- October 4, 2023
Sen. Marshall Joins GOP Colleagues in Demanding Democrat Leaders’ Plan to Fund the Government
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. joined Senator Rick Scott and 19 of their Republican colleagues in demanding that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer present a plan to the Republican Conference for how the Senate will take up and pass the 12 appropriations bills already approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. This letter calls for Schumer to do this in a manner that respects an open amendment process and avoids a December omnibus spending package. This letter comes with just days of government funding remaining following the passage of the temporary stop-gap spending bill passed last week.
Read the full letter HERE or below.
Read the exclusive article on the letter: 20 GOP senators led by Rick Scott vow to block bills not related to funding government.
Dear Leader Schumer:
The core constitutional responsibility of the United States Congress is the power of the purse, to set and authorize appropriations which fund the operations of the United States Government. Since 1977, Congress has only successfully completed its appropriations work of taking up, debating, amending if necessary, and passing all appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year on September 30th four times. This is unacceptable. The American people deserve better.
Today, despite being past the September 30th deadline, with the Senate Appropriations Committee having already passed each of the 12 bills for our chamber, we have the best opportunity in decades to complete our work. We urge you to present a plan to the Republican Conference for how you intend to pass the remaining appropriations bills and conference them with the House in a manner that respects an open amendment process and which does not end in a December omnibus spending package.
This is a matter of the utmost importance. Nothing can stand in the way of this work. For this reason, we the undersigned senators pledge to withhold our support for any vote to proceed to items unrelated to appropriations bills.
Just 44 days remain until government funding once again expires on November 17th. There is no more important work for the Senate during this time than debating, amending and passing appropriations bills without resorting to a giant package dumped on the conference right before the December holiday. If you commit to this process, including an open amendment process, we believe there will be consent in the Senate to expeditiously consider these bills.
Senators Marshall and Scott are joined on the letter by Senators John Thune, John Barrasso, Joni Ernst, Shelley Moore Capito, Mike Braun, Katie Britt, Ted Budd, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Kevin Cramer, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Cynthia Lummis, Eric Schmitt, Thom Tillis, Tommy Tuberville and Roger Wicker.
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