WASHINGTON, DC — On the House Floor today, Rules Committee Chairman James P. McGovern (D-MA) led passage of a rule to consider a series of four appropriations bills to end the Trump Shutdown and urged the Senate to act. The bipartisan Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Financial Services-General Government, and Interior-Environment Appropriations bills are virtually identical to the bills the Senate passed by a veto-proof 92 to 6 margin in August. Highlights of Chairman McGovern’s remarks are included below and video of his full speech is available here.
“These bills offer us a way out of the president’s shutdown, an embarrassing spectacle that never should have happened in the first place…But this doesn’t have to continue. At his press conference the other day, the president boasted he could keep our government closed for years. He may not know how to get us out of this mess but this Democratic Majority does…
“There are many responsible Republicans on the other side of the aisle who are with us on reopening the government… The Senate Majority Leader already supported these bills once. Why not support them again to finally reopen this government? Because we can’t wait for the president to publicly promise to sign these bills before we act. We already know his word isn’t worth much. His broken promise is what got us here. So it has fallen to Congress to get us out of his shutdown…
“These bills honor our responsibility to turn the lights back on and they don’t waste even a dollar of taxpayer money on the president’s immoral border wall. Nor should they, people overwhelmingly object to building it.
“I hope this president comes to his senses, that he stops holding our nation hostage as he plays to the fringes of his base. But none of us can control that. We do have the ability though to do our jobs and end this shutdown. That is what this Congress will do again today.”
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