Kuiper rocks the schoolhouse.
DYK you can read full transcripts of Congress online? Excerpt from today:
Sen. Van Hollen: “Since Sen. Cardin and I were here on the floor just last week, things have gotten much worse around the country, but here is what has stayed the same— that we have it in our power today to take up two House bills to open the government.”
“I was listening to the majority leader say: Well, you know, the President says he is not going to sign them.”
“Yet we are a separate branch of government. We are the article I branch of government. I am holding in my hand, right here, the bill that Sen. Cardin asked us to vote on today. I think the public needs to know what is in it because what is in it has already been supported on a bipartisan basis by this U.S. Senate.”
“It has provisions to open about five Departments of the U.S. Government that have nothing to do with Homeland Security. We passed that by a vote of 92 to 6. The President says that he doesn’t want to sign it. He can veto it. With 92 to 6, it is a veto override—big time. Also contained in here are bills that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee by a vote of 30 to nothing and 30 to 1. That is what is in here—bipartisan bills.”
“So the question for this body, as a separate branch of government, is this: Why in the world are we not going to allow a vote to reopen the government on provisions that we have already agreed to on an overwhelming bipartisan basis—in fact, with a veto-proof margin?”
“The President can say that he is not going to sign it. That is his business. That is the executive branch. For goodness’ sake, let’s do our job here in the U.S. Senate, because every day that goes by with this growing harm, the Senate is more and more complicit, and we are an accomplice to the shutdown…”
“So let’s do the right thing. Let’s do our job. Let’s not just say the President is the only one who can handle this. We can handle it.”
“..I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 6, H.J. Res. 1…”
Presiding officer: “Is there an objection?”
Sen. McConnell: “I object.”
Your Senators’ ☎️: callyourrep.co
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