OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

-9999

Floor Speech

Date: Oct. 23, 2025
Location: Washington, DC

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, just to remind our colleagues, we have had now a series of three votes, with a couple of them on judges, but one of the votes in there was on a Senator Johnson proposal that would have paid all Federal employees who are currently working in the middle of the shutdown.

Now, I don't know how you explain--if you have any Federal employees--how you would vote against something that would make sure, in the middle of a government shutdown, that, if they continue to work, they will get paid. That is all it was--very simple, very straightforward. For the life of me, again, I think the other side is in a very bad headspace right now to vote against something like that.

If you have any Federal employees in your State--obviously, a lot of them are here or are in this area, and all of our staffs are currently not getting paid--Senator Johnson tried to correct that today by calling up a bill, which we just voted on and which, once again, Democrats here in this Chamber voted against.

Now, we have had in front of us a dozen votes now on a continuing resolution that would open up the government, and it has been sitting at the desk now for some time. The House has passed it. We need five Democrats to join us and send it to the President. He will sign it into law. The government opens up. It is clean. It is nonpartisan. It has no policy riders and no partisan gimmicks attached to it. It is a straightforward continuing resolution to fund the government until a certain time.

Senator Johnson's was even more straightforward than that, really, because it simply said, if you are a Federal employee and you are currently working today, like everybody here in this Chamber, you will get paid.

Again, I can't explain what is going on on the other side of the aisle, but they consistently come down here and vote against paying people who are working--who are working every single day--and not getting paid. So that was the vote we had just a couple of votes ago.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward