Rushmore State News

The U.S. Senate is preparing to hold votes on appropriations bills, an action that has not occurred in several years. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) addressed reporters about the development, highlighting efforts to move forward with the MilCon-VA legislative appropriations bill and potentially include additional measures in a voting package.

Thune pointed out the bipartisan nature of last year’s appropriations work, stating, “And the reason I say that is because, as you all know, last year, when Chuck Schumer was running the Senate, the Appropriations Committee reported out 11 of the 12 … appropriations bills … all with bipartisan support – and not a single one of them was put on the floor for a vote.” He added that current efforts aim to change this practice by reestablishing a regular appropriations process.

He also addressed Democratic concerns following last week’s passage of a rescissions bill that reduced federal spending by one-tenth of one percent. Thune commented on Democrats’ reaction: “The Democrats have indicated, because they’re so upset over the rescissions bill last week – which, by the way, cut one-tenth of 1 percent of all federal spending – that somehow they can use that as an excuse to shut down the appropriations process and therefore shut down the government.”

Thune called for bipartisan cooperation: “We think that would be a big mistake, and hopefully they will think better of it and work with us. And we’re trying to give them what they’ve been asking for, is a bipartisan appropriations process, which, frankly, I think a lot of us around here think is long overdue.”

He also spoke about delays in confirming presidential nominees. According to Thune: “And the thing that strikes me, again, about the Democrats’ behavior relative to nominations is a little data point, and that data point is that President Trump will be the first president in history – in history – not to have a single one of his [civilian] nominees confirmed either by voice vote or unanimous consent, which is typically what happens around here, particularly with nominees that have pretty broad bipartisan support, which a lot of these nominees that we’re trying to advance do.”

Thune characterized these actions as attempts to delay appointments: “So this is clearly an attempt to block and delay and obstruct. It is an example of Trump Derangement Syndrome on steroids and it’s unfortunate, because there are a lot of people out there who’ve been nominated to positions, and positions in our government that, frankly, need to be filled. They’re important positions that need to be filled, and the Democrats continue to try and delay and obstruct.”

He concluded by reaffirming Republican intentions: “So we’re going to keep grinding and work as hard as we can on the Republican side, if we’re not going to get any cooperation from the Democrats, to get the president’s team in place.”