An Avoidable Shutdown

Each day hardworking parents, farmers, ranchers, linesmen, teachers, and laborers across the country get out of bed and do what it takes to provide for their families and pay their bills. This week, as Americans continued to go to work, unfortunately ideological, partisan demands from Senate Democrats again obstructed commonsense legislation to keep the federal government open. As a result, funding for the government lapsed, initiating a shutdown.

This shutdown is especially unfortunate for our servicemembers and federal law enforcement officers who continue working but won’t receive their pay until the shutdown ends. It is also unfortunate for veterans and others who are served by federal agencies which have had to furlough thousands of employees. Ultimately, it is unfortunate for the American people, who fulfill their responsibilities without complaint and deserve to see their tax dollars managed reasonably and effectively.

The fact is this unfortunate shutdown was avoidable. On September 19th, well before the funding deadline of September 30th, House Republicans did our job to pass a clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution (CR) which would have prevented a shutdown and provided time to responsibly address spending for the next fiscal year. Democrats supported enactment of similar legislation 13 times while President Biden was in the White House.

Despite this record, Democrats in the Senate, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have refused to cooperate with Republicans to garner the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, pass the CR, and avoid a shutdown. Instead, Leader Schumer is making demands which would add $1.5 trillion to the national debt. This is completely out of step with the American people.

In H.R. 1, Republicans worked diligently to uphold the integrity of Medicaid and protect it from waste and fraud. We strengthened its fiscal outlook for the Americans who need it most and made improvements to stop the abuse of taxpayer dollars going to those for which the program was never intended, including coverage for illegal immigrants. Democrats are now trying to reverse these reforms and are now holding the appropriations process hostage in favor of broken loopholes which threatened the sustainability of Medicaid programs.

The Democrat proposal would also eliminate the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund enacted alongside the working families tax cuts package (H.R. 1) in July. Many of our rural healthcare providers have been counting on these dollars, which amount to the single largest investment in rural healthcare in American history. While Leader Schumer may not see himself as an advocate of rural America, to repeal funding dedicated to rural health is unfair and inappropriate.

During a government shutdown, authority to execute essential federal functions rests with the executive branch. It is surprising to me congressional Democrats have effectively given the president expanded authority in this case given their stated dislike and distrust for President Trump, but I am confident the Trump administration is doing its due diligence to sift through the agency and staffing decisions which must be made.

This shutdown was truly avoidable, and Republicans stand ready to end it. It is unfortunate Leader Schumer has placed his ideological priorities above the normal functioning of the American government. This is not the way to move forward. It is a good sign a small handful of Democrat members and an Independent member of the Senate have demonstrated support for a clean CR to fund the government. However, we're not back on track yet, and I hope we see more senators set aside partisan politics to support our commonsense solution very soon.