[Pages S1732-S1735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, here we go again. In just a little over 24 
hours, Federal funding will run out, and the government will shut down.
  Let me state for the record that my Republican colleagues and I are 
ready to get on with matters and ready to fund the government for the 
rest of this year. We all know that the faster we move it over the 
finish line, the faster our Federal Government can get to work on 
behalf of the American people and implement the agenda that the 
American people elected us to get done.
  But after our Democratic friends had a nice long lunch on Capitol 
Hill yesterday, Senator Schumer took the floor to announce that their 
caucus would not support funding the government because, as he put it, 
``Republicans chose a partisan path.'' But here is what Senator Schumer 
is really saying: Democrats would rather shut down the government than 
pass the funding bill just to shift blame to Republicans for our 
current funding predicament. Democrats are going to shut down the 
government to protect the government.

  In the next 24 hours, even, Democrats are planning to use the very 
same filibuster they have opposed and tried to abolish to shut down the 
government. In the last administration, former Vice President Kamala 
Harris said that Joe Biden and the Democrats are ``kinda done with 
those archaic Senate rules.'' But here they are using those archaic 
Senate rules to shut down the government.
  There is nothing that could explain such a drastic change of heart 
among my Democratic colleagues other than rank hypocrisy. Democrats are 
quick to criticize Republican efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and 
abuse in our bureaucracies on behalf of hard-working American 
taxpayers. Yet in the same breath, Democrats are fighting to withhold 
the paychecks of air traffic controllers, our troops, Federal custodial 
staff. They can't be serious. The level of hypocrisy displayed by the 
minority leader and my Democratic colleagues is appalling to the office 
they hold and the constituents they serve. A government shutdown, of 
course, doesn't just affect the Federal workforce. For instance, food 
inspectors will be forced to stop their work, interrupting our food 
supply chains. It is as if the Democrats are trying to finish Joe 
Biden's job of driving up prices in the grocery store.
  Let me remind everyone of why we are on the verge of a government 
shutdown. Just a few months ago, Senator Schumer and my Democratic 
colleagues held the majority here. During that time, Republicans joined 
with Democrats to vote 11 out of 12 government funding bills from 
committee--11 out of 12. Six of them were unanimous. The other five 
passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. That would seem to be a 
great accomplishment in a too-often-divided Washington--11 out of 12 
bills, 6 unanimous, 5 with overwhelming bipartisan support.
  But even though we had all those spending bills ready to go last 
summer on a bipartisan basis, then-Majority Leader Schumer failed to 
bring a single bill to the floor from August to the end of last year. 
Not a single bill. Even though--let me say it again--11 out of 12 
passed out of committee; six were unanimous; and the other five were 
overwhelmingly bipartisan. Not a single one.
  Senator Schumer had 224 days to bring those bills to the floor for a 
vote--224 days. What did we do, instead? He chose to prioritize 
election-year stunts trying to distract voters from Joe Biden's 
disastrous border crisis. He had a vote on mandating government-funded 
fertility treatments for biological men--more important than funding 
the government.
  We also confirmed a whole host of unqualified Biden nominees you have 
never heard of for jobs you didn't know existed, not to mention a whole 
host of unqualified judges in States with two Democrat Senators who 
couldn't have gotten confirmed for the first 4 years and were only 
jammed through in a lameduck session, when we also could have been 
passing those spending bills to fund the government so we wouldn't be 
in this position.
  Senator Schumer claims to care about the livelihoods of Federal 
workers, but as leader, he seemed more preoccupied with putting on a 
big political show. Yet here is Senator Schumer claiming that 
Republican partisanship is the reason for shutting down the government. 
Spare me.
  It continued this year. Since Republicans took over, he blocked 
negotiations that would have made this funding bill a bipartisan effort 
from the start. Senator Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations 
Committee and   Tom Cole, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, 
made multiple, multiple offers to their Democratic counterparts to 
negotiate on a bipartisan basis government funding bills, just like we 
did last summer. But, no. Senator Schumer blocked it time and time 
again until just a few days ago.
  Yet now, supposedly, the clock has run out. He wants another 30 
days--another 30 days--when he had 224 days last year to do this, when 
we had over 60 days this year to negotiate on a bipartisan basis.
  The time for those negotiations has regrettably passed. It is time to 
finish last year's business and move on to this year's business.
  Democrats have one last chance to join Republicans and support a 
simple

[[Page S1733]]

yearlong funding bill. Republicans encourage our Democratic colleagues 
to join this effort to keep the government funded for the American 
people we all serve.
  Shutting our government down, as many of my Democratic colleagues are 
apparently considering, is not just some political stunt. There are 
real and consequential national security risks if they choose to go 
through with this reckless scheme.
  A government shutdown will disrupt military training and could force 
us to cancel planned exercises with our allies and partners. These are 
the very same alliances Democrats claim to care so much about 
supporting and preserving. Furthermore, a shutdown would disrupt 
ongoing work to modernize our nuclear forces, which is already behind 
schedule. Any further delay would make this bad situation even worse.
  And the potential Schumer shutdown will hurt military preparedness by 
slowing recruiting, create uncertainty in our defense supply chains, 
and impact our ability to produce badly needed munitions. This is not 
the message of strength we want to send to the allies we stand beside 
and the enemies we stand against.
  To my Democratic colleagues who still believe that shutting down the 
government is the principled choice that you need to--again, it is hard 
for me to explain their position--shut down the government to protect 
the government, let me ask you, simply: What does voting no accomplish? 
Six months ago, Senator Schumer said:

       If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans 
     who suffer most.

  That was Senator Schumer. What has happened in the last 6 months? 
Nothing, as far as I could tell, except who the American people elected 
to lead the government.
  So if this Schumer shutdown stunt is just a threat to get Republicans 
to agree to a fake short-term extension that brings us right back to 
where we are now, again, what is the point?
  The Democrats' hypocritical arguments reveal, once again, they are 
not serious about putting their duty to the American people above 
partnership, pettiness and pride.
  I invite them all to justify the Schumer shutdown to the parents who 
must postpone a trip to a national park with their children after 
months of saving and planning; or to explain your reasoning for the 
Schumer shutdown to the veteran who has already taken a day off work to 
sign up for healthcare at his regional benefits office only to find it 
closed; or to defend the Schumer shutdown to the Federal employee who 
puts all of her groceries on a credit card to make sure there is enough 
money left at the end of the month to cover her rent.
  My friends, we have two choices before us, and they are quite simple: 
either keep the government open and working for the people or shut it 
down. To do what exactly? I don't know. I think we can all agree that 
the American people deserve better than a government that is a day late 
and a couple billion dollars short. So I encourage my Democratic 
colleagues to vote with us to simply fund the government. Let's not 
have a Schumer shutdown.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, as people all over this country 
understand, we are a nation today that faces enormous crises. Sadly, 
the continuing resolution passed Tuesday in the U.S. House and which 
will come to this body very shortly not only does nothing to address 
these crises but, in fact, it makes a bad situation much worse.
  Today, at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality than 
we have ever had in the history of this country, 60 percent of our 
people are living paycheck to paycheck. What that means--I grew up in a 
family living paycheck to paycheck. It means that people are worried 
about how they are going to afford housing. What happens if their 
landlord raises the rent? People go to the grocery store, and they see 
the high prices of food and wonder how they are going to feed their 
kids. People are looking at the outrageous cost of childcare, but you 
need childcare if you are going to go to work. How can you afford 
childcare? Our healthcare system is dysfunctional. People worry about 
how they can afford healthcare if they are lucky enough to be able to 
find a doctor.
  That is the reality of what is going on in our country today: The 
rich are getting richer; working people are struggling; and 800,000 
Americans are sleeping out on the streets.
  So, given that reality, what does this bill do--the bill written by 
the rightwing extremists in the House of Representatives without any 
bipartisan discussion at all? What does this bill do?
  Well, let me count the ways. It makes the financial struggles of 
working people even more difficult than they are today, and it does all 
of that to lay the groundwork for massive tax breaks for Elon Musk and 
the billionaire class.
  For a start, some 22 percent of our seniors in this country are 
trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less, which, to me, is really 
quite incredible. I don't know how anybody, let alone a senior, 
survives on $15,000 a year or less. Half of our seniors are trying to 
survive on $30,000 a year or less. So what does the Trump-Musk 
administration do to address the terrible economic pressures on seniors 
all over America? Well, they have got a brilliant idea. They illegally 
fire thousands of workers at the Social Security Administration, with 
plans to cut that staff in half.
  In America today, 30,000 people die each year while waiting to 
receive their Social Security disability benefits because of a grossly 
understaffed and underresourced Social Security Administration. My 
office--and I expect the Presiding Officer's office and I expect every 
other office--gets calls every day from seniors, saying: I am having a 
problem with Social Security. I can't make contact with the Social 
Security people. They are not getting back to me.
  That is because, today, they are understaffed. If Musk and Trump get 
their way and the Social Security Administration's staff is cut in 
half, nobody can deny that that will be a death sentence for many 
thousands of seniors who desperately need their benefits.

  Now, Mr. Musk, who is worth a few hundred billion, may not understand 
that there are millions of seniors in this country who have nothing in 
the bank, who worry every day as to how they are going to heat their 
homes or buy the food that they need, and if they can't get the 
benefits that they need, some of them will, in fact, die.
  Let me be clear: When you have Mr. Musk calling Social Security a 
Ponzi scheme despite the fact that it has paid out every benefit owed 
to every eligible American for the last 80-plus years, that ain't no 
Ponzi scheme.
  When you have the President of the United States coming before 
Congress and lying--outrageously lying--about millions of people who 
are 150 or 200 years of age receiving Social Security benefits--a total 
lie--everybody should understand what is going on.
  Trump and Musk are laying the groundwork for dismantling the most 
successful Federal program in history--Social Security--a program that 
keeps over 27 million Americans out of poverty. By the way, just to set 
the record straight, over 99 percent of the more than 70 million Social 
Security checks that go out each month are going to people who earned 
those benefits--over 99 percent. People 150 or 500 years of age are not 
getting Social Security checks.
  But this continuing resolution that passed in the House is not just a 
vicious attack on Social Security; it is an attack on the veterans of 
our Nation--the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend 
our country. While we made some progress under the Biden administration 
in improving veterans' healthcare, the truth is that the VA has 
remained significantly understaffed. In the fourth quarter of 2024, 
there were 36,000 vacancies at the VA. We needed 2,400 more doctors, 
6,300 more registered nurses, 3,400 more schedulers, 1,800 more social 
workers, and 1,200 more custodians.
  So what do the Trump administration and Mr. Musk do to address this 
very serious workforce shortage? Their answer is that they are 
threatening to dismantle the VA by firing 83,000 employees. In other 
words, you have got a shortage today, and their solution to the 
shortage is to fire 83,000 workers. Not only does this CR do nothing to 
stop that, but it cuts more than $20 billion in funding needed to 
provide care for veterans exposed to burn pits,

[[Page S1734]]

Agent Orange, and other toxic substances next year.
  Pathetically, our Nation--the richest country on Earth--has the 
highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on the 
planet, and that is often reflected in the crises facing many public 
schools today. Throughout America, children are coming into school 
hungry; kids are coming into school with serious mental issues; kids 
are coming into school from dysfunctional families and families often 
dealing with drug abuse.
  And what is the Trump-Musk administration doing about that crisis?
  Well, their response was interesting. Just the other day, they fired 
half of the staff at the Department of Education. That means that it 
will be far harder to administer the title I program that helps 26 
million low-income kids get the education they need and pays the 
salaries of some 180,000 public school teachers throughout the country.
  So how does a school in a working-class community survive if you 
don't get the funds to pay for teachers?
  Further, it means that it will be far harder to administer the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the IDEA, that provides 
vital resources for 7\1/2\ million kids with disabilities. We have made 
progress in a bipartisan way over the last number of years to say to 
families: If your kid has a disability, that kid can still go to a 
public school. There will be services available for that kid.
  But when you cut the Department of Education staff here in Washington 
in half, that is going to be extremely difficult to do, and it means 
that it will be far harder for some 7 million low-income and working-
class students to get the Pell grants they need to get a higher 
education. In fact, just hours after the Department of Education laid 
off half of its staff, the website for the free application for Federal 
Student Aid that working families use to apply for Pell grants and 
other financial institutions crashed. They fired workers, and the 
website crashed for the people who were applying for Pell grants. This 
CR that we will be looking at perhaps tomorrow gives the Trump 
administration the green light to make these horrific cuts to 
education.
  And it is not just education. We have a major healthcare crisis in 
our country.
  Despite spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as the people 
of any other major country, 85 million Americans are uninsured or 
underinsured. Over 500,000 of our people go bankrupt because of 
medically related debt; over 60,000 people die each year because they 
can't afford to get to a doctor on time; and our life expectancy is not 
only lower than in almost any other major country, it is a system 
wherein working-class and low-income Americans die 7 years younger than 
wealthier Americans.
  So you have got a crisis: People can't find a doctor. People are 
going bankrupt because of healthcare bills. And what does this CR do? 
Well, at a time when, in particular, our primary healthcare system is 
completely broken, when we don't have enough doctors or nurses or 
dentists or mental health counselors, this proposal cuts--cuts--
community health center funding by 3.2 percent; it cuts the National 
Health Service Corps by over 5 percent; and it cuts funding for 
teaching health centers--a program which helps train doctors in rural 
and underserved areas--by almost 13 percent.
  So, in the midst of a horrific primary healthcare crisis in Vermont 
and all over rural America, this proposal will make it that much harder 
for people to get the healthcare that they desperately need.
  But it is not just healthcare. Everybody in this country, from 
Vermont to Los Angeles, understands we have a major housing crisis. It 
is not just all of the homelessness we are seeing. Over 20 million of 
our people, incredibly, spend more than 50 percent of their limited 
income on housing. How in God's name do you pay for anything else? How 
do you buy food? How do you take care of healthcare if you are spending 
50 percent or more for your housing?
  So how does this CR address the housing crisis? Well, it does it by 
cutting rental assistance for low-income families in America by $700 
million, which could lead to more than 32,000 families in our country 
being evicted from their homes. Well, that is a heck of a solution to 
the housing crisis: You make it much worse.

  But it is not just housing. I know that the President might disagree. 
He thinks that climate change is a hoax. The whole scientific community 
understands that it is an existential threat. They understand that the 
last 10 years have been the warmest ever recorded, and extreme weather 
disturbances and natural disasters have been taking place all over the 
world--from California to India, across Europe, to North Carolina.
  So what does the CR do about the existential threat of climate 
change? It does not even specify funding levels within the 
Environmental Protection Agency. In other words, the administration can 
simply eliminate funding for climate change and environmental justice, 
and that would be consistent with this CR.
  And on top of all of this, the administration is already indicating 
that they will simply ignore the provisions of the spending bill they 
don't like. This week, it was reported that Vice President JD Vance 
said to the Senate Republican caucus: I want everyone to vote yes. The 
President, under section II, will ensure allocations from Congress are 
not spent on things that harm the taxpayer. There is so much grift in 
Washington. Let's move this CR, get to reconciliation, and for Congress 
to pass appropriations.
  In other words, what Vance is saying is: Don't worry about what is 
actually in the bill. If the Trump administration doesn't like it, they 
won't do it.
  And let's be clear: The House CR that was passed in an extremely 
partisan vote--I think they won by 3 or 4 votes. One Democrat out of--
whatever--215 voted for it. The House CR and the Trump administration 
are doing everything they can to lay the groundwork for more tax breaks 
for billionaires, paid for by massive cuts to Medicaid, nutrition 
assistance, housing, and education. So you are looking at a one-two 
punch: a very bad CR and then a reconciliation bill coming down, which 
will be the final kick in the teeth for the American people.
  This legislation that the Republicans are working on--the 
reconciliation bill--would cut taxes for billionaires in the top 1 
percent by over $1.1 trillion over the next decade. According to a 
recent study, if all of Trump's so-called ``America First'' policies 
are enacted, the bottom 95 percent of Americans will see their taxes go 
up, while the richest 5 percent will see their taxes go down--way down.
  I should also mention that that reconciliation bill which Republicans 
are working on right now would also cut Medicaid by $880 billion.
  Tax breaks for billionaires; throwing low-income kids off of 
healthcare; decimating nursing homes all over America, because nursing 
homes receive two-thirds of their funding from Medicaid; making it 
harder for community health centers to survive, which provide 
healthcare to 32 million Americans, because 43 percent of their revenue 
comes from Medicaid--cut Medicaid by $880 billion, and you will 
significantly deteriorate the quality of healthcare all over America, 
at a time when the system is already broken.
  Further, the reconciliation bill proposes to cut at least $230 
billion from nutrition. Today, nearly one out of five kids in America 
rely on Federal nutrition programs to keep them from going hungry. I 
find it rather remarkable that the richest person on Earth, somebody 
worth hundreds of billions of dollars--that he and his other oligarch 
friends are working night and day to cut programs for the working 
people of this country and to actually deny food to hungry kids in 
America. There is no world, no universe, no religion that would not 
believe that that is grossly immoral and unacceptable. You don't give 
tax breaks to the rich and take food away from hungry children.
  The House CR bill that we will be soon voting on here is a piece of 
legislation I cannot support. Instead, what the Senate must do is pass 
a 30-day CR so that all Members of Congress, not just the House 
Republican leadership, can come together and produce a good piece of 
legislation that works for all Americans and not just the few.
  We have an opportunity now to serve the American people. We have an 
opportunity to write something that reflects what people in the 
Congress feel, what the people in America feel.

[[Page S1735]]

  I go around the country, and, just a couple of weeks ago, I held a 
telephone townhall in Vermont. We are a small State. We only have about 
650,000 people. Yet on that telephone townhall, there were 34,000 
people listening in. It is a significant percentage of a small State.
  I have been in many parts of the country recently. I have been in 
Iowa. I have been in Wisconsin. I have been in Nebraska. I have been in 
Michigan. And what I can tell you with absolute certainty is, whether 
people are conservative, whether they are Republican, whether they are 
progressive, whether they are moderate, whether they are Independent--
whatever they may be--there are very few people in this country who 
think we should give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich and 
cut back on Medicaid, education, and nutritional programs for hungry 
children.
  So, Mr. President, what I strongly propose is that we pass a 30-day 
CR; that we do what has always been the case here in the Senate: have 
both bodies, both parties work together to come up with a good piece of 
legislation.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Husted). The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. MORENO. I ask that the previously scheduled rollcall vote begin 
immediately.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.