Click here to watch the video.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):

“Mr. President, three weeks.

“It’s been three weeks since Democrats shut down the government.

“Since Democrats chose to put the demands of far-left activists ahead of serving the American people.

“And over the last three weeks, Mr. President, it’s the American people who have borne the consequences of Democrats’ shutdown.

“Thousands of flights have been delayed.

“Nutrition assistance for millions of needy families is in jeopardy.

“Military families are turning to food banks in ‘unprecedented’ numbers.

“But Democrats are apparently willing to prolong the suffering until their far-left base is satisfied.

“Mr. President, we’ve given Democrats here in the Senate numerous opportunities to end the shutdown.

“We’ve held, now, 11 votes on a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution to end the shutdown and the pain that comes with it.

“And they said no every time.

“We gave Democrats an opportunity to consider the bipartisan defense appropriations bill – something that, I might add, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee 26-3, in an overwhelming bipartisan vote.

“We gave them an opportunity to consider that here on the floor, so we can at least protect our national security and pay our troops.

“Democrats called it ‘unacceptable’ and a distraction to pay the troops.

“We even offered to give them a vote on a health care proposal of their own design if they vote to reopen the government.

“The answer again was no.

“Mr. President, I don’t know what Democrats are looking for.

“But if they’re looking for Republicans to give in to their hostage-taking, they should think again.

“I’ve been very clear since the beginning.

“On the first day of this shutdown, I said Republicans would be perfectly willing to discuss the issues Democrats are raising – but only after we reopen the government.

“I said, and I quote – quoting myself here – ‘we’re not going to engage in bipartisan discussions while Democrats are holding the federal government hostage to their partisan demands.’

“And interestingly enough, Mr. President, that’s the exact same position the Democrat leader espoused during the 2013 shutdown.

“He said then, and I quote, ‘As we said a thousand times, we are happy to discuss how to fund the government [but] not with a gun to our head. Open up all of the government, and then we can have a fruitful discussion … Then we will discuss things, but – as has been said over and over – not with a gun to our heads.’

“That, from the Democrat leader back in 2013.

“He espoused the same position, interestingly enough, again in 2019, noting, and I quote again: ‘We cannot – cannot – ever hold American workers hostage again.’

“And yet here he is, in 2025, holding American workers and government funding hostage.

“I guess he’s forgotten his own words.

“Or maybe it’s just situational, like a lot of things.

“They’ve just adopted a political position, not a real one.

“Mr. President, Republicans are ready to sit down with Democrats just as soon as they stop holding the government hostage to their partisan demands.

“As I said, we’ve actually offered to guarantee them a vote on the Obamacare issue that they are raising.

“But Democrats continue to dig in.

“They say we have to agree to their demands before they’ll agree to pay our troops.

“Before federal workers can have certainty about putting food on the table and paying their bills.

“Before needy families can be sure that nutrition assistance will be there for them.

“They say all of this has to wait until after we fix a problem Democrats created.

“Because let’s be clear, Mr. President.

“The Obamacare cliff that Democrats are so worked up about is the result of their own choices.

“Democrats wrote Obamacare.

“They passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote.

“They created the Obamacare COVID credits without a single Republican vote.

“And then they extended the COVID credits, and they chose the expiration date – without a single Republican vote.

“That’s right, Mr. President.

“They chose the expiration date.

“And then they chose not to address that expiration date when they had the majority here in the Senate for the last four years!

“But now they want you to believe that this is somehow a ‘Republican health care crisis.’

“Give me a break.

“Give me a break.

“Mr. President, if Democrats truly want a discussion on how to fix the health care mess they created, then they should be voting to reopen the government.

“And we have a bill right there at the desk that will do just that.

“It’s clean.

“It’s nonpartisan.

“It has no Republican policies.

“It has no partisan policy riders.

“It just extends current funding levels for a few short weeks, until we get an opportunity to finish the rest of the appropriations process.

“And right now, Mr. President, we are just five Democrat votes away from passing that here in the Senate and sending it to the White House for President Trump to sign.

“And if just a handful – a handful – of Democrats would step forward, we could reopen the government literally in a matter of hours. Today.

“As I said, Mr. President, from the very beginning of this shutdown I have made it clear that if Democrats reopen the government, we can immediately sit down and talk about the Obamacare cliff they’ve created.

“Instead, Democrats have wasted now one, two, three weeks when we could have been having those discussions.

“And while the American people have suffered, Democrats have been courting praise from the far left.

“They’ve spent their time looking to be praised for fighting against President Trump when they could have been working with him and with Republicans on solving a problem that they claim to be concerned about.

“Mr. President, I’ll say it again: Republicans are ready to go to work.

“We’ve been ready.

“We’re just waiting for Democrats to take ‘yes’ for an answer.”