CLOTURE MOTION

CLOTURE MOTION

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 52 (Saturday, March 21, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 52 (Saturday, March 21, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S1465-S1467] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CLOTURE MOTION The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: Cloture Motion We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on amendment No. 4421 to the motion to concur in the House message to accompany S. 1383 with substitute amendment No. 4420, a bill to establish the Veterans Advisory Committee on Equal Access, and for other purposes. John Thune, Roger Marshall, John Barrasso, Bill Hagerty, Pete Ricketts, Bernie Moreno, John Cornyn, Rick Scott of Florida, Lindsey Graham, Shelley Moore Capito, Jim Banks, Jon A. Husted, Joni Ernst, Marsha Blackburn, Ted Budd, Steve Daines, Tommy Tuberville. The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on amendment No. 4421 to the motion to concur in the House message to accompany S. 1383 with substitute amendment No. 4420, a bill to establish the Veterans Advisory Committee on Equal Access, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close? The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessasrily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Curtis), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Daines), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul), and the Senator from Montana (Mr. Sheehy). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul) would have voted ``yea.'' Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Kaine), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Kelly), and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent. The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 49, nays 41, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 60 Leg.] YEAS--49 Banks Barrasso Blackburn Boozman Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Collins Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Ernst Fischer Graham Grassley Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Johnson Justice Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McConnell McCormick Moody Moran Moreno Mullin Murkowski Ricketts Risch Rounds Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Wicker Young NAYS--41 Alsobrooks Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Rochester Booker Cantwell Cortez Masto Duckworth Gallego Gillibrand Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kim King Klobuchar Lujan Markey Merkley Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Slotkin Smith Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Welch Whitehouse Wyden NOT VOTING--10 Coons Curtis Daines Durbin Fetterman Kaine Kelly Paul Shaheen Sheehy The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. On this vote, the yeas are 49, and the nays are 41. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. The motion was rejected. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democratic leader. S. 1383 Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I have a motion today that asks every Senator a very simple question: Do you want TSA workers to get their pay--yes or no? Are you tired, like many Americans are, of seeing long lines at the airport--yes or no? If Senators want to pay TSA workers and end the airport chaos, they should support my motion. Our TSA workers cannot be taken hostage for political games, but that is what Republicans have done. It is unacceptable--unacceptable--to say we will only pay TSA workers if it is attached to a bill that funds ICE with no reforms, but that is what Republicans have done. Democrats want to pay TSA workers ASAP, no strings attached. A ``yes'' vote on my motion would start doing just that. This is the only vote--the only vote, not the others--that the Senate has taken that will fund TSA--no ands, ifs, or buts. This is the first time--the first time--the Senate holds a vote related to paying TSA workers that has zero strings attached to it. This is the only vote that says you are for supporting TSA families unconditionally. All the votes Republicans have pushed so far tie TSA paychecks to fully funding ICE without any reforms. Republicans say: Sure, we will pay TSA, but only if you keep funding ICE agents without any guardrails whatsoever. That is not acceptable to the American people. So, today, my motion makes the matter very simple: Let's pay TSA workers ASAP. That is it--nothing else. We can keep negotiating ICE and CBP separately. We are having some productive conversations on getting reforms to ICE, and Democrats are going to continue pushing for real, serious reforms [[Page S1466]] through legislation. But that is an ongoing process that should not get in the way of funding our TSA workers. So let's keep negotiating the outstanding issues with ICE while sending paychecks to TSA workers now. Let us end the long lines at the airports now. This is the logical, expedient, and correct thing to do. I yield the floor. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader. Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this motion--and when I hear the phrases used like ``no strings attached'' or how ``simple'' this is--there isn't anything that would be more complicated than this. This is a Schumer motion to suspend the rules to refer the House message--the bill that we are on--to the Rules Committee, which doesn't have jurisdiction over appropriations or spending, and he is trying to call it a vote to fund TSA. Mr. SCHUMER. You bet. Mr. THUNE. I mean, we have had countless votes to fund TSA. We had one yesterday. We have had countless motions by our side to pass a continuing resolution that funds all of DHS--including TSA--and consistently blocked by this side. So this is a convoluted--I mean, I don't know how you come up with this. This is very--I will give you credit for coming up with something that is this convoluted. But it doesn't do anything that the leader says it does. It has nothing at all to do with funding TSA. The opportunity to fund TSA has come and gone multiple times here, when we have had votes here on the floor, including as recently as yesterday; and countless motions, continuing resolutions, to fund all of DHS, including TSA, numerous times, over and over and over again. And our colleagues on the other side have blocked it. Mr. SCHUMER. Would my colleague yield for a question? Mr. THUNE. Sure. Sure. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The minority leader. Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this is the only vote available to us because you have filled the tree and not allowed an amendment like this here. Would the Senator be willing to put this amendment to pay TSA immediately on the tree? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader. Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this is not an appropriations bill. The legislation we are on right now, which has to do with whether or not citizens--and only citizens--ought to be able to vote in American elections has nothing to do with funding the government. We have had countless votes and countless appropriations bills brought in front of this institution, the U.S. Senate, that actually would fund TSA. And we ought to fund TSA. Let's get to work doing it. And if that group that is meeting can't come up with a solution here pretty quickly, things are going to get worse and worse and worse--and they already are. People at airports--anybody who has gone through an airport lately, they don't see what is happening here as ``serene.'' They see this as a convoluted mess, and that is what is happening across the country if we don't fund the government--DHS--including TSA. We are all for it. We have tried repeatedly to do it. This has nothing to do with funding TSA. This is a ploy--nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Let's vote. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The minority leader. Mr. SCHUMER. Is the tree full, Mr. Leader? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader. Mr. THUNE. The tree, I would say to my colleague from New York, has on it right now a vote that we just completed, and there will be other opportunities to vote on other amendments related to the legislation that we are on here today. Mr. SCHUMER. Like this past amendment was? Mr. THUNE. But if we want to have-- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader has the floor. Mr. THUNE. If you want to have a debate on appropriations, we can have that. We have made ourselves available. The White House is available. There are meetings going on right now which I hope ultimately lead to a result where we get these Agencies opened up again, including TSA. In order for that to happen, you have to have a willing partner and somebody who is willing to sit down at the table and negotiate with you, which we haven't had until 2 days ago. Now, hopefully, these discussions will lead to what ultimately will be a result to fund all of these Agencies, including TSA, but that is not what this is about, and you know that. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Democratic leader. Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, we are having productive discussions. I just met with our team 20 minutes ago. We are making some progress. There is more to be made. Each side has its own views. But why hold pay for TSA workers up when we can do it immediately? Why wait? We don't know how long these negotiations will take. There are some pretty tough positions. We could do it now. I yield the floor. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader. Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I will just say, when you talk about doing something quickly, referring it to the 

Referenced legislation: S1383, S1383