“If the government shuts down, let’s be clear, they control everything. They control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House, they control the Supreme Court. If they shut down the government, it is on them. That is their decision.”
Washington D.C. — U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) slammed Republicans’ partisan continuing resolution, reaffirming his vote against giving dictatorial power to the president of the United States.
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Read the full transcript below:
Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will have a very significant vote on a CR, a six-month CR, that is a six-month continuing resolution. I will be a hard no.
I hope this CR is defeated. I fear that it may not be, and I want to tell you why I’m voting no and why this needs to be defeated.
First of all, this is not a bill that would simply continue the funding levels of the government for the next half a year. This is a power giveaway to an executive already drunk with power.
This would embolden the president to continue tearing down government services, closing Social Security offices, illegally withholding funds, illegally seizing more and more authority from the U.S. Congress. But worst of all, in my view, is we would be giving it to him.
It is one thing for those who aspire to dictatorship to take power. It is another to knowingly give it to him. I will not do that.
One thing is certain, if we pass this continuing resolution for the next half year, we will own what the president does. I am not willing to take ownership of that. I’m not willing to continue to see Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their minions continue to arrogate to themselves the power to fire anyone in the federal government. They want the power to fund or defund anything in the federal government. The power to lay off veterans, to close Social Security offices, to cut health care, to cut Medicaid, to go after Social Security.
I am not going to take any vote to empower them to do that for one day, one month, one year. I’m just not going to do it.
Now, many argue that, well, wouldn’t a shutdown of the government be worse?
If the government shuts down, let’s be clear, they control everything. They control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House, they control the Supreme Court.
If they shut down the government, it is on them. That is their decision.
If we give them power for the next six months to do whatever they choose, that is our decision. I am not going to make that decision.
Now, I don’t know what happens if they shut down the government. And some argue, and I understand their concern, “Well, wouldn’t they have more power to do more wreckage, more damage if the government shuts down.” The answer is, we simply don’t know.
They’re violating the law now. They may violate the law then. But I would trade the uncertainty of knowing what they would do if they shut down the government for the certainty that we have of knowing what they will do if we give them more power over the next six months.
So, for me personally, this is not a hard decision. I am a hard no.
I am desperately worried about the direction of this country. We are seeing an executive run away with authority he does not have, merely because he claims to have it, merely because our courts have often acted too slowly to stop him.
And now, if we go along with this because we are willfully and willingly ceding him that additional power.
I will not go there. I’m voting no. I urge all of my colleagues: vote no.
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