00:00Senator from Washington. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, we are about to vote on this package, but I wanted to first make sure my colleagues understood that we are not just voting on whether local news stations shut down or whether communities can get information in an emergency or whether or not America retreats on the world stage and breaks its word or whether or not we let children die of hunger and preventable diseases, just to say that.
00:30Save a few pennies. All of that is at stake here, but there is a lot more at stake as well. Like whether we allow partisan rescissions to cut bipartisan funds for the first time ever. Colleagues to understand that. For the first time ever. Or whether Russ Vote can steamroll this body. And whether Republicans will pass a bill of cuts when they don't even know what is
00:59in it. I mean, really, I have heard members complain to high heaven about not having time to read a bill before voting on it. Well, this is even worse. The administration has outright refused to tell us what will get cut if Republicans pass this bill.
01:19Even the Republican leader admits that. This is a Pandora's box of cuts. So what I want to leave my colleagues with is this. We are not just voting on the devastating cuts in this package.
01:35We are also voting on how the Senate is going to spend the rest of the year. Are we just going to do rescission after rescission? Because we know Russ Vote is just itching to send us more.
01:49And as you have all seen throughout this process. And as we have seen at every hearing we have had with him. He doesn't care if you feel steamrolled. He doesn't care if you want more details. He doesn't care whether you want different cuts.
02:05So the vote before us right now is really about do we. We are elected representatives. All of us want to write the laws. And even consider targeted rescissions in those bills.
02:19Do we want to have time to move them on the floor? Or do we want to spend every day, every week, here debating how much of the last spending bill to unravel and whose communities get robbed?
02:33This will not be a hard vote for me. And it really should not be a hard vote for any one of us. Mr. President, I am a strong no. And I hope all of our colleagues will join us.
