Washington, D.C. - January 18, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- The House passed H.R. 195, the Extension of Continuing Appropriations Act, to fund the government until February 16, 2018 and extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for 6 years.
The bill doesn’t include disaster assistance for the Puerto Rico and other areas, funding for community health centers, money for the opioid crisis, or a legislative fix for 800,00 Dreamers and their families.
The funding bill was passed, 230-197.
The bill will now move to the Senate, where it will await a vote. Should a Continuing Resolution not be signed into law by midnight, January 19, 2018, the government will go into a partial shutdown.
Below are some reactions to the vote:
Adam Kinzinger (R-IL, 16th)
“Today, I voted in favor of this continuing resolution because it extends funding for programs that are critical to the American people, reauthorizes the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years – and preserving those future savings for the Medicaid Improvement Fund – and provides funding for government operations that we need to keep our country safe. Funding the government is a core responsibility of this legislative body, and today we passed an important measure. I look forward to working with my colleagues here in Congress as we work towards a long-term budget proposal for FY2018.”
Doug LaMalfa (R-CA, 1st)
“Tonight, my colleagues and I in the House managed to get this done and voted to keep the government funded in the short term while also fully funding the critically important CHIP program for another six years. I hope the Senate follows suit and quickly passes this important legislation.”
Leonard Lance (R-NJ, 7th)
“With government funding set to run out on Friday, the U.S. House has acted appropriately and passed bipartisan legislation this evening to keep government open, keep our troops and veterans funded and keep our children healthy. It is now time for the Senate to follow suit and act responsibly to avert a government shutdown.”
David Loebsack (D-IA, 2nd)
“With government funding set to run out on Friday, the U.S. House has acted appropriately and passed bipartisan legislation this evening to keep government open, keep our troops and veterans funded and keep our children healthy. It is now time for the Senate to follow suit and act responsibly to avert a government shutdown.”
Ben R. Lujan (D-NM, 3rd)
“Short-term funding bills slowly grind government to a halt by damaging our national security and creating instability in our economy. Contractors can’t get paid, universities and non-profits can’t receive grants, and our state’s national laboratories and military bases can’t make the investments they need to keep Americans safe. With the passage of this bill, we will be using last year’s budget almost halfway through this fiscal year with no end in sight. A bipartisan budget deal would have enabled us to cut wasteful and ineffective spending while investing in critical priorities that grow our economy and create jobs.
“Operating the government in this way has been business as usual for far too long and it has to end, especially while life-threatening issues go unaddressed. Republican leadership has ignored the opioid crisis, reauthorizing the Children’s Health Insurance Program, supporting our community health centers, and enacting a permanent fix for 800,000 Dreamers for a year while they pushed their massive tax bill for the richest Americans through Congress in seven weeks. My focus is with my Republican colleagues who are committed to finding consensus on funding the government, with Americans struggling with drug addiction, with families who can’t access health care services, and with Dreamers who fear detention and deportation.”
Tom MacArthur (R-NJ, 3rd)
I am categorically opposed to shutting down the government and urge leaders in both parties to stop the political brinksmanship. The American people elected us to confront and solve tough problems, not retreat to our respective corners and point fingers at each other. I will vote for the Continuing Resolution, but let's not confuse this for success. Funding the government of the greatest nation on earth one month at a time is no way to govern. That being said, I'm grateful we will use this opportunity to achieve a much-needed, long-term reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), fund our military, and fight against addiction. Now, both the House and Senate must compromise on a permanent budget to fund these key priorities.
Carolyn Maloney (D-NY, 12th)
“I could not vote for a bill that fails to secure a future for Dreamers, that fails to fully extend and reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and that utterly fails to provide the desperately needed emergency disaster relief funding for Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and all those impacted by wildfires. I could not vote for a bill that fails to do all of that and hands out even more corporate tax cuts, on top of the windfall Republicans handed out in their tax plan.
“I do not believe in shutting down our government but I cannot support kicking the can down the road when we should be doing our jobs now. This country deserves a far better deal – one that addresses the urgent priorities of our country and provides for the people who need our help the most.”
Betty McCollum (D-MN, 4th)
“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation, which ignores the urgent needs of the American people. The federal government’s fiscal year started October 1st of last year. But instead of fulfilling their responsibility to fund our government, President Trump and Republicans spent months working to pass their tax scam. Now, because they didn’t do their jobs, Republicans are asking us to vote to kick the can down the road again. That is no way to run a government.
“The American people deserve immediate action on critical issues that matter to our country. We need a budget agreement that keeps our government open, protects our national security, and meets our commitments to hardworking families. We need to protect workers’ pensions by enacting responsible reform that will save struggling pension plans. We need to provide disaster relief to our fellow Americans who were hit hard by hurricanes and wildfires last year. We need to reauthorize the Special Diabetes Program, which funds treatment and prevention programs for Native Americans. And, yes, we need to pass the DREAM Act, which protects children from President Trump’s cruel termination of DACA.
“Americans overwhelmingly support action on these priorities. But you won’t find them in this bill. Instead, Republicans have turned this CR into a tax bill for provisions that didn’t make the cut in their tax scam. And while this legislation finally reauthorizes the Children’s Health Insurance Program — which Republicans spent months blocking — it abandons our Community Health Centers, where many children receive their care. Make no mistake: this bill will cause layoffs at clinics and means that fewer people in my district and throughout Minnesota will get the care they need.
“Mr. Speaker, the Republican Party has total control in Washington. But instead of working for the American people, President Trump and his allies in Congress are ignoring them. Minnesotans and Americans deserve A Better Deal than we are getting from this Republican Congress. It is time for President Trump and the Republicans to end the chaos and work across the aisle to responsibly fund the government and address our national priorities.”
Patrick T. McHenry (R-NC, 10th)
“The continuing resolution approved tonight provides a full six years of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program used by countless American families. It delays Obamacare’s costly medical device and healthcare insurance taxes providing even more tax relief to the American people. Most importantly, it ensures our troops get paid. I’m hopeful the Senate will not allow partisan political games to get in the way of helping the vast majority of Americans.”
Mark Meadows (R-NC, 11th)
“At the end of the day, what chiefly matters is that Congress come together to implement the agenda the American people voted for. Tonight, we secured important commitments to provide support to make sure our nation’s tremendous military men and women are paid. Furthermore, this continuing resolution provided long-term funding for the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for at-risk children and families, marking the third time Republicans supported this funding. Finally, while I’ve made my position clear on Congress’ bad habit of governing by crisis, I believe the agreement we reached tonight will help put us on a path toward accomplishing the rest of the agenda given to us by the American people.
Now comes the real work. It’s time for us to get serious about following through on our promises—not in a year, not in a few months, but now. The American people didn’t elect us to continue kicking the can down the road on major policy decisions. We need to get our record spending levels under control. We need to pass a long-term, responsible funding bill that gives our troops the financial security they need and puts our country on a path toward an improving economy and higher paying jobs. And we need to address our broken immigration system, focusing on the fundamental priorities that President Trump campaigned on—securing our southern border, ending chain migration, ending the diversity visa lottery program, and others.
Time for us to put aside the excuses and deliver the results. We can get this done.”
Stephanie Murphy (D-FL, 7th)
“I came to Congress to help change our broken system, not to be complicit in it. We are four months into the fiscal year and still operating without a full-year budget. Since September, I have voted for three short-term CR’s because I was hopeful that Congressional Republicans would be willing to make the tough decisions to govern responsibly, and the last CR was their third strike. I will not vote for a fourth CR in the absence of good-faith bipartisan negotiations to get our nation back on track and back to fiscal sanity.
“Republican leadership seems content to kick the can down the road rather than to work in a bipartisan way to fund our government, provide emergency relief to hurricane-affected areas, pass the DREAM Act, and protect health care for millions of children. This reckless budgeting would be no way to run a business, and is certainly no way to run the government of the greatest nation in the world.
“I am especially outraged that this bill does not contain disaster relief for families in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, and other areas—six months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused massive devastation. A vote for this bill, in my view, would be a vote against Florida.
“Moreover, our military leaders have warned Congress that lurching from CR to CR is detrimental to our troops and dangerous for our national security. Our armed forces depend on predictable budgeting to make reliable investments in technology and training that empower our men and women in uniform to combat growing threats around the globe. In fact, these CR’s cost our military billions; the U.S. Navy alone was forced to waste $4 billion since 2011 because Congress keeps passing short-term CR’s instead of doing its most basic job and passing a budget.”
Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ, 1st)
“It is troubling that the White House and Congressional leaders from both parties are continuing to allow partisan gridlock to get in the way of funding our government and preventing a shutdown,” said Rep. O’Halleran. “The American people expect their elected officials to do the job they are being paid to do, so if we cannot reach a bipartisan consensus on a funding bill before the end of the week, I will forgo my pay during the resulting government shutdown.”
If Congress fails to pass a Continuing Resolution before January 20, the federal government will shut down and federal agencies will cease operations. A shutdown will cost our economy billions of dollars and cause a disruption in crucial services for millions of Americans. According to Stand and Poor’s Ratings Service, the 2013 government shutdown cost our economy an estimated $24 billion.
“Congress has continued to kick the can down the road for too long, and it is having a serious impact on the readiness of our military and compromises the health and wellbeing of our veterans, seniors, and hardworking families,” continued O’Halleran. “We must have a bipartisan process that allows us to pass a budget that invests in our country and moves us forward.”
Congressman O’Halleran introduced the No Ongoing Perks Enrichment (NOPE) Act that would implement a No Budget, No Pay policy for members of Congress and freeze Congressional salaries at their current rate. Recently, O’Halleran cosponsored the SHIELD Act to prevent a government shutdown from impacting the pay of the men and women of our Armed Forces and first responders.
Jimmy Panetta (D-CA, 20th)
“Tonight, the Majority brought a stop gap spending measure to the House floor for a vote for the fourth time since I was sworn into Congress. I voted against this bill because such short-term spending deals are a failure by Congress to do its job of funding the government. The bill does not allow us to meet our nation’s long-term funding obligations or adjust our spending to current needs. Budgetary dysfunction aside, the package also failed to address a number of legislative priorities, including protecting DREAMers, funding community health centers, and providing aid to Californians recovering from natural disasters. Congress must come together to negotiate a bipartisan, common sense spending plan that adequately funds the priorities of our communities on the central coast of California and throughout our country.”
Steve Pearce (R-NM, 2nd)
“Congress has a responsibility to fund the government. Continuing to pass patchwork spending bills does little to provide certainty that our nation’s defense, government agencies, and businesses need, however, this bill is crucial to continuing the progress we’ve made on strengthening our economy. Right now, 2,000,000 people and counting are seeing benefits from tax reform, and the unemployment rate is reaching the lowest levels that we’ve seen in over a decade. Furthermore, it includes a vital six-year funding extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program that nearly 15,000 children in New Mexico rely on. CHIP and other public health priorities are vital for highly rural and low-income communities around the nation, which is why I could not in good conscience support to defund these programs.
Throughout my time in Congress, I have not seen us come this close to a bipartisan deal on immigration. We are right on the cusp of a solution, and I’m tired of no action being taken. It is irresponsible for Democrats to vote to shut the government down in order to get a vote on full amnesty. This type of immigration solution was not supported when the Democrats held the majority in the House, a filibuster proof Senate, and an Obama White House. It is downright reckless to hold government funding hostage while tearing down all the progress we’ve made on immigration thus far.
As a veteran, I understand the importance of providing certainty for our nation’s military. Over the coming weeks, I will strongly urge my colleagues in the House to deliver funding to support ongoing military missions not only in New Mexico, but around the nation, that are vital to our global strength.”
Bruce Poliquin (R-MN, 2nd)
“A government shutdown is simply unacceptable, which is why I voted to keep the government open and am urging my colleagues in the Senate from both sides of the aisle to do the same,” said Congressman Poliquin.
“As Maine continues to experience winter weather, it is especially critical that LIHEAP function at full capacity. Any loss of LIHEAP support is unacceptable. It would be a failure of leadership if the U.S. government were to shut down and potentially threaten Mainers in need of heating during our coldest winter months.”
Mike Quigley (D-IL, 5th)
“I do not want a shutdown,but if Republicans in Congress and President Trump allow that to happen, my opposition to a CR that fails to address critical long-term issues, like DACA protections for DREAMers and funding for disaster relief, will not be the reason why. Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, and if they cannot pass a CR with their own votes, they must negotiate with Democrats in good faith to address these key issues.”
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