Political Quotes

“I have come to this floor several times over the past many years and several times even recently to talk about a bill that Senator Hassan and I have together that we have worked on very hard to end government shutdown threats forever. This whole conversation that is happening right now in Washington, DC, about a government shutdown is not something that has always happened in our Republic. This conversation of a government shutdown has only really been since the mid-1980s to the present. Before that, there were no government shutdowns. Even when appropriations lapsed-- and we had multiple times when appropriations lapsed in the past--we didn't have government shutdowns at that time. It wasn't until there was actually an executive opinion back in the seventies that there was created this moment to say, no, we are going to end up having a government shutdown if appropriations lapse. We are in this moment again. This is a distinctly modern issue in American history that we need to bring to a close, this chapter. There is a way to do it. In conversations that we have had for years of how do we actually stop government shutdowns, there have been very partisan bills on both sides, and Senator Hassan and I sat down 5 years ago and said: Let's just have a dialogue. How can we stop government shutdowns without having a partisan bill at the end of it?…”