Ernst, Colleagues Call on Senate to Stay In Session to Pass Funding Bills and Confirm Nominees

WASHINGTON –  Today, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) joined Senators David Perdue (R-GA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) in a press conference expressing their willingness to work nights, weekends, and through the August state work period to complete necessary funding bills and confirm President Trump’s nominees before the end of the fiscal year.

Watch Senator Ernst’s full remarks here or by clicking on the below image.

Below are Senator Ernst’s remarks as delivered:

“Thanks so much Senator Perdue, and good morning everybody.

“As far as I know, being a member of Congress is the only occupation where you can neglect some of the most important duties and then take a month-long vacation right before the deadline.

“Besides providing for our national defense, one of the most fundamental responsibilities of Congress is to fund the government. Yet, since 1974, we have passed all of our appropriations bills just four times.

“However, every August – right before the end of the fiscal year on September 30^th – Congress heads off to whatever destination, on vacation, heading home, they pack their bags, they leave for a month-long vacation, and leave behind mountains of work to get done.

“Right now, we have less than 12 weeks to finish 12 appropriations bills before the end of this fiscal year. We have countless nominations, as Senator Perdue noted, and we have a number of other important “must-pass” legislative initiatives.

“If we take another August off, we will likely find ourselves once again relying on these horrible continuing resolutions, which have a devastating effect on our military and create billions in waste across our federal government.

“Our constituents deserve better than this cycle of governing from crisis-to-crisis. Congress hasn’t passed a budget and regular appropriations bills, if they haven’t by August, we shouldn’t be able to leave on vacation, or go home, or go wherever.

“We should be working nights. We should be working weekends. We should be working through August and any other state work period to pass these appropriations bills and to get our nominations done in a timely manner.

“Senator Perdue, thank you so much for getting this group together. Thanks to my colleagues for joining in on this issue. We must get our work done. We have made a commitment to our constituents, and we need to see that through.”