Northeast South Dakota News

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) addressed the Senate floor to discuss ongoing negotiations over government funding and efforts to prevent a potential shutdown. Thune criticized what he described as closed-door decision-making by Democratic leadership in recent years, advocating instead for an open appropriations process.

“You just heard the Democrat leader talk about their willingness … to fund the government, something he’s said repeatedly in the past,” Thune stated. He emphasized his support for keeping the government open and noted agreement with past comments from Democratic leaders about the importance of continuing resolutions (CRs) that avoid additional provisions.

Thune outlined that a clean CR—incorporating limited anomalies requested by both parties—would extend government funding through November, providing time for Congress to work on individual appropriations bills under regular order. “The goal here should be to fund the government the way it was intended to be funded, through the normal appropriations process,” he said.

He referenced recent progress on appropriations: “As the chair knows, earlier this year, we already passed three appropriation bills across the floor of the Senate, something that hadn’t been done before the August recess going back as far as 2018, I believe.”

Thune also expressed concerns about what he characterized as interference by Democratic leadership in committee negotiations. He urged for continued empowerment of committees and senators: “We want an open process. We want regular order to work. We want the chairs to be empowered and individual members of the committees to be empowered, and just as importantly, individual senators to be empowered…”

He warned against rejecting a clean CR: “Now, what’s being suggested by the Democrat leader is they are willing – he’s willing, I hope they aren’t – he’s willing to shut the government down over a clean CR! Something that, last year and the year before, he said he wanted.”

Thune called for bipartisan cooperation and stressed that refusing a straightforward funding resolution could lead to unnecessary disruption: “But if…we have the number of votes here in the Senate to pass it, then it will be only the Democrat leader that is standing between this country and a government shutdown and all that means.”

He concluded by inviting further dialogue with Democratic leadership: “And to the question of whether or not he would like to sit down with me: my office is right down here, and he has my cell phone number at any time. We can do that…this is a time, if you want to actually engage and try and come up with some bipartisan solutions… I certainly welcome that…”