Video Kaine Speaks on Senate Floor Regarding Republican Government Shutdown

FULL VIDEO OF THE SPEECH IS AVAILABLE HERE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) spoke on the Senate floor regarding President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans' government shutdown. Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would have funded the government, protected Virginians' access to health care, and prohibited the Trump Administration from illegally withholding funding appropriated by Congress.

Specifically, the legislation that Democrats proposed would reverse Republican cuts to Medicaid and extend premium enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year. It's critical that Congress act before marketplace open enrollment begins on November 1 to prevent Americans from paying more in health care premiums and help ensure people have access to affordable health care.

"This is the third time during my nearly 13 years in the Senate that I have been involved in a shutdown… The first shutdown lasted for about two weeks. The second shutdown-again, of part of government, not all of government-lasted for about a month," said Kaine. "And they're horrible. The consequences on those affected, whether they be federal workers or the citizens who need services, are horrible, and no one relishes that in this body. I'm completely confident that all 100 senators feel the same way-that this is not a good thing, and there needs to be a path forward."

"In Virginia, we feel it pretty strongly," Kaine continued. "We have the second most federal employees of any state in the country, and we have an awful lot of federal contractors whose livelihoods are affected as well."

"What am I hoping for out of this? The House prepared a short-term continuing resolution, under instructions from the President: 'do not deal with Democrats.' And the House, with the simple Republican majority, was able to do that and passed a bill that then came to the Senate," Kaine said.

"Senate Democrats, under the leadership of Senator Murray, the lead Democratic appropriator, said: 'well, let's prepare an alternative,'" said Kaine. "Much of it is the same, but I would say the two elements in the Democratic alternative that are different are to one, protecting people's health care and second, protecting the simple notion that everybody understands that a deal is a deal."

Kaine continued, "The effect of the reconciliation bill in Virginia is estimated to cause about 330,000 Virginians to lose their health insurance… Premium notices are coming out from insurance companies in Virginia, and they're suggesting that premiums this year in Virginia will go up by at least 20 percent."

"What Democrats are asking for-by way of an alternative, not a non-negotiable, but by way of an alternative-is let's go into the changes that were made in the reconciliation bill and fix them," Kaine said. "I am heartened that a number of Republican colleagues have said, 'you're right. We should do that.' … We should commit to the negotiation and get in the middle of it and sit around the table and figure it out."

"The second feature of the Democratic proposal that is important to reach an accord on, I believe, is a simple notion that a deal is a deal," Kaine said. "Some have characterized the Republican proposal as a clean CR, but I would actually say it's not a clean CR unless you were guaranteed that the parties will honor it."

"We've seen throughout this year already, congressional deals undone by the President unilaterally. Tens of thousands of people fired. Economic development projects that had been announced and celebrated canceled. Funds to public health agencies taken back. Again and again and again, we've seen in Virginia unilateral actions taken by the President that, in our view, undo what Congress and the White House had agreed to in previous budget resolutions," said Kaine. "And so it's not unreasonable for us to say, 'well, if we're going to do a short-term CR to try to find the path to a full-year appropriations bill, we would just want an agreement during that 30 or 45 days-whatever it is-that a deal is a deal. That we not write it, agree to it, celebrate reopening government, and then have President Trump on day two start to fire a lot of people or claw back more money from the Virginia Department of Health or cancel more economic development projects in Virginia."

"We can do this," Kaine concluded. "The fact that we-I believe-have narrowed the point of division down to: can we find a path forward to negotiate health care fixes even if we don't agree on all the details right now, and we can reach an agreement that a deal is a deal, which is a reasonable request. I believe those are the two issues on the table, and they are issues that we are eminently capable of solving and solving very soon, and I'm going to do everything I can with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make sure that we do."

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