Rushmore State News

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) addressed the Senate as a potential government shutdown approached, with only 14 hours remaining before funding would lapse. Thune emphasized that the House of Representatives had already passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government until November 21, and that President Trump was prepared to sign it.

Thune criticized Senate Democrats for blocking the measure, stating, "They’re standing in the way." He referenced a journalist's assessment of the CR: "'This is a clean CR that has no partisan riders, extends a bunch of programs that are Democratic priorities. … it’s clean.'"

According to Thune, Republicans have proposed a nonpartisan funding extension similar to those supported by Democrats in previous years. He noted, "Republicans have offered up a clean, nonpartisan funding extension – the same kind of extension Democrats have repeatedly supported in the past – and Democrats are blocking it for their own partisan purposes."

Thune pointed out that during periods when Democrats held the majority in the Senate, short-term continuing resolutions were passed on 13 different occasions with bipartisan support. He stated, "You look at the numbers there, the lowest number on any one of those is 65 votes. All we need today in the Senate in order for us to keep the government open is to get eight Democrats to vote with Republicans."

He argued that current opposition from Democrats was motivated by politics rather than substance: "It doesn’t have anything to do with [the substance]. Has everything to do with politics. Because when this happened, there was a Democrat president in the White House. Now there’s a president, a Republican president, President Trump."

Thune also cited past statements from Democratic leaders about the negative impacts of government shutdowns on federal workers and public services. He claimed that despite previously supporting similar measures under President Biden's administration—where nearly all Democratic senators voted for such resolutions—Democrats were now opposing them.

He concluded by reiterating his commitment to regular order and bipartisan appropriations: "We’ve passed three of the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills with strong bipartisan margins here in the Senate... We wanted a completely noncontroversial bill so that no one would be inclined to vote against it." Thune urged Democrats to join Republicans in passing what he described as a clean, short-term funding bill: "For the sake of the American people... I really hope they choose the latter."