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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, after a record government shutdown of 41 days and 14 rollcalls failing to reopen it, the situation was clear. Donald Trump and the Senate Republican leadership were unwilling to do anything to reduce skyrocketing health insurance premiums, a terrible problem facing some 24 million American families.
The shutdown of the government stopped paychecks for thousands of Federal workers, causing real hardship for their families, including our overworked and understaffed air traffic controllers and many other critical members of the Federal workforce.
Food pantries in my State and across the Nation were overwhelmed when President Trump stopped SNAP food payments to 42 million Americans, one-third of whom were children. Food pantries were being overwhelmed as well by unemployed workers who had been laid off or furloughed because of the government shutdown.
So a group of Senators sat down to try to find a bipartisan resolution. After lengthy negotiations, an agreement was reached with the Republican Senate leader John Thune.
We will agree to reopen the government until January 30, 2026. During that time, we will pass three bipartisan appropriations bills that will fully fund SNAP, WIC, and all the veterans programs and finish our work on the remaining spending bills for this fiscal year.
The agreement would also reverse the Trump administration's mass firings during the shutdown and prevent future ones through January 30. We credit Senator Kaine of Virginia for this provision.
Leader Thune has also promised the Democrats an opportunity before mid-December to present a Democratic bill on the floor with proposals to change the law and protect American families from dramatic healthcare premium increases. It is my fervent hope that this ends up being a bipartisan effort. It would be such an achievement of the Senate to finally return to that status.
I have served in the Senate for 29 years, and I have never seen that kind of offer from a Senate majority. During the historic rollcall last night, I walked across the aisle and met with Senator John Thune, the Republican leader. I told him that I was counting on him to keep his word on this agreement. He assured me he would.
The fate of this effort depends on both the Senate and the House of Representatives. After a 7-week absence, Speaker Johnson needs to call his Members back and join us in the hard work that lies ahead.
Many of my friends are unhappy. They think we should have kept our government closed indefinitely to protest the policies of the Trump administration. I share their opinions of this administration but cannot accept a strategy which wages political battle at the expense of my neighbors' paychecks or the food for their children.
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