John Thune: “After 40 long days, I am hopeful we can finally bring this shutdown to an end. I don't need to go over all the reasons…”

“After 40 long days, I am hopeful we can finally bring this shutdown to an end. I don't need to go over all the reasons why it is imperative to get the government open as soon as possible. From the truly precarious situation we are in with regard to air travel, the fact that our staffs have been working without pay for a full 40 days now, all of us, Republicans and Democrats, who support this bill know that the time to act is now. So in just a few minutes, I will call up the vehicle for a clean continuing resolution, packaged with three bipartisan, yearlong appropriations bills: Agriculture appropriations, Military Construction, VA appropriations, and Legislative Branch appropriations. These bills will fund SNAP for the entire fiscal year, they will fund WIC for the entire fiscal year, and they will fund our veterans for the entire fiscal year. After 40 days of uncertainty, I am profoundly glad to be able to announce nutrition programs, our veterans, and other critical priorities will have their full-year funding, and my goal is to quickly move to other full-year appropriations bills.”