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Floor Speech
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I have spoken a lot about it being a new day in America. It is also a new day in the U.S. Senate. When I became leader, I promised we would do things differently around here. I think the last 10 weeks show I was serious about that.
Unfortunately, today, our business is cleaning up from the old way of doing things. We are voting on yet another continuing resolution today because last year's Democrat majority pushed off full-year appropriations again and again.
Last summer, the Appropriations Committee reported out 11 of its 12 bills with bipartisan support. Six of those bills passed out of the committee unanimously. But month after month, Leader Schumer found something more important to do than fund the government, and not 1--not 1--of those 11 bipartisan bills ever came to the floor.
So, today, we are trying to finish up last year's work so that we can begin to do this year's work. To be clear, Republicans aren't thrilled about another CR, but it is our best option to make sure that last year's failure by Democrats doesn't interfere with this year's appropriations process.
I am hopeful that enough Democrats will reject their party's threat of shutting down the government and get this bill passed today. As I said yesterday, it is time to move on, and moving forward, appropriation bills are going to be a priority in the Senate.
When the Appropriations Committee sends a bill to the floor, my goal is to bring it to the floor for consideration, and I hope that my Democrat colleagues will cooperate in that effort. We are going to have a debate, consider amendments, and vote; and we are going to try to avoid the end-of-year pileup in continuing resolutions that I know we are all tired of.
Another continuing resolution--another CR--was nobody's first choice, but I can tell you this: The next time the Senate votes on an appropriations bill, it won't be on the eve of another shutdown.
So I appreciate my colleagues' support for this continuing resolution, and I look forward to a much better process for fiscal year 2026.
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