Object. If you hear those words, understand what will have happened. Its the same thing that happened just a couple of days ago, which is democratic leadership said to our active dawty military, we dont duty military, we dont give a damn about you and were going to cut off your paycheck sunday at 12 01 a. M. That doesnt have to ham. By the that donlts have to happen. Not only is it the fault of every democrat, im sorry, mr. President , but there are no democrats here supporting us. You in your heart know were right. So im going to invite you when we do it again, well do it and do it, to join us, because you know this is the right thing to do. There are more of your colleagues on the democrat side that know this is the right thing to do. Some 19yearold marine right now in the dmz facing north korean machine guns is being told that the United States senate doesnt care enough about his or her service to pay them. Thats just wrong. Its stupid. And this body used to know enough to say, hey, we got political disagreements here, but we support our troops. I guarantee you every democrat senator in this chamber goes home and tells your constituents i support the troops. You know what talk is cheap. If you support the troops, stand up next to us and say lets pay the troops. By the way, if you support the troops, go to your leadership and say stop this garbage. Was harry reid a right wing kook . Because harry reid signed off on paying the troops. And ill tell you why todays democrat leadership believe they can get away with it. Because in 2013, we had something of a functioning media. They actually reported on what was happening. If you look up in the gallery, there are a total of zero reporters there, not one. The corrupt Corporate Media doesnt intend to tell the citizens of Washington State or the citizens of illinois or the citizens of rhode island or the citizens of arizona, they dont intend to tell them your democrat senator is why active duty military isnt being paid. So every reporter yesterday, i had reporters running after me, oh, isnt this republican shutdown terrible . I said those are great talking points. Have you written a single story about the fact that the reason our military is not going to be paid is because democrat leadership is objecting . No. Because none of them have written that story. Every one of you know what the right thing to do is. So my hope is theres a tiny, still voice inside of some democrat senators that will stand up and go to your leadership and say, we can fight all day long on partisan issues, but were not going to take our troops hostage. Thats the right thing to do, and ef member of this body and every member of this body knows it. I yield the floor. Mr. Sullivan mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from alaska. Mr. Sullivan i ask unanimous consent that the Appropriations Committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 2835 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there objection . Mrs. Murray mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from washington. Mrs. Murray mr. President , reserving the right to object. As i have said, i share my colleagues concern with making sure our servicemembers do not miss a paycheck because of a potential Government Shutdown. In fact, i do not want any. Our federal workers to miss a paycheck, whether they are Cancer Researchers whose work saves our lives, or brave firefighters who risk their lives for us, and i dont want any programs families rely on to be undermined counseling and transition assistance for new veterans adjusting to civilian life, nutrition assistance for seven million moms and kids who need a hand up, and that includes our servicemembers families. Several years ago i worked to save a wic clinic which was going to be kicked off a navy base in my home state of washington, that hundreds of military families counted on. None of those paychecks for any of these workers, and none of those programs should shutter because of a completely unnecessary shutdown. Which is why i am working around the clock, with the majority of our colleagues, to make sure that we do pass a bipartisan c. R. , which we released this week. Because that is the only serious solution here. That is the only way we will make sure everyone is able to keep doing the work that the American People count on and getting that paycheck that they do deserve. So, if the senator from alaska or the senator from texas are serious about making sure our servicemembers get paid, i hope theyll get serious in a way that matters the most, and thats their votes. I hope they will work with us to keep the government open, and i hope they will reconsider their recent votes against the c. R. To fund the government in a bipartisan and timely way. Lets be real. You cannot grandstand about wanting to make sure that servicemembers get paid during a shutdown and then vote against the very bipartisan bill that prevented a shutdown. I also hope the senators will understand that our servicemembers will see the harm of a Government Shutdown in so many other ways permanent change in station moves will be significantly curtailed, meaning some of our families can be left without a place to live if theyve already sold their house or broken their lease, or they could be forced to pay for two homes at once. For the army, this means approximately 2100 moves every week. If if you do not work with us to keep the entire government open, servicemembers elective surgeries and procedures at dod medical and dental facilities would have to be postponed. By the way, an lective surgery elective surgery could be from removing a kidney stone to mastectomy for breast cancer. Essentially, postand base service post and base services will be closed or limited. That could be child care that military families count on. Not only do i want to make sure servicemembers dont miss a paycheck, i want to make sure sphrirms dont servicemembers dont miss out on any critical services. The senators should understand their focus and support of the military cannot end with those currently in uniform. They should remember, 47 of department of defense civilians are veterans. For that matter, one in every four employees across the entire federal government are veterans. We cant leave anyone behind. Ill say it again for my colleagues, who raise their voices here on the senate floor but have not cast their votes to prevent a shutdown there are a lot of programs i care about. A lot of programs we all care about that would be hurt by a shutdown. But we are not going to solve this problem one by one, carveout by carveout. The best solution is to stop a shutdown in the first place. That is something we can do, and i bet we could do it more quickly if the senators from alaska and texas would earnestly work with us. This isnt complicated. Weve got a straightforward, bipartisan c. R. Package that will avoid that shutdown, keep our military paid. So lets get our jobs done and get that passed. Thank you, mr. President. I object. Mr. Sullivan mr. President. The presiding officer the objection is heard. The senator from alaska. Sullivan mr. Sullivan thank. President. Im going to try to keep this short because the issues that were debating here are not that complicated. I agree with my colleague from Washington State we are working around the clock. Were in our conference right now, trying to get an amendment to bolster Border Security that the whole country, by the way, wants, democrats, republicans. The whole country wants that. Were working around the clock too. My colleague did misstate something. I actually voted to get on this bill. So her statement about my vote, she needs to check my vote the other day. But be that as it may, once again she says theres only one serious solution. Well, mr. President , this bodys done this before. The senator from Washington State has done this before, on the eve of a shutdown in 2013, the senator from Washington State voted for this bill. Every senator voted for this bill. So, when she keeps saying lets get real, i agree, lets get real. Go look at your vote from 2013. You voted for this on the eve of a shutdown. Ill remind my colleague from Washington State, in 2019, when there was a partial Government Shutdown, focused on the coast guard, which wasnt getting paid and the democrats blocked my bill to pay the coast guard, she actually stated, quote, its absolutely unacceptable that our coast guard families went without their paychecks during the shutdown. We need to make sure President Trump doesnt put them through this again. Well, im going to put the senator from Washington States words back at her. It is absolutely unacceptable that coast guard and other family members went without paychecks during the shutdown. We need to make sure it doesnt happen again. So vote for our bill every time they object, the arguments of why theyre objecting to something they already agreed to ten years ago get more tangled up. Were all working to avoid a shutdown, but if it doesnt happen lets make sure the men and women risking their lives for our country and their families know theyll get paid. Thats all were asking. All were asking. Everybody in this body ten years ago did this, including the senator from Washington State. Its beyond comprehension that theyre coming up with arguments now to not do this. This isnt about politics. This is about supporting our troops at the moment they really need it. And theyre not doing that. I yield the floor to my colleague from texas. Mr. Cruz mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cruz mr. President , at the opening of her remarks, the senator from washington said i agree with the objective of this bill, i agree with what senator sullivan and senator cruz are trying to accomplish. Then she talked for a while, and then she blocked the entirety of the bill. Everything in between saying i agree with this bill and the two magic words at the end of her remarks, i object, i have to admit brought me back to officer morning cartoons and watching peanuts and the teacher going wah, wah, wah. Because they were words but they didnt mean anything. This is a binary choice. At 12 01 a. M. On sunday, our soldiers are soldiers going to get paid, yes or no . Are airmen going to get paid, yes or no . Are marines . Yes or no . Are members of the space force going to get paid . Yes or no . Are cawrdzmen going to get paid . Are coast guardsmen going to get paid . A decade ago every member of this body voted to pay them. Since this began, the presiding officer, it was senator kelly, now senator murphy, ill point out senator murphy voted yes to pay our active duty military in 2013. Yet now, the democrats are blocking those paychecks. Senator from washington said, well, gosh, the democrats have a c. R. That you could have voted for. The senator from washington knows fully well that the bill drafted by democrat leadership is not going to pass the house of representatives. She knows that. The results going to be a shutdown. Whats changed from 2013 to now . From 2013 to now, the democrat leadership is perfectly willing to hold a young man or woman engineer the military to hold their paychecks hostage. Something interesting is going to happen at 12 01 a. M. , 35 hours from now. Paychecks of every federal employee will stop. The paychecks of the stenographer who is recording my words will stop. The paychecks of the clerks sitting down front will stop. But you know what, mr. President . There are 535 people whose paychecks will not stop. Under the constitution, members of this body, senators, and members of the house, their paychecks cant stop, even during a shutdown, which means at 12 01 a. M. On sunday, every democrat senator will keep drawing their paycheck, while the people risking their lives to defend us will not. Well, ill tell you, mr. President , i have in writing instructed the senate that i will not accept a paycheck so long as our active duty military is not being paid. It is wrong. Senators are paid 174,000 a year, by law. The democrat leadership who stands up and says i object is telling a 19yearold woman in a nuclear subright now, defending sub right now, defending our nation, that her paycheck doesnt matter. Theres right now a mom in tennis shoes serving in the military who is discovering that her mortgage payment, she doesnt know how to pay. So im going to suggest to the reporters who arent here and arent covering this that so long as democrat leadership keeps blocking what has been bipartisan and unanimous legislation previously, that every democrat senator ought to be asked are you taking a paycheck . Come 12 01 a. M. On sunday. Theyre the ones objecting. Theyre the ones stopping and every soldier needs to understand why are you not being paid . Because the democrats objected. Every sailor needs to understand because the democrats objected. Every airmen, every marine, coast guardsman, every member of the space force which your paycheck goes away 35 hours from now, its because of two magic words the democratic leadership has said. Lets be clear. Its not just the senator from washington. Shes doing it on instruction from the democratic leadership. They can change it like that. And i can tell you this, senator sullivan and i are going to keep coming back over and over and over again because theres not a member of this body that wants to go home to your state, even a state like connecticut. You dont want to be at home looking at active duty military and saying, yup, my party took away your paycheck. Thats too cynical even for this body. And so i pray that common sense comes back. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the nor from the senator from louisiana. Mr. Kennedy senator senator sen senator feinstein, godspeed. I had the pleasure of serving with senator feinstein on the Judiciary Committee. I also served with dianne on the Appropriations Committee. In fact, we were served on the energy and werent development subcommittee. Dianne was the chair and i was the Ranking Member. The presiding officer senators take their conversations off the senate floor. The senator is recognized. Mr. Kennedy dianne, you died with your boots on. And i think that was one of the things she most wanted to do. Senator feinstein and i didnt agree on much, but she was a delight to work with. She understood politics and government, especially today. It takes a big heart and a lot of wind and a thick skin. And thats especially true today today. And there are some people in this city who didnt want dianne to finish her term. They for political reasons. They tried to chew her up and they tried to spit her out. They tried to step on her. But they couldnt do it because dianne was tough as a boot. And she wanted to die with her boots on. As a member of this august body and im going to miss her. Godspeed, senator feinstein. Im here today, mr. President , to try to extend the National FloodInsurance Program. It appears to me i hope im wrong and i know, mr. President , that you agree with me that were headed towards a shutdown. If that happens, that means that the National FloodInsurance Program will come to a halt. I dont want people to worry too much. If you already have National Flood insurance, the program will continue to pay claims. But as long as government is shut down, you will not be able to buy new insurance. Thats important because Flood Insurance is a huge part of the commerce of our real estate markets in america. For most americans the purchase of a home is their biggest, single financial decision theyll ever make. And in many areas, not just coastal states but many other states, you cannot purchase a home if you have to borrow the money without Flood Insurance. So if we allow the National FloodInsurance Program to expire, its going to shut down home sales where the institute loaning the money requires Flood Insurance. Just going to shut it down. The Real Estate Industry for a variety of reasons, in part because of President Bidens inflation, is already having a tough time. This will make it worse. My bill will take the current Flood Insurance program and just extend it as is until december 31, 2023. If you if we dont do this i want to make this clear as well, mr. President some of my fellow citizens may be saying with el, whats the big well, whats the big deal . Just dont buy it from the federal government. You cant buy it from anybody else. This is a federal program, imperfect as it is, is the only game in town. So if youre ready to buy a home and close on a home and you go to the Mortgage Lender and say i need to borrow the money and they say you have to buy Flood Insurance to get the loan, the federal government is the only entity you can go to. You cannot buy for all practical purposes private Flood Insurance in america today. I mentioned that the nfip was imperfect. I understate it. As i said yesterday on the floor, the National FloodInsurance Program as administered by fema is a mess. As i said yesterday, it looks like someone knocked over a urine sample. Fema made the program even worse a year or so ago with its risk rating 2. 0. It went out and hired a consultant to design a new algorithm that made changes in the program without telling policyholders the basis for those changes. Ive met with fema a number of times. I said, well, can i see your algorithm. They say if we showed you, well have to kill you, and im in congress. Were in litigation with fema right now. Let me say it again. R