Daines on America Reports: It’s Time to Reopen the Government and End the Schumer Shutdown

• October 1, 2025

"Shutdowns begin with a bang. They end with a whimper."

U.S. SENATE - U.S. Senator Steve Daines today joined America Reports to discuss the Schumer Shutdown and how the American people agree that it is time to end the shutdown.

Watch the full interview HERE.

Daines on the public opinion of the government shutdown:

Daines: If you look at that poll and dig a little deeper, you'll see that Democrats polled by the New York Times are divided about this shutdown, let alone independents and the American people. Two to one are saying a shutdown is a bad idea. But as further evidence, this is truly a Schumer shutdown. Chuck Schumer is worried about his political future. He's worried about what happened last March when he voted to support a clean CR to prevent a shutdown. And now he's against a clean CR. So, this is one of the greatest political stunts that I've seen in Washington, but sadly it comes at tremendous cost, in terms of disrupting services to the American people, stopping pay to our troops. But let's be clear, President Trump wants to keep the government open. J.D. Vance wants to keep the government open. Senate Republicans do as well. It was good to see three Democrats join us in this last vote to open it up. Now, we just need five more Senate Democrats to join us, and we'll put this mess behind us.

Daines on internal disagreement within the Democrat party:

Daines: The fact we're just five Democrats away already shows the cracking that's going on within the Democrats under incredible pressure. Look, I've been through a couple of shutdowns. I was here during the 2013 shutdown, the 2018 shut down. They begin with a bang. They end with a whimper. At some point, they realize keeping the hand on that hot stove is not a good idea. It becomes very painful. They've got to stop yielding to the radical left part of the Democrat Party, come to their senses and join us to be the adults in the room to have the clean CR that's past the house. We have bipartisan support in the Senate. Five more Democrats and we'll have this and then we can get back to negotiating between now and November 21st with your regular appropriations process to return to regular order and common sense back in Washington.

Daines on the need to get rid of government shutdowns:

Look, I remember that very well going back to 2013 when we had to endure a similar kind of pain. And that's why we really should pass the legislation that Ron Johnson had on the floor this week and that is to eliminate government shutdowns. We should not allow a shutdown to be a hostage taken in negotiations when you're upset about some policy outcome. You know we should do is we just suspend pay for members of Congress. If we get to a point where we can't get all the appropriation bills done by the end of the fiscal year, put the pain back on members of Congress, not on the American people.

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Contact: Matt Lloyd, Gabby Wiggins