Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) today voted against three individual funding bills that would only end the shutdown for select government agencies. The funding bills would provide short-term funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Park Service, and the District of Columbia. All three measures failed to pass the House this evening.
"Attempting to fix the government shutdown by picking winners and losers, taking a piecemeal approach, is like trying to choose which child to feed," said Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. "This approach means that the government shutdown will not end. Congress must pass a clean funding bill to finally put an end to it. We must work out a common-sense agreement that will end the pain of a shutdown across the entire government. Even after the shutdown impacts started today, the political games in Washington are continuing by turning our veterans into pawns. This is shameful and no way to govern the greatest democracy in the world."
The White House said today that President Obama would veto any piecemeal funding bills. The House has already passed a Veterans Appropriations bill that would fund the VA at higher levels than the bill that failed in the House tonight.