By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon is staging a marathon speech on the Senate floor to protest President Donald Trump’s “tightening authoritarian grip on the country” amid the government shutdown.
Merkley started speaking at 6:21 p.m. Tuesday evening and was still going more than 21 hours later Wednesday afternoon, pausing for increasingly lengthy questions from other Democratic senators. It was unclear how long he would go, or whether he could approach the record-breaking 25-hour speech by his colleague, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, in April. Booker was also protesting Trump.
“I’m starting to feel a little dazed after all of these hours on the floor,” Merkley said after around 18 hours, and he stopped frequently to take a sip of water or gather his thoughts. But he kept going.
The senator’s talk-a-thon comes as Democrats have forced the government shutdown over their demands to extend government health care subsidies, and as Republicans have refused to negotiate over the expiring tax credits until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Democrats have voted 11 times to keep it closed — with a 12th vote expected on Wednesday — and the two sides have made little progress toward a resolution.
Merkley said during his speech that Republicans were the ones shutting down the government “to continue the strategy of slashing Americans’ health care” after passing cuts to Medicaid and other programs over the summer.
He used many hours of his speech to describe what he said were Trump’s authoritarian moves, including attacks on the press and policies that Democrats say are enriching billionaires at the expense of regular people. He said that Trump’s plan is to replace a government “by and for the people with a government by and for the powerful.”
Booker broke the all-time record for longest continuous floor speech in April after surpassing the record set 68 years ago by then-Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Thurmond was a segregationist and southern Democrat who was filibustering the advance of the Civil Rights Act in 1957.
Merkley, who is in his third term in the Senate, has already broken his own personal record for a floor speech, which was more than 15 hours in 2017 to protest Trump’s then-nomination of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. At the time, it was the Senate’s eighth-longest floor speech.
Like Booker, Merkley’s speech was not a filibuster, which is meant to halt or delay the advance of a specific piece of legislation.
By holding the floor open all night, Merkley forced Senate floor staff, security and other support workers who are currently unpaid to work overtime hours. The government has been shut down since Oct. 1.
“The Democrats are going to make Capitol Police and Capitol support staff — who they refuse to pay — work all night so they can give speeches patting themselves on the back for shutting down the government and hurting the American people,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Senate Republican, posted on X Tuesday night. “How ridiculous is that?”
At around 2:45 a.m., Merkley paused to untie his shoelace. He said standing in one place had “made my shoes a little tight.”
“I don’t recommend standing through the night and talking,” said Merkley, who turns 69 Friday. “Not a healthy pursuit. But I am standing here to ring the alarm bells.”