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Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, it is the responsibility of Congress every year to pass appropriations bills to fund the government. Failure to enact the 12 annual appropriations bills by the end of the fiscal year of September 30 has, with increasing frequency, resulted in major government shutdowns.

Last year, Senator Collins, as chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, worked with strong bipartisan support to report funding bills to the floor.

Unfortunately, that is where the minority party's cooperation ended. They refused to work with the majority party to get these appropriations bills across the finishing line, even refusing to pass a short-term, clean continuing resolution to keep government open while funding negotiations continued.

Rather than prioritizing ordinary Americans, the other side of the aisle decided to hold government funding hostage to support and score political points with their activist base. The end result was the famous 43-day government shutdown, which was the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Only then did the minority party agree to enact a short-term, clean continuing resolution. Eventually, Congress passed 11 of 12 appropriations bills in their entirety. However, the minority mischief was far from over.

For 36 days, the Department of Homeland Security was shuttered due to their refusal to fund Federal law enforcement and border security. Ultimately, the majority had to take matters into their own hands.

So through the reconciliation process, the bill called the Secure America Act funded Federal law enforcement officers, border security, and protecting American communities from violent criminals, illicit drugs, and contraband.

Obviously, it was a choice from the other side of the aisle to not fund these critical priorities. You would think that the minority would have learned that government shutdowns never accomplished anything. After all, they achieved none of their policy objectives, although their costly government shutdown compromised our Nation's security and, at the same time, inflicted pain on the American public. Yet, this year, the minority party is refusing to work in a bipartisan manner and cooperate even to get the appropriations process started in the U.S. Senate.

The Appropriations Committee has not been able to report a single appropriations bill to the Senate floor. Now we are less than 3 months from a new fiscal year and, once again, the minority party is prioritizing a government shutdown over cooperation. They want to play politics at the expense of the American family and our Nation's welfare.

Lurching from one deadline to the next is the wrong way to run Washington and ought to be avoided. The majority, led by Senator Collins, is working and willing to do the hard work of passing 12 annual appropriations bills on time.

It is time for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us and get the job done to avoid a government shutdown or, better yet, follow the advice of Senator Lankford of Oklahoma, who has been working on a continuing resolution bill that automatically carries from September 30 into the new fiscal year without having to shut down government. We would never have to go through that again.

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