Smith Statement on House Passage of Short-Term Government Funding Bill

Statement

"Yet again, extreme MAGA Republicans have brought our country to the brink of disaster, risking tanking the American economy, and threatening the well-being of hardworking Americans as well as our national defense, to fill their campaign coffers and fuel their far right base. That they did this is not a surprise. Everyone could see this chaos coming months ago. Leading up to today, Speaker McCarthy repeatedly refused to work in a bipartisan way to do the sensible thing, choosing to protect his title over the needs of all Americans and our allies and partners.

Though the Speaker finally brought a continuing resolution to the floor that House Democrats could support, it came at a staggering cost. By stripping supplemental funding to Ukraine from the funding bill, the Speaker has broadcast a dangerous message to Putin and the world. Our competitors and enemies around the globe are watching. Also watching are our allies and partners, those who stand and fight with us in the face of autocratic threats that seek to dismantle our democracy and the rules-based international order that we have fought for generations to establish.

I and the vast majority of my Democratic and Republican colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee voted for this continuing resolution because shutting down the government was simply not an option that hard working Americans and their families could afford. There remains bipartisan, bicameral support for Ukraine. We will aggressively pursue all options to ensure that Ukraine continues to receive the tools they need to resist Russia so that Putin will be forced to negotiate peace and so that Ukraine will remain a free, democratic, and independent country. We will do this for democracy worldwide and because it is the right and just thing to do."

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