MIL USHOR-2b Engine

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (7th District of Washington)

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04)

WASHINGTON — After 13 days of the Democrats’ harmful, unnecessary government shutdown, the facts remain the same. Democrats continue to push false claims and double down on their radical political posture all to appease their Far-Left base.

But even the New York Times did not buy it. In a recent fact check, the Times made it clear: Democrats have “misused budget jargon” in their attacks to mislead the American people. 

“Republicans are insisting on a straightforward extension of existing funding. Democrats are demanding an extension of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and a rollback of health care cuts, misusing budget jargon to deem the Republican budget proposal ‘dirty,’” Linda Qiu of the New York Times wrote.

Read the full fact check here or below:

As the federal government nears a shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline, Democrats and Republicans remain deeply divided.

Republicans are insisting on a straightforward extension of existing funding. Democrats are demanding an extension of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and a rollback of health care cuts, misusing budget jargon to deem the Republican budget proposal “dirty.”

Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, argued in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday morning that the Republican proposal was not “clean” because it continued funding levels enacted in March, which passed with virtually no Democratic support in the House.

Left unsaid: Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader in the other chamber, and eight other Senate Democrats voted for the March bill. Moreover, in terminology about government spending and the appropriations process, “clean” refers to budget bills that keep existing funding level without extraneous provisions or significant policy changes.

Earlier in September, Republicans in the House passed what is known as a continuing resolution, or a temporary funding bill, that would simply extend federal funding through Nov. 21.

It also includes $88 million in funding for security for congressional lawmakers, the Supreme Court and executive branch personnel after the killing of the conservative personality Charlie Kirk. Because it is relatively free of major policy or funding changes, stakeholder groups like the National Association of Counties have characterized this bill as a “clean C.R.”

“The House C.R. is just about as clean of a C.R. as you could get. They really did seem to not want to rock the boat with it,” said Chris Towner, the policy director of the nonpartisan budget hawk group, the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Congress has passed an average of 4.8 continuing resolutions every fiscal year since 1998, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and most contain “anomalies,” or provisions that make changes to existing funding language. 

These can include extending funding for a program beyond the overall funding deadline, designating additional amounts of money for a specific program, or prohibiting certain uses of funding. Some of these changes can be technical, relatively minor or apolitical, like the increased security funding in the Republicans’ budget proposal. So these bills are typically considered “clean.”

But other continuing resolutions are more politically motivated or cause significant changes in policy. For example, one passed in 1984 contained an entire bill that made sweeping changes to federal criminal law. 

The current Republican budget proposal contains no such modifications. Mr. Towner said that most continuing resolutions that contain large funding or policy changes are enacted with bipartisan support. For example, a continuing resolution in the 2023 fiscal year included billions of dollars funding for Ukraine’s defense.

Congress last passed a continuing resolution in March that contained more changes to spending, including a $6 billion increase for the military and a $13 billion cut to nondefense spending. Because of the scale of these modifications, claims that the Republican’s March proposal was not “clean” had more merit.

Mr. Jeffries’s office also argued that because the Trump administration has repeatedly revoked funding for an array of congressionally approved programs, the past understanding of “clean” no longer applied.

Under the Biden administration, Congress passed several “clean” continuing resolutions, according to the earlier understanding of the term, with Republican support. 

But Republicans also attempted, and failed, to use the budget resolutions to advance their own political aims. For example, in September 2024, Speaker Mike Johnson tried to pair the spending bill with legislation requiring people to prove their U.S. citizenship when they register to vote. A bipartisan majority rejected that plan before approving a “clean” spending proposal.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Norma Torres (35th District of California)

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (8th District of New York)

Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on MSNBC’s Katy Tur Reports, where he emphasized that as the Republican healthcare crisis worsens and Republicans skip town, Democrats are ready to negotiate an end to the government shutdown and to protect the healthcare of the American people.

KATY TUR: Joining us now, House Minority Leader and New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. Thank you very much for joining us.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Good afternoon, great to be with you.

KATY TUR: So prices are going up. People are struggling. They’re struggling at the grocery store. They’re struggling to buy a home. You heard the average age of a homeowner is now 38 years old. How does this shutdown help them?

LEADER JEFFRIES: It doesn’t help them at all. It’s day 13 of the Trump-Republican shutdown, and House Republicans have actually now canceled votes for the third consecutive week because they’d rather keep the government shut down than deal with the cost-of-living crisis that exists in the United States of America. And they certainly have no interest in dealing with the healthcare crisis that they have created. Donald Trump and Republicans spent all of last year promising to lower costs. In fact, they said they would lower costs on day one. But we know, Katy, that costs haven’t gone down. They’ve gone up. Inflation is going up. The Trump tariffs is making life more expensive for the American people. Electricity bills are skyrocketing through the roof. Housing costs are through the roofs. And we know grocery prices continue to go up, not down. And now, because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased healthcare costs.

KATY TUR: What is this shutdown about then? Is it about the rising costs of groceries or living, or is it about healthcare?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it’s about healthcare, and we’ve made that very clear. And Marjorie Taylor Greene has acknowledged that this clearly is an issue that needs to be addressed with the fierce urgency of now. Understand that what Republicans have done throughout the year, largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health clinics are closing all throughout the country because of what they did in their One Big Ugly Bill. We’re facing the largest cut to Medicare, $536 billion, in American history if Congress doesn’t act by the end of this year. And on top of all that, people are facing these dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles because of the Republicans’ continued refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, even though Open Enrollment starts in just a few weeks. So we’ve made clear from the very beginning—we’ll sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace to find a bipartisan path forward toward reopening the government. We want to stand with our hardworking federal employees and certainly our men and women in uniform. But we have to enact a spending agreement that actually meets the needs of the American people, and at the same time decisively addresses the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating people all across the country.

KATY TUR: The Republicans have put forward a clean CR. That means they’re not changing funding levels. They just want this to pass for a short and extended period of time while they work out other issues. Do you not trust that they’ll, if you signed on to this and the Senate Democrats signed on to this, that the Republicans would then come and negotiate and compromise on those healthcare subsidies?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, there’s definitively no reason to ever trust the Republicans, particularly as it relates to the healthcare issue and the Affordable Care Act. These are people who have now tried more than 70 different times over the last 15 years to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And so there’s no reasonable basis to conclude that if they simply give their word as it relates to dealing with the Affordable Care Act tax credits, that they’ll actually move toward a legislative resolution. The other thing that’s important to point out is this is not a bipartisan spending bill that they’re asking House and Senate Democrats to vote on—and Senate Democrats have held the line in such an extraordinary way. This is a partisan Republican spending bill that many of us strongly objected to in March because it cut veterans’ healthcare, cut nutritional assistance, cut benefits as it relates to affordable housing programs in this country, which is desperately needed, and it also cut healthcare. And so we view this as a partisan Republican spending bill that continues the trajectory of gutting the healthcare of the American people at a time when we need to fix our broken healthcare system because of all the damage that Republicans have done to working-class Americans, rural America, urban America, small town America, the heartland of America and Black and brown communities throughout America.

KATY TUR: It is an interesting moment with Marjorie Taylor Greene breaking with the party on a couple of issues. One of them is the Epstein files and the other one, again, are these healthcare subsidies and costs. Have you met with her?

LEADER JEFFRIES: I have not met with her, but it does seem to many of us that she’s had a surprisingly enlightened few weeks in terms of her perspective on both the Epstein files and also, Katy, we know one of the reasons why Republicans refuse to come back, why they remain on vacation all across the country, is because they don’t want to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grajava, because she would represent the 218th signature for an up-or-down vote on releasing the Epstein files. And at the same period of time, Republicans have no interest—zero interest—in trying to address the healthcare crisis that they’ve visited upon the American people, even though you’ve got Republicans now, most prominently Marjorie Taylor Greene, who’s making clear this is not a made-up crisis. It’s a real thing. And the cost of living in this country is already crushing the American people. Republican policies are failing, and we need to reverse course.

KATY TUR: Have you reached out to her? Do you want to reach out to her? Do you see her as somebody that can help you bring Republicans to the table? Is there anybody else in the Republican Party that you’ve been in contact with that is upset about these healthcare subsidies?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, there have been conversations informally that are taking place. I have not personally spoken with Marjorie Taylor Greene, but I know that some of my Democratic colleagues have made some outreach and we’ll continue to do that. Part of the problem, of course, is Republicans are nowhere to be found. They literally are not in Washington and have not been in Washington for the last several weeks and have no intention of being there this week. And you know, Republicans, since that White House meeting which was now two weeks ago, have basically gone radio silent, have refused to have a conversation with Leader Schumer, with myself, with Democrats in either chamber of Congress because they decided they wanted to shut down the government. They’re trying to visit pain on the American people. They continue to pursue this my way or the highway approach. And we’ve said it’s not happening. We’re standing on principle here as it relates to defending and protecting and strengthening the healthcare the American people. Republicans apparently are now starting to realize that, but we need their leadership to finally stop being divorced from reality.

KATY TUR: Have you met with Speaker Mike Johnson?

LEADER JEFFRIES: No, Speaker Mike Johnson and I have not met. They’ve made the decision—

KATY TUR: Why not?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Donald Trump has not given—because Donald Trump has not give them permission to meet, Katy. And we know that until Donald Trump gives them permission to meet, they’re going to continue to hide as it relates to sitting down and negotiating a bipartisan agreement.

KATY TUR: What do you say to Americans who—I mean there’s two groups of Americans. There’s a number of Democrats who say Democrats need to fight harder, they need to not give in, they were very angry at Senator Schumer for agreeing to a continuing resolution a few months ago, one that you said a lot of the Members did not agree with. But there’s also a large part of the American public, Democrats included, Independents, Republicans as well who look at Congress and see this shutdown battle as just another reason why they can’t trust Washington. They can’t trust Washington to do anything on behalf of the American public. How do you explain to them that this shutdown is you doing something?

LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, nobody wanted to see this shutdown take place, and unfortunately, Republicans who control the House, the Senate and the presidency decided that they were going to go it alone, adopt this take-it-or-leave-it approach, and we were very clear for weeks prior to the end of the fiscal year on September 30 that we would not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continued to gut the healthcare of the American people, but that we would sit down with any of them, anytime, anyplace, either at the Capitol or back in the Oval Office, in order to enact a bipartisan spending agreement to fund the government, but that that spending agreement needed to actually improve the quality of life of the American people, when anyone who’s paying attention knows that things haven’t gotten better in America as a result of Trump-Republican policies, they’re getting worse. Life is getting more expensive. It’s becoming harder and harder for working-class Americans and middle-class Americans to get by. Can barely survive, let alone thrive, here in this country. We need a course correction. And that’s why Democrats continue to stand on principle. We want to reopen the government. We support our federal employees, our hardworking civil servants. But we need partners on the other side of the aisle to even just be willing to sit down and have a discussion. And so far, that hasn’t been the case.

KATY TUR: I just want to put up on the screen what we should expect if this shutdown continues. Again, we’re on day 13. On day 12, that was yesterday, closures at the Smithsonian Museums, Research Centers, National Zoo. On day 15, in two days, Donald Trump is instructing the DOD to pay troops despite the shutdown, apparently using a Pentagon slush fund. That’s from all that we can gather so far. On October 17, that’s day 17, closure of federal courts. On day 31, $300 million in additional funding to stay operational will come through. On day 32, disruption to SNAP benefits. Day 35, it will be the longest shutdown in history. And if it extends to 93 days, if it gets to January, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services run out of funding. Do you believe it could get to day 93, to January?

LEADER JEFFRIES: I don’t think the American people will allow it to continue to proceed much further beyond where we are right now, because the American people want us to reopen the government, they want bipartisan negotiations and they want the Congress to address the healthcare crisis that is devastating them that we know is a serious thing. You know, notices are going out right now, as we speak, to tens of millions of Americans who are going to experience thousands of dollars in additional costs because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits that benefit working-class Americans. And by the way, Katy, this is a group of people, meaning the Republicans, who just enacted permanent changes to the tax code to provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors. And now they can’t be bothered to stand up for everyday Americans, working-class Americans and middle-class Americans. So I don’t think their position is sustainable. And the fact that we see a variety of Republicans, from more swing-seat traditional Republicans who have said something needs to be done with respect to the Affordable Care Act tax credits, to further right Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene, also being vocal that their leadership has failed them, that they should return to Washington. They need to sit down and negotiate a spending agreement that actually alleviates the cost-of-living crisis in this country and reopens the government.

KATY TUR: Leader Jeffries, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate your time.

LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.

Full interview can be watched here.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11)

WASHINGTON — Representative Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) released the following statement on the passing of U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman and Whippany Park High School graduate Kyle Devin Philbert James:

“Today, we mourn the tragic passing of Kyle James, a third-year midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. His dedication and drive to serve his country embodied the Navy’s core values of honor, courage, and commitment, and will continue to serve as an inspiration to us all. I was proud to nominate Kyle to the Naval Academy, and he will be sorely missed by both the community at Annapolis and in New Jersey. I extend my deepest condolences to Midshipman James’ family, friends, and classmates.”
 

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Gus Bilirakis (FL-12)

Congressman Gus Bilirakis, Co-Chair of the Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance and the International Religious Freedom Caucus, released the following statement today in response to the historic peace agreement reached in the Middle East:

“I wholeheartedly applaud this landmark agreement, which represents a major step forward for peace, security, and religious freedom in the region. This achievement would not have been possible without the strong leadership of President Trump along with the dedicated diplomacy of Secretary of State Rubio. Their tireless efforts brought both sides to the table and helped deliver a breakthrough that many thought impossible.  The return of hostages to their families is especially moving and long overdue—a powerful reminder of what is at stake and what can be achieved through determined engagement.  My hope and prayer is that this agreement marks a true turning point, one that reaffirms the value of American leadership on the global stage and sets the foundation for a more stable and peaceful future. I remain committed to working with our allies to ensure the successful implementation of this accord and to advance the broader vision of lasting peace and mutual respect it represents.”

 

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Pete Aguilar (31 CD Ca)

Rep. Pete Aguilar released the following statement on the release of all the living Israeli hostages as part of the Israel-Hamas peace plan: 
“After more than two years of daily grief and suffering, I’m so relieved and thankful to see the remaining living hostages are now home with their loved ones who never gave up. My heart is with all of those celebrating their reunions today. 
“I’m also grateful to the families of the hostages and those impacted by the horrific October 7th attack for their relentless efforts to return those held captive and to ensure they were never forgotten as the war continued. Now, we must ensure the survivors have everything they need to heal from this nightmare. 
“I’m more hopeful than ever that this marks a new chapter of peace and stability in the region and a safer and more secure future for Israel and Gaza. I will continue to follow the implementation of the Israel-Hamas peace plan and the negotiations in the next phases in the deal.”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA)

WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-32), senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the House Israel Allied Caucus, released the following statement on the release of the remaining twenty hostages held captive since Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on October 7th, 2023:

“After over two years, I am overjoyed to see hostages brutally held in Hamas captivity finally reunite with their families. But I also mourn and remember those who were killed by Hamas in captivity and are coming home in caskets, whose families were robbed of this reunion. 28 lives needlessly cut short by Hamas’s brutality.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04)

WASHINGTON — On Day 13 of the Democrat Government Shutdown, Speaker Johnson held a press conference in the Rayburn Room of the U.S. Capitol to urge reasonable Senate Democrats to make the responsible, commonsense decision and vote to reopen the government. Speaker Johnson also highlighted the ongoing hypocrisy of Congressional Democrats who have voted to prevent government shutdowns their entire careers.  

“Ending this shutdown is not a one-party exercise. Republicans do have control of Congress, but it still takes 60 votes to pass a funding bill in the Senate. All of this is the way the founders intended the process to work,” Speaker Johnson said. “Any Democrats who suggest otherwise are willfully misleading the American people.”

Watch Speaker Johnson’s full remarks here.

On reasonable Senate Democrats voting to reopen the government:

Ending this shutdown is not a one-party exercise. Republicans do have control of Congress, but it still takes 60 votes to pass a funding bill in the Senate. All of this is the way the founders intended the process to work. Any Democrats who suggest otherwise are willfully misleading the American people. Chuck Schumer gave a speech on the Senate floor, I think it was on Friday. He looked right into the cameras and said, “Republicans are in control, and this is all on them.” He knows full well that it takes 60 votes, and we only have 53 Republicans in the Senate.

There’s already a bipartisan majority in the Senate that supports our clean CR. There are three, two Democrats and one independent who caucuses with Democrats, three Democrats total who’ve gone along with Republicans and using common sense to keep the government open. We need five Senate Democrats now to break ranks and do the right thing. The only ransom here is the $1.5 trillion that Chuck Schumer is demanding from the American people.

On the hypocrisy of Congressional Democrats:

The Democrats are perfectly happy to do all this damage while they play political stunts. We can hardly believe that they’re willing to go along on the gambit and the false narrative that they’ve created. And as you all know here in Congress, Republicans have voted over and over to reopen the government and end all this pain. We passed a clean, nonpartisan CR that would pay the troops and the TSA agents and Border Patrol and the rest of our federal workforce. We did our job. We had that vote over three weeks ago now, and the bill is still sitting in the Senate where Democrats have now voted seven times to keep the government closed. I brought our handy chart again today because they were out breathlessly over the weekend on media outlets, Democrats in Congress including Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, claiming facts that are simply untrue.

They claim that this didn’t happen, but this is exactly what the vote tally is. And on September 19th, the House passed the clean resolution that got everyone paid and kept the services flowing, and they voted against it. Every Democrat but one in the House voted not to pay the troops, not to pay TSA, border patrol, air traffic controllers and all the rest. The Senate Democrats then voted that down. And you see now, eight times total in Congress, Republicans have voted to keep the government open, and Democrats have voted to close it. Period, end of sentence. And why did they do this? Because they want to spend $1.5 trillion in new taxpayer funded spending as a ransom for ending the shutdown. Not our talking points, this is in the record. They filed it. No matter how they twist it, this is a clean, nonpartisan CR.

It does not include new spending. It does not include partisan strings attached at all. This is something, as we have pointed out over and over, that Democrats have supported repeatedly. In fact, 13 different times during the Biden Administration. Even the liberal New York Times admits the obvious truth. Here you have leaders on the Democrat side like Jeh Johnson, who spoke out this week and said, “end it, end it, open the government and then have these negotiations.” We were always planning to do that, to negotiate on the other issues. Again, we have to be very clear, the shutdown did not have to happen, but every American needs to understand why it did.

On Democrats clamoring to “negotiate”:

You’ve all heard our Democrat colleagues demand that Republicans come to the table to negotiate. But as I’ve said time and time again, I don’t have anything to negotiate with. We don’t have any partisan policy riders that I can remove from the funding bill because Republicans didn’t include any. It is a truly clean, nonpartisan, short-term CR. They don’t really want a negotiation. It’s just a talking point. They’re not interested in negotiating. Again, look at their counter proposal.

$1.5 trillion in new spending, $200 billion to use hard earned taxpayer dollars to fund health care and other benefits for illegal aliens and non-citizens. And they want to give a half a billion dollars to liberal news outlets, to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting while cutting $50 billion from rural hospitals. These are not serious measures. They’re not serious counterproposals, and they know that. The Senate Democrats know they cannot tell voters that they’re willing to hold hostage funding for the nutrition of women, infants, and children in exchange for restoring health care to illegal aliens. So, they want to do this behind closed doors. And you’ve heard Chuck Schumer say, breathlessly, I just want the four leaders to get in a back room and make a deal. We’re not doing that. We’re not doing that anymore. We’re getting back to regular order. And it’s infuriating that that’s what he continues to demand.

Before Democrats recklessly shut down the government, Republicans and Democrats were engaged in responsible, open, bipartisan negotiations on the appropriations process. Republicans are eager to return to the actual negotiating table to finish out full year appropriations and do work on all the other matters before us. But we won’t negotiate in smoke-filled back rooms, and we won’t negotiate as hostages.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04)

Speaker Johnson on Hostage Release: “This is a Day of Profound Hope and Joy for the Entire Free World”