healthy and ought to have a job. Yet they threaten the paychecks of the people whose job it is to keep our country safe. They demand this far-left wish list or else, they say, they are going to shut down the government at midnight tomorrow. The biggest scam in this ransom note is the COVID-era Biden bonus payments. Democrats are demanding $400 billion to continue these subsidies forever. Let's remember that Democrats created these Biden bonus COVID subsidy payments during COVID in 2021. It was part of their reckless tax-and-spending bill. They passed it when they controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House. At the time that Biden started these bonus payments, most people realized that COVID was already behind us, but that didn't stop them. Democrats extended the payments again in 2022, and they set the expiration date for December of 2025. That is about 3 months from now. Democrats promised at that time, when they put them into place, that the Biden COVID bonus payments would be temporary. They weren't intended to last forever. Now the Democrats, in their ransom note to the Republicans and to President Trump, say they want these temporary payments to go on forever. I have here the House report that came out on this 2021 reckless tax- and-spending bill. It is called ``American Rescue Plan of 2021.'' This is a report of the Committee on the Budget, House of Representatives, H.R. 1319, dated February 24, 2021. Instead of going through the whole thousand-page document and bringing it here and throwing it on the floor, which is where it belongs, I copied pages 215 and 216. What does it say about these bonus payments? They say right here, it applies ``during the public health emergency.'' The public health emergency is over. And it says in the payments, when you turn to the next page, they would go ``temporarily''--``temporarily.'' That is their word, not mine. Well, COVID is over. Joe Biden lost. Democrats are in the minority. These Biden COVID bonus payments, they need to go away as well. They were just one more part of a big government giveaway, and now Chuck Schumer is here demanding that we make these bonus payments permanent. To me, ``temporary'' means ``temporary.'' That is what the Democrats are demanding just to keep the government open for 4 short weeks. It is preposterous. Twelve years ago, in 2013, America faced another shutdown. At that time, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut sent out a press release-- 2013, 12 years ago. In his press release, Senator Murphy of the minority from Connecticut said this: There is a time and a place to debate healthcare-- He went on to say-- but not when the funding of the federal government--and all the lives that are impacted by it--[are hanging] in the balance. He is not here today to hear those words, but his party needs to recognize that is exactly what they said 12 years ago. And, today, Democrats like Senator Murphy are doing the very thing that he condemned in his press release 12 years ago. Stunningly, the Democrats want to eliminate, of all things, the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund. This is the fund that Republicans created to keep rural hospitals open. I am a doctor. I practiced medicine in Wyoming for more than 20 years. I know what affordable, reliable, quality care means to our communities. They are lifelines to small communities. Yet, yesterday, on ``Meet the Press,'' the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said rural hospitals are closing. So he wants to put the noose around their neck. This makes it worse. He is threatening, as part of his demand, to eliminate the $50 billion set aside for rural hospitals in America. Last week, I was at home in Wyoming. I attended a ribbon cutting in Pinedale for a new hospital. This is the first hospital ever in Sublette County, WY. The nearest hospital is 85 miles away. There is another one 100 miles away. Depending on, in the winter, which roads are open, people in that community had to either drive 85 or 100 miles seeking healthcare. This is going to help the communities in Pinedale. It is going to save lives. It matters to those people. Yet the ransom note from Senator Schumer and the Democrats would shut it down, prevent all of these rural hospitals that are struggling that we have provided for in our comprehensive economic plan that we passed in July. Schumer wants to pull the plug on all of it. It is part of their bill. It is part of the ransom note. It is what the Democrats are trying to do. Let's be honest. The Democrats have a political problem. The far left, their radical wing, is demanding a shutdown of the government. Their caucus is divided. The American people overwhelmingly want the government to remain open to provide vital services to the people. They know that it costs money to shut down the government. It costs even more to reopen the government. Democrats don't seem to care. What we have here is a clean, bipartisan, continuing resolution to fund the government for the next 7 weeks. The House of Representatives has already passed it with a bipartisan vote, and it keeps the government open for 7 weeks at the current funding levels. So it doesn't cut anything. It says: Let's just continue to work on appropriations bills. It gives Republicans and Democrats an opportunity to work on the budgeting for next year, the appropriations process, to keep the government open for the next year. President Trump is ready to sign it. It is here before the Senate, and it is time to pass it. Senator Schumer has repeatedly bragged that Democrats never shut down the government when they were in the majority. I would remind the minority leader today that 13 times under Joe Biden, the Senate passed a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. We should do the same right now. Senator Schumer ought to remember those 13 times. Today should be no different. If this government shuts down--and it should not--it will clearly be a Schumer shutdown. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the GAO opinion letter dated September 18, 2025.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Marshall) and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Banks), the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Banks), the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Banks), the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Regular order? No. One trillion dollars in ransom for 4 weeks of keeping the government open. It is filled with partisan, political poison pills that will never become law. What we are seeing today from the minority leader is exactly what he once condemned. He is holding the American people hostage. What he is promoting today is not a spending bill; it is a shakedown--the Schumer shakedown, the Schumer strategy to lead to a Schumer shutdown. Let me break down this ransom note line by line because the American people deserve to know what the Democrats are demanding. Their $1 trillion demand includes $500 billion to continue the COVID-era spending spree. We were originally told that the COVID bonus subsidies would be temporary. Democrats now want to turn them into a permanent government giveaway. This is in spite of the fact that the COVID crisis ended years ago. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman was right. He said: Nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program. Additionally, Democrats want to weaken Medicaid for those who need it the most. Republicans' comprehensive economic plan strengthens Medicaid. We reduce waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption. Democrats want to kill those reforms. They want to repeal the entire healthcare section of the law. Democrats would rather shut down the government than stop States from paying for free healthcare for illegal immigrants. Democrats want to continue to give Medicaid to able-bodied, working-age adults who refuse to work. Democrats are holding America hostage for people who broke our laws and for people who refuse to get jobs. Now let's talk about money that the Democrats want to send overseas. This bill spends billions of dollars on radical climate projects: Zimbabwe, $13 million for ``civic engagement''; Honduras, $25 million for ``climate resilience''; West Africa, $40 million for ``low- emissions development.'' Let that sink in. Republicans want to keep the government open, pay our troops here at home. Democrats would rather fund climate projects overseas and are willing to shut down the government if we are not willing to do that. Democrats are willfully wasting billions of hard-working Americans' tax dollars on their liberal fantasies. Republicans are proposing 7 weeks of clean funding. It is what passed the House in a bipartisan way just an hour ago, and Democrats instead are demanding seven figures for foreign slush funds. Mr. President, let me point out that Democrats do make some spending cuts. Regrettably, those cuts target our Nation's most vulnerable hospitals in rural communities. Democrats want to eliminate the $50 billion Rural Hospital Stabilization Fund. It is something we just passed earlier this year--passed it this summer. It is something that I hear about from our hospitals at home and how grateful they are. And I am a doctor. I practiced medicine in my home State of Wyoming for more than 20 years. I was president of the Wyoming Medical Society. I know the stresses and strains on rural hospitals, and that is why this was passed. Mr. President, your home State of West Virginia experiences exactly the same thing. We both know how many small community hospitals need the kind of help that we were able to pass that the Democrats now want to strip away. With rural hospitals under significant stress, the last thing Congress should do is remove the funds designated to help keep them open, and they want to instead spend this money in foreign countries. That is what the Democrats want to do. Let me return to Senator Schumer's own words: We cannot afford . . . brinkmanship or hostage-taking. Yet hostage-taking is exactly what he is doing today. Senator Schumer is demanding a trillion dollars in new spending for keeping the government open 4 weeks. He is sending billions of dollars to foreign countries but slashing billions of dollars for rural hospitals in our own country; subsidizing free healthcare for people who refuse to get jobs but threatening the paychecks of the people whose job it is to keep our Nation safe. He is demanding a far-left wish list or else he wants to shut down the government. That is the Democrat strategy today; make no mistake. Republicans will hold Democrats accountable for supporting this dangerous political theater. The good news is Congress can keep the government open and functioning without hostage-taking and without shakedowns. Republicans' clean continuing bipartisan resolution that just passed the House with a bipartisan vote is ready to go; 7 weeks long, it gives Republicans and Democrats on the Appropriations Committee the time they need to finish their work. I see the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and ranking member on the floor right now. The House passed it today, bipartisan; President says he will sign it. Senate Democrats voted for similar bills not once, not twice, but 13 times when Joe Biden was President. There is only one person standing in the way of keeping the government open. That is the Minority Leader. He has said it himself: We cannot afford hostage-taking. I would say to the Minority Leader: Stop holding the government hostage; stop holding the American people hostage; get rid of the ransom note; keep the government open. The American people deserve better than a trillion-dollar shakedown. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, 2 years ago, when the government was on the brink of a shutdown, the then-majority leader, now-minority leader, Senator Schumer of New York, wrote a letter to his colleagues--I have it here--dated September 2023. It says: Dear Colleague. In his letter, Senator Schumer wrote: We cannot afford . . . brinkmanship or hostage-taking. He went on to say: The only way to avoid a shutdown is through bipartisanship. Well, I am happy to announce that just in the last hour, the House of Representatives passed, in a bipartisan vote, a continuing resolution to keep the government funded. That is not what we are seeing today, though, from the minority leader. Senator Schumer has written this time not a ``Dear Colleague'' letter but the biggest ransom note in American history.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Banks), the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. BARRASSO

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.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. On behalf of the chairman of the Budget Committee, I object.

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Banks) and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee).

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee).

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee).

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee) and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call with respect to the en bloc nominations provided for under the provisions of S. Res. 377.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, today is Constitution Day, September 17. So I think it is a perfect day, today, to restore the Senate's constitutional duty of advice and consent because when a President is elected, he needs to put a team in place, a team in place to run the government. When a President wins, he gets to pick the team. Modern Presidents have over 1,000 positions to fill. There is a role in the Senate for advice and consent, but Senate Democrats have done everything you can think of to prevent President Trump from putting his team in place. He needs to get these people on the job. And let me be clear. Democrat obstruction ends today. This week, Republicans in the Senate will break the blockade and move America forward. Now, we are going to begin to confirm this backlog of President Trump's qualified nominees. Historically, the Senate, acting as a body of the whole, has considered nominees pretty quickly after they have come out of the vetting in the committees. Most are confirmed right here on the Senate floor by voice vote or unanimous consent. In President Obama's first term, 856 nominees were confirmed that way; in President Trump's first term, 553. In Joe Biden's only term as President, the number was 530. Here we are in President Trump's second term--September of that second term--and that number confirmed that way is zero. Well, why? Why has not a single nominee been confirmed by voice vote or by unanimous consent? Look, we know why, and it is the Democrat obstruction. Our country has never seen anything like this. Senate Democrats are freezing the Senate floor, freezing the Federal Government, and freezing our Nation's progress, and they are doing it intentionally. This harms our Nation's safety. It hamstrings the President and the voting people's agenda. This is what people voted for. They elected President Trump. He won all seven battleground States. Yet the Democrats have done everything they can to stop him from making progress. Democrats are currently holding up more than 150 qualified nominees who have already been successfully approved through Senate committees. These nominees are critical to our Nation's future, our Nation's success, our Nation's progress, as well as our safety and security. So let's take a look at some of the important roles that the Democrats have said: Nope, we are going to filibuster all of them. One is the Principal Deputy Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Another is the inspector general for the Central Intelligence Agency. Many are Ambassadors to our NATO allies. Then there is the Deputy Trade Representative. Even the Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center is being frozen out by Democrat obstruction. Every one of them is qualified because every one of those individuals has received bipartisan committee support, Republicans and Democrats voting for them after their hearings in the committee. Yet Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, is blocking critical nominees because he opposes President Trump, and he has done it at every step along the way. Democrats failed to defeat President Trump in November at the ballot box, so instead they are trying to sabotage his team right here on the Senate floor. When Democrats filibuster nominees, they don't even bother to debate their qualifications--simply delay for the sake of delay and obstruction. Our Senate committees have done their jobs on all of these nominees. Every one of these nominees that is being held up here on the Senate floor, every one of them has appeared at hearings in committee; they have answered a barrage of questions from Senators; they passed FBI background checks; they cleared Senate ethics investigations; and they have passed out of committee; many and every one that we are going to be voting on in this group this week had bipartisan support. Let's be clear what that means. Democrats here on the floor, Chuck Schumer, are blocking nominees whom Members of their own party already said: Yes, these are qualified; let's get them on the job. This is unprecedented, and it is wrong. Now, Democrats are free to vote no on nominees. That is OK. But an all-out obstruction weakens our country and wastes the Senate's time. Don't take my word for it. Let's listen to what one of the Senators on the other side of the aisle said in 2013 when Barack Obama was President. That was Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts. She came to this very floor, stood over there at that very desk, and said: Without a government that was staffed, justice would not be established, our common defense would be threatened, and the blessings of liberty [that] we hoped to secure through our laws would go unfulfilled. That was 2013 and a different President. Well, what changed? Well, what changed is that in November, Americans voted to get America back on track, and they elected Donald Trump as President to do it. Democrats' response was to shut down the Senate nomination process and to stop Senators from doing the people's business. Today, Republicans are taking decisive action, and we are going to start voting on that in a few minutes. We are going to break the Senate's procedural logjam. We are returning to the long-established traditions and principles of the Senate. Tomorrow, the Senate will vote on 48 nominees together in a single group. Each and every one of them has received bipartisan support in Senate committees. We are not going to stop there, though. Over 100 more nominees will be ready for confirmation by the end of this week-- get that process moving. It is time for the Senate to clear the nominations backlog and clear it quickly, and so we will. That way, the Senate can get back to the work of legislating, of working on behalf of the American people. We have important legislation to consider. We have appropriations bills. We have the National Defense Authorization Act, the farm bill, legislation to make our cities safe from violent criminals. Senate Republicans are going to continue the work of the American people. We are going to continue to work to get America back on track. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, once again, Senate Democrats are threatening to shut down the government. A government shutdown is bad for everyone. The cost of a Democrat shutdown is staggering. Reopening the government after a shutdown is even more costly. And who pays the price of a Schumer shutdown? Well, it is the American people. It is not the people in this room. No. It is hard-working Americans. It is seniors who rely on Social Security; they are going to be impacted. People living on a fixed income; they budget down to the last dollar. They need to pay for rent; they need to pay for groceries; they need to pay for prescriptions. Democrats don't seem to worry about that. Oh, they say they can wait. Because a Democrat shutdown means that customer service applications to the Social Security Administration--well, they will be delayed. Now, many military families also live paycheck to paycheck. They are going to face a lot of uncertainty. The men and women who protect our families will be left to wonder how they can protect their own families. Border Patrol agents, they put their lives on the line every day to protect the American people. They are going to be forced to live without a paycheck. Democrats already tried to defund the Border Patrol. Now they want Border Patrol agents to go home without a paycheck until the government reopens. National parks, they risk being closed as well. In my home State of Wyoming, we have Yellowstone National Park; we have the Grand Teton. These are more than parks; they are part of our State and our Nation's rich history and heritage. Families from across America and around the world visit Wyoming, our national parks, and other national parks. They do it every year. Under a Schumer shutdown, those plans will be forced to be canceled. Local businesses like hotels, restaurants, they will lose revenue. Park staff are reduced to skeleton crews. Trash piles up. That is not stewardship. That is neglect. That is what the Democrats are risking. It is what Democrats are threatening with this reckless talk of a shutdown. The American people shouldn't be forced to pay the cost of Democrats' political games. That is what it is. Shutdowns are political games. Political acts are choices. Congress has the tools to avoid this chaos. It requires, however, cooperation from the Democrats. The appropriations process, it exists. It exists for a reason. It is how Congress fulfills its basic mission--the power of the purse. That is our duty, and that is what Republicans are doing. For the first time in 4 years, the Senate passed bipartisan appropriations bills before the August recess. More are on the way. Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins is working hard to get each and every bill passed. That is something that the current Minority Leader refused to do when the Democrats were in the majority. Last year, 11 out of 12 funding bills passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. They passed many along bipartisan ways, many were unanimous, all done in regular order. That was last year when Schumer was, at that time, majority leader, but he refused to bring a single one of them to the floor of the U.S. Senate for a vote. He let those 11 bipartisan appropriations bills die in the drawer of that desk rather than let the Senate vote on them. He shut down the appropriations process, and now he and the Senate Democrats are threatening to shut down the government. He himself has recently suggested a shutdown. He said: It is preferable to accepting bipartisan solutions. Senator Cory Booker, who is another member of the Senate Democrat leadership, went even further. When asked about a short stopgap measure that we are talking about now to keep government open so we can proceed with additional appropriations bills, he said: I am going to block it. That is what he said--block the normal process to regular order. And it is not just the Democrat-elected officials calling for a shutdown. Liberal columnist Ezra Klein recently wrote in the New York Times and he was on television urging Democrats to shut down the government. He did it despite the costs and consequences to the American people, but that is where the radical left is. He said joining Republicans to fund this government is worse, he said, than failing at opposition. That is what they think their job is: to disrupt, to make it harder on the American people's lives. That is not what we ought to be doing here in the U.S. Senate. Democrats are ignoring the needs of keeping the essential functions of our Nation open. And what are those essential needs? Securing the border, Social Security, supporting our military--doesn't seem to care if you are a Democrat these days. What is so wrong with doing the job voters elected us to do? To my Democrat colleagues, I would say: Stop this political theater. The Republican message is simple: Let's fund the government; protect Social Security; keep servicemembers and border agents paid; keep the government open in order to serve the American people. Senate Republicans are ready. Ready to keep the government open. Senate Democrats are bragging about being ready to shut it down. The choice is theirs, and the consequences of that choice will be felt by the people of our Nation. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy) and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee).