Kustoff urges Democrats to re-open the government
WASHINGTON D.C. – Congressman David Kustoff, R-Tenn., said the House of Representatives has done its part to keep the government open. He is calling on Senate Democrats to do the same.
📸: Kustoff speaks to Jackson Rotary Club, January 2024
“I remind everybody that the House of Representatives voted on September 19th to keep the government open and passed a continuing resolution. When we took that vote in the House, which was the right vote, same thing in a different day than Nancy Pelosi and Hakeen Jefferies argued for, every single Democrat except for one voted to shut the government down. But, it passed the House of Representatives,” said Kustoff.
Now, it is up to the Senate to vote to re-open the government. Senate Republicans are struggling to get enough votes, despite receiving the majority of the votes, to pass the resolution. The Senate needs 60 votes to open the government and the Senate Republicans have fallen short of that number. Kustoff said the Democrats are holding the government hostage and are the reason the government remains shut down.
“The Democrats, unfortunately, allowed the government to shut down on October 1st and when the government shut down that means there’s not funding for certain constituent services that people who live in West Tennessee need from our office or from the senators because the Democrats allowed the government to shut down,” said Kustoff. “When the government shut down that meant there are workers that work for the federal government, like staffers and the senate offices and congressional offices, IRS employees, federal law enforcement, air traffic controllers, TSA agents, they are all coming to work but they’re not getting a pay check because the Democrats haven’t authorized that money to be spent. When I say the Democrats are holding the government hostage, that’s exactly what they’re doing.”
Kustoff said the issues, such as tax credits and healthcare, that Democrats are wanting funded will be debated once the government re-opens. Kustoff calls those issues “red herrings” and said those issues are not what they are talking about regarding opening the government.
“You’re taking non-related issues in your drop to get into the government funding pool, that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about making sure the government can operate properly and can function and the Democrats, each and every time they take this vote in the senate to not open the government, they’re doing a tremendous disservice to their constituents,” Kustoff said.
President Donald Trump has said he would sit down and have discussions with Democratic leaders about issues such as tax credits and healthcare after they vote to re-open the government. Kustoff said despite some people claiming that shows President Trump and GOP leaders bullying Democrats and reflects a refusal to negotiate, it is not what is happening.
“When Chuck Schumer, who is the Senate Minority Leader, voted back in March to keep the government open and voted on what they call a clean continuing resolution, the same one he’s voted against, he got politically annihilated by the far left, and so here we are seven months later, we are again talking about passing a bill that just keeps the government functioning through November 21st while we work through the normal appropriations. It defies common logic why any Democrat in the House of Representatives or the Senate, would vote against keeping the trains on the track, keeping the services that their constituents need,” said Kustoff.
Kustoff said soon benefits such as SNAP will run out and he said Republicans in the House and Senate have voted to keep SNAP benefits being funded, every federal employee being able to earn their paycheck and pay their bills, and to keep the government running. He said the Democrats are the ones defeating the resolution and preventing funding for the government. He said it is “fundamentally unfair” for federal workers to be denied their paychecks because Democrats are not voting to open the government.
He said, in addition to federal programs and benefits being shut down, his concern also is national security due to furloughs for federal employees.
“There may be something bad that happens as a result of no government funding. Frankly, eighty percent of the people who monitor our nuclear stockpile have been furloughed. There are a number of potential recipes for disaster that could happen as a direct result of the Democrats not allowing the government to re-open. We don’t want anything bad to happen, but the longer this goes on the greater probability that something bad may happen,” said Kustoff.
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