00:00There's zero chance of dealing with the ACA issue as long as the shutdown continued.
00:05Now, I don't know, 50-50?
00:08But there's a lot better chance now than there was this morning
00:12because nothing was happening and there was no evidence
00:17that another week or another two weeks or Thanksgiving or Christmas
00:23was suddenly the Republicans were to come to us and say,
00:26oh, we want to now talk about the ACA.
00:30If they weren't going to do it by now,
00:32what's going to change in the next two weeks that's going to make them do it?
00:35The sum is we are closer to the possibility of work on the ACA tax credits
00:45for the people of this country than we were yesterday
00:48and than we were a week ago, two weeks ago, or a month ago.
00:52So this agreement tonight is a win for the American people.
01:00We have federal workers that were suffering.
01:03We have TSA agents.
01:06We have airport controllers.
01:08And we were seeing lines to our food banks in northern Nevada.
01:12These were lines that I hadn't seen since the pandemic.
01:15And what we have in this bill is the restoration of all the furloughed employees
01:21and a guarantee of their back pay,
01:23the restoration of all RIFT employees who got RIFT after October 1
01:27with all of their back pay,
01:29and a guarantee of no RIFs.
01:32No RIFs going forward.
01:34Two million federal workers, not just my 300,000,
01:37two million federal workers who are not uniformed military
01:40now have a guarantee of no RIFs going forward.
01:43So they don't have to go into the holiday season with anxiety
01:47about what's going to show up on their email one morning at 5.30 a.m.
01:51That's a big win for two million federal employees.
01:55And added together with these other ingredients of robust appropriations bills
02:00and a guaranteed path forward to vote on fixing the ACA,
02:04that made me sign on and say, yes, we can do it.
02:07Well, first of all, there was, as long as the government shut down,
02:11the clear statement from Senator Thune and the Republican majority,
02:20and they control the Senate, the House, the White House,
02:22was we will not talk about health care with you.
02:26So there was no vote that we were going to get on the Affordable Care Act,
02:31premium tax credits.
02:32We have a guaranteed vote by a guaranteed date on a bill that we will write.
02:39Not that the Republicans will write,
02:41although I do think it's important for us to engage with them
02:43because we need a bipartisan bill that we know is going to get enacted
02:48to provide the relief that Americans need.
02:51And I think there's a commitment on the part of many of our colleagues to do that.
02:55The real question is, why would a president of the United States
02:59pit hungry children against sick children?
03:02And that is what President Trump has done.
03:05I mean, this is outrageous.
03:09We can't reach agreement on government funding,
03:12so the government shuts down.
03:13And even though the law is clear
03:15that he could fund SNAP benefits during the shutdown, he did not.
03:19And then he also said, and by the way,
03:23I don't really care if people's health insurance premiums get so high
03:26they can't afford their care.
03:29That's on Donald Trump.
03:32My vote today was to do two things,
03:36both equally morally important and imperative.
03:40One is to make sure that the government is functioning
03:42so that our kids eat, so that our elderly citizens eat,
03:46so that our air traffic controllers can get some sleep
03:49and earn money, get paid while they are working,
03:52so that our veterans are protected,
03:56and continue the fight to a realistic platform
04:01to get the premium tax cuts done.
04:05And if that is not successful,
04:08then shame on the Republican Party and shame on Donald Trump.
04:12Is that one of your phones?
04:13That's not mine, thanks.
04:16That's mine.
04:16Yeah, okay.
04:17Okay.
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