WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) drew attention to the devastating impact of the Democrat-led government shutdown on the State of Texas and called on Senate Democrats to come together and vote for a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.

“It’s been six days since Senate Democrats have shut down the federal government.”

“Since Texas is obviously one of the largest states in the country, it will suffer an outsized impact.”

“The Lone Star state is home to about 130,000 federal civilian employees.”

“This is extraordinarily unfair to these government employees who, through no fault of their own, are being denied the pay that they have earned.”

“This will have a particularly serious impact on our military and Department of Homeland Security personnel.”

“Texas has 15 active-duty military installations, where personnel are required to continue reporting for duty throughout the shutdown. These active duty personnel will not be paid again until a final funding deal is reached.”

“I don’t know how Senate Democrats can continue voting against a clean government funding bill, like they themselves have previously supported on a routine basis, knowing that the men and women who keep them and us safe are working for free without a paycheck, for no other reason than that Senate Democrats refuse to give up on their partisan pipe dreams.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way. Many of our Democratic friends have, from time-to-time, talked about various things being a threat to democracy. Well, being unable to pass a bill to fund the government, to keep the lights on, and keep government employees paid, that strikes me as a threat to our democracy.”

“The American people may not understand the ins and outs of what goes on here, but what they can smell from a mile away is hypocrisy, and that’s all this is – sheer hypocrisy.”

“I hope we can all join arms and say, ‘Let’s put an end to this nonsense and pass this legislation,’ on what will now be the fifth opportunity.”