Folks, this is the third time during my nearly 13 years in the Senate that I have been involved in a shutdown.
And they’re horrible. The consequences on those impacted — whether they’re federal workers or people who rely on government services — are immense, and no one relishes that in this body. Here in Virginia, the effects are felt especially hard with hundreds of thousands of federal employees and federal contractors whose livelihoods are disrupted and whose families face real uncertainty.
I’m completely confident that all 100 senators feel the same way: that this is not a good thing, and there needs to be a path forward.
So why are we in this situation?
The President gave House Republicans explicit instructions in their work to pass a funding bill: ‘Do not deal with Democrats.’
And the House, with the simple Republican majority, followed those instructions and passed a bill that then came to the Senate.
Senate Democrats believed we ought to prepare an alternative that could actually pass in the Senate, where we need 60 votes — not a simple majority. Much of it is the same, but there are two elements that are different:
First, our bill protects people’s health care after Trump’s so-called big, beautiful bill plunged us into a complete healthcare mess. What Democrats are asking for with this option is to fix some of the major problems that the “big, beautiful” bill gave us. And I’m heartened that a number of Republican colleagues have agreed that we sit around the table and figure it out.
Second, our bill protects the simple notion that everybody understands that a deal is a deal.
Throughout this year, we’ve seen congressional deals undone by the President unilaterally. Tens of thousands of people were fired. Economic development projects that had been announced and celebrated were canceled. Funds to public health agencies have been taken back.
Again and again and again, we’ve seen unilateral actions taken by the President that undo what Congress and the White House had agreed.
We should not write a bill, agree to it, celebrate reopening the government, and then have President Trump on Day Two start to fire a lot of people, or claw back more money from our states, or cancel more economic development projects.
I believe we can get this done. We can find a path forward to negotiate health care fixes, even if we don’t agree on all the details right now. We can reach an agreement that a deal is a deal — which is a reasonable request. And I’m going to do everything I can with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make sure that we do.
Stay tuned for more updates on our work in the Senate to pass a funding bill that helps Americans and reopens the government.
—Tim Kaine
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