U.S. Senator Steve Daines delivered remarks on Tuesday at the weekly Republican Senate Leadership press conference, slamming Congress’s dysfunctional budgeting process, which hasn’t passed a budget on time in 26 years.
“Twenty-six years ago, in 1997 is when Hong Kong was handed back to the Chinese by the U.K. It’s when the Titanic was a hit movie. It’s also the last time that Congress passed all the appropriation bills before the end of the fiscal year.
“As we stand here today, we are now swimming in $33 trillion of debt. The deficit is projected to be close to $2 trillion going forward and this institution still can’t get appropriations passed by the beginning of the next fiscal year.
“We were in the same position last year. We’ve been in the same position the last 25 years. And I guarantee you, unless something changes, we’ll be right back here a year from now. We will be right back here in ’25, in ’26, in ’27, in ‘28 as we have now seen this occur over and over again. This will be the 26th consecutive year.
“It’s no ifs, ands, or buts the budgeting process in Washington is severely broken. We need to do two things. We need to stop the government shutdown, pass the ‘Prevent the Government Shutdown’ bill that Senator Lankford and Senator Hassan that’s passed committee previously and put the pain back on Congress, not on the American people, if Congress is unable to do its job of getting the appropriations bills passed before the beginning of the next fiscal year.
“Without proper reforms and holding members of Congress accountable, we’re on a runaway truck with no off ramp.”
Daines joined his colleagues in introducing the “Prevent Government Shutdowns Act” and the “No Budget, No Pay Act.”
