Thune: Congress Has Important Work Ahead, Starting With Government Funding

Click here to watch the video. WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke at a press conference with Senate Republican leadership: Thune’s remarks below (as delivered): “Busy week in the Senate, a lot going on, … we’re juggling a lot of balls right now. “But there are some things that we intend to get done this week, and the first is to ensure that we get about 75 of the president’s nominations through en bloc. “And so there are a number of very qualified nominees that the president has put forward, and if we can get those across the finish line this week – and we intend to – that would put us on pace to have 95 percent of the president’s nominees done. “And that is a rate that puts us ahead of every [incoming administration] going back for the last 25 years … “And I think there were somewhere on the order, in the last Trump administration at this point, of about 155 nominees that hadn’t been acted on or confirmed, and this would have … that number at about six. “So we’re going to be way ahead of pace of the historical average, and I think that’s really important to ensure the president has his people in place so that he can do the job the American people elected him to do. “The other thing, of course, that we need to do is to fund the government. “And credit to Chair Collins and her team, working with Democrats and Republicans to come up with a plan that will fund the government beyond the election into December. “We were able to get on that bill last night with a very big bipartisan vote, and I hope we can continue down that path and ensure that we have funded the government, taken a government shutdown off the table. “We’ve had two of those, as you know, in the last year. “They are incredibly painful for the American people, and it’s important, in my view, that we demonstrate to the American people that we can do job one – and job one is ensuring that their federal government is working and funded. “So that will also be something that between now and the end of this week, or however long we’re here, we intend to accomplish. “And so we will keep you posted on other things. There are other issues out there. “We had a discussion about some of them at lunch, and we’ll continue to have those conversations and figure out, as we attempt, at least, to get these things stacked up and get as many things done as possible that we stay on pace to do that.”