Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Wednesday finally put his foot down, signaling an end to the Democrats’ endless shutdown games. Thune made it clear he’s ready to ditch the manufactured chaos and return to what he called the “old-fashioned way” of funding the government — a not-so-subtle reminder that stability only returns when Democrats are forced to stop playing political chicken with Americans’ paychecks.
Speaking to the members of the press, Thune stated that the “path to a more robust, safer America” is achieved by getting funding bills passed through the traditional appropriations process “rather than continuing resolutions.” The Schumer Shutdown, which brought disruption to American airports and cut funding to SNAP benefits, ultimately ended after 43 days:
?NOW — Senator John Thune says government is going to operate the OLD—FASHIONED way!
By passing appropriation bills instead of continuing resolutions that "are not good solutions for the country"
The Senate is BACK TO WORK and busy in preparation for January 30th." pic.twitter.com/ANBJqCdky9
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 19, 2025
“I think, at least here in the Senate, we have a lot of things, as you know, we have to get done,” Thune said. “And of course, we want to get the appropriations process moving again. It got slowed down during the shutdown, unfortunately, and as a consequence of that, we’ve got a lot of ground to make up. But as you all know, we did pass the three appropriations bills … MilCon-VA, Ag, and Leg Branch.”
“So three of the 12 are now law, and those three we got across the floor of the Senate before August, which is the first time that’s happened since 2018,” he added. “So, as you all know, we are very committed to regular order on appropriations. We think that’s the best way to fund the government – rather than having an omnibus bill written in the leader’s office or a year-long CR.”
“Going through a normal appropriations process where the committee marks up bills, has input from all the members on the committee, reports them to the floor, and there’s an open process, transparent process on the floor, we think is the best way to fund the government,” Thune continued. “And so, the challenge now is to get the next package ready to go – starting, we’ve got the defense appropriations bill ready…. we’re also trying to clear four other appropriations bills to put together a minibus that we could act on here in the Senate, so we’re working through those holds.”
The South Dakota Republican then urged his colleagues who actually want the government funded through the traditional appropriations process to “try and work constructively to get these bills up on the floor.”
“To let us get on them and have an amendment process, and try and process them in a way that enables us to fund the government through the appropriations process, as opposed to, as I said, either a continuing resolution or an omnibus or something like that,” Thune said. “Those are not solutions that are good for the country, and they’re certainly not good for this institution or for the House of Representatives. We want to do it the old-fashioned way.”
Given that the extreme leftists are now in control of the Democrat Party, it is uncertain, at this point, if a move to the so-called traditional way of funding the government is going to completely make the government resistant to shutdowns.
However, it does appear to be a move in the positive direction. And if that stops the chaos of the last month and a half, that’s a great thing.
