On the recordJanuary 19, 2018
Madam Speaker, as you just heard from the previous speaker and you read often in the press about a potential government shutdown, let me just tell you how this works. The House passes a bill, then the Senate considers a bill. In the Senate, you either vote on the bill with majority vote or the minority party may choose to filibuster that bill. If the minority party chooses to filibuster the bill, which requires 60 votes for cloture, that shuts down that bill from passing. We have passed 12 appropriations bills out of this Chamber right here that are still sitting in the Senate waiting to be taken up. One, the Democrats need to drop the filibuster. I wish the majority party over there would actually put the bills on the floor and make the country see the filibuster live for all to view. You might see that over the weekend. I hope the majority leader does that. What would cause a lack of funding for the government is simply the minority party, which is the Democrats, in the Senate abusing the filibuster and causing the government not to be funded. That is what is causing it. That is a fact. You may have different opinions on other issues, but the fact of the matter is this is the way the process works. A filibuster means you can't even get a vote on the bill. That is being done by the Democratic Party in the Senate right now. They have done it all year. It is dysfunctional. It needs to stop. ____________________





