UPDATE (2PM Monday): It appears as though a nearly three day shutdown of the federal government has ended after an agreement in the U.S. Senate.
A stopgap spending measure received the necessary number of votes Monday afternoon to continue funding the federal government for an additional three weeks. The spending bill must now pass a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives before being signed by President Trump.
Senate Democrats had been opposed to the bill because many wanted it attached to immigration reform and the status of people brought to this country illegally as children, now referred to as DREAMERS. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate would take up the issue of immigration in the coming weeks. Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania blamed the shutdown on Republicans and President Trump due to their “failure to focus on the middle class”.
Many government offices drastically cut back or shut down Monday following a failed vote Friday and minimal progress over the weekend.
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The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday to re-open the government.
Who is to blame for the federal shutdown? Local politicians have different views on that.
U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-3rd) of Butler, spoke on the House floor Saturday blaming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He called it the “Schumer Shutdown.”
“As every honest observer knows, this is a shutdown that Senate Democrats chose to make happen. The House passed a bipartisan funding bill with nothing controversial in it. President Trump is ready to sign it. But because it doesn’t contain an unrelated far-left demand, Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey are abusing Senate rules to block it. By recklessly insisting that a short-term funding bill include a separate measure to give legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, Senate Democrats are showing their true colors as a party on the fringe. They are literally putting the interests of non-citizens before the needs of millions of American children and troops,” Rep. Kelly said in an official statement prior to his floor speech.
Schumer led the charge of Senate Democrats who blocked the House’s bill to keep the government operational temporarily, demanding progress on legislation to protect so-called Dream immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said in a statement on Saturday that the shutdown was a result of a refusal to work in a bipartisan way by the Republicans who control Congress and President Trump. He said the Republican funding plan shortchanges Pennsylvania veterans, community health centers, retired coal miners and other Pennsylvania workers and those dealing with the opioid crisis.
“Republicans who control Congress and President Trump have provoked a government shutdown by refusing to work in a bipartisan way on a funding agreement that protects the middle class, retiree pensioners and 800,000 people who receive health care through community health centers. The Republican funding plan shortchanges our veterans, community health centers, infants and mothers who receive home visitations, retired coal miners and other Pennsylvania workers and those dealing with the opioid crisis. There are bipartisan agreements in place that can help Pennsylvania families, but Republicans gave in to the extreme right wing of their party and walked away. I was not elected to genuflect to the demands of extreme House Republicans. I have an obligation to fight for the millions of families left out of this bill. For over 100 days, Republicans didn’t do a damn thing for kids impacted by the lapse in reauthorization of the Children’s House Insurance Program (CHIP). Instead, Republicans in Washington spent months working to pass massive tax cuts for their big corporate donors. Now all of a sudden they pretend like they care? If they truly cared for children like they cared for big corporations then the CHIP extension would be permanent,” his statement read.
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) issued a statement Saturday night blaming the Senate Democrats.
“In a transparent political ploy, Senate Democrats prioritized amnesty for select illegal immigrants over governing, supporting our military, and providing health insurance to poor and middle-income children. Tonight’s vote by Senate Democrats is not rooted in principle or even ideology-they openly support every provision in the bill they voted against–rather it is a crass political calculation meant to appease the extreme left wing of their party. This is a mess that the Senate Democrats created, holding the entire country hostage because of an immigration issue that does not fully materialize until March. It is my hope that cooler heads prevail and a deal to keep the government open can be reached in short order,” the statement read.
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