Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: Important Work Ahead

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Important Work Ahead
By Sen. John Thune

More than 40 days after Democrats chose to shut down the government, Congress has finally passed a funding bill to reopen it. While I’m disappointed that the vast majority of Democrats in Congress were apparently willing to let the shutdown continue, I’m glad that the pain of the shutdown has ended, and Congress can get back to the important work before us.

As Democrats’ shutdown dragged on for six weeks, it caused pain that was felt across the country. Nutrition benefits were in jeopardy for millions of needy families. Air travel was in an extremely precarious situation. Federal workers didn’t receive a paycheck for weeks. Many turned to food banks to feed their families, and others couldn’t afford to put gas in their cars to get to work. Many military families, too, were forced to turn to charity in order to put food on the table amid uncertainty about their paychecks.

South Dakota was not immune to these challenges. I was proud to work with the Trump administration to mitigate the harms the shutdown caused, as we did by finding funds to reopen Farm Service Agency offices that had been closed due to the shutdown. I know how critical FSA services are to farmers and ranchers, especially during harvest season, and I’m glad we were able to find a solution to that issue. But at the end of the day, there is no substitute for reopening the government, and I’m glad that enough Democrats finally relented to allow all the services that Americans depend on to be funded.

I also want to express my gratitude to the South Dakotans whose jobs were impacted by the shutdown. I know the last six weeks have been challenging for military families and federal employees. I’m especially grateful to every air traffic controller in South Dakota who showed up during the shutdown despite not being paid. Thank you to those who kept working and to those organizations and neighbors that helped these South Dakotans during this difficult time.

With the government shutdown behind us, Congress now returns to work on full-year government funding bills. I made it clear when I became majority leader that the Senate would be taking its role in the appropriations process seriously. My preference is for a regular order process that allows senators to advocate for their views and the views of the people they represent – the way things are supposed to work. My hope is that we will continue to build on the progress we’ve already made with the three funding bills that have been signed into law.

There are no winners in a government shutdown, but Democrats’ 40-day long shutdown produced a lot of losers. It caused pain, uncertainty, and chaos for the American people. I hope that Democrats will leave these partisan political games in the past and join Republicans in the important work we need to do for our country.

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19 thoughts on “Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: Important Work Ahead”

  1. Rich, especially since some last second adds are killing Hemp and grifting millions to a few senators?

      1. Ah right, everything that Republicans do to screw people over is those dang Dems fault, they vexed Thune into adding some last second bullshit.

  2. 306 Alcohol related deaths in South Dakota in 2023.
    365 Alcohol related deaths in South Dakota in 2024.

    Deaths related to THC or Cannabis ?
    ZERO.

    Good lord, what idiocy.
    Bottoms up you dopes.

      1. You’re more than welcome to prove them wrong, that is if you have the actual data to do so. Otherwise you’re just another puritanical pearl-clutcher.

  3. On the shutdown, Thune writes: “It caused pain, uncertainty, and chaos for the American people.” It sure did. And so will the cuts in Medicaid, and the enormous premium increases that are ahead for Obamacare enrollees.

    And then, instead of covering PEOPLE… the new Republican plan is to subsidize the HOSPITALS that are impacted by those cuts. $50 billion dollars worth of aid for the hospitals. We have to make sure THEY are taken care of, ya know.

  4. I see you have extended the farm bill, for the third year in a row. So what makes us think you are working for affordable health care, affordable food, and the cost of living?

    Instead you passed a chance for you and your fellow law makers to sue the government for $500,000 each. No one in DC is watching ove the DHS and Director Noem spending or self payments.

    Mr. Thune, you have become the man you replaced, Tom Daschle, a South Dakota boy who turned DC. Restore my faith and be a leader.

    1. Let’s see, until they got a bill passed the prior votes entailed all the Republicans, except one, voting for the funding. And with the exception of two or three dems, all the dems voting against the funding. Care to explain how the Republicans were shutting down the government?

      1. Um, because they could reopen it themselves by just eliminating the filibuster. They were pathetic losers to pick a passage method they couldn’t win clearly by themselves, then whine like babies for six weeks because Dems weren’t playing the game right. Waaaaaaaaaaa

    1. We’ve been through this before, moron. Dems wouldn’t pass clean CR, but some finally relented when they felt guilty of the pain they were inflicting on people.

      1. So the “clean” bill wasn’t important to Thune and republicans then? They decided to take advantage and add pork to it?

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