McCollum Statement on Voting to Keep the Federal Government Open

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, released the following statement today after voting to avoid a federal government shutdown:

“For the second time in two months, House Democrats have prevented a shutdown of the federal government while the Republican Majority continues to let a handful of extremists in their conference dictate the agenda of the House of Representatives. I voted for this bill to keep our government open and stop more Republican chaos. My vote was to prevent a shutdown from hurting American families at this time, but I still believe Speaker Johnson’s so-called ‘laddered Continuing Resolution’ is not a long-term solution to responsibly fund our government. The Speaker’s refusal to negotiate top-line spending numbers with the Senate is a dereliction of duty. Instead, he continues to waste time considering right-wing spending bills loaded with extremist social policy provisions that cannot even pass the House. The House took a vote on funding for Israeli aid. But this legislation contains no emergency assistance to Ukraine, humanitarian assistance for Gaza, or funding to address disaster relief and other domestic priorities here at home. Those concerns need to be addressed immediately. If this bill passes the Senate, the Speaker will have two months until the first half of government funding expires. He and the Republican Majority need to get serious about a bipartisan process to finish these bills and responsibly fund our entire government for the rest of the fiscal year.”   

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