Honolulu Civil Beat - House Passes Stopgap Funding Measure. Hanabusa and Gabbard Vote No

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By Kery Murakami

Setting up a showdown over shutting down the government, the Republican House this morning voted for a stopgap spending measure through Dec. 15 that includes defunding Obamacare.

Both Hawaii House members, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, voted against it. And Sen. Brian Schatz released a statement saying that defunding health care reform is a non-starter.

Hanabusa in a statement said she voted against the measure because it keeps sequestration cuts in place and would kill health care reform.

"The measure reaffirms sequestration and its damaging across-the-board cuts, which have already caused significant problems back home in Hawaii and across the nation, and doubles down by implementing still lower funding levels than those we have agreed to in the past," Hanabusa said.

She added, "The bill continues our Republican colleagues' absurd obsession with gutting the Affordable Care Act, going so far as to threaten to shut down the government to again try to accomplish what has failed 41 times in the past."

Schatz said, "This latest attempt to defund Obamacare will never pass the Senate or be signed by the President," Schatz said in his statement. "House Republicans again voted against the interests of the American people, risking our economic stability just to prove a point. There have been times in history when both parties are equally to blame for gridlock, but this is not one of them. If Speaker Boehner would stand up to Tea Party extremism and put forward a clean Continuing Resolution, then we can avoid this self-inflicted crisis."

Congress has to come to agreement on a stop-gap spending measure by the end of the month to avert a shutdown.

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